Catastrophe
Dalton was so heartbroken than ever that it was extremely hard to believe that he had fallen too much for the lady, who was never ready to stay with him because of their ill fate. It didn’t matter how much he cried, grieved, or searched, he could not be okay knowing the reality of everything that had happened.
Collin did not leave with the helicopter that transferred Ariana out of the city, because he would feel guilty if he had to lie to Dalton’s face that he didn’t know where she was, if they ever met. He just contacted her group from Italy that picked her up to know if they arrived safely.
The Miller company stocks fell even more and almost hit rock bottom, while a lot of people withdrew their shares from the companies in the space of a week. A lot of investigations were going on about Eva’s case which included going in and out of the mansion, and the sisters too were called for questioning because Dalton refused to go.
The news on the headlines both day and night was always about them, and it gave people who always hated them and envied their lives leverage to attack them. They mocked how the great family fell on their 60th anniversary, and mocked the fact that the yacht party went in vain with no one to attend.
News had it that most of the local people that lived around the sea, went there to eat their fill and still took home from the dishes which almost lasted for three days.
Ellen cried for days nonstop telling Emma that they should do something to save their sister, but the younger sister couldn’t even utter a word and just became isolated in her mind. She knew everything already after all, and even helped in exposing her.
Their mother had been running around miserably to hire expensive lawyers to defend Eva, as she wrote huge checks for those managing the cell to take care of her daughter very well, till she would get her out.
While all these happened, Dalton remained in his head company trying to gain closure by himself, by working hard and nonstop to make sure that their corporation would not fall apart.
It suddenly became so hard for a man like him to multitask when that was what he had been doing his whole life, because thoughts of the lady who left him broken filled his heart and brain so much.
Alex worked more than ever in his life to balance the situation of a missing wife and a falling empire, and it became even more exhausting to watch his boss lose himself as the day passed by. Nothing was going really well like the great Dalton Miller would have handled every situation. He had no strength for that. No willpower.
A few months later.
“We have currently merged four companies, sir, and withdrawn more money to fund them. The exportation seems to be going quite well, more proportionately than it is here in the city and country,” Alex ended his words with a gloomy tone.
It had not been easy to come back to their feet, because only one man was running all the businesses together non-stop. He had to call himself back to mind after he had faded for too long in months. A shadow of himself.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied curtly. “Any news about her trials?” He continued.
“Pieces of evidence of people she murdered were found in her house, and she also threw a tantrum by beating up so many of her cellmates and even cell guards. The art gallery has been investigated too, and it turns out that there were either some of her workers that went missing or died mysteriously. She also confessed when she was made to go through a truth test that she hated and tried to kill Aria, ever since the day that she knew that her grandfather had planned to give Mrs. Miller the company she had always wanted for herself. She denied everything again, when she was asked about the rest of the people she murdered.”
Alex watched Dalton’s facial expression change at the mention of his wife, and quickly found something positive to say before he ruined his mood for the entire day.
“I have checked every emigration record on both land and seas sir. We have found nothing but we will keep checking. The surveillance footage we were about to get this time around, showed a helic…..”
“If she left, she probably had a proper plan. I’ve told you not to worry about it anymore. I do not want to hear of it ever again,” he ordered frivolously with a cold tone and gloomy face.
“We can still keep on trying, sir,” Alex tried to persist, knowing that his boss was just trying to act strong and forget the bitter truth. The one he could hardly get away from. The one that haunted his sleep and marred him daily.
“I shall hear no report of this again. Else you are fired!” He repeated, and the assistant closed his mouth immediately.
He got a call almost immediately and moved to the side to go and receive it, as he came back immediately to report the situation. “Sir, I just got a call now that your mother has been…
“Dalton! Are you doing the right thing for me and your family?” Eleanor yelled the moment she forced her way into her son’s office for the fourth time in one week. She came every single time to cry and scream in his face as she liked. He told them to always open the door whenever she came.
“Why aren’t you helping your sister? Why aren’t you helping her get out of that hell hole?!” She cried, as she walked to the front of his table and slapped hard on the table with an open hand.
Alex quickly moved to Dalton’s table to move the heavy title board away from her sight quickly, before she broke it again and made a mess everywhere. She had broken almost three in the past weeks, anytime she had come to yell and wail.
“It is beyond me. She should face trial and get her sentence,” Dalton replied coldly to his mother, and continued to access the files that he was reading through, “The companies are a mess if I have to remind you again.”
“So are you going to let my precious baby die in that place? Are you going to let my child suffer like that because you are busy running a company? Do you know it is life imprisonment if she is found guilty?!” Eleanor yelled at her son’s face again and again, while Alex ran helter-skelter to find ways to placate her. Nothing was working the more he tried. He had never been able to calm her down before, ever since he started working with them.
“Can you come back some other time? I am busy,” Dalton finally raised his eyes as he spoke directly to her, and tossed the black coat that was hanging by his chair over his shoulder immediately.
“You are leaving again?!” She wailed even louder this time, “What have I done to deserve heartless kids like you and your sisters?” Her loud chokes echoed around the walls of the rooms and bounced back to settle in the middle as he opened the door to leave. He couldn’t stand her tantrums.
“Sir. I have just been informed that Miss. Emma has traveled out of the country to the Philippines,” Alex, who walked slowly behind his boss as he tread, reported the latest news he got from their men that were on the lookout for everything going on.
“Let her be. It would probably be a new start for her,” Dalton muttered. “And Ellen?”
“She has deleted her account on every social media page, and went on a trip to Korea. It seems as if she has gotten a new hobby of watching series these days,” Alex reported.
“Then, it is done.”
~•~
“This is the best I can do for you, Mother,” Dalton said on the phone the moment he received a call from his mother, as soon as Eleanor’s final trial and sentencing ended for good.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“Your sister is going to be locked up at an asylum forever because she is diagnosed with lunacy, Dalton,” Eleanor wept over the phone again, “That is a terrible thing….” She dragged the last word and cried over and over again.
“At least she gets care for the rest of her life without working, and she can be by herself too like she has always wanted. And she cannot murder anyone again. Isn’t that great?” Dalton’s words pierced his mother’s heart as he spoke calmly when she called.
“What?!”
“Adios, Mother. Call if you ever need anything.”