Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Here are the records of phone calls and every conversation that had ensued in her text messages too, “Alex said, and dropped a file of extremely light weight on Dalton’s study desk.

“Just three papers?” He asked coldly, as he flipped the sheets again and again.

He couldn’t believe that she had made that little of calls, in two years of living with them and using the phone line he had Alex monitor.

‘Even if one’s life was so boring and miserable, it shouldn’t be as meaningless and blank as darkness. Didn’t she have anyone she called?’

“Yes sir. She had made little or no calls in the past, and a little more in the last weeks. The most significant ones and most occurrences are ones with her father,” Alex explained, flipping to the second piece of printed paper to show him some highlighted sentences and lines.

“There is surely more to this. She would have contacted more people in the past without any doubt, and you are saying this is all that has been said in over 940 days that have been spent in this house? Is that even possible?!” Dalton half-yelled, without expressing too much anger in his voice.

He could not understand why his assistant had been lacking in information, especially when it came to finding out about Aria, which he hated.

“Did you check the calls and time overlap from when her drastic change was palpable?”

“Yes sir. We will find out more about every hidden conversation that has been encrypted too. We would run a voice search on every calls that had been made in the past…..”

“That would take too long,” Dalton’s rude voice cut in. Patience to things was not his forte by the slightest, “I need results before the end of today!” he ordered.

“Yes sir,” Alex responded immediately and stood there still. He was really thankful in his heart that he didn’t have to go through such nerve wrecking stress, of trying to figure out Aria’s past phone conversations by doing a voice search.

‘How would he tell Dalton that they might still end up bringing the same results, because the tests they had ran at first were so accurate? They made sure to get to the deep roots of every of her text message exchanges, and every network access that was connected to her phone. They literally found nothing much. It was as though a ghost owned the phone.’

“Are you still standing?!” He snapped harshly, making Alex come back to reality from his mind that was deep lost in thoughts.

He bowed respectfully and picked some important files from the tables, and proceeded towards the door when he heard Dalton give one of his endless orders again, “Book an appointment with a well renowned psychiatrist. Someone needs a mental check.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

Dalton picked the pieces of lifeless papers that were lying helplessly on his desk, as he rumpled them with so much anger that his veins popped out, and threw it in the air to any direction across the room.

In his usual morning routine of choosing the outfit for the work day by himself, he stood up and walked into his dressing room that was at the farthest part of the room.

He could really not still get over the prank that Aria had played on him, and how she managed to hold him steady without faltering.

To make his worry even more severe to disturb, he had not seen her that morning since she almost burned the house down. It was as if she was on a death mission for everyone.

Hearing when his mother had told the maids to go bundle her out of the room when she watched the footage of who grilled the chicken, he began to remember the several orders he had heard too in the past that were meant to punish her.

He had turned blind eye and deaf ears to everything they did to her, like it wasn’t his duty to even protect her as a wife.

However, she had disappointed them all by not opening the door to anyone no matter how many times they knocked. They wouldn’t even have stressed that much, if they knew that she was not actually in the room.

She had gone to the huge library that was located somewhere in the house, for a quench of her desire to practice art for a long time.

Loneliness does bring out things one least expects.

She never even knew that the mansion had one, until she had heard one of the cleaning maids speak of it and she asked her where it was located.

‘How would she have known? When they never took her tour round the house. She had never even seen the depths of the gigantic house, which got her determined to know the nooks and cranny of everywhere now.’

Aria found the floor stairs that led to the library after following behind a maid that morning, and made her way into the large space without anyone’s knowledge. Her eyes glinted in admiration of how the library was built, as it trailed across every corner of how magnificent the room was.

The manner at which the books were arranged on the shelves, looked like a circular dark hole that insignificantly reduced its diameter by space from the ceiling to the floor.

Right in front of the shelves was a revolving ladder touching from the ceiling to inches above the floor, that could move anyone to any section of book types they like easily.

In the middle of the room was a luxurious comfy chair and table that was laced with few books, and surrounded by different art materials that laid on the floor. There were stacks of canvas and new packs of paints on the floor, which got her wondering of what purpose those things there were.

‘Who in this house reads all this?’ she wondered, because no one seemed to visit the library, yet it was kept extremely clean and well aerated so that the books would never rot.

“Well they are all dull bunch of nitwits, who all had a liking for torturing an unwanted family member,” she murmured and huffed, “Never would there be a head that likes stuff like this in that family. Just a waste of national treasure for a fake exhibition,” she hissed.

~••~••~ ~••~••~

Dalton had stood in front of his dresser to attach his cufflinks to the white shirt that he was wearing, when the crumpled paper which was condemned to the room’s corner caught his eyes. The big white crumpled ball looked like a trampled rose that was begging to be picked up.

For some reason that caught up with curiosity, he walked over to the corner where the paper laid to pick it up. He unwrapped it rapidly, wanting to even see the contents on the white piece that he had not read initially.

With his eyes reading every letter that was in the paper, he noticed that someone had done all the calling and there was always a short reply for long said words.

Caller: “Daddy, please get me out of here. They don’t like me. None of the people in this family like me as the wife. Even Dalton does not like me at all,” her voice broke in stifled and painful sobs, with her heart in so much pain.

“No one would care if anything happened to me. Dad, please just revoke the contract and let me just come back home. I promise I will be a better and much capable wife, but not to the Millers,” she pleaded.

Receiver: “I have said not to call me for such issues anymore! If I had a boring daughter-in-law like you too, I would hate her! I’m hanging up!” He snapped.

Another day….

Caller: “Dad, how could you not come see me when you heard that, I had tripped on the stairs and broke my ribs and right arm. You did not even call when I almost died from poisoning too. I swear they hate me so much, dad.” She cried.

“Someone is trying to kill me out of whatever grudges they have. I know it. Nobody believes me and even blames me for everything that has happened. They blame me for being too dumb,” she stated bitterly.

Receiver: “Try to be a better wife. It is always like that from the first time when rich people have a new person join their fam…”

Caller: “It is not about that daddy. They just detest me so much. I was even locked in the…..”

Receiver: “Aria! All this would not last too long before it gets better. “Try to make a change too! And do not ever call me about this issue anymore!”

So many phone conversations of the same sort with her father, was what Dalton had read while realizing that she only spoke with her nonchalant dad on phone. She had no one to call except him.

He began to feel within him some sought of heart constrict, that felt like something was stinging in random places of his inner self.

“So a father can be this heartless,” he muttered, as he knitted his eyebrow in disgust.

He disposed of the paper appropriately this time, by dropping it into a paper shredding machine that was positioned right at the door to his study room.

Still, something didn’t feel right. He had read the last sentence and could sense so much hatred, in the way she had caught off her father in their very last conversation which was days ago.

‘How could she develop so much hatred for everyone just like that, and become indifferent towards everything?’

Aria, who was putting her skills into action after a long hiatus, sat in front of an unfinished painting and swirled her brush gracefully on the canvas. There was a beautiful ray of sunlight that shone on her gorgeous face, from the tiny window which was close to the ceiling that had not been opened for months.

With so much interest and delight, her eyes glimmered brightly as she painted over and over again the fifth piece that she was painting.

It was a new practice for her to start painting again after a short while, as she dumped the ones that were not to her satisfaction. While she painted nonstop without minding any other thing, she had no idea that someone was in a search for her.