The Grand Mistress

Devon City

Gabriella had been missing Simione and if she wasn't required to attend a family gathering, she would have gone with her. She wondered what Sisi could have been doing by then, she must have been enjoying the simple village life. She had long wanted to go with her ever since they were in College but her mother Lilith forbade it so, saying the elders wouldn't like it specially if they knew whom she was with. The Monterias don't specifically like Simione as she was only an orphan and was believed to have only been able to study in the same school with Gabriella  because of some scholarships.

The Monteria's then was to celebrate her grandmother's birthday, Madam Razeila's. She was the current head of all the Monteria elders and was known as a very strict, religious and conservative woman. Being the head elder, her words were always taken with such high regard that even the Monteria men could not counter her most of the time. Because of her strong personality and influence, she was greatly respected in the elite circle and was friends with many significant  personalities.

At the party, everyone had been enjoying all the good food and music. Many elites came and celebrated with them but despite how enjoyable the party seemed, Gabriella sat on the corner alone without a companion. She wanted to leave already but her step mother forbade her so saying people might mistake her absence was a form of rebellion especially that the news about Erwan and Angelisa being together had already been spread all over the country. As planned, the head matriarch, Madam Raziela told everyone how Gabriella and Erwan ended their relationship a year ago and that Angelisa was not guilty of coveting Gabriella's boyfriend. 

With such, they required Gabriella to be present to every gathering of the Monterias and actively participate in all of the wedding preparations. Knowing that she was now the future Madam of the Zhao's, Angelisa received quite an attention from the media and had become significant in every gathering. Of course everyone wanted to be friends with the future Madam of the Zhao's. With this, the table had totally turned between Angelisa and Gabriella. Now, it was Gabriella who's been on the sidelines while Angelisa gets to the stage. Her covetous half sister was then going around with Erwan during the party, conversing with the guests and getting to sit on the front tables.

Gabriella wanted to shrink with such humiliation. Even when her grandmother made it obvious they had long been separated with Erwan, she announced that it was Gabriella who broke the engagement and so the guests kind of mocked her for her bad judgement. They thought it was foolish of her to let go of Erwan and even thought she was the one who cheated that's why she broke the engagement to abandon Erwan for another man. Seeing her alone in the party with no companion and looking pitiful, they all laughed at her stupidity. 

Gabriella was aware of everyone's mockery but she was past the stage of caring for whatever other people thought of her so she just thought of something to pass time. She took Serafina from her bag and positioned her to sit on a table, looking at the center stage. She then took a picture of her and posted it in Serafina's social media accounts. Since it was a party, she thought of making use of the glamor and decorations to become Serafina's background while she let her wear a pink princessy dress that suits the occasion. She took more pictures of her doll and even had her change an outfit and because she was busy she didn't notice that Serafina's social media accounts blew up. 

(My God Serafina is at Madam Raziel's birthday celebration!)

(Serafina's outfit was to die for! I want to see her in person but I could not find her at the party!)

(Serafina you one lucky baby! Not everyone was invited to Madam Raziel's birthday party and yet she gets to be invited! I'm so damn jealous!

Because of the information that broke out—about Serafina being in the gathering of the Monterias, the socialites who were then a fan of the doll's sophistication and glamour went to search for her. The party suddenly became a treasure hunting event and it created a little commotion in the crowd.

The whole Monteria household and some older guests were bothered by this. The chaos only aggravated as time went one and when one guest finally caught sight of Serafina, she screamed in her lungs.

"There she is!" When she pointed to where Serafina was, everyone ran and walked toward where Gabriella was busy taking pictures and the crowd of people immediately caught her off guard that, out of instinct, she grabbed Sefarina and hid her in her arms, as flashes of camera showered them. Immediately the party which once revolved around Madam Raziel and the couple, Erwan and Angelisa turned toward Gabriella as if she was the celebrant herself.

