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.
