The Grand Mistress

In one of the exclusive restaurants in the city, the fragrance of boiling tea filled the whole room. There was a big long table where all of the significant elders for the Monteria sat while Gabriella was at one corner, heads down and almost teary eyed. All the elders' presence terrified her and she was greatly intimidated by their presence.

They had long been there and the old men and women before here had already told her a series of long litanies—about she should not have run away from home, about her responsibilities of protecting the good name of the Monterias, about the fact that she should at least protect her sister being from such a scandal and that it wasn't her fault why Erwan choose her, about the fact that they should not do anything to offend the Zhao's and many more, all of which pertain to almost every good thing for Angelisa and the Monteria's sake and nothing about her.

"Your friendship with singer Lucy had already been our big concern since before," The litanies continued and Gabriella helplessly listened to them all and took all the pain, all for the sake of being an obedient heiress of the Monterias, the thing that everyone expects of her. "You had promised before to cut off this friendship as that woman had a scandalous lifestyle and we are afraid that you will be influenced by her,"

"Singer Lucy was nothing but my comfort these days, I have no other friends to depend on aside from her," Gabriella replied, trying to push her voice above all the judgemental and calculative eyes. To be in the presence of the elders was one of the things that Gabriella dreaded, however as of this moment she basically had no choice but to listen to them as she didn't want to be abandoned by her family. It was enough that Angelisa and Erwan betrayed her, she cannot lose some more from such an unfortunate tragedy. 

"She is not a friend but an opportunist. You'd better cut off whatever you have with her and return to the Monteria Villa," One of the elders spat.

"How could I? Angelisa is there and I can't live in the same house with her. Can you not just allow me this? I'm trying to be obedient with all your decisions even though it hurts and I've already said yes to all that you ask. Please leave my friendship with singer Lucy, this is all that I ask," Gabriella almost cried at it. In this small circle, it was hard for her to raise her voice and with everything that they throw at her, she cannot give her friendship with Lucy being abandoned without a fight.

"Let's just let it be for the meantime, "One of them who had taken pity on Gabriella said, trying to convince all the others. "But Gabriella you can't keep on living with her, what will people say about you? That you had gone out of control like Lucilla Dimitri because Erwan left you? You'll be casting a serious scandal to our family,"

"I have nowhere to go and please don't ask me to go home," Gabriella embraced herself feeling so cold about everything. Even when the people around her were her family, she felt nothing else but a stranger to them. This was the reason why even though her friendship with Lucy and Simione had been forbidden since before, she was not able to give them up. For the Monteria's , Lucy was pretty scandalous and Simione was too poor to be Gabriella's friend so they were against it. However the tres marias were able to keep their friendship going under the Monteria's noses.

"Sister Cyntia will come and see you," One elder expressed and for some reason Gabriella already knew this conversation would take place. "The sisters of Sta. Catalina had expressed their great concern for your well being these days and asked our permission for you to live with them….you know, until you'll be okay,"

"That's good to hear," One seemed glad about the visit. All these seemed pretty scripted to Gabriella as if the elders had long planned this and just made it so appear that it was a coincidence. "Gabriella, since you were young, you had always been vocal about your dream of being a nun. Perhaps it's time for you to rethink this. Perhaps this whole Erwan ordeal was already a sign. The Sta. Catalina sisters will surely be glad to if you will,"

"I'll think about it," She answered without protest.  Before her father  remarried, Gabriella spent all her days in the Sta. Catalina nunnery. Her father who was having hard time managing both their business and raising a daughter opted to send her to a boarding school owned by the Sta. Catalina sisters and so that nunnery was where she lived and studied when she was young. Only when Gabriella entered Senior Highschool was she allowed to live in the Monteria Villa again together with her new mother and sisters.

Perhaps because of her connection with the nunnery, Gabriella had always expressed her likes to become a nun when she was young but when she had gone out of the nunnery and had seen the world outside, she became fully aware she didn't like to be one. However her family had taken such a childhood dream seriously that on her eighteenth birthday, they invited a priest and missionaries to help Gabriella find her calling but she was already in love with Erwan that time and so the dream never got to be realized. After that, there were a few more attempts initiated by her family to help her reconsider her choice but all failed. This time, as Gabriella expected, the conversations about her going to become a nun started again.

"Gabriella as a child I have always known you belong to God," The elders went on. "I have already known from the start that this relationship between you and Erwan wouldn't last long. This now is your time to recommit to the Lord. Go and live with the Sta. Catalina sisters after the wedding, it will surely help you rekindle that commitment instead of staying with singer Lucy,"

"I understand," Gabriella replied but unknown to all of them, all the words they uttered just passed through her ears unfiltered. Lucy had told her to just endure this day. The singer had called a few connections yesterday to check if there was anything suspicious within the Monteria's household but nothing can be ascertained yet and everyone she called asked for a little bit of time to investigate. For Gabriella's side, she had really no reasons to suspect her family although she hated them for being such a control freak. They were all controlling her like they owned her life and she was almost at the verge of breaking. At this point, only Lucy and Simione were making her hold on.

After an hour, the elders had laid down all their concerns and were about to dismiss Gabriella but the girl somehow didn't move. 

"Gabriella dear are you okay?" one of them asked.

"Yes I am," She answered politely. "I was wondering if you knew,"

"Knew about what?" All of them turned their attention back to her.

"My mother," Gabriella didn't know where she got all the courage to ask. Her mother was a big mystery to her and she long wanted to ask them about her but was always scared to do so. Her father never really spoke about it and she left her nothing aside from Serapina the doll. Now that all the elders were there, she decided ask "I'm sorry I don't if it's a sin to ask about her but I really have nothing about her but a doll and her name. I wondered if—"

"We do not speak of your mother here, forget about it!" Someone chastised. "If your father refused to say anything then we can do—"

"Elder Miranda, spare the child," The head leader, whom Gabriella was most scared off, halted all the words and chastity that was to be thrown at her. "You can never blame the child if she was curious, we never really explained to her why,"

"Gabriella, the reason why we do not speak of your mother is because she has done some things that are not pleasant to our eyes... to the community…. and to the Lord," The head elder was kind enough to accommodate her query. "Do you wonder why out of all your sisters, you were the Sta. Catalina's sister's favorite?"

"Because I grow up with them," 

"No Gabriella," The head elder gave her a bitter smile. "It was because your mother was from there,"

Gabriella raised her head to meet the head elders eyes, asking her to clarify her recent words. What does she mean when she says her mother was from the Sta. Catalina nunnery?

"She was a nun, my child," The head leader announced and that for a moment Gabriella felt so little, "She went out of the nunnery to marry your father and when she died, people said it was her curse for her disservice to the Lord. This is why we do not speak of her. I hope you understand now and please do not ask of this again,"