Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Few hours into the party, the gorgeously dressed celebrant was panicking inwardly, even with everything already perfectly set. The invitees were confirmed through their online entry slot and the situation of things looked perfect, with no form of disappointment from anyone.

However, the only thing that made Ellen so sad and stressed out, was the fact that her brother was not yet back from his so-called traveling for almost three days. His phone number had been unreachable for too long, and his assistant who later picked their mother’s call after so long, said everything was okay.

Ellen had tried to remain fine during the course of finalizing everything for the party, but she was really scared that her brother would end up not attending. If anything, Dalton’s presence was the most important for her, because it would add much value and respect to her grand party.

“Has Dalton picked his calls? Is he coming?” Emma asked as soon as she entered the dressing room to see her sister, who was getting her makeup touched in spots that were not yet perfect.

“No. No. No,” His number is still switched off and Alex is not picking up, “What if he is not yet over what happened with Aria, and had decided to punish me for it?” She lamented sadly, while trying to still remain as sophisticated as ever.

“Do not worry about anything. No one would notice since everything is going smoothly. Mum is still dressing up and almost done. Eva is fully ready as always. I do not know about your friend, but I’m sure she has it anyway. And 97% of the invitees are showing up. It is perfect already,” Emma tried to encourage her, and patted her softly on the back to make her feel better.

“How could I have noticed too late that you are this charming as a child, Emma? I should have waited for you to grow before picking a bestie,” Ellen made a joke in accordance with the good feeling that swept her at her sister’s kind words, which made Emma chuckle at her sister’s weirdly good but cringy words.

“And how could I not want to capture this beautiful sister’s moment?” They both heard a familiar voice which caused them to turn their heads, as Hailey sauntered into the room so beautifully and extraordinarily alluring.

Her dress almost looked better than that of Ellen who was the celebrant, and even her bare face which was without makeup looked perfect as well. She and Emma exchanged brief pleasantries before she exited the room, to make space for both friends to talk without any obstruction.

“You look so beautiful,” Ellen commented, as she signaled to the makeup artist that was adjusting the pearls attached to her hair to stop.

“A celestial being and you could compare, darling. Everyone would be blown off their minds,” Hailey returned the compliment.

“Let the artists make your face up. You do not need anymore to look more charming than you do,” Ellen said again with a wide grin, which made Hailey chuckle mildly at her friend’s words.

“You flatter me too much,” Hailey smiled, as she positioned her face and allowed the artist to do their jobs, after she had chosen the makeup concept that she wanted for her face.

“Has anything happened lately? You look quite dull,” Hailey noticed and asked her friend who kept looking at her phone nonstop like she was expecting someone’s call.

“Only one person is happening lately. Dalton has refused to talk to anyone or pick his calls. His assistant said that he is doing well. But I do not believe it,” she expressed her concern to her friend.

“Has he said anything or sent any kind of message? Do you think he is angry about something?” Hailey tried to inquire carefully without coming off as too inquisitive, but she was dying to know if Dalton had sent any specific message to anyone in the house.

Looking for ways to screw Aria up concerning the pictures that she didn’t delete totally when Collin caught her, she had created a fake email account so as to disseminate the information to him unsuspectingly, through his own personal email.

She had waited patiently for hours and even almost two days for actions to kick in, but it seemed like Dalton was doing the total opposite of what she was expecting him to be doing. It really made her anxious about what he could be up to, for the fact that he was not still back yet till the evening of his sister’s birthday party.

“I do not care if he is angry about anything, or just hates seeing our faces as his family. He should at least be here so that I can feel at peace. I mean this is really infuriating!” Ellen groaned childishly again and almost scratched her hair in anger forgetting that she had makeup on, but comported herself when she realized that there were people that were not part of the family in the room.

“We should wait and see. Things might not be as bad as you think it is,” Hailey said and turned her face to the other side, wondering what could have gone wrong with Dalton.

Usually, she would have expected him to have taken the first flight back to America and back to the mansion. But his unusual silence without any action, even to his family, was putting her in great unrest.

‘Or was he unperturbed even if he saw her like that?’

~`•`~

The drive back home for Aria towards evening was kind of rough and confusing, filled with so many thoughts and speculations that kept bursting her brain nonstop. It had been confirmed that the person that was sending her messages as MAS, was living in the Miller’s mansion with everyone else too.

Her mind narrowed down to every of the servants working for them first, especially those that controlled every technology device in the house from the control room.

