Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Dalton’s company

“The percentage rise is astounding both internally and externally. People are trying to invest their shares again,” Alex reported to his boss, as he presented the report to Dalton who was signing some important files.

“We are not taking shares of anyone less than 9% to cut down the number of people that are desired for the investments. And for everyone that qualifies for the quota, blacklist the ones that have been part of the corporation before and pull them out after thorough findings. For anyone who would be remaining, make sure to find out about them before bringing their proposal. We won’t give a chance to disloyal people anymore.”

“Yes sir. What about the art pieces that were moved from the gallery, sir?”Têxt belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.

“Put them up for sale in another country entirely. Italy, Japan, and the like. I want it done far from here,” Dalton instructed with a calm and silent tone. He had been like that for months. Less talking, shouting, anger, and showoff.

He talked mostly to Alex alone and related less to people. He no longer resided in the mansion, and just retired to the nearest house that was miles away at night. He sometimes talked to himself too. His methods for finding closure were the hardest, because he didn’t know how to deal with his pains so well.

He had never had to do something like that except when his father died. But now, it was a different scenario. It was a different person with the same miserable feeling of guilt.

“How is she doing at the nursing home? Any improvements?” He asked his assistant, Alex, who was sitting comfortably on the cushioned chair in the middle of the large office, while evaluating some important files that needed to be checked.

Ever since Eva was ostracized from the world into an asylum, Eleanor was not herself again and she became so depressed. She got angry so easily, picked fights, slumped so often, and intentionally attended her friends’ parties only to destroy everything. She became forgetful too and cried a lot.

A nursing home became the best option.

“She keeps picking fights with everyone in the place, saying that she is better than all of them(peasants) and that she is of high class that cannot be seen associating with her. We are running searches on nursing homes that have older people of high caliber families,” Alex explained to him.

Dalton seemed to show more care by saying and doing, than he had done in the past, when he never said his true feelings out and just carried out actions. He asked Alex often now if his mother was doing okay, and if Ellen appeared to have interest in handling social media pages again. He also asked about Emma sometimes, wanting to know if she was still interested in her traveling hobby.

He never asked about Eva.

He was too pained and sad to ask about her. She was a stain to their family, and had been a terror to the lady he loved all along. And even if she was a very terrible being, he was so sad because he still loved her as a sister.

The memories of her being his knight in shiny armor against Ellen’s bully when they were young, to him were still vivid as clear waters of spring. They never had the closest relationship, but they still qualified as siblings that shared a bond.

He was also sorry that he couldn’t help her in any way. That he had no idea.

His sisters called once every week to greet him and tell him about their adventures, which were things they never did in the past. They did most of the talking while he just replied quietly, especially with Ellen, who wanted to talk about the fun she was having in the country she traveled to.

She even told him that she was thinking of getting married there and having a biracial kid, while Emma only talked about her newfound love for cooking.

“I think I might become a certified chef at this rate,” she once told him.

They never talked about their mother or Eva. They never asked about his wife, or where she had gone too. They only talked about the good things that were happening in the present and their plans for the future. Sometimes they laughed if it was necessary.

Everything was not really the same anymore.

…~`•`~….

From right across the room filled with bliss and glamor, both men could see and sense one another from opposite directions, even if the room was not with bright and clear lights. For so many months, they had not crossed each other’s part even in conferences, and it was the best for both of them because of the kind of relationship they had already.

However, it didn’t last.

It wasn’t really a surprise that they met one another at a party, but it was more of a surprise that they instinctively went to meet one another for a friendly greeting. But it was more like a shock to Collin, because he never expected Dalton to approach him with more respect than he had ever done.

He noticed that everything about him had changed, and that his demeanor was different even if he still had the intimidating aura. He was now like a lion waiting for the prey to cross boundaries before hunting, rather than a lion that was ready to hunt everything on its way.

He almost bit his lip in intense guilt though, because he couldn’t afford to ask about how Dalton had been, or ask about his dear wife. There was no way he could even reveal the truth that he knew where she was all along, and that he finally went to visit them when he heard that she was pregnant.

It was a shock for him too.

Trying to get Aria, who was so happy to see to stop crying was the hard part, because she felt sorry for her sister who was carrying a child in her condition. They had gone places together in a short period, looking for a surrogate mother that would carry the baby for the remaining months. And it was also Dalton’s baby.

It was a tension that was hard for him to hold down in him, because it was so pitiful to watch Dalton without the knowledge that he was going to be a father soon. He couldn’t do anything other than leave the party earlier than he planned, and made the second trip back to Italy a week later.

Ariana’s condition improved with time as she began to hold longer conversations with her sister, and enjoyed the company of other people with Dalton still lingering in her heart. The excitement of having her own child was so much for her to handle, that she could not wait till her baby was ready for its first visitation after.

She was still getting her therapies as they prepared her for the second surgery, that would prevent the tumor from growing back again. Happiness filled their hearts in anticipation of what was to come.

The transferring of her baby to an incubator at an efficient hospital was a great success, and her second brain surgery went well too,

but it left Ariana in an unconscious state more than the days that were expected for her to wake up.

“I am sorry to inform you. I think Miss. Ariana has fallen into a coma due to extreme shock.”