The Grand Mistress

The officer handed Primo the phone and when he was on it, his face grimaced immediately upon the voice that welcomed.

"Did you like my gift?" The female voice ran through the other line.

"Lucy," Primo recognized  the singer. "What gift?" He pursued his lips as he contemplated on what she was implying. In a minute though, some things dawned on him. "Its you…you are the one who shot me,"

"Bingo," Lucy replied with a wild grin. "So you know the drill. Make sure I\'ve got my legitimate share of the business,"

"You dare hurt me…" Primo chuckled inwardly, feeling insulted at the fact that it was a woman who managed to hurt him. "Do you know what that means?,"

"Oh my dear El Tigre," Lucy expressed in a contrite way as if she was regretting what she did. "I feel bad that you were not able to evade my bullet…but hey look…your dulzura is home. If you dare hurt me because of what I did…then you\'ll lose her again,"

Primo sneered at that. His pride was hurt with the revelation that blew right at that moment but knowing that Gabriella\'s company was at stake, he did not plan on hurting Lucilla. 

"You are a scornful woman..." Primo told her and ended the call right away. "But don\'t you dare play tricks again on me Lucilla, you don\'t know what I\'m capable of doing,"

"You\'re welcome El tigre," Lucy replied, reminding him that he was supposed to be thankful to her because of what she did. If she did not fire a bullet on him and got wounded, Gabriella would not be forced to come to him. "Goodbye,"

Lucy ended the call and threw her phone at the bed. It wasn\'t her plan to reunite Primo and Gabriella that day but she needed the girl to go away for some time until she would be able to figure out what happened to Simione. She had received reports of her abduction in Finland and until then she had not figured out yet who took her.

She was very worried these days and it wouldn\'t take time before Gabriella will notice that something was wrong so it would be better for her to stay with Primo for a while. Besides, with Simione\'s abduction, she was afraid that the next target would be her and so she pushed Gabriella to safety first so she won\'t be implicated in the things she and Simione did. She had not contributed to it anyway, in fact she was the one who had been asking them to both stop the Feather Project who now ruined their little peace.

***

The next morning, Simione had barely had any sleep. She was contemplating all night on what\'s best to do with her situation. Many days had passed already and thankfully, her supposed husband had never come home and disturb her peace. Yet, she knew one of these days, she got to marry that stranger and be imprisoned in a loveless marriage.

She had to do something. Thinking it through, she thought that perhaps the reason why she was chosen for this marriage was because she was one of Don Benedicto\'s granddaughters. Her soon to be husband must have thought that she could be a very good asset to him since she was a Han not knowing the fact that she wasn\'t really a real Han and that she wasn\'t the beloved granddaughter that the man might have thought. 

The man who bought her might have been thinking she can be a perfect bride as she was an heiress when the truth was she was just a villager\'s daughter. Perhaps if she could make him see that, perhaps he would change his mind. Also, she thought since her soon to be husband was after an heiress, he might have thought she was raised as one and had a class like one when in fact she isn\'t.

Perhaps she should tell him the truth. But how was she to do that?

Her husband, for the record, had never come home ever since she stepped into this mansion.

Simione\'s mind was drawn back to reality when there was a successive knock on her door. When she asked who it was, it was Mr. Brown who replied. 

"Come in," Simione let him as she sat on her bed not bothering to get up. She was really tired and weak, she had no strength to get up.

"Madam good morning," Mr. Brown started with his greetings. "The master had send some word for you,"

"Oh, that\'s new," Simione thought so. Ever since she came here, she never received any word from him and no one even bothered to introduce him to her, not even some description or idea of what kind of person he was.

"He said that you can go out from this mansion as long as you want and that he wants you to go back to law school," Mr. Brown started. "He had already sent someone to enroll you since the new semester is approaching. He wished you to study well,"

Simione was greatly surprised by this. So her husband knew about her law studies? How much does he know about her?

"However, he forbade you to go back to El Tigre\'s company and work. He wants you to only focus on your studies this time," Mr. Brown added. "A resignation letter was already sent and it wouldn\'t take long before it would be approve,"

"But…my job is something that is…." Simione was hesitant to let it go but before she could even protest it, she realized that she was actually planning to escape again so it wouldn\'t be wise to go back to work anymore. "Well… never mind,"

When Mr. Brown didn\'t hear any protest from all the conditions he first laid, he continued. "He also gave you permission to visit your friends but you must go back to this mansion at the end of the day,"

"You mean I am free to go out?" Simione certainly didn\'t believe that. Does he not know she had been planning on escaping from this mansion since the very first day that she was here? Was he to dumb to ever believe she would come back here once she goes out?

"Yes you are Madam," Mr. Brown replied. 

"Then I should go," Simione suddenly had the energy to get up from bed. She immediately thought of going to Lucy and asked for the singer\'s help so that she can get away from this marriage. "I\'ll go and visit my friend now.."

"Well Madam, I am not finished yet," Mr. Brown cut off her excitement. "The master also wants you to know that if ever you try to get away from him, the Tang\'s will suffer,"

Simione swallowed a mouthful at the thought. Did she hear it right? Was she wrong or she felt like what Mr. Brown said was a threat?  A dangerous threat.

"And your friends too…" Mr. Brown added that only made Simione\'s face fell. God, how evil could this man be? For a moment she thought she had finally found her redemption only to realize there was a pit at the end. Instantly she realized that her soon to be husband, whoever it was, was a very dangerous man. It would be hard for her to escape him as one wrong move would mean the end to all the people she loved dearly.

"I understand," Simione answered blankly. What kind of marriage was she going to be pushed in? The way her husband\'s threat shunned all her hope was giving her some dangerous and terrifying glimpse of what her married life would be like.

"Well…" Mr. Brown tried not to empathize with her. "If you want to go out today, I shall prepare a ride for you and some security."

"Thank you," Simione thanked him and saw the man leave the door, leaving her alone with all her fears and apprehensions. God! What kind of hell did Don Benedicto send her to?

Simione held a deep sigh and dragged herself to the bathroom. Despite her shock about what just transpired, as well as the fears that her soon to be husband managed to instill onto her mind even when he was not around, she still wanted to see Lucy. She knew she might have gone worried about what happened to her. She planned to see her then.

As for her evil husband, she had to be very careful in treating him. There has to be some other way for her to make him change his mind and so perhaps she could talk to Lucy about how to make a man do that. If perhaps she can prove to him she is not really a good choice for a wife and that she would bring nothing to him but shame and trouble, there might be a chance he would let her go.. After all, she thinks he was a very rich man and so it would be very easy for him to deal with Don Benedicto again or just let her off for his own peace of mind.