The Luna

“Just get on with whatever you have in that ‘reports’ of yours.” She exasperatedly demanded from her assistant.

Venus Mabel Gracia. The Spaniard beauty was a Maleficent you couldn’t make an invitation list without. Trendy, glamorous, and proficient, she was an enigma. At the age of 25, she was an idealist feminist fantasy.

She was what every FL would be envied of, booty with brains. Her head adorned with natural caramel blonde gorgeous tresses and her skin was marred with a perfect tan. With two sets of jade green orbs, rosy cheeks, and cherry lips, she was splendor and magnificence on long legs.

Born with a silver spoon and all the lavishness of the world shoved down her throat, she was anything but modest or meek. Unlike other melodramatic white lotus, pretentious princesses, she was a prideful Queen.

From her sapphire stud earrings to her delicate feet embedded in Jimmy Choo, there was nothing about her that didn’t scream filthy money and she was in no way cautious to flaunt it. According to her, she deserved every penny of what she was granted.

“… Mrs. Smith allegedly paid 1.5 Million Dollars to settle a drug-rape lawsuit of a male worker.” Jane who was seated beside her in gold-rimmed glasses read through her tablet in a platonic tone as if it was mundane news she was narrating.

As the car ran at an untamed speed on the road scaling the city, the occupant of the vehicle remained unbothered by the furious rain in the middle of the day. The day was cold yet it had nothing on the people inside.

The gorgeous beauty sitting by her on the leather polish seats smirked in utter ridicule, and waved her hand dismissively, “Typical horny socialites going through midlife crises, though it’s too high an amount for it to be just a date-rape drug. Who knew what horrifying things that poor guy saw underneath that expensive fabric? Yuck!” She shuddered to emphasize her point.

Her Personal Assistant Jane gave a single nod and continued her mechanized dialogue reading of the social circle, “…Senator McDermott jammed in money laundering scenic interrogation.”

She snorted at the mention of the infamous perv, and lazily drawled “A blind dope could see he was up to something… Give a shout out to the Feds for finally catching up!”

Lazily she took a sip of her margarita, amused at the almost expired ass of that politician. His daughter was one of her peers and a thorn on her side and it looked like her Achilles’ heel had finally emerged.

On her daily agenda, she liked being ‘updated’ on her peer’s scandal as a gossipmonger. She was on the top of the world with everything thrown on the red carpet she paraded on, it wasn’t the wealth or jewels that she aimed for, she wanted power: The power that her father had wielded for decades now. Power this chauvinist society only granted to a male…

Knowledge or awareness of your surrounding was a lethal form of power. The gossips or rumors were no basis to judge a person but truth was never too diverse from hearsay, twisted but not diverse.

Her father that she had mixed feelings about, a man she looked up to and the man she envied, she wanted to hold reins of his Billion Dollars Company he prized so much.

The woman went on reading the shenanigans on the elite society leeches, “Mr. Bill Lewinsky was photographed with a model of the Fashion vogue he sponsored on a resort in The Bahamas. His wife had filed for divorce yesterday evening.”

She simply rolled her eyes; it was no wonder of the world as much as picturesquely-sparkling the wealthy families were just as much they were spoiled-rotten behind the camera.

Take for instance her own family: her mother had been MIA since her eleventh birthday before which her father and mother had a marathon of diligence. Not to mention her free-spirited hooligan brother who was somewhere in the world flushing money down the drains on booty and booze.

Don’t get her wrong! She was more than content for those nut jobs to be away from her affinity and there was nothing that she wasn’t pleased with. As was the course of her life: straightforward, because she knew where she was heading. Power, that power that men thought they had a claim over. No man was more entitled than a worthy woman. So she will show them…

“So typical for a photogenic family!” She took another sip and leaned back in her seat as laughter bloomed out of her silky petals.

Her driver cum bodyguard cum chauffer, James and secretary, Helen that were on the front seat stared at her gleefulness at other dismay in disapproval but averted their eyes at once to not be caught by their short-tempered Boss.

But as the lady luck wasn’t on their side she did catch them glaring at her. She snorted and stipulated in exasperation, “What?”

As the middle-aged woman opened her mouth to say something empathic, she waved her dainty wrist adorning jewels and exclaimed obnoxiously, “You don’t think that’s funny? This world is anything but black and white but these scums are the corrupt shades of greys. No place better for them than six-feet underground.”

She clicked her index and forefinger with her thumb in front of her assistant to continue as she leaned back in her seat lazily.

This was her moral compass. When such people did rackets, corruptions and frauds legally it was the laymen that paid. Not that she gave a damn but she regarded every employee under her with reverence and self-esteem. Spine-less and uncharacterized employees will just be puppets with their strings pulled by hesitation and restrictions.

