Life as a Rich Girl

Chapter One

I'm Isabella King but everyone calls me Bella, heiress to King Empire. My Daddy owns half of Manhattan, from hotels to shops to online technology.

I'm sixteen, live in a penthouse apartment with my four siblings, three maids, one butler, and two cooks. We aren't meant to live here alone, but we do considering our fathers busy schedule and our mothers taste for travelling and the high life, I don't mind it on our own here because it means we have much more freedom than many other teenagers in New York City. First there is Chase he's eighteen, next there is Max and he's seventeen, then there is me and lastly there is our baby sister Veronica - but unless you are our parents, she will slap you senseless if you ever call her by her full name, so everyone calls her Ronnie. Ronnie is twelve but she doesn't act it, if anything, she is the most mature out of our whole family and most defiantly the wisest.

My families a little fucked up, I mean we used to be normal until Daddy started King Empire, we used to spend all our time together we had family night every Wednesday and we went bowling at least once a month. However, now Daddy spends more time at his office than at home and even when he does come home, it's never long before he is jetting off somewhere new. Chase hates our father because of this - he used to be a real Daddy's Boy and they did everything together, but when King Empire first took off they began spending less time together and Daddy never had the time to take Chase out again and now.

Chase despises our father for ruining our family and the closeness we used to share. Now Max is pretty much the same as Chase but where Chase is cool and popular and known as the bad-boy-player, Max is known for his brain. He is by far the smartest kid I have ever met and I love the fact that he doesn't care about this 'rich-life', he couldn't care less about his reputation, he doesn't care about what clothes he wears or what restaurant he is eating in. The money has never bothered him, it didn't change him from the sweet boy he was before. Now me, well I suppose the money has changed me slightly, I had to adapt to survive. When I first went to Hawthorne Hayes (considered to be the most prestige school in all of the Upper East Side) I was met with mean girls and bitchy girls and for my first year I was bullied and teased until I finally cracked and told Chase - I took a week off and went to Paris to try and sort myself out and when I came back, no one bothered me like they had before in fact people started to look up to me. Whatever Chase did or said must have worked and I'm thankful for him because without him, I don't think I would have survived in this school. Ronnie is slightly more complex than the rest of us - she is dyslexic and unlike her older siblings, she does not attend Hawthorne Hayes. Ronnie is kind and considerate and I'm thankful that she doesn't go to our school because I think it would change her. Ronnie gets home schooled by a private tutor but she also spends half the year with us and half the year with our mother.

We also have another sibling, Nathanial or Nate as he used to like to be called. Nate is Max's twin and the complete opposite of him. Nate is a little different from the rest of us, he loves the rich life and couldn't care less if he has had to sacrifice our family for it. He relishes that he can have whatever and whoever he wants at the snap of his fingers. Nate no longer lives with us because he thought his time and presence would be much more valued and appreciated in California so he somehow managed to convince our mother and father that sending him over there to live with our Aunt Lou was the best thing for him.

So that there is my family in a nut shell. Chase, Max and I stick together through everything. Although we are all different we still have family as something in common and I know that if something were ever to happen, both my big brothers would drop everything to come and help.