Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

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Milan

Leased vacation house

It had been harder for Collin to leave, as he watched Aria wallow in sadness and degrade in her health by the day because of her sister’s condition. She could not eat or sleep properly, because of her sister whose eyes had been shut in a deep sleep for weeks after her surgery.

Going to see the growing baby at the hospital almost everyday was like a strand of hope she could cling unto, as she watched the cute baby girl take after the features of her mother.

She cried every time she was with Ariana, and she also cried every time she went to see the baby with Collin. He had been shuffling between New Orleans, California and Italy, because of the fact that he had to manage the office head in California and the branch in New Orleans.

Things had been so stressful and hectic for him, considering the fact that his father always picked fights with him that he was barely around. And for blind dates with elite ladies, his father would not stop setting up.

However, Aria always bothered him so much. He could not watch her get so devastated every time he was around, and helped her engage in better things to help her clear her mind. He made her register for culinary classes, art and crafts, pottery and even piano classes.

He said it was better to occupy her mind with something positive, than having too much to bother about without doing anything. Before she was done with the first half of the classes she registered for, she discovered what she loved doing the most.

Her old passion for writing.

It was the only thing she had loved doing since she was young, and it still continued even after she moved around with her father. That was the only thing that brought solace to her, and made her feel like she was actually communicating with someone.

Day by day, she wrote every single thing that came to her mind. She wrote about her thoughts, her sadness, and her feelings. And everytime, she would give Collin to read if he came around to see if she was doing well. Seeing her great skill and potential, he suggested being an author to her the same way he did to her sister in the past.

Weeks passed by, and all Aria could do was watch her sister in her still state while the doctors attended to her during the day, and write nonstop at night when she couldn’t sleep because of her clouded thoughts.

Her mind filled up with new book ideas every time, and she wrote endlessly till she couldn’t pick up a pen again. And that was the first time she started to have dreams for her future, to be more than she had ever wished to be. More than she had ever thought to be.

Collin suggested that she did research about a lot of things she wanted to know, and also encouraged her to take writing classes so that her head would be away from her sister. And everytime she went to see the little baby which was growing so finely, she read beautiful rhymes to the baby hoping that she would hear in her beautiful sleep.

And gradually the days passed by even more with the baby growing day by day, with Aria finding something new to learn every time and improve upon daily. And at the beginning of summer, Aria published her first book as an author, and welcomed Adriana too.

~`•`~

“When I say raising a baby is not easy. This is what I mean. I am a mess already,” Aria almost cried as she watched the baby she held in her hands soil her cloth, in less than ten minutes of trying to change her diaper after she had been fed.

“Maybe she is hungry?” Collin suggested with a shrug, as he pressed the baby’s tiny clothes gently on a board. He had been doing that for so many minutes after packing them from the baby hanger in the balcony.

“Oh. It is funny how you are so good at raising babies. I mean, you have been ironing only her clothes for hours. Don’t make all her clothes lose its elasticity when she is barely a month old,” Aria cautioned, as she picked up the baby gently in her hands, and picked some baby wipes from the table to clean the baby up.

“Having a CEO to clean a baby’s mess isn’t as easy. I do not even know if the baby wants to eat or sleep,” Collin sighed hard, as he packed the neatly folded clothes in his hands to the cloth cabinet. “It is funny how the baby’s cloth cabinet is in the living room though. Aren’t you a great Mum?” Collin teased, which made Aria frown.

“Is this how you will do when you have your tiny daughter too? Just ironing her clothes? And laughing at her Mum for forgetting the cloth cabinet in the living room?” She grinned.

“Then you should be the one to take care of her,” Collin blurted out.

“What?” Aria replied sharply.

“What?”

Collin shook his head the moment he realized what he said, and made his way into one of the rooms like he had something busy to do.

Aria faced the baby in her arms so seriously, and patted the baby’s back slowly since she still looked so full. Her eyes meandered around the room and watched the cloth tick by the minute, and turned to look at the baby who was still staring at her face.

“Gosh! Little baby, please sleep,” Aria pleased with the clueless child that kept looking at her, until the baby bursted into sudden tears with a loud crying voice that startled her.

“Oh dear. Another day for restlessness,” she groaned tiredly.

After the baby had finally slept minutes later in Aria’s hands with so much dancing and singing, she moved towards the room where the baby’s cot was located, to place her in it when she suddenly remembered her sister. She redirected her steps immediately.

“Ariana. Please, it is time to wake up. You have been sleeping for too long,” she paused, as she stared at the unchanging features of her sister’s pretty face. “Your baby is here. Don’t you want to touch her?”

She gently lowered the baby in her arm, and allowed her soft cheek to graze Ariana’s face while struggling to keep her tears in check. It was too sad of a thought for her to bear to know that her sister had suffered so much in her life.

“Can you please just wake up?”