The Grand Mistress

Feather was at  her Father's study, kneeling and wailing like a child who had broken an ancient expensive vase.

"Father please… let there be a date for a wedding already," The Han's heiress begged. She cancelled out and dragged Hawk Monsanto home so she could immediately remedy her worsening situation. "I swear, if you will delay it I'm afraid someone can already take my place,"

"Feather my daughter, what is happening to you? " Fara was at her back appeasing her. When Feather came home yesterday she locked herself in her room and only came out now, when her Father arrived. 

"What shamelessness is this Feather?" Mauro Han's big chilling voice went above her cries. Until then, he didn't want to make things easy for Hawk until the business venture they agreed would be signed and finalized. "How dare you seek first your own sake rather than our company's. If will announce the wedding date, there's a possibility the venture will be delayed further and Hawk might not take it seriously anymore,"

"Father If you can't make me marry Hawk right away, then the whole venture and your efforts will go to waste," Feather was desperate, crying mercilessly while her face was ruined by her mascara.

"What foolishness is this?" He was so done with Feather's temperament and her bratty attitude  that he helplessly turned to Fara, wanting her to drag her daughter away from his sight. "Fara, get this child out here!"

"Feather you are already making your Father angry," Fara tried to pull Feather off the floor but before she could, the Han's heiress screamed in all her lungs.

"Hawk has a mistress!" She revealed. Truth was she didn't want her Father to know because she didn't want him to mock her especially because they were not on good terms. She always goes against him and threatens him that she will tell her grandfather about his gamblings. 

"What? Hawk Monsanto as I know is very devoted to—"

"He's still a man and many women were desperate to have him," She cut him off completely. "They'll do anything to snatch him from me,"

"That is how the men live, Feather. Do not be so naive," Mauro tells her off. Truth was he simply cannot believe that the great Hawk Monsanto had other women as he thought he was different from all the other Monsantos. However, there was no sense in defending  him so he just compromised on it. Besides, he didn't need Hawk's loyalty, all he needed was his money. "There will be more women in the future and you've got to live with that. He is a Monsanto afterall. The important is that you are the one he choose to marry, the others can are just passer bys,"

"I'm not being a naive Father and I'm telling you, this is more than a mistress," Feather stood from her knees and faced her father head on. "He bought the Mariposa Verde for this woman and even ran away from my concierto for her. Now if that doesn't makes you worry then don't blame me at all when your venture will be realized,"

"What? I thought you had sorted out that he gave the Mariposa verde to his relative?" Mauro's expression darkened. "How stupid of you to be just trampled on by other women? You are the Han's heiress, what happened to you getting in control of everything,"

"That's why I'm here," Feather pressed. She doesn't care anymore of her Father's reprimands and insults. So long as she can get a date for the wedding, her pride can fall over anything. "I won't be here begging if I can still do something else!"

"Feather, there  must be some misunderstanding," Fara tried to remedy her daughter's fallen pride. "Hawk loves you so much and he will certainly not look on other women,"

"I'm so done with that thing you call love mother!" Feather snapped out frustratedly. "That was the most foolish thing I had ever  believed in this predicament about Hawk Monsanto. That woman simply cannot be loved by anyone, not even her family loves her!"

"Enough!" Mauro's ears were already in pain from Feather's wails and nagging. Realizing that things were not running good and that his venture with Hawk is at risk, he didn't think twice about it. "Alright, I'll talk to the elders about the wedding,"

"Finally!" That was all that Feather needed and she felt fine. She wiped her ruined mascara and headed for the door.

"Feather!" Her father called on her blatant disrespect.

"What?" 

"I'll do my best to arrange a wedding date," He emphasized, giving Feather a threatening glance and a hard tone. "Make sure you won't mess this up this time or I'll make sure that you go down with me,"

"Understood," She already expected that and so she wasn't scared at all. She excited out the room uncaringly. That's what she needed—a wedding date. Now all she needed to do was wait and prepare for the wedding for surely, Hawk Monsanto would be pressured to fulfill his part, especially then that the whole country will surely do the countdown with her.

