Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

“Make the invitations slots for top A-list celebrities and socialites,” Ellen ordered the head maid and planner, as she walked around every corner of the house in a confused manner, “I do not want elites that are thirty five years and above. Minimize the numbers accordingly,” she continued.

“I think you might want to invite some people from your high school, and even the elite clubs that you have joined in the past,” Emma reminded from the dining room where she sat, to apply glitter nail polish over her newly fixed nails, “Also, remind mum not to invite her clumsy club circle of friends. She has been out of the house since morning.”

“I certainly do not want to invite all of them, and that is why there is going to be an online entry where they know their fates,” Ellen stated, and stormed out of the dining room again to check how the entire food preparations with the chefs were going, “Yeah. I have repeated it to her a thousand times.”

“Your socialism sucks. You literally have no real friends. Thought you said Hailey was coming yesterday,” Emma pointed out.

“Apparently something came up at her company yesterday, but she would be here anything soon,” Ellen clarified, with her eyes checking her phone non-stop to see how far her second dress order was going, “Is Dalton coming back or not? It is evening already and no sign of him. Is he really going to miss my party?” She suddenly became sentimental.

“And here comes your beautiful friend,” Emma gave a heads-up and rolled her eyes in Hailey’s direction, which made Ellen turn immediately to see what she was talking about.

“Goodness! Hailey,” Ellen smiled and went ahead to hug her friend tightly. It was still always the same usual greeting.

Their friendship had mostly and always been a long-distance relationship, so it was not an area of friendship flaw to stress or emphasize about. They just went with the flow however it happened.

“Hey, Hailey,” Emma called and stood up from where she was sitting, as she made her way upstairs so as to give both friends a break.

“Hi, Emma. It is so nice to see you around after so long.”

Ellen arched her arm around Hailey’s as soon as she confirmed the last accessory order she made from her phone, as they made their way to her room to have a talk. She was also curious about what Hailey had talked about the day before.

“My dress for the party is going to arrive tomorrow. How are the preparations for the party?” Hailey asked, as they climbed the stairs.

“Mum said that the last party at the house was a mess because of people who got curious and tried to trespass. So this time around, we are using a luxurious hall and everything is almost ready,” Ellen explained to her.

“What about Eva and mother? They didn’t seem around when I arrived,” Hailey stated her observation.

“Mother is doing some kind of untold preparations, and Eva is rarely around nowadays. In case you are curious about Dalton, he is on a business trip and has not come back since then,” Ellen answered so expansively and chuckled a bit, when it became glaring to Hailey that her friend had caught on.

“Oh. That’s cool. The house is extremely silent with everyone out,” Hailey forced a smile and took a seat on the comfortable chair in the room.

“And about what you wanted to tell me yesterday. About the cards against Aria. What was that?” Ellen remembered again, and she turned to her friend with a curious look.

“….. dear me! Dalton might go mad if he sees this. How were you able to get this? Where exactly is this place?” Ellen rushed her questions, as she stared at the picture that her friend was showing to her.

“You do not need to know, darling. Isn’t this evident that she is totally undeserving of him, and is equally shameful as well?” Hailey spat in disgust.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“This is too vague to say that she is cheating on Dalton. She was not even making out with another man. By the way, why is the man’s face blurred?” Ellen asked, as she gazed at the pictures again.

“Bad quality, and as you can see her hand is kind of blocking his face. Anyways, it is something that shouldn’t be hidden. Don’t you think so?” Hailey pressed.

“Unhhh. Yeah,” Ellen chuckled awkwardly and dropped the phone she was holding on the bed, “But I think we shouldn’t tell Dalton. He should find out by himself. Besides, they have just weeks left before divorce.”

“Is that what you have to say? He is your brother,” Hailey sounded irritated now.

“No darling,” Ellen moved closer to hold her cheeks tenderly, “My birthday is just in a day and you know how bad Dalton’s anger can get. I told you right? The last time Mum tried to throw her out, he ended up canceling every credit card and other things too. I do not want my day ruined,” Ellen tried to make her friend reason with her.

