Prologue
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'Is being ordinary a crime?'
No. Being ordinary would only mean that one was disposable, a pawn of someone higher in status, a background character whose life or death mattered little. In her world at least, you could still survive if you're ordinary, especially if you are the invisible kind of ordinary.
But it was an absolute crime to be weak.
'If you are weak, you will be swallowed whole, and not even your bones will be spared.'
Just like her naive mother, just like her maternal grandparents, her childhood friends and everyone else discovered by the Sta. Marias to be somewhat useful in manipulating her.
Everyone was used, and after the desired outcome, they were all mercilessly thrown away.
And now, it was her turn to be sacrificed.
Bekka wasn't particularly beautiful. She could be considered pretty if seen from certain angles, and when she walked into a room filled with people, she would certainly make a few male heads turn to appreciate her face—but then, that's all there was to it. Just a glance, a passing curiosity, and then the people would go about their own businesses again. She wasn't much to look at, considering that in a party filled with models, actresses and other country-toppling beauties, why would anyone bother to stare at her?
She wasn't particularly clever either, and she had no achievements to be boasted about. She had no authority, no money, and no useful connections.
If one were to consider her generously, she was a very ordinary woman.
If one were to be a little more strict, she was a good-for-nothing.
However, to those who knew her identity, Bekka was a spectacle to behold. After all, the party was held for her. Her birthday party, at least on the surface.
Rebekka Sta. Maria, the youngest daughter of the highest military officer of the country.
Murmurs could be heard as several women secretly gathered together near the liquor tables, not realizing that their actions were too obvious for the people around them to pretend otherwise.
"She's the General's youngest daughter?"
"Oh, yes. The illegitimate child."
"Ah, today's auction item."
"Poor girl. From what I heard, the bid was only half a million dollars? Is that all she's worth?"
"I know, right? Half a million, that's like my pocket money if we go to Fashion Week."
"Girl, are you kidding? That's just the cost of the food expense me and the Princess of Monaco had when we ordered a jet to fetch us some afternoon snacks for the boys that time we went island hopping in the Pacific."
"If I were her, I would have run away from shame—"
"You are being funny, Madame Wu. Even if she runs away, where would she go? The only good thing about her is that she's lucky enough to have half of the General's blood. Without that, no one would even spend a penny on her. Find a random woman on the street, and they would all be as average as her."
"If she's a bit more talented, Lady Sta. Maria would have opted to officially adopt her and raise her as a true Sta. Maria, then she wouldn't be sold, but rather, the General and his wife would have searched for a good son-in-law and married her off—"
'I will remember all your faces and names, you fcking pieces of sht!'
Bekka pretended nonchalance, keeping her face expressionless although her dark eyes were filled with rage, as she walked towards a certain corner at the head of the room.
The birthday party was held inside a room large enough to be considered a grand hall, and there was even a decorated stage and a live orchestra playing Baroque musical pieces in the background. There were about two or three hundred people in attendance, all of them acquaintances of the lord and the lady of the Sta. Maria household, and none of them a friend of the birthday celebrator herself.
However, Bekka recognized a great majority of them as people who she had seen on the TV, in magazines and of course, social media. These public figures ranged from entrepreneurs to global conglomerates, from local politicians to high-ranking officers of the army, the navy and the air forces. There were also giants of the showbiz industry, and even representatives from the prominent families with world-shaking names not only from the country but also abroad.
"Mister Wu? Can I have a bit of your time?" she called out to a young man in a black suit drinking champagne along with a group of men his age. Appearance-wise, they looked to be around mid-twenties, the oldest only in his early thirties.
Self-made millionaires, heirs of wealthy families, and younger generations of what could be considered the modern world nobility.
These men could be considered the future rulers of their industries and nations, the peak masters of the world, ten, no, maybe five years from now, after their fathers and the older generation stepped down from their thrones. Some of them already did, and were ahead of their peers in terms of power and authority.
All of them eyed Bekka with distaste and sarcasm, except for one, Wu Jian.
The heir of the Wu Group of Companies, her older half-sister's fiance and her father, General Sta. Maria's right hand man.
"Seems like my sister-in-law needs me for something. I'll excuse myself, gentlemen," Wu Jian said blandly, as if he didn't really care if he were talking with anyone from the group or the white-washed wall behind him. As soon as they left the main hall, he could not help but frown. "This is why there are rumors that I'm cheating on my fiancee with you."
Bekka laughed, her expression more at ease now that they were alone. "Are you bothered?"
"Hell, no. Nessa could throw all the fcking vases in the room for all I care as long as she makes sure none of the shards will be left behind after she cleans them up."
"After the maids clean them up," Bekka corrected.
"Same difference," he muttered with boredom.
"Where is the General and his wife?"
"They will reach here in half an hour."
"Only half an hour before the true party starts, then."
After Bekka brought Wu Jian to a hallway that was a blindspot to the CCTV, she then raised her hand to touch his chin and tenderly lifted the young man's head.
"So, is he coming to buy me?"
Her dark eyes glittered meaningfully.
"How easy is it to manipulate a story?" Wu Jian said as he lightly touched the back of her hand with rough fingers. "I had to be careful and make sure he won't notice we are baiting the General to make him come."
Her hand that was stroking the strong line of his jaws went down towards his neck, slowly tightening her grip. It was as if the two of them switched roles with someone else.
Bekka held an expression of a beautiful venomous flower who would ruin anyone who dared touch her, while Wu Jian had lost all the cold arrogance he had in his body.
"You didn't answer my question, my pet."
Wu Jian's breathing suddenly became rugged, his smile deranged.
"The General personally invited the Patriarch of Romualdez Family, milady. But I am not sure—"
"Oh? Not sure? Darling, I didn't know you are this incompetent."
"Please punish me!"
"Are you begging me, my pet?"
"Yes, please punish me!"
There was a crazy obsession in Wu Jian's eyes as he continued to beg and his smile only widened as the grip on his throat tightened, her fingernails even drawing blood, but Bekka had no more time to bother with him. He was a ruined piece she had to throw away soon.
She ordered him to head back towards the party, while she headed off towards the female restroom. She needed to calm herself, as the crucial part of the plan she had carefully nurtured for the past several years was finally bearing fruit.
If this was an ideal world, she would, with her own hands, avenge her loved ones. She would have no happily-ever-after, but the debt of blood would have been repaid. However, this was no movie where a badass girl could steamroll her enemies on her own, nor was this a fairytale where some knight in a white horse would save her.
In the first place, Bekka wasn't some kind of heroine who would passively wait for karma to strike her enemies.
'The only survivor of the Romualdez Family, the madman who massacres in cold blood, the true master of this country's underworld.
'If I make him my pet, he will destroy the Sta. Marias for me, right?'