A GOLDEN EMPIRE

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

THE DENIM AND DIAMONDS PARTY IS IN one day and Kingsley just secured the final addition to his outfit, a pair of classic straight legged jeans. He will be decked out in DOLCE & GABBANA. He walks into the house hoping not to run into his parents. Sadly that his plan goes to shit. Here comes Scarlett, wearing a grey DIESEL dress and a pair of black GIANVITO ROSSI patent leather boots.

"Kingsley, honey, how was school?" She kisses him on the forehead.

"Mother, you never ask me that." It's true. Scarlett has never cared about anything but whatever she has going on. Kingsley can tell she wants something. "You are up to something and I will find out."

Scarlett mutters 'damn it' under her breath. She was hoping to get some money.

"Have a good evening mother." He walks upstairs with his shopping bags.

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In the middle of a ultra-modern top floor studio loft turned boutique on RODEO DRIVE, OLIVIA WINDSOR stood in the center on a revolving platform in a excessively organza-draped and pearl-detailed STELLA MCCARTNEY ball gown as two seamstresses flittered around her. The three-set mirror and Max Mover lights in front of her bathed her newly tanned skin in a flattering glow, but her mother still continued to glare at her.

Guzzling down a Diet Coke to fight off her jet lag from only just stepping off a plane from NEW YORK, Olivia stared back in resentment at her mother.

"It should be cinched in tighter," Jacklyn critiqued, eyeing the folds in her dress.

The attendants glanced at each other, before unpinning a section and pulling it tighter and pinning it back.

"Jesus, mom," Olivia whined. "I can barely breathe in this as it is."

"Take smaller breathes, then." Her mother raised a brow at her and nodded approvingly at the workers. "This wouldn't be a problem if you'd been watching your weight in New York. You're allowing those C-list celebrities to bring you down with them. You're slacking in everything from your etiquette to your manners to your fashion sense to your figure."

Olivia rolled her eyes. Her figure was perfect. Spending time away from here in New York with those so-called C-listers had given her a boost of confidence that she would never have gained in the world of BEVERLY HILLS.

"What is this? England?" Olivia muttered, tugging at a flap to loosen it only to be slapped away by her mother. "This is like a corset."

"Beauty is pain, Livia," Jacklyn chided. "Perfection is sacrifice. I've told you this time and time again. But you've seem to have forgotten everything I've ever taught you."

Olivia rolled her eyes again. "Don't start, Mom. I knew exactly what I was doing in NEW YORK. I had a series contract to guest star on MTV waiting just for me to sign and Ben was planning on taking me to this island near Terranea this weekend too. Things were going perfectly over there until you forced me to come back here for this stupid wedding. I was looking forward to blowing this off completely."

"Don't get me started on the riot you almost caused over here with your offensive comments in US Weekly about Aurora," Jacklyn hissed in anger. "You had no idea of all the damage control I had to do. You're lucky we're even still invited to the wedding."

Olivia kept her face impassive at the memory of the mini-scandal she almost caused as rumors spiked of a rivalry between her and Aurora, even though she was close to bursting at finally getting one up over on her. 'I don't understand what all the fuss is about over the Hollingsworth wedding,' she had commented on a red carpet premiere for a movie launch confidently. 'I'm far too busy over here to rush back to my hometown for every social climber's wedding.'