Spoiled By A Zillionaire

Madame’s gift

“Tell me that is not the same Lola Brown you dumped and you and Samantha tried to sentence to life in prison?” Sir Mike asked his son, who casted his eyes down.

“Damn it, Mike!” Sir Mike cursed out loud. “What have I thought you about stabbing people at the back?”

“Make sure that they have no power to come back for you,” Mike recited his father’s famous advice.

“That’s right. That is not what you did. She is our damn Matriarch!” Sir Mike yelled while pacing up and down his quoters.

“Calm down, Honey. Mike had no idea that this would happen,” Wendy, his wife, tried to intervene.

“We all agreed for Mike to choose Samantha. She is from a wealthy family and was more suitable,” she added.

“Did we also agree to have her arrested, beaten up and sentenced to life in prison?” Sir Mike hit back, while his son avoided his eyes.

Mike never discussed that part with his family. Samantha wanted Lola punished and he went along with it because he never wanted to see another man with Lola. Samantha was beautiful and he loved her, but Lola was in a league of her own. Men drooled over her wherever she went. That used to drive him crazy. Her being in prison for life would have assured that he never saw her with another man, but that had backfired badly. Seeing Lola and Shane together raised possessive feelings inside him. He wanted to punch something when he saw Shane carry her to his chambers earlier.

“This is bad, very bad. The reason every member of this clan is still alive is because we have managed to stay out of Shane’s radar,” Sir Mike reminded his son.

“I know, Dad.”

“You know nothing! You have just invited his whole attention to us. We all know what he will find, right?”

Mike nodded. He knew all about the ploys they were involved in that have tried to destroy Shane. They were smart enough to always keep their involvement hidden, but Shane had skilled people working for him. They would find something if they looked closely into his family.

“I don’t think I need to remind anyone here how ruthless Shane can be,” Sir Mike continued.

“Why can’t we just kill Shane ourselves?” Wendy asked. “We are smarter than Henry and Jame’s clans combined,” she added.

Sir Mike shook his head. “You clearly don’t know my brothers. Henry will take over and believe me, he will preemptively wipe all of us up to secure his future. That is how cruel he is. We are better off with Shane.”

They all exchanged looks. They all did not doubt Sir Mike’s statement. They knew how Sir Henry dealt with anyone he viewed as his enemy.

“We stay out of Shane’s radar, out of Henry’s cruel grasp and out of James’ conniving circle. We will do everything right in Shane’s eyes. Got it?”

They all nodded.

“We could get rid of Henry and James first,” Silvia, Mike’s younger sister, suggested.

“That would make Shane suspicious,” Sir Mike objected.

“Not if we strategically expose their ploys to kill Shane and let him deal with them,” Wendy suggested in agreement with her daughter’s suggestion.

“We could do that, but no one does anything until I say so.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“We need a gift for the Madame. Mike, you know her. Get something she will like.”

Mike nodded and got on his feet. It was a Foster tradition to shower the Madame with exorbitant gifts.

“Don’t spare any cost. We don’t want to offend the Madame,” Wendy advised his son, who was already at the door.

“I know.”

He was at the corridor when he met Becky and braced himself for her usual gloating. They were cousins but the two of them have never gotten along.

“Hey, Mike. I guess I am getting your job, huh?” she said with a huge grin on her face.

“Who would have thought that the same woman who got you the job would be your downfall!” she exclaimed dramatically.

“I would not be so cocky if I were you. You and I are in the same boat. You were always mean to her and now she is the Madame,” he hit back while she sneered and stormed away from him. She clashed a lot with Lola. Besides Lola helping Mike beat her, she also never sucked up to her like other Foster enterprises employees did.

Mike spent hours trying to find an acceptable gift for the woman he betrayed. Anger and resentment grew in his heart as one million dollars was debited from his account, paying for a diamond bracelet, the most expensive item in that jewellery shop.

It was almost time for his engagement party when he returned to the castle. He was at his bedroom door when he saw a maid, who immediately bowed her head in respect.