***

It had been a few days when the tres marias left the Mondrew City and everything that happened there had been forgotten through the loads of photoshoots and school stuff that had been waiting for Lucy and Simione. However for Gabriella, things didn't turn out well because as much as she wanted to forget what happened, she had no school or concerts to keep her busy and so the memory about the tiger-eyed man kept haunting her. 

The night that she went home to their suite, both Sisi and Lucy had a severe hangover that they were so exhausted to ask her many questions. Early morning the next day after that, they flew back home and the two had been so busy they seemed to have forgotten about her sudden disappearance. Also to shut off more suspicions about it, she deleted the miscalls she had on Lucy's phone and also deleted her own text message in Simione's phone about her giving her a heads up that she was okay.

"Hi," One night, Simione came home from school and went to see Gabriella in her room while she was  busy with something. 

"Hey," The Monteria  heiress replied, surprised that she didn't even notice her coming home. She had been so focused about sewing that she forgot about the time. "Have you eaten?"

"Yep," Simione jumped on her bed and lavished herself with the soft mattress. "What is that?"

"This one?" Gabriella brought in front of her a beautiful dress she sewed for her designer doll. She was a collector of dolls and it had been her long time project to make dresses for her dolls but she was so busy with her ten year relationship with Erwan she didn't even have time for it. These days when she was haunted by the memory of her scandalous venture, she thought of sewing to forget about it.

"Beautiful," Simione smiled at it. She had long known that her friend was a collector and that she could sew. After all, the Monterias business was about clothes and they even owned the most celebrated House of Monteria, a fashion house. "The last time I saw you sewed something was a long long time ago that it already feels weird seeing you sewing something now,"

"I just thought of doing something to pass the time," She replied, already planning to tell what happened to her in Mondrew City. It actually bothered her that she was keeping some secrets to Lucy and Simione even if it was an unintentional lie. However, at that time, she was so overwhelmed and annoyed that she couldn't tell them everything right away. 

"Actually Sisi—"

"What's her name?" Simione seemed to have not heard her and raised a question when she was about to confess.

"Huh?" Gabriella was confused by her question.

"Your doll. You give them names right?"

"Oh," She looked at the doll she was still holding, the one she showed Simione earlier, "Serapina. I named her Serapina, she looked like an angel right?"

"Trully, and yet you gave her a black dress," Simione noticed. "An angel with black dress,"

"She's broken hearted, that's why," Gabriella smiled bitterly. Serapina actually represented her emotions then, she was broken hearted.

"And yet she's classy and beautiful," Simione was so drawn into the doll as it looked very interesting. "You gave her dark makeup too that fits her dress. I think she's the most beautiful broken hearted woman I've ever seen,"

"I kind of agree—"

"Wha-huhuhuhuhuh!" The sound of wailing Lucy rang through the whole penthouse that immediately Gabriella and Simione both ran on their feet to her room. 

"Lucy!"

"What happened?"

"Wahuhuhuhu!" Lucy was wailing as she clung to the heavy curtains of her window. Then as if everything in her body was heavy, she slowly pulled herself down to the floor, her right hand on her head.

"Omigod Simione! Gabbie!" She reached for her two friends as if they were too far away. Immediately Simione went to her side to comfort her while Gabriella raised a brow as whatever she was doing then was obviously pure exaggeration only. Even though Lucy shed some tears, she knew all of it was fake and that she was just making a scene. 

"My heart Sisi, my heart!" Lucy's expression turned as if she was losing her breath.

"Lucy what the heck is happening?" Simione was almost ready to give her some spanking.

"Your boss! The El Tigre!" Lucy wailed as she mentioned the man. El Tigre was Lucy's long time crush and was on her list of prospective lovers. "He is already taken!"