Such an environment deployed the smartness and intelligence of individuals making them utterly useless. Therefore any bastard that treated workers poorly irked her. Orders were important and so were ethical boundaries.

Today, she was back in New York after a month from Chicago where she had been making negotiations with the Airlines her father was interested in. After seven outrageous conferences, she had finally accomplished the task and had returned back to retrieve her reward.

All these years, from her babe-crib to her business suits, she had excelled in every test her father brought upon her, she had shown it new heights. From her elementary school to her college graduation, she was an A+ student, proved herself on certain platforms in extra-curriculum activities. When she was in her sophomore year in college she first invested money in stocks and today her net worth exceeded billions.

But this wasn’t enough. She aspired a position, a position of power.

She had been the CMO for Gracia Corporation for six months now for which she had fought tooth and nail. Before that, she started out as a common employee as her father wanted her to be a spoilt b*tch at home with a price tag for the highest bidder so she rebelled and submitted her CV. Getting hired wasn’t a miracle as she graduated from Ivy Leagues at the top of her class with astonishing credits. From there she worked like a donkey and craved her path to the top which wasn’t enough ‘in-your-face’ to her father to retire and hand the CEO position to her unless now…

A smirk emerged on her face. Her father had called her today for a surprise and she couldn’t wait to hear the words of his retirement speech.

The Assistant sighed tiredly as the exhaustion hit her instantly after reading the last news. She contemplated for a second before shrugging and letting her employer deal with it, “Your Dad’s got a new girlfriend, Ms. Serena Lockhart.”

Her hand froze before a smirk on her face turned to a bubble of laughter of ridicule, “Already?” She tilted her head in thought before rolling her eyes at the news, “He sure is fast at moving on. The last one was like a week before or was it two?” Her tone held no mockery, she was genuinely curious.

Her father was what you called a senior-playboy in action. He had no qualms taking up any vagina-offering present to him. You had to go look with a lamp to find a woman with boobs who didn’t know his d*ck size. She would be worried if her father swore off pussies.

Her Assistant and Secretary shared a look before sharing a nod.

Decisively, Helen, her secretary turned to her and accounted vigilantly, “Ms. Gracia, you should be wary of this one. She is a 27-year-old Latina, the Head of the Planning Department. She was promoted a week before and had passed three pending tenders since. ”

Her amused expression froze and she turned to her with a frown, the only evidence of the nirvana raging in her. “Why am I only hearing it now?” Her calm tone was the initial sign of her erupting temper.

So he wasn’t getting retired but was restarting! Here goes her promotion!

Her father has had many flings, some even pompous enough to reach their Manor’s door but never have had any won credits in the confines of that company. They were right, she should be wary of this one…

The Gold-digger b*tch could very well be a threat to her position as the next CEO of The Gracia Enterprise. All scenarios ran through her head. You can never underestimate an ambitious woman; she can make a man do many lunacies past his own comprehensions just as Anne Boleyn made King Henry alter his whole ruling system but she refused to be another abandoned Mary!

The car came to a stop in front of their destination. Helen cleared her throat and continued meekly, “Mr. Gracia had been discrete until recently…”

She scoffed, turning her face away and threw her Martini glass against the car’s door, and took a calming breath to stay peaceful. Her subordinates scrunched their eyes, slightly moving away from her.

She groaned in rage when the tactic didn’t work, “You are all useless maggots from swamps! I want everything, from her social security number to her dildo brand, everything! Else you are all fired!” She shouted and stormed out of the car, banging the door on her way out.

Her rage though genuine, her threat was plastic. She was never firing them and they knew it. Underneath their hard-core exterior, they were dear to her as the spoilt beauty was. Jane was her classmate in college, James and Helen were her old acquaintances too. And she verbally fired them every week and hired them back before the sunset.

She walked to the high-end private restaurant’s upper floor with a killer view that her father had taken the liberty to book for some bizarre reason as her Welcome Wagon back into the state.

The attendant was about to knock when she swatted his hand away and opened the door with a thud.

The attendant gasped at the scene before them. That man she called her father was all but sucking the life out of a bust while the oh-so-elegant lady was dry humping on him with her head thrown back in ′bliss’.

Venus snorted disgustedly then rolled her eyes as they sprang apart flustered, apologizing. Her father did this in front of his children as often as one teenager would smoke weed. Growing up they just got used to their father’s public frottage no matter how repulsive it still was.

No one’s surprised her brother ended up a mentally challenged hobo.