“Here, take this to her,” he instructed, passing the exquisite box with the bracelet. He could not even bear to pronounce Lola’s name. Her title placed her above him in the family hierarchy. That was why he settled for a simple pronoun.

The maid bowed again and disappeared with the box. She, unfortunately, misunderstood whom the gift‘s recipient was. She took the gift to Samantha, who was changing in one of the guest bedrooms.

Samantha was thrilled, she immediately had photographers take a multiple photographs of the bracelet. The photographs were immediately the most talked about post on social media. Many could not comprehend how anyone could be gifted with a million dollars worth bracelet on their engagement party.

Mike was flabbergasted when he arrived in Samantha’s guest room and found her wearing the bracelet. He could not stop cursing.

Samantha was in his arms when she looked up and saw his expression.

“What is it?” she asked.

Mike let out a sigh, knowing too well how she was going to respond to what he was about to say.

“The bracelet was meant for Lola.”

Samantha’s expression immediately turned deadly.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s supposed to be a welcome gift from our clan to her. The maid must have misunderstood my instructions and delivered it here instead,” he explained while her whole face turned red with anger. She had just flashed his exorbitant gift to the world only to discover that it was not hers.

“You are welcoming that tramp with a bracelet worth a million. Why are you even marrying me?” Samantha asked with misty eyes while her two friends, who were getting ready in the bathroom, hid out of sight. They knew how crazy their friend could be when things were not going her way.

“Let this be the last time you ever call her that,” Mike warned while Samantha grimaced.

“Listen, Sam. I love you and all, but I am not going to lose my identity and family because of you. I hate this too, but Lola is the Foster Madame and Matriarch. This is the Foster way. You tell me right now if you can’t deal with that and we can call all this off,” he said sternly, meaning every word. Being a Foster meant everything to all of them.

Samantha’s heart sank and shuttered. She could tell that Mike was serious, which meant he valued their stupid Foster Madame more than her and the baby she was carrying. Her hatred for Lola was multiplying every time her name came up.

“I am sorry, Honey. I will never call her that again. It’s just that I get the worst morning sickness. My family is not pleased with me because my brother is in prison and now this. It’s too much for me. I know how much your family and identity means to you. I will never cost you any of it,” she said reassuringly while pulling at his heartstrings.

She would be a laughing stock if Mike ended things.

To prove her point, she quickly took off the bracelet, returned it to the box and gave it to him. Mike let out a sigh of relief before summoning another maid and giving strict and precise instructions on where to deliver the parcel.

“It’s okay, Babe. I will get you something even better,” Mike promised, feeling guilty about the whole situation.

It was five minutes later when he received an angry call from his father.

“What the f**k did you do, Mike?” Sir Mike’s voice boomed over the phone.

“Dad?”

Mike could not think of anything he did to make his father so angry.

“I have just been informed that our clan’s gift was deemed unacceptable. What did you do?”

Mike was shocked. A shiver descended from his spine. His father was clear that they were to remain on Shane’s good side.

“Dad, I don’t understand. I bought the most expensive bracelet in the jewellery store,” he explained.

“Well, you must have done something for it to be rejected,” Sir Mike said before his daughter showed him Samantha’s social media post wearing their so called gift.

Mike knew from his father’s very colourful curses that whatever he was looking at was bad.

“You let your fiancée wear and take photos with bracelet first. Are you fucken’ crazy?” Sir Mike yelled, his voice trembling with anger. It seemed like his son was trying to get their clan destroyed.

“What?”

Mike shot Samantha a disapproving look and embraced himself for the repatriation for his blunder.

“Do you know how insulting this is to the Madame? Are you trying to mess up our relationship with Shane?” Sir Mike fired questions at his son, who tried to explain how the bracelet ended up with Samantha.

“Dad, I had no idea that Sam had already taken photos, I swear,” he added sincerely.

“Listen here, Son. I will not lose my birthright because of you. Get that fiancée of yours in line very fast, because I will not think twice about banishing you out of this clan. Got it?”

“Yes, Dad.”

Being and remaining a Foster was such a big deal that Mike did not doubt his father’s threats.

Samantha could hear everything that was said between Mike and his father. Lola had become her number-one enemy.