Chapter 380: Mija’s husband.
All Sienna wanted the Mercers to do was sign the divorce papers and leave her office. Instead, they were determined to hurl insults and claws at each other. Even the relatives outside thought it was a good idea to join in! When she could not take it anymore, Sienna left the office with Mija. She instructed her aunt and the guards to watch the couple strictly. When they were ready to sign, she would return.
So, she slipped away, her long, thick, purple fur cloak trailing behind her, and made for the cafeteria. It was already lunch time. The cafeteria always had a meal for her on stand by, and it was provided within five minutes.
Sienna settled at a table with Mija and they savored their meals quietly. With all the noise waiting for them, they didn’t feel the need to talk and drag out their lunch. For a while, the world seemed calm.
But then, Mija rose to fetch a drink. As she turned, she collided with a man. He was tall, with short, slightly curly white hair, pierced ears that glinted under the cafeteria lights, and a smile so charming it seemed to bend the air around him.
He leaned close, his voice low and teasing:
"Careful, beautiful. If you bump into me two more times, I will consider it destiny and make you my wife."
Mija gasped. Before she could respond, another man waved from across the room. The man in whose arms she was still being held a little too comfortably, set her back on her feet. He hurried off, his laughter trailing behind him.
Mija stood frozen, her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling with something Sienna had not seen since her friend met Wayo. She turned slowly, her voice trembling with excitement. "Sienna...that man...he is my husband."
Sienna raised her brows curiously. "You are married?"
Mija sat down, and leaned in, "No." She whispered, "He is the man I married when I returned to my family, in my dream. He is younger now, with pierced ears and dangerously flirtatious, but it’s him. I am not wrong, that is my husband."
Sienna’s lips curled into a sly smile. She watched her friend’s gaze dart back toward the man, lingering, hungry, as though she could tether him with her eyes alone. What happened to the obsessive love she had for Wayo? Sienna asked herself. Mija was obviously not averse to this man. She was even calling him her husband. Maybe her friend would make a different choice this time around.
Sienna leaned back, amused. "Well then," she murmured, "perhaps fate is trying to tell you something. Wayo is already introducing another woman around as his girlfriend. He lodged a complaint with me about your overly enthusiastic affections and the private eye you hired to follow him. If you were not my friend, he would have reported you to the enforcers already. I promised him that I would make you stop."
Mija’s eyes narrowed.
"It’s time you found yourself a man that loves you." Sienna told her softly. "Trust me, for a woman, life is always easier when your man loves you more than you love him. I told you to let love come to you. Look, the universe has delivered."
Mija sighed. She glanced back at "her husband" as she called him, in her mind. Coincidentally, he was also looking her way. He winked, and she blushed. Then she rose and escaped from the cafeteria. Sienna slipped Mija’s card with her personal phone number to a guard and sent it to the man she hoped would save Mija from going to prison.
By the time Sienna made it to her office, the situation had worsened. More Mercer couples had arrived, their faces twisted with fury. The hallway was packed to the maximum, bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder, voices rising in a storm of grievances. Outside in the hover car parking areas, dozens more waited, restless and angry.
"Make way." A guard barked.
Six guards created a path for Sienna to reach her door. When she did, she found a man, bound by cords, beaten and bloodied. He was a young man, with bright green eyes that were filled with fright now. His thick locks of red hair had been pulled in different directions and cut in some places. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he was the male stripper that had led to the downfall of the Mercer family.
His presence was like a spark in a dry bush. If not for the guards and enforcers standing around, he would probably be in worse condition.
"Lady Sienna," the captain of the enforcers exhaled in relief. "I have never been so glad to see you. They won’t hand him over, and all we want to do is protect him." He gestured to the male stripper. "Mr. Simon Soliz is a victim right now---"
Before he could finish, a woman lunged at Simon, the stripper, igniting another loud war.
Sienna raised her voice, commanding order. "Enough! All of you, to the meeting hall. If you want to scream, scream there. If you want a divorce, sign that damn papers. If you want justice, we will have to negotiate on what you want justice for."
Aunt Linera pressed a toy attached to her phone, that was shaped like a cow. It bellowed loudly, almost ruining everyone’s eardrums. "This way, follow me."
The crowd surged toward the grand meeting hall, a place that was usually reserved for public addresses, press conferences, and large scale meetings. Today, it would serve as a battlefield.
The Mercer family was big, and almost all of them had turned up for the confrontation. The chaos was deafening as they hurled accusations, one by one.
As Sienna, her aides, the guard, court clerk, Mija, and the lawyers settled down, they couldn’t help wondering if this was the kind of case that would drag into the holiday. They did not have enough time to deal with all these people.
"He ruined us!" someone shouted. "The matriarch gave him power he never deserved."
"He slept with my wife and also my daughter, on the night before her wedding! Now, her husband wants a divorce." A man’s voice cracked.
"Me too! He promised that he loved me." A woman screamed. "But he slept with my twin sister, my aunt, and my uncle!"
"I was supposed to be CFO!" A hawk beast relative shouted, his wings trembling with rage. "I am educated. I have fifty five years of experience. I gave my life to the company and the family. He couldn’t even balance a ledger!"
"If I had known he was kissing Davis and Angela, the piss drinkers, I surely wouldn’t have let his lips near me."
Simon stood silent at the front, near Sienna’s table, his lip split, his eyes darting nervously.
Sienna’s gaze was cold, cutting through the noise. She slammed a gavel into the table while Linera pressed the toy cow and the hall fell into silence.
"You blame him," Sienna said, her voice sharp. "But who gave him the power? Who let him into your homes, your beds, your vaults? It was not just him alone, that led to your ruin. It was all of you. It was your matriarch."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Heads turned towards the matriarch, seated in the front row, her face pale but defiant.
Sienna pressed on. "None of you was blind when an unqualified individual was made CFO and given authority. This bankruptcy did not come suddenly like a bolt of lightning on a sunny day. I am sure some of you were aware that something was wrong. And yet, you looked the other way. You remained silent as the door to your ruin was opened. Honestly, I am disappointed in you all. How could a noble family fall to such ruin? Was sex with Simon so good that it scrambled all of your minds?"
The hall erupted again, voices clashing like swords. Some shouted for the matriarch’s exile, others demanded Simon’s execution. A few screamed for the tribe to bail their family out by granting them loans. A few wept openly, mourning he ruin of their once proud clan.
Sienna tried to settled disputes, calling couples forward to state what they expected from her office. Be it divorce, or simply a listening ear for their grievances. She reminded them of their children, their futures, their responsibilities. Even if they were given loans, with all the in-fighting and scheming, the money would be lost in the end and they would be right back to this moment.
But the anger was too deep, the wounds too raw. No matter what she said, they just wanted to find someone to blame for every bad thing that was happening in their lives.
Simon was suddenly labeled a seductive vixen. Those who shared his generous affections refused to admit that they willingly embraced him, knowing all the while that he was the matriarch’s pet lover.
Then, in the midst of the storm, the matriarch rose. Her eyes blaze, her hands trembling. From her bag, she pulled a small gun.
The hall froze.
Sienna’s heart lurched. "No---!"