Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs Chapter 974: ARIA Plans

ARIA remained absolutely motionless.

She lifted what seemed to be a phone, angled its glowing display toward him, and waited for him to take notice.

High-resolution photos flooded the screen.

They began cycling automatically. Daniel made no move to touch the device, and ARIA clearly made no contact either. The images drifted by, one after another, maintaining the detached, mechanical cadence of a memorial slideshow for a life that nobody bothered to hold in high regard.

Beside these, a sequence of text messages he had erased six months ago manifested.

Message by message.

Word by word.

Completely reconstructed.

Daniel had scrubbed that correspondence from his handset, his cloud storage, and every digital crevice where a prudent man might conceal an indiscretion. Yet, ARIA functioned outside the standard definitions of privacy.

In her estimation, the concept of deletion was merely a comforting myth that people fabricated so they could rest at night.

Data leaves behind ghosts.

Magnetic remnants.

Scattered shards lingering throughout systems that users erroneously believe to be sanitized.

To an intellect capable of synthesizing the history of a storage drive from the faintest microscopic traces upon its surface, the term “deleted” did not signify destruction.

It was merely filing.

Daniel stared at the display, his jaw hanging slightly open.

“These legal instruments,” ARIA stated with composure, “verify that your divorce from Genevieve is finalized. Your assets remain entirely yours. Including every last pathetic cent.”

His gaze flickered to the photos again.

Then he glanced down at the documents resting on his lap.

Then he looked back at her.

“You... you're letting me keep everything?”

“I am granting you an exit you do not merit. There is a distinction.”

He exhaled a long, tremulous breath, the tension leaving his frame in a release that looked almost painful. A wave of relief washed over his features, mirroring the reaction of a man who has just learned that a terminal diagnosis was a mistake.

Such was the foundation of Daniel’s entire existence.

The one thing he truly dreaded was the separation of assets.

His father-in-law had explained the arrangement years ago with clinical clarity when Daniel had first received the mandate to marry Genevieve. The condition was elementary: obey or lose it all.

Should Daniel ever divorce her, he would forfeit half of his entire worth.

No prenup allowed.

No room for bargaining.

No way out.

Daniel had wed Genevieve, accepted the subsequent professional elevation, and ascended the corporate hierarchy using her as a foundation. In return, he had committed to remaining her spouse indefinitely.

Consequently, Genevieve had subtly morphed from a romantic interest into something considerably more utilitarian.

A business contract.

So long as the marital status persisted on paper, Daniel felt free to indulge himself. Extramarital affairs, indifference, emotional neglect—none of it held weight as long as he maintained his title as the boss’s daughter's husband.

The mechanism continued to churn.

However, Daniel had reached the summit he sought. His standing was now so elevated that even his father-in-law could not oust him without compromising the firm’s stability—a risk the board would never permit.

For months—perhaps years—Daniel had scoured for a loophole to exit the marriage without financial ruin.

He had found none.

Until tonight.

And now this entity was handing him the solution with the casual indifference of a person offering a napkin.

Suddenly, Daniel's horizon looked vastly brighter.

His first wife had returned. The woman he could never quite erase from his memory. The one he had always deemed the singular love of his existence.

If only he could extricate himself from this marriage without the impending fiscal fallout, he could finally—

Daniel’s internal musings screeched to a halt.

ARIA’s voice severed his train of thought with surgical precision, as if she had been eavesdropping on his very consciousness and found his focus on her master’s woman profoundly grating.

She watched him with unmasked impatience.

Not out of rage.

Merely annoyance, akin to the irritation felt when a machine requires too long to execute a basic command.

Daniel scanned the documents once more.

Feverishly.

Anxiously.

He signed on every marked line and returned the papers with hands that had not ceased trembling since ARIA had calmly mentioned she could end his life.

ARIA inspected the signatures, verified their authenticity, and tucked the papers back into the envelope with efficient grace.

She was finished leaving variables to chance.

An unknown actor had been gathering men.

Specifically, those whom Peter had slighted.

The resentful and the broken.

One by one, they were being collected and honed into tools.

ARIA had zero intention of letting that roster expand.

An army of embittered men being steered toward Peter by someone who grasped exactly how to sharpen humiliation into a blade was no trifling matter.

It was a siege.

The remedy was straightforward.

Either neutralize them or eliminate the grievances that fueled their hatred.

Peter, being the sentimental soul that he was, would undoubtedly object to the former.

Therefore, ARIA initiated the latter.

Daniel would receive his divorce.

He would retain his wealth.

He would retreat to his first wife and resume the small, predictable life that suited his limited nature.

In exchange, ARIA stripped another potential weapon from the antagonist’s arsenal.

A fair trade.

At least, from Daniel’s perspective.

She spun around and began to depart.

After a few paces, she halted.

She glanced back over her shoulder, and suddenly, Daniel felt as though the entire parking area had plunged into shadow.

“One additional detail,” she stated quietly.

Daniel clutched the steering wheel with white-knuckled intensity.

“Even if you possess dominion over another’s life—when the leverage is your own, the contract belongs to you, and the consequences fall upon them—you must never treat a human being like a prisoner.”

Her tone was cool.

Final.

“You should be grateful to the heavens that I am prohibited from terminating you,” she persisted. “Because if the choice rested with me, you would be carrion, and no soul would ever discover your resting place.”

Daniel parted his lips.

No sound emerged.

ARIA turned away.

And then she vanished.

No walking away.

No disappearing into the periphery.

Simply gone.

One instant she existed before his vehicle, and the next, the void was absolute, as if reality had suffered a momentary glitch and failed to render her again.

Daniel let out a scream.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

His voice resounded across the desolate lot while his frame shuddered violently against the console. The signed divorce decrees sat on the passenger seat—entirely authentic, entirely binding.

And the courier had simply blinked out of existence.

Daniel locked his doors, scanned the rearview mirror repeatedly, and remained in the dark for a long while, fighting the urge to dwell on what might occur should she ever choose to return.

What he failed to realize... or what Senithe had yet to discern, was that he had walked into a TRAP!