She sat crossed leg on the opposite sofa with a sickly sweet smile, “Oh, please don’t stop on my account, I feel like I really need to gag the food I ate for Breakfast and this would surely help.”

Her father glared at her but the young woman who was almost of her own age bashfully tittered in embarrassment, placing a hand on her father’s chest she gave a shy smile, “That’s not the first impression what we wanted to give, dear. We got carried away. I am Serena, by the way.”

Venus poured herself wine. Her eyes passed over Serena and she dismissed her as insignificant in seconds and turned to her father, “Awww…” placing a hand on her heart she gushed mockingly, “I have never seen you so happy before, Dad. It’s sickening!”

The smile on the young woman froze and her father gave her his infamous cold glare, which she held head-on.

“Venus Mabel Gracia!” Like if she didn’t know her own name, he liked doing that a lot which was totally out of her understanding. Was that supposed to make her compliant?! Her name? Weird!

In his stern the unwavering tone he avowed, “You will behave. This is Ms. Lockhart and you will call her Ms. Serena Lockhart unless you deserve to say otherwise.”

Venus shrugged nonchalantly, getting acquainted with the woman wasn’t where her interest laid anyway. Taking a swig of her wine, she set her eyes on the woman, “So… how long have you been shagging my Daddy?”

The woman eyes looked about ready to pop out of their sockets but her father who was used to her strong opinions bellowed, “Venus,” She turned her head to him with a pretentious smirk as an obedient daughter, “We have been ‘dating’ for a month now.” He emphasized every word as a warning for her to pull her act together.

But she wouldn’t be Venus if this was enough to negotiate anything with her.

She turned to the woman with an amazed expression and exclaimed, “Geez… a month! You are awfully talented! Do you maybe consider bi's, I would like to see for myself?”

She didn’t contain a second to call her a wh*re as this is what she was for her. A retard could tell what this relationship was when a woman like her ‘fall’ for a man like her darling father. The woman was of her age, cunning, enthralling, and wanting to climb the corporate ladder. What was easier than giving it to the Boss?

Serena, who had composed herself back gave her a tight smile and retorted in her honey sick tone, “Well…I would condemn your lack of leash on words. But isn’t that expected when one doesn’t have a fitting mother figure but all is sorted now that you have someone to confined in, Venus dear.”

Venus’s act was stripped in that instant and her face darkened without taking her eyes off the woman, she declared, “Daddy…I would like to have a word, in private.” And without waiting for his another word she walked out to the balcony where the rain was finally over.

Her father’s footsteps alerted her of his presence and she turned to him with a scowl, “What is the deal with her, Daddy?”

Her father frowned in disapproval then shook his head, “There is no deal here, Venus.” He paused before announcing, “I am marrying her in a month or so.”

She burst out chortling at once but when she realized she was the only one laughing, her breath hitched.

“What? Is this some parallel world?! This is crazy, Daddy! She is as old as I am! Anyone can tell she is just using you. There can’t even be love. She would cheat on you and try to loot you, Daddy! I am concerned about you.” She hollered in astonishment and disbelief.

Mr. Gracia’s eyes softened. He tried to reach her face when she pulled away from him and glared at him instead.

“Don’t do this. What will Mom think? What about Ian? She looks younger than him, Daddy!” She huffed in indignation. She wasn’t lying, Ian was 29. The girl was young enough to be his daughter-in-law.

Her father stared at her disappointedly and whispered heatedly, “Even this doesn’t justify your lack of respect and attitude. What your mother thinks I could care less about and Ian hardly has a right to an opinion when he hasn’t looked backs since he took off four years ago traveling the world on my money.”

She glared at the floor running out of reasoning of excuses, she retorted sardonically, “What about me, Daddy! How will I adjust to all this? Have you thought about how this will impact my life? And the paparazzi and our social circle? We will be a joke of the century!” The fact was she couldn’t give a rat-ass but the woman was trouble, a snake hissing toward the fortune which was rightfully hers.

Her father smiled as if he finally had her where he wanted her. He took hold of her shoulders and stared in her eyes, “Serena is very great at heart. You never had friends growing up. She can be the friend you never knew you needed. And I am not the first man remarrying, it will all be smoke and settle in a while.”

For GOD sake! He was entangled with another woman in sheets two weeks ago. What did he know about the woman’s heart, liver or kidney?!

“Daddy, but…”

He sighed then shook his head and cut her off, irritated, “Venus, you are not a child nor will I bear a bratty attitude. I love her and we are going to get married. This discussion is off the table!”

She took steps backward in suppressed rage and gritted out, “Well then expect a wedding gift from me for your child-bride!” With her last statement, she stormed out, not knowing how this ride back would change the course of her life altogether.