The Grand Mistress

When Lyndon left slamming the door, Simione lost all the strength she had left and fell on the floor. Damn! What just happened? Did she just throw their love out the window? 

She herself could not believe where she got the courage to refuse the boy when all her life she did nothing but to give him all the things that pleased him. How could she depart from such a goal now?

She does love him. She felt it in her heart that she does yet the pain that clouded her heart was too painful she could not bear it. How could she love him again when she hasn\'t even healed yet? 

Perhaps tomorrow, things will be okay. However, knowing how complicated her relationship with Lyndon now only made her feel miserable. How can she even continue to heal when she can see him everyday?

Simione looked around her room, the room that gave her warmth for many years. She was lucky that the Tang\'s took her and treated her as their own and so she had never felt alone all these years but now, with what happened, she felt like she didn\'t deserve the warmth of the Tang\'s anymore. Not when she had hurt Lyndon tonight.

She can\'t stay here anymore. For her sake and for Lyndon, she has to go now. She has to leave this place, the place she called home.

"I\'m sorry grandmother, grandfather," Simione whispered with her tears overflowing. "I\'m sorry brother Don,"

The girl let herself cry that night and when her tears dried up, she packed up her important things. She took only the things she needed and left everything behind.

***

It was four in the morning when Simione had the courage to leave Tang\'s mansion. She only had one bag with her and because she can\'t take the risk of waking everyone one up, she took the back door and walked until the main entrance of the subdivision. Exactly when the rays of sunshine started lighting up the sky, she was by the main road, waiting for her ride. She stood at one side of the street with her bag hung on her shoulder and her heavy heart.

She didn\'t know what Madam Silicia and grandfather Williams would feel about her leaving. She left them some letters of gratitude and  told them to reconcile with the Han\'s especially now that grandfather Williams had some challenges in business. For all she knew, she was the only reason why the two families were in conflict. Now that she has left, they should reconcile with them, especially that Feather and Lyndon are now a couple. Her last thought gave her heart a sting but she was used to such feelings now and so the pain doesn\'t anymore make her flinch.

Simione\'s thought was pulled right back to reality when an unfamiliar vehicle stopped in front of her and before she could even move, two men in masks dragged her in!

"What are you doing?" Simione was full of shock and she was not able to defend herself. She did not expect such a turn of events! "Help! Help! Help—"

One of the men who dragged her in covered her mouth and in just a second, she was slammed into the backseat of the van. 

"Who are you people?" The girl was all in fear but she tried hard not to panic, especially that she needed to think sharp that time. "What do you want from me?"

"A beautiful lady alone in the road. How foolish," One of the men commented. Simone couldn\'t read their expression nor was she able to see their faces specially with their masks on. The only thing she could see was their eyes and it didn\'t feel familiar so she knew she never met these people before.

"I don\'t have anything but if you would negotiate with me I can settle some money for you," Simione was shaking but she tried to trade with her abductors. The vehicle they were in moved so fast and the sound was so loud she needed to shout so the men could hear her.

"We are not buying your tricks lady and do you think we even want your money?" Her abductors laughed. "Well we kind of in need of money right now but I\'m sure what you are offering cannot match the offer our clients have for beautiful women we take,"

"What do you mean?" Simione shivered at their words. Clients? The women they take? Was she meant to be trafficked? The thought sent an instant coldness onto her spine but she took her fears in control. 

"You know what we mean," One guy responded and they all laughed again.

"Brother she\'s really beautiful. I would be such a waste if we dispatched her right away.." One man not visible in Simione\'s eyes commented. She was sitting beside the driver so the girl could not see her.

"Well, azjxhcchchc…never said we can\'t touch her….xhahsusua….they only said to make sure she won\'t be able to comeback,"

"They want her dead," 

"They only want her not to comeback,"

"That\'s what it means,"

"We can double the income if we make use of her or you know, we can take her for our own…she\'s very pretty,"

The people\'s conversation got Simione lost her control and so her panic rose to her stem and she ended up bangging the vehicles\' window shouting for help. 

"Shut up!" One of the men gathered himself toward the girl, grabbed her in his arms and pointed a gun at her head. "I said shut up!"

"Please! Let me go!" Simione was shaking then. She didn\'t know what\'s going to happen to her but she knew she\'d end up in ruins. "I can give you money, please let me go,"

Simione\'s tears ran on her cheeks and the man who just grabbed her was deeply enticed by it. The girl wasn\'t only pretty but her natural charms and innocence was so alluringly seductive his eyes instantly filled with desire.. He flashed a devious grin then.