The Grand Mistress

The very next day, Simione watched through a car's window the clouds that looked like puff of little joys, moving slowly in the clear blue sky. She had woken up earlier than usual, cooked some food and before the clock hits ten, she went off and took a cab around the city.

The cab stopped in front of Imperial Hospital, one of the several good hospitals around the city that had good service. Soon, she was walking down the white painted halls and stopped in one of the private rooms there. 

"Simione," A woman in her mid fifties welcomed the girl with a gentle smile on her face. She had been expecting her and so she immediately stood and gave Simione a meaningful hug. She was grandfather William's wife, Silicia Tang and the woman who all these years acted as Simione's mother.

"How are you here?" Simione asked immediately knowing that it was just recently that they settled in that hospital. She politely squeezed herself  out of the old woman's arms and  strode toward the table nearby to put the boxes of food she brought with her.

"We are good," Silicia then turned sideways to give way to the view of a young man, lying idly on bed. He had natural blonde hair, a pointy nose and a calmed face—probably brought by the fact that he had been sleeping on bed for months and had not woken up since the accident that caused him to become comatose. 

The man was Lyndon Tang, Simione's foster brother and once, he had been her world. For many years, she had loved him, more than a brother and the memory of their past warm love still haunts the woman until these days. 

She had loved him even before she could remember as most of her childhood memory revolved around admiring Lyndon from the sidelines as a friend and when she was big enough to give her heart, she gave it all to him, fully, without reservations that when they broke up, her world fell apart. Hard.

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"Thank you Simione," Madam Silicia took her hand and expressed her great thanks. These days, there was no one she could rely on but her and although she was already ashamed of dragging her to their family predicaments, she simply had no choice. 

"Grandmother, you don't really need to keep thanking me," She looked into her eyes with full assurance that no matter what, she will always and always have her support. "If not for you guys I would never be here so I'm just happy that these days, I can finally give back, although I can only do a little,"

"What little are you talking about?" The old woman rebutted her humble claims. "You had constantly found ways to make sure your grandfather could get out of prison and now, you have brought Lyndon back here. I know for a fact that this hospital is expensive and yet you shoulder all the bills without hesitation,"

Few months ago, after Lyndon's surgery, he was kicked out of Imperial hospital because the Tang's could not anymore afford the fees. He was then taken to a government funded hospital whose services were somewhat substandard. Simione could do nothing then as she cannot afford to shoulder the Tang's debt in Imperial hospital and even though she had a good health card from her company, she cannot enroll Lyndon under its services because he was not her legal brother. Besides, aside from hospital bills, the Tangs had other expenses and other bills that add up to her burden.

However, because of the money she received from Hawk, she was able to pay in full the Tang's debt in Imperial hospital and so she requested that her foster brother be transferred back there and receive the proper care he needed. 

"This is too little compared to what you did for me," Simione expressed. "Don't think about it anymore grandmother. The heavens were good to us after all,"

"Simione, it makes me feel guilty knowing that you are shouldering everything," Madam Silicia felt useless. If only not because she needed to care for Lyncon's well being, she could have found a job to help the girl with all the bills. "If only I can find a job in this age of mine,"

"Grandmother, brother Lyndon needs you here," She brushed off her plans then. Madam Silicia was too old already to find a job and besides, she cannot just watch her tire herself of with work when the Tang's predicament had exhausted her fully already. "Just stay here and worry about Lyndon. Don't worry about anything anymore, especially anything related to money, I got it,"

"Simione my little one, I hope you are not tiring yourself with work" The old woman's worry turned to Simione then. She cupped her face and looked at her fully, trying to see if she had been always up late. She had heard of Simione going to law school and working in one of the good companies in the city and she could never be more proud. "You looked pale and thin, had you been eating well?"

"Of course I am a grandmother. Just ignore the dark circles in my eyes, I had to double time reading for the past week because of school," She lied when the truth was it was Hawk that had been keeping her up late. She really doesn't know why but her complicated relationship with the M Conglomerate's president was stressing her out more than the problems of the Tangs. 

Soon, after a few more conversations about school and grandfather William's case, Simione was left in the room with Lyndon alone. She sent the old woman off so she can have time to take some break. Grandmother Silicia was always anxious to leave Lyndon alone and so only when Simione was around did she leave to attend to some other important things.

"Brother Don, how are you here?" Simione sat beside Lyndon's bed and caressed his head. In her hand was one of his favorite books that she just read to him recently. She got tired of reading and just opted to spend the rest of her time talking to her comatosed brother. "It must be hard for you to be this way knowing how great of an adventurer you are,"

Right then she had recalled how her brother loved adrenaline rush and how he loves going around making adventures. When they were young, he used to take her to great camping trips and with him she had experienced daring sports like bungee jumping and skydiving. 

"You might have not noticed this but after that day…" Simione's memory brought her to one of the painful memories she ever had but before she could succumb back to it and hurt herself, she dismissed it outright, "After I left home…. You never come home to the Tang's mansion as you usually do and you spent most of your summers abroad..I used to call the kitchen maids to check on you hoping you had come home…" 

Simione confessed then. When she left the Tangs, it had been a huge emotional battle and although she had buried their love down the grave, she had missed him a lot. He was her usual companion previously and being away from him after all of those years, felt like she had entered a frozen grave. Each night ended with tears, what ifs and wishful thinkings. She was just glad then that after those years of emotional turmoil, she was able to get by. She did get by, right?

"...you never come home anymore. Grandfather and grandmother used to call me then, saying how they missed you, how they missed us," Simione held a sigh recalling the past. Bothered and becoming too emotional, she stood and went to a nearby window and blew everything in her heart out. Exhale, inhale. She did that breathing routine for minutes, hoping it would ease the pain that managed to crept back into her heart. She had long been okay and she will always be okay.

Soon her phone rang and she picked it out right away. It was Lucy on the line and she knew why the singer had called. 

"The bitch had been enjoying her time off doing some wedding shopping," Lucy announced straightaway. She already heard about the wedding date as it took of her #hearbrokengoddess off the number one of most shared hashtag that day. She felt annoyed then and vowed she's going to get back at Feather for stealing her limelight. 

"So?" Simione answered calmly although in her mind, she had already imagined a thousand ways on how  she'd ravage both Hawk and Feather mercilessly. 

"I got a copy of her shopping itinerary," Lucy's lips curved into a vicious smile. "Wanna go shopping for weddings too?"

"I'd love to," Simione replied without hesitation and their conversation went, all fixated on their shopping plans. When Lucy hung up, almost half an hour had passed and Simione immediately turned to Lyndon, her eyes full of hatred and resentment. She walked toward her brother again, caressed his smooth silky blond hair and gave him a kiss on the head.

From Lyndon's head, Simione's lips travelled down his ears.

"It's good brother that you are sleeping these days," She whispered. "Or the news will give you more heartbreak than I had,