“Oh… Okay,” Hailey stammered, and smiled wryly and quickly turned to pick up her phone and make a call.

“We are not telling Dalton okay,” Ellen gave a warning smile.

“For now. Okay,” Hailey replied.

~ ~ㅅ•ㅅ~~

With the knowledge that Dalton had not come back home as expected, Aria acquired a new and shiny luxurious car using Dalton’s black card. Feeling good with the new polished metal that she purchased, she hit the road and visited the spa to get her body massaged.

Afterwards, she visited her shopping mall in her new drive, and went over the company progress ever since she stopped going on a regular basis. Amelia was doing beautifully well as she had always done, but Aria was not still impressed about the customer’s feedback which had not improved.

It had been like that ever since Dalton stopped being the legal owner of the shopping mall, and just a few cloth and shoe brands claimed their spot back after their withdrawal. The pressure she felt about the issue as the CEO, was much more than she thought would impact her.

Rather than thinking the way Dalton would think to grow the company, she reasoned like a customer that had purchased goods by herself, and things she would like to change in comparisons of all the malls she had patronized.

A brief visit turned out to take much more time than she bargained for, and she ended up leaving the company later than she when she and the private investigator planned to meet. There was a need for a one on one meeting.

MAS had sent the remaining videos and clues she had to her, and had given her some information to the best of her knowledge. Driven by the urge to get to the root of whom the person sending her messages could be, Aria had to meet with her aid to help her carry out a thorough research.

She left her MacBook which had not much information about anything personal to her, and paid even more since there was going to be a new added feature.

The private investigator, who was also a good hacker, was going to work over the night to figure out the exact location of the sender’s IP address, which was splitted to different locations for confusion.

Aria got back to the mansion late at night, and figured out that Dalton was still not yet back to the mansion. He didn’t call either, and there was no sign of his assistant either.

As she stood in front of her dresser to apply her facial oil, she observed herself subconsciously turning to the direction of Dalton’s study room, like she was waiting for him to come out of the play. Even when she was done and decided to lay on the sofa chair instead of the bed, her mind continued to dart to his usual spots like he would pop out.

‘Stop getting distracted. Focus on tomorrow’s results,’ her brain shunned her.

After she was done drinking her seventh cup of instant coffee, Aria moved to the bed when it was past midnight and laid on it. Her body seemed to miss the touch of another skin against hers, and the comfort it offered to her the times she slept so comfortably without any bother.

Denying it was something her brain could do and not her heart.

She missed him.

The next morning, which was Ellen’s birthday, the entire mansion was vibrant with warm wishes from even servants that didn’t mean it. Gifts from random people kept getting posted to the building by the mansion gate, as the birthday celebrant felt so exhilarated that it was finally her day.

Aria, who didn’t care about everything that was going on, had left the mansion as early as possible to meet her private investigator. The restlessness of what the result would be made her night even worse, that she was barely able to sleep for three hours.

She just wanted to know how well she was progressing with her plans and lead. The clock was ticking, and her days in the mansion were numbered.

“It was difficult to crack this, and extremely tedious. The hacker that did this is so skilled,” Fez, the twenty four year old private investigator commended. He was looking so tired and stressed from working overnight.

“So, were you able to get it?” Aria anxiously asked, not minding the process.

“The location is totally in another place out of this state, but the address radar points to somewhere else in this city,” he explained, which put relief to Aria’s crooked nerves immediately. Her hunch had been right about that.

“And see right here on the map, it points at the home of some tycoon’s house. Somewhere around that living abode,” he showed Aria on the screen, and she tried to stretch her eyes to see exactly what he was trying to show her on the shapeless map that was on the screen.

“And who is that? Did you figure it out?” She asked again.

“And here on the records, it says the home of the Millers,” he announced.