The Grand Mistress

"Lucy, I think we should return the money to him. I don't think it's right," An instant guilt went into Simione. 

"Return the money eh? Why? You worked for it," Lucy dismissed her proposition. "You deserve a good pay, afterall you are the best dancer in town,"

"Lucy you know I'm not a professional dancer and I don't really think such dance was worth twenty million, more so my company," Simione didn't know why she felt uncomfortable with the fact that Hawk paid twenty million for her company. It's just that, after that night, she felt unusually different, especially when President Hawk came into the picture.

"It's not like we force him to pay," Lucy reasoned. "Besides, the private dancing you did wasn't illegal per se. It was such an art, an art that's worthy of a big price,"

"But—"

"C'mon Sisi! What's with you? Remember grandfather Williams needed the money so just think of it as a blessing in disguise," Lucy reminded her of her predicament. "Also buy yourself something, you deserve it,"

Simione wasn't able to answer for a while and so instead of listening to more of her protest, Lucy dropped the phone after she said her goodbyes. Simione was left thinking then whether to use the money or not. She did feel guilty suddenly but she wondered so much why when she didn't feel remorse in using Hawk Monsanto to get revenge with Feather. However, things just became so different when it comes to Hawk.

"Omigosh Sisi, why are you like this?" Simione cussed herself but after thorough self-deliberation, she decided to use the money instead, especially that she had no choice at the moment.

***

Hawk had been staring at the view of the city right through his office's glass windows. He had been idle for a while dreaming of nothing but the woman whom he gave the mariposa verde. On his table was a pile of documents needed to be signed and his laptop was an online article containing pictures of him and the girl. 

His team was then busy tracking down who posted the pictures and Lucas had been so busy taking down every copy of the same article online. Everyone was so worried that this scandal would ruin Hawk and Feather completely but instead of worrying about it, Hawk seemed to be phlegmatic of the whole thing. 

He didn't stop his team from doing what they needed to do under Lucas' supervision but Hawk did not also help them. All throughout the morning where everyone was worrying and was loaded with additional tasks, Hawk sat there completely, not even a single file in his table was touched as if nothing was in a rush.

"President," Lucas disturbed his solitude and although he cued for him to come in, his eyes remained fixated on the view. "I come to report that all the articles had already been taken down,"

When Lucas went forward to Hawk, he realized that on Hawk's  laptop displayed another copy of the article that was posted online about him. He wasn't aware of this copy and so he knew his job wasn't done yet. With a sigh, he deeply admitted, "Except this one. This probably is the last article,"

"That's my personal copy," Hawk told him. He wanted to keep a souvenir of what took place on his first date with his mystery woman so he specifically asked the head of the IT to give him a copy.

Upon hearing it, Lucas pressed the bridge of his nose frustrated. "Hawk, are you even serious?" 

Since Lucas called him on his name without the 'president' as a courtesy, Hawk knew then his personal assistant wanted to talk to him as a brother and not as his head assistant. 

"You and Feather are getting married already. Please get a hold of yourself!" Lucas chided like an older brother ready to do some smacking. "That woman….For Christ sake! We don't know what she is and what she wants. Can you just please stop all this?"

"I've tried, Lucas believed me," Hawk reasoned. As much as Lucas was frustrated with how he had been acting up these days with that woman, he too was. He knew he loved Feather and wanted to marry her but there's something, some kind of an unknown force that pulls him every time to that woman's path. He wanted to call it destiny but knowing that he was cheating with his fiancee, voluntarily and most of the time without remorse, was something destiny would be ashamed to do. "It's just that, she's different,"

"Really Hawk? And you would say all these after a hundred million dollars contract with Han's Scintillait? Can't you see we are losing already? The venture we have with them was too much for an average company like them and yet we continually lose money just to give Mauro Han what he wanted," Lucas chiding went from Hawk's infidelity to his bad business judgments.

"I told you it's for Feather. She's worth it," Hawk replied as calmly as he could. When Lucas would chide him like this, Hawk makes sure to listen because although Lucas worked for him, he was more like a brother to him already.

"And yet she's not worthy of the mariposa verde and all the more, your love," Lucas pinpointed.

"She didn't want the mariposa verde. She made me aware of it when she tried to stop me from buying it," Hawk recalled. Truth was, when he was buying the mariposa verde, his mind was so full of nothing but Simione that he cannot think of anything else. However he remembered Feather saying she had enough and didn't want more jewelry. "And you know how much I love the Han's heiress Lucas,"

"And yet you are cheating on her!" Hawk's jaw tightened when he heard this. He hated being slapped by words of truth, but Lucas was right and so he knew he meant it for good.  "You should—"

"Lucas!" Hawk glared at him in an eye that was rather telling him he should know his place. Instantly, Lucas seemed to have awakened from whatever daring spirit that went on him and realized he had crossed the line. He made one step back afraid that the great Hawk Monsanto would eat him alive because of his chastisement.

"I'm sorry President," Lucas bowed, cursing himself for his folly. Truth was there were times that he went on chiding Hawk but it had never been this intense. It's just that since Hawk decided to marry Feather things just got out of control and Hawk's reputation had already been tested. Besides, he did think he had seen the worst of Hawk when he was obsessing with the Han's heiress. Guess he had seen only the tip of the berg. "It's just that your reputation these days had been tested and I don't like how its going,"

"Lucas, you don't have to feel dejected over it," Hawk's tone calmed down with his assistant's apology. "It's my fault. Everything is actually my fault. I do love the Han's heiress, God knows I do. But many things have changed with my Feather that I had never foreseen. She changed completely and I am having hard time with the fact,"

"But don't people say love should be unconditional?" Lucas thought of saying the things he had recently read somewhere. Truth was he was having a hard time dealing with Hawk's affairs especially with Feather and his mysterious woman because it was the first time his boss had been involved romantically, in two women, to be exact. So to keep up, he had read so many books and magazines about love in order to further understand it, all the more to understand Hawk's position. "Perhaps it's not love at all,"

Hawk sighed meaningfully  when he heard Lucas' words. "Things are complicated right now," he admitted. "The Han's heiress is a very important woman in my life. She was my everything. But she changed completely and suddenly I felt like she's another person. Then out of nowhere, someone came and although she's a total stranger, it felt like I had been waiting for her all my life,"

"This is the reason why I cannot let go of her, Lucas," He added, referring to the mysterious girl, "She's like someone I know very much and she has made me feel so alive and complete. All this time I thought I would find these feelings only with Feather and I was completely wrong"

"President, I don't really know how to help you with this," Lucas helplessly admitted to. The M Conglomerate had never been this chaotic because of women and Lucas himself didn't have much experience with romantic involvements as they knew only business and competency all these years. "But I have been with you for many years now and I can tell you completely how important Han's heiress is to you. And so before you hurt her, please consider fully the fact that you had worked so hard for many years just to have her. Now that she's on your reach, it would be unwise to lose her because of someone you don't know completely,"

His words silenced Hawk and to give him more space to contemplate, Lucas left the room.