High School Again: The President's Secret Lady Boss

Ever since Winter showed up, nothing went Bianca's way.

Her appearance had marked the beginning of a series of failures. Certainly, the fault doesn't lie on her drive and tenacity to come up with the grandest of schemes, and in fact, their chances of succeeding should've been quite high, considering that she'd been plotting other people's downfalls all her life. However, for some reason, her usual tactics no longer work. 

This time around, the tides kept being turned on her.

First, there was that whole flop during the welcoming party. Bianca even went through the trouble of inviting all of her friends and gathering that huge of a crowd – all for the sake of humiliating Winter in front of everybody. That should've been the first warning. That should've taught her to know her place. Yet it ended up being a huge flop. 

Then, there's that issue with their house workers. 

Bianca ordered everyone in the Middleton estate to give Winter the worst breakfast they could serve. The preparations had been perfect because all of the maids and menservants were on her side. But then, as soon as the next day came, she found them tamed and compliant all of the sudden. That previous morning was the first and last one. Nobody has misbehaved again since then.   

Those first two failures had driven Bianca to hire a spy to gather more info about Winter. 

She thought that she's missing something. She wanted to know what she's hiding. However, both to her aggravation and mortification, Jacob ended up scaring that spy away. Apparently, he didn't know that his fiancée was the one who hired that stalker, and she didn't let him know since disappointing her fiancé was one of the things she couldn't bear.

And so, Bianca decided to use other means.

She ordered Lacey and Amanda to go out with Winter and intoxicate her. Once she's drunk enough, they would take pictures of her and post them online – it's as easy as child's play. But then, they didn't even get to make her drink a single glass, and as it turned out, they began avoiding her as soon as tomorrow arrived. Later on, she learned that Lacey's act of being busy was connected to Wynonna Snow's sudden appearance that night, and as for Amanda's refusal to carry out any more of her evil biddings, she found out that Jacob had actually given her a warning. 

It was then that Bianca started suspecting that even Jacob was beginning to take Winter's side.

Still, she didn't give up. She wouldn't let things go her way all the time. 

Thus, she took their feud all the way to their workplace.

The plan was to taint Winter's reputation. Luckily, she's gullible enough to reveal one of her secrets to the department that Bianca had the strongest influence on. She thought that the employees there had done a splendid job of earning her trust within a short period of time, but unbeknownst to them, it was actually Winter who's trying to deceive them whole time.   

In other words, she had spread false stories, which could only mean that she already had an idea of what Bianca was going to try to do. 

So, in the end, it had been all for naught, and as a result, Winter was even given permission to supervise the department that she's supposed to be in control of. 

"Just why…? Why the hell does that damn brat keep on winning…?" Bianca found herself asking Jacob one time. 

"What is her secret? What is her weakness? What is she hiding?"  

Then, it occurred to her.

In the presence of her most beloved, an idea made itself known. Perhaps, Winter has her own driving force, too – her own pillar of support. She probably has someone special to her the same way Jacob is special to Bianca. He's not only her source of motivation, but he also acts as her guidance, her fortress, and her all-around companion.

So, Bianca had went on to ask, "Could it be that she has someone she loves, too?"

Intrigued, Jacob had then answered, "Who knows? Maybe she does. While she's just probably that incredibly shrewd, there's still the likelihood that she has some sort of moral support – one who's willing to do everything she wishes, and it just so happened that I've already had a couple of guys in mind." 

"Now that I think about it, Jacob, it doesn't have to be someone she's sharing an official relationship with. It doesn't matter if she's still not dating whoever this is. Just the fact that this person is very important to her is enough. As long as he is someone she holds dear – someone who's really, really special to her, that will do."

"What're you planning now, Bianca?" 

Jacob shot her a suspicious look. Bianca simply smirked at him – never the one to back down without a good fight. 

"You shouldn't mess with that person. He might be of higher standing than our families for all we know," he had tried to reason with her.

"I won't change targets, silly. That girl is still the one I'm onto. I'll make sure that she's not going to get any happily-ever-after. The battle for power and influence is one thing, but the war in love is completely another," was what she had told him in reply.

"Are you saying you're going to try to break them apart?"

"Absolutely."

"How so?"

"She's already in her legal age. Maybe it's about time to look for a marriage partner for her. I'm sure Uncle Cyrus and Aunt Grace will agree. It's one of the most important obligations of the heiress, after all."

"You're… going to pair her up with someone?"

Bianca nods with a sly smirk. Jacob falls silent.

While a forced marriage has a great potential of doing the trick, especially if Winter turns out to be truly in love with either Marcellus or Ace, it doesn't settle right with him for some reason. He feels like it's too early for that kind of arrangement. Much too early. He has always thought that he still have more time.

'Huh? What…?' he caught himself thinking, recoiling at the incomprehensible impression that he was unknowingly hoping that his future sister-in-law would not get engaged with anyone yet.

'More time for what exactly?'

Jacob forced himself to put that thought aside.

It doesn't make sense.

Still, he at least acknowledged his thoughts on the true purpose of this forced marriage – that one about separating Winter from her special someone, that is. He tried to think of the consequence if he was to tell Bianca to not go with that plan. Then, he imagined that Winter had gotten together with either Marcellus or Ace because he didn't let that arranged marriage happen.

Again, it doesn't settle right with Jacob – perhaps, even more than with the idea of pairing her up with someone else she doesn't have feelings for.

"Say, Bianca…" Jacob started again.

"Isn't marriage too early for her? Make it an engagement for now – one that'll last for at least a year."

"But an engagement is easier to break than a marriage…" Bianca protested.

"I want something that'll completely trap her to a loveless commitment-"

"Won't it be strange if she already got married even though it hadn't even been a year since she was found? People would question it. I also doubt she'll agree to it no matter how much you force her."

"Hmmm… Fair enough. We haven't gotten wed yet, anyway. So, that's fine."

Jacob is taken aback to find himself slightly grimacing at the thought of his wedding with Bianca. 

Unlike before, he can't find it in himself to remain submissive. Something in him feels like protesting for once, though he knows quite well that his whole family still supports his engagement with her despite the return of the true heiress. They continue to believe that Bianca is going to be the next head of the Middleton family – in one way or another.

But now, for some unknown cause, that doesn't seem to matter to him anymore.

"Well, then, darling~ Can you do me a favor…?" Bianca called, and again, Jacob had that unsettling feeling. 

"Marcellus Lexington and Ace Miller, was it? Will you try to confirm it, dear? I wanna know. How do they see her? And how does she see them? Before I choose a marriage interview candidate for her, we should first get the answers for those."

---

That whole conversation they had the other day was what led them to this situation -

With Bianca eavesdropping on Marcellus and Ace's exchange, and Jacob seeing the successful outcome of the traps he laid out within a very short time frame. The drama that went down was more or less to their satisfaction, but the aftermath was simply a preparation for the next phase rather than a time to celebrate. 

"I swear…" Bianca muttered beneath her breath, determined to make everything go her way this time.

"I swear I'll make you suffer, Winter.. No matter what, you'll definitely end up regretting being a Middleton."