The Grand Mistress

Gabriella was busy cutting garments for Serapina when Lucy knocked on the door. They were the one left in Allegria Penthouses, Lucy\'s home, as Simione went somewhere. When dragged her head to the door with a scissor in her hand, she caught Lucy\'s worried expression. She immediately knew her worry had something to do with her.

"What is it?" Gabriella braced herself thinking it was bad news.

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"It\'s who," The singer simply answered and the girl then realized she had a visitor. Not wanting to ask Lucy anymore, she simply followed her downstairs. As they both descended the stairs, she caught sight of a woman, with long blonde hair and eyes that shone with thorough relief at the sight of her.

"Mother Lilith?" Gabriella was surprised by her sudden visit. She descended hastily and went to give her stepmother an embrace.

"My angel, how are you doing? Have you been eating?" The woman asked as she turned to scrutinize the Monteria heiress. "I have brought some food for you,"

"Mother Lilith, it\'s good that you\'ve come to visit me, I missed you so much already," They both sat on the sofa and Gabrille clung to her embrace again. The woman, although only a step mother, was the one who raised Gabriella and she had given her special care and favor than her three other children which was rather ironic because among the four daughters of Gabro Monteria, Gabriella\'s father, she was the one who wasn\'t her flesh and blood. Gabriella was the daughter of Gabro\'s first wife, who died giving birth to her.

"I do miss you my angel," Madam Lilith replied and started caressing Gabriella\'s hair. 

Lucy, who was watching the mother and daughter tandem felt out of place so instead of lingering in the living room, she turned to the kitchen and prepared some refreshment for their guest. It had been long that Madam Lilith had not come and when she did, a long long conversation always happened. She made the refreshments from scratch and so it took her a long time to get back at the two and when she did, Gabriella was already crying while her mother was comforting her.

"Gabbie?" Lucy was surprised to see the Monteria heiress crying as she was okay when she left.

"I\'m sorry singer Lucy," It was mother Lilith who apologized for it and gave a deep sigh. "I actually came to bring news from the villa,"

"What news?" Lucy sat beside Gabriella and caressed her back. "Madam Lilith, Gabriella is not yet okay with what happened with her and Erwan. Please be mindful of all the words you say to her,"

"I apologize, singer Lucy," Mother Lilith immediately accepted her mistake. "But the things I told her cannot be helped. I don\'t want my daughter to go to the household meeting without knowing what it will be about. I don\'t want here to go and broke down in there,"

"Household meeting?"

"The elders and head families will gather to resolve the issue between my daughter Angelisa and Erwan," Gabriella\'s mother explained. "I came here to tell Gabriella about it as the elders also asked me to,"

"The elders asked you to tell her?" Lucy suddenly was suspicious. As far as she knew, no one knew where Gabriella went when she ran away and Gabriella wasn\'t answering their calls lately so it should have become hard for them to reach her. "You were the only one who knew where Gabbie is, did you tell them you knew where she was?"

"I..I…." She stuttered and immediately Lucy knew she was going to deny it. "I didn\'t tell them specifically where she was at. However they all suspect Gabriella and I had been talking to each other and so they forced me to tell her to come to the household meeting,"

"Tell them Gabriella didn\'t call you and so you were not able to tell her," Lucy instructed and grabbed the juice to make Gabriella drink from it. She was sobbing hard and so she knew whatever her stepmom told her must be something bad.

"I can\'t, they will all take it on me," Mother Lilith refused and her face turned into a mess. "Singer Lucy, in case you didn\'t know, even if I am the Madam of Gabro\'s household, I don\'t really have all of the respects attributed to a madam. They all see me as a nobody and so I cannot also…."

"You cannot sacrifice yourself for Gabbie\'s sake," Lucy cut her off. "You don\'t want to offend them that\'s why you promised them you can make Gabbriella come,"

"Its not—"

"No need to explain. I know you are not Gabbriella\'s mother and so you won\'t protect her if it becomes inconvenient to you," Lucy went on. She was really mad that Madam Lilith came and made Gabriella cry. If she was indeed a good mother to her, she should have dealt with her filthy daughter Angelisa first and yet she didn\'t.

"Lucy please don\'t Mother Lilith, she was right. She really can do nothing about it," Gabriella stopped Lucy from confronting her stepmother. Knowing that the environment was getting tense, she just went on and dismissed her mother as she too cannot entertain her well that time. "Mother, I\'ll need to think about it. It is best that you go,"

"But my dear, I want to stay a bit and comfort you for a while," Mother Lilith insisted on staying specially so that she could see that her well loved daughter was hurt. 

"I\'ll be okay, mother don\'t worry. Besides Lucy is here," She sent her off and soon the woman left, leaving all the food she brought for her on the table. Lucy, who knew Gabriella was getting tense and all messed up, went to grab a glass of wine and let her drink.

"What happened?" Lucy asked as she was sipping through the glass.

"Just the usual. Erwan and Angelisa,"

"And? I know there\'s more so spill it out, all of it. I want to hear it all," Lucy demanded and sat in front of her crossed arm. The Monteria\'s were already getting into her nerves and if only she didn\'t have problems on her own, she\'ll go and hunt them one by one. 

"Well aside from the fact that they wanted me to tell the media that Erwan and I had long broken up to pave way for their wedding. They also wanted me to participate in the wedding preparation to show everyone that there was really nothing between us and that I am okay with it all," Gabriella announced and another set of tears fell from her eyes. "Lucy how would I be able to deal with such? I don\'t think I can,"

"Fuck them all!" Lucy gave Gabbie a warm tight hug, very annoyed by the fact. "Why do I feel like they were all bullying you. Also, what did your father say about all this?"

"I don\'t know. However I think because the Zhao\'s were one of our biggest partners, then I think he would do anything to not offend them," Gabriella explained to her.  She had long grown to believe that business and good reputation was more important than anything else as that was what the Monteria\'s lived their lives. The very reason why she lived under Mother Lilith\'s care was because her father was then very busy with their business. The Monteria\'s all owned a couple of companies, all products related to clothes and garments and his father was one of the CEO\'s in many of the companies under the Monteria Groups of Businesses.

"How about the Zhao\'s? They had long been expecting to wed Erwan to you," Lucy\'s raised a brow, confused on how these things were running. She felt something was wrong but just couldn\'t see where. "I heard from before that Elder Zhao was the one who approved your betrothal to Erwan, how could he change heart easily?"

"I don\'t know. Perhaps because Angelisa is my sister and it doesn\'t really matter who Erwan marries amongst us, we are all Monteria heiresses," Gabriella added, sobbing relentlessly. She  felt like everything was falling apart and that she had no more redemption to all this chaos.

"No Gabriella you are wrong," Lucy caught some important facts from what Gabriella told her. "It matters whom he marries,"

"Huh? Lucy, I\'m just one of my father\'s daughters. We all have the same privileges," Gabriella just brushed off her friend\'s words. She thought Lucy was just trying to lift her spirit up and although she appreciates her effort, nothing seemed to work then.

"Gabriella, I don\'t know but there\'s something fishy about this," Lucy brushed her hair off as she thought all of it. For ordinary persons, what was happening in the midst of Monteria was just as simple as saving a fallen reputation but for a person like Lucy, who was very well acquainted with the business world, she could tell right away that someone was brewing something.

"Hold off your tears," Lucy\'s tone became so serious that Gabriella immediately turned to her wondering. "This is more than just what you think. Go and call Simione, see if she\'s done. We need her legal expertise. I need to call someone too so stop crying, save it for later,"

"Tell Simione we\'re code red so she better come home fast," She added before she went on and dial some numbers.