She then waded the thoughts of such possibility again because most of them had no access to the inner mansion, so there was no way they would have that much information.

It had to be a servant and especially someone bittered by every member of the family, enough to call them out and point out their hidden nature without any problem.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

She was further left in another thought dilemma again, because the only people who had the time to do that were the cleaning maids. They were the ones that had the most freedom of moving in every corner of the mansion, while cleaning the same spot over and over again.

It was also possible for them to avoid being spotted by the cameras, if they were to fix spy cams in hidden places. But then again, they would not have had enough time to play around in a spot for too long, without being suspected, searched or questioned.

On getting home, Aria stripped off all her clothes and dipped herself into the tub of water for so long that she lost count of the time while thinking too deeply. After she was done, she sat in front of the mirror for too long to oil her body and dry her wet hair.

Without any forceful impact from anyone this time, Aria chose to wear one of the newly shipped in designer dresses that she purchased, and wore matching heels from the numerous ones she had in her glass rack.

Someone had dropped an invitation card on her door, and she was going to surprise them by really attending this time.

She had taken her time to do her makeup so carefully, as she watched some tutorial videos to perfect her self-made appearance. The thoughts and bother of the person who was sending her information knowing her on a personal level, couldn’t stop bothering her as she went on with her usual activities for the day.

‘Even when she asked the lady what she wanted, she said she was going to think of it later. So why was she sending them to her? Was it a bait? Was she the pawn?’ She had so many questions to ask.

“Maybe it is time for Emma to repay my favor,” she murmured, as she stood in front of Dalton’s dresser to check herself out again.

Her hand grabbed Dalton’s favorite cologne from the numerous ones that were on the table, and she sprayed the gaseous contents of the glass body which dissipated into air immediately. The smell of it was pleasing to her senses, and she assumed that he was there. Standing right behind her.

The mood at the birthday party was quite bubbly and cool, with invited young elites and socialites making their way into the party ground. The speech for the celebrant and her family acknowledgment had started, and it was an honor to see their wealthy family of gorgeous people around.

Ellen was trying hard to remain okay as she made her beautiful speech in front of everyone, and as they cheered her with a round of applause. She was trying hard not to cry and make herself a subject of jibe on her birthday, with the knowledge that Dalton had succeeded in ruining her mood for the day.

The moment she sighted Aria making her way into the party through the entryway, her increased hope that Dalton might have arrived together with his wife were soon dashed. However, she was quite surprised to see his wife attend the party on her own, without being coerced by anybody.

Those who were familiar with Dalton too thought it was him immediately the lady entered, with the whiff of uncommon fragrance that took their minds away. Jealousy caught up with some of the ladies, knowing that only one person whom they felt was undeserving, finally got him for herself

‘Does she also share a room with him enough to use his cologne? Such lucky bitch,’ they thought to themselves.

Aria moved the waiter of her choice and grabbed two glasses of drink, while she observed every one of the children in the Miller house so closely, in every of their doings. She had messaged MAS again to ask her about some questions again, even if she had not replied to the previous message from before.

‘You know the second daughter’s birthday is today right? What do you think would happen?’ She had texted a few minutes before she left the house.

Aria was getting used to seeing some familiar faces from the parties she had attended in just a few months, and most of the young female elites that were around her wouldn’t stop talking. They wanted to rate the cost of the shoe that was wearing, and if they had seen her dress somewhere before.

“She acts all high and mighty, when it is palpable that her husband doesn’t love her. I mean she is alone today,” one said.

“I heard they are all sweet and lovely to one another. My husband’s sister’s friend who works as a reporter said so. They say he is even overprotective of her.”

“Sweet and lovely my foot. It is all a fake public display of affection. They would do anything to keep their family’s image.”

“I would bend my head in shame if it were me. Even none of the family members like her. She should just leave the marriage,” another one passed her own hurtful comment.

Aria who seemed to always be in a bad mood by the slightest piss off, turned to glare maliciously at the ladies that were talking bad about her.

She didn’t mind what would happen and was about to give the last lady talking her own taste of medicine served with pain, since they could be so rude enough to talk right into her ears.

However, she was interrupted by a baritone voice that was pleasing to her ears, and it turned out to be the man that she probably wanted to see since he left.

“Dear wife. I apologize for coming late,” he swooped in and grabbed her by the waist in a tender manner, which made her forget every anger that she had in her initially.

‘Something was going wrong with her already. Why was her heart thumping this way?’