"Was that Gabriella?" Angelisa asked her fiancee who was with her. She had enjoyed the party greatly, especially now that she can get to speak with all the guests like Gabriella did before. It had been long that her beauty was put on the sidelines and hearing all their guest's sweet compliments and the recognition of the significant personalities of her standing, made her feel so utterly victorious. She felt all the insecure eyes against her and seeing Gabrialla stand around the corner looking like a pitiful ugly duckling made her feel more happy. However, before she could drown herself with the illusion that she was now more significant than Gabriella in their family, all the attention for some reasons turned to Gabriella and she could only stare with angry eyes at that.

Even their grandmother who was all absorbed with talking to the guest got disturbed by the guest's chaos and when she saw Gabriella being surrounded by everyone, she was filled with annoyance. What did her good-for-nothing granddaughter do this time?

"Grandmother, it seemed like my sister made a mess," Angelisa pacified her grandmother although she was so happy at how angry Madam Raziela got. She knew then Gabriella would receive a thorough chiding and she was clearly looking forward to that. "I'll go and see her. Please don't be angry grandmother, I'm sure its nothing,"

"Angelisa, make that sister of yours leave the party out once!" Her grandmother replied, already annoyed. She wanted her to avoid any suspicions from the guest but from how

"Darling, why don't we go and see Angelisa together?" She dragged Erwan into the conversation. Of course she didn't want to go there alone as it would only look like Erwan doesn't care. 

Erwarn hesitated a bit but knowing that Angelisa was pregnant, he went anyway. They paced the hall toward where the chaos was and when they both saw Gabriella, surprised and clueless as to what to do, Angelisa could only roll her eyes. Was she trying to be innocent of creating such a hype when obviously she did intentionally make a mess to get everyone's attention. Was she this desperate to ruin her night?

"Everyone, leave please leave Gabriella alone!" Erwan, to Angelisa's surprise, acted on impulse the moment he saw her ex-fiancee being surrounded by almost everyone. Truth was he didn't much care about her ex but they were all staging a fake news that their break up was a mutual consent and he didn't want people to see he didn't care.

(Oh She's Gabriella Monteria, the legitimate heiress of the Monteria Group of companies!)

(Gabriella Monteria was as beautiful as Serafina! I wonder if she was the one making her dresses!)

(I know it! Only a person with Monteria blood can pull off such a glorious outfit!)

Angelisa for once did not understand what the people were trying to say but only realized that they were all talking about her sister's doll—The one Gabriella was trying to protect with her life. News about a beautiful celebrity doll was going around lately but she was used to Gabriella being a good-for-nothing-heiress so she thought the crowd was just mistaken. For sure, Gabriella knew of the doll and used an imitation to lure everyone around.

What's with that doll anyway? Didn't they all know that doll is ancient? 

Also, why was Erwan protecting her? Did he forget she was pregnant?

"Erwan my love, don't scare the guest off," Angelisa tried to reach for him as he was then in front of Gabriella and the guests who wanted to take as many pictures as they could get. The owner of the popular Serafina doll was revealed, who would not be frantic with that?

Erwan seemed to have not heard Angelisa and her expression only turned sour at the sight of her very own fiancee protecting her ex-girlfriend. Angered beyond control, she went closer to Gabriella and snatched her doll away.

"Everyone, this doll is really nothing," She dragged Serafina to everyone's face while holding the doll's hair. Seeing the doll hanging in the air like it was not worthy of anything, the crowd gasped.  They all looked at Angelisa like she was a murder than instantly but she did not back down.

"This doll is very old. I'm sorry if you all had been fooled by how she was portrayed in the media. I don't know why my sister did this but I don't want to fool all of you," She blabbered all the way.

She then turned to Gabriella who was still stunned behind Erwan about how everyone suddenly circled around her. How was Lucy able to handle such a crowd every time?

"Gabriella, apologize to the guest," Angelisa commanded her as if she was a lot older. "Why did you go on scamming people anyway? Making them believe this was a significant doll?