A GOLDEN EMPIRE

CHAPTER THIRTY

TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT. Tonight is one of the most anticipated social events of the year: Diamond Weekend. The Hollingsworth Foundation will be donating all the proceeds from the auction to cancer research. It will be held at the estate, as always. Before any of that can commence, the elites have to go to school. They just hope they can get through the day drama-free. As Aurora sits in AP English, her mind drifts back to last night- the Hollingsworth family portrait photoshoot. She made the brilliant suggestion of wearing white and gold- you know, sophisticated and elegant.

They wore all white with gold accessories and shoes. Victoria, the family photographer, had them pose in the garden amongst the poinsettias, roses, daisies, sunflowers, etc. You get the point. It looked incredible and she cannot wait to see the final photo. Charles and Juliette are having the portrait framed and hung over the fireplace.

"Miss Hollingsworth, there's a gentleman by the name of Carter asking for you. Do you know him?"

Aurora stands up from her seat, pulling her skirt down. "I do." She offers no further explanation and saunters out of the door. When she gets into the hallway, the whole security team is standing there. Behind them are Charles and Juliette both clad in GUCCI. She raises a questioning brow. "What's going on? Did somebody snitch on me and try to get me in trouble?"

Earlier this morning, Charles received a call from the Headmaster. Apparently, Aurora has been antagonizing some of the students, which is a goddamn lie because Aurora doesn't bother anybody. It's the other way around. The patriarch had inquired more information about it, but that bastard Fontaine refused to give him any. It was an 'anonymous' tip.

Anonymous, my ass.

"Honeybear. The headmaster called. Some bullshit accusation that you've been bullying some of the seniors. I know that's a fucking lie."

Aurora crosses her arms, a deep scowl on her face.  Spoke entirely too soon. Today was supposed to be a good day, damn it. Now, this fuckery is happening. It's obvious who's responsible. Alyssa Sinclair. The damn public declaration of war plus being a stank bitch every five seconds, being cocky like she's completely untouchable (pun most definitely intended), and shit.

"Alyssa Sinclair is the one behind this shit. It has to be. I say that because this crazy ass bitch, excuse my language, has been coming for us for a few weeks now. She's still mad we skipped attending her trashy party. It was on the same night we went to the Intercontinental Hotel." She's trying to keep her anger at bay but she just wants to deck Alyssa right in the eye. "Dad, she's trying to ruin our reputations. I'm sick of it."

Juliette pulls her into a hug. She and Charles make wary eye contact with each other. They don't like this shit either. They're in silent agreement that this situation needs to be handled.

"Carter, go get the headmaster. Drag the son of a bitch out of his office if you have to. I need to make some calls." He pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Aurora, honey, tell your friends that they need to call their parents."

Aurora pops her head back into the room. "Apologies for interrupting the lesson, Mr. Carson." She switches her focus to her friends. "Empire, we have a situation. Call your parents. Get them down here. Now." Her tone makes it super clear that there's no room for any questioning.

Kingsley pulls out his MacBook and a flash drive. He has a feeling what this is about. Furthermore, he's been doing quite a bit of hacking lately. Turns out that the Untouchables (Alyssa at the forefront of it all) has been coming up with ways to get the Empire suspended. Did we forget about Alyssa paying a freshman to ask Aurora if she was broken up with due to having a damn sex disease? Not to mention yesterday- Alyssa started a fight in the girls' locker room and tried to blame it all on Adrianna. Moreover, James Sinclair paid Fountaine one hundred thousand dollars to make sure his daughter doesn't get in any trouble.