Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

“Aria! Aria can you hear me?” Dalton tapped her cheeks gently several times, when he noticed that she was stirring back to life.

Her eyes were still tightly shut as he held her closely to his body, and began to walk away from the surroundings of the burning vacation house. Immediately he walked back to where his car was parked and dropped her comfortably on the front seat, he picked up his phone immediately and wondered whom he could call nearest to the place.

That was when he figured out that he didn’t even have the contact of the doctors, since it was Alex who normally did the scheduling and search. Panicking about the fact, he quickly checked the internet to find the location of where they were on the map, and to locate the nearest hospital that could take her in as fast as possible.

“Just take me elsewhere, Dalton, and not the hospital,” she said to him in a very fragile voice, as he turned his face shockingly to see if it was really she talking.

“Aria! Are you really awake? Can you actually see me?” He asked as he dropped his phone aside and moved over to her side, to see if she was well enough to even open her mouth.

“Yes, I am,” she answered slowly, and coughed out weakly and frantically which feared him for a moment.

He quickly opened the booth of the car and brought out a plastic bottle of water from the ones Alex always kept in there, and brought it to her quickly so that she could drink. It was quite a situation for him to handle because he was not used to things like that, but he had to do it anyway and even more carefully.

Tilting it to her mouth, Dalton tried to feed her gently with the water but ended up being too impatient. She collected the bottle from him instead with shaky hands, and drank it herself without saying anything.

He quickly moved over the car’s booth again and picked a shirt for himself to wear, including the sweatshirt that Alex always included in the cloth bag pack. His hand also grabbed the extra pair of socks that were always in the car too.

“Can you talk? Do you feel good? I am calling a doctor now to come and check up on you,” he informed her and tried to find his phone again, as her hand grabbed around his arm to prevent him from calling anybody.

“I am fine. I am really sleepy right now,” she told him, and dropped her head to the other side of the chair. She was too tired to argue, but she didn’t want to go to the hospital.

Dalton moved over to the seat that she was slouched onto, and carefully put the sweatshirt over her head to cover her shivering body. He didn’t bother to pull her hand out of the cloth and just put it over her, and then moved to the other side in an attempt to drive.

“Why do you not want to go to the hospital? That is a better way to remain okay after inhaling a surfeit amount of smoke. It is detrimental to your health!” He yelled, and then paused.

Realizing how he had reacted to her, his lips forced out something she would have never thought to hear.

“I didn’t mean to shout at you. I just want you to be okay,” Aria could not believe her ears when she heard that. It was so surprising and shocking to her, for Dalton to politely explain himself for shouting at her.

‘Maybe she was really close to her death.’

“Let’s just drive to wherever other than a hospital, Dalton. Please,” she finally said, and his heart succumbed to her genuine plea alongside the really touching look she had in her eyes.

The billionaire could not understand why she was asking him of such a request, but he decided to grant her her wish regardless. He wondered if she had some bad memories related to the hospital before, or was terrified of getting a shot instead of drugs. The thought of it even made him chuckle.

Immediately, Dalton positioned her into the seat belt properly and adjusted the socks he had worn to her legs. He finally went over to the driver’s seat and sat down after closing the door, igniting the car which zoomed off immediately.

~•×•~ ~•×•~ ~•×•~

Sounds of blaring sirens were heard from quite a distance, as a luxurious unlabeled car drove into the streets of the hubbub. The car halted in an instant, and a young man came out of it to see the shock he didn’t explain before him.

Though the night was dark and it was not clear enough to see well, the bright light that was pointed from directions of the firefighters car made it easy to see. There were numbers of men trying to quench the fire still burning in the house, while some were coming out of the place to confirm that no one was inside.

Collin looked around so many times to be sure he had come to the right place, and looked at the burnt building again to be sure if that was where he was a few hours ago. His wit momentarily whispered to him, that the building he wanted to see Aria at was burning.

Fearfully, sporadically, and crazily, he ran so fast towards the direction of the building, to ask one of the persons there about the lady that was inside. The man he had approached told him that luckily no one was inside, but he screamed and said they should check properly.

The man who was the leader of the firefighters told him repeatedly, that no one was found inside the place after the third search in just a few minutes. Collin thought he would lose his mind in pain, as he tried to move closer to the building to check for himself, but was stopped by the other men that were working to put out the fire too.

“I am sorry, sir, but we are professionals and it is very such that there is nobody in the building. We found a few burnt items though, like a phone, a packaged bag that collectively burnt with the items. There was a dress outside on the convertible chairs outside the pool, and a pair of slippers too were found around the pool too,” the man told Collin.

“That is definitely Aria’s. That is hers,” Collin said anxiously, when he saw the supposed dress while trying to hold his tears, as he walked back to where he parked his car and slouched weakly to the car seat.

He scratched his hair and bit his lips in frustration, as he picked his phone up to see if her number would hopefully go through.

‘Have they found her already?’

Far away into the city was Dalton who was still carrying Aria in his hands from the underground parking lot, as entered into the elevator of the gigantic and beautiful building that they entered into. It was quite a different elevator from the one that was directly used by others, as he pressed on the button that made the door close.

The see-through elevator rode so fast up the many buildings to Aria’s tension, till the lift halted at the last floor and the door opened. The only unit on the floor they were standing in was so beautiful, that Aria wondered where exactly they were going.

That was when she realized that it was probably one of Dalton’s properties, when he scanned the door with his fingers and iris as the door opened. It reminded her again of who her husband was, and how immensely wealthy he was.

She would have expected the place to smell musty because of unfrequent use, but it felt like somewhere that was cleaned regularly and well maintained. The interiors looked perfect to match the bright lights, that made the open balcony where one could catch the beautiful sight of the entire city.

Dalton dropped her carefully on the couch that was the largest, and strode to the nearest bathroom to run a warm water for her. As he ran the water to desirable temperature, he quickly brought out his phone to check the next step of what to do.

He had also ordered drugs and injections that were would be good for her since she didn’t want to see a doctor, and then moved to the bedroom to get her a pair of clothes from the new ones that were always kept in the wardrobe.

“I guess this place is one of yours right?” Aria asked, immediately the familiar scent intensified after he was gone, which was an ascertain that he was coming back from wherever he went to.

“Yeah. I mostly come here when I arrive from a trip,” he replied to her, as he moved to the fridge to see if anything was there. He expected to see a clean and neat fridge without anything, and quickly grabbed his phone again to order two servings of food, which he had never done before.

“Oh, I see. Being really wealthy is really nice. You can do whatever you feel like,” she mouthed, and closed her eyes immediately.

“It is not always nice. The pressure to keep up is suffocating,” he told her, and her eyes flashed open immediately. That was probably the first time they were having a discussion reasonably, about sensitive topics without fighting or getting angry.

‘Maybe she could get more information from him now that he looked coolheaded.’Original from NôvelDrama.Org.