Royal 4 (Book four in my Selection series)

Chapter 1

I stare at my empty blue eyes in the mirror. They were a deep sort of blue that sometimes even looked a bit violet. My hair fell in loose curls down my shoulders and to my hips in a bleached blonde color. It used to be brown until my mother told me I'd look better with blonde hair. I had sharper features than a lot of people with high cheekbones and a sharp jawline, but the magazines loved it.

I was a pretty girl, and the media agreed to it. I wasn't much more to them though, and that was fine with my mother. It was never about who liked me, but instead how many people did.

You might consider me famous, but I didn't like that term. It made me feel confined, but I guess in a way I was. I was only the characters I would play or the type of girl the magazines turned me into.

"Darling, your application came in this morning. I've filled everything out perfectly all you need to do is sign the papers and go to the pictures tomorrow." My mother bursts through the doors of my bedroom.

"Mother, I'm still deciding whether or not I'm going to submit my application." I tell her and roll my eyes.

"Violet, don't throw away your privileges. You know for people like us, the Selection is not a random drawing. Your father and I have worked very hard for this opportunity." She scolds patronizingly.

"I don't want to get this kind of opportunity just because you and father cheated your way to the top since I was born the same year as the prince." I scoff and walk around her and out the door.

"This isn't about Dylan is it?" My mother says close to a whisper. My heart nearly stops and I hesitate for too long.

"Of course not." I manage to say softly, without looking her in the eye. I stand still at the top of the staircase as I think back onto the times I'd shared with Dylan.

"How could I be so blind? You actually fell for him! And you haven't even gotten over it yet, dear, how could you be so shallow?" She begins to shout and follows me through the hallway. "You really thought he loved you?"

I stay silent and turn to look at her. Her eyes were cold as of she wasn't pulling apart my broken heart. I knew that she had seen through my facade and there was no point in lying anymore.

"Mother, don't make me go to the Selection. I can't do that to him." I whisper quietly.

"Dylan is over you, darling. He's the one who broke up with you in the first place." She tells me mercilessly.

"I will be going to stay with Charlotte tonight." I decide. "I refuse to go to the Selection and I won't be going to the pictures tomorrow either."

I turn and walk into the lounge and away from her. On my way down I see my father in his office, sitting there as if he hadn't heard everything that had just happened. By that evening I was sitting comfortably in my older sister's living room. She didn't have as big a house as we grew up in, but she was well off.

Our parents had both grew up in the spotlight, leading to both of us knowing more about what to say on camera than off camera.

Charlotte could sing just like my mother and she loved her for it. From the time mother learned she could sing, she was her pride and joy. When Charlotte turned eighteen, she ran off with some boy and never spoke to our mother again. Now, she lived a quiet life outside the city where she could finally live the life she wanted.

"Would you like some tea or coffee?" She asks me patiently. We were fairly close for only seeing each other every few months.

"I'm alright, but thank you." I sigh. Charlotte sits across from me on the couch and just watches me closely. She had two kids, but they were both asleep by the time I'd gotten there and her husband was at work still.

"Have you talked to Dylan?" She asks me.

"Not after he broke up with me." I say bitterly. "I just don't know why he thought I'd cheat on him. There's always rumors about that kind of thing, I just didn't think he would believe it."

"I might be able to give you an idea." Charlotte says softly. I sit up at this, curious.

"What do you mean, Charlotte?" I ask her.

"Dylan called me after he broke up with you." She says. "He said mother called him and told him the rumors were true. He called me to see if I knew."

"Why would she do that?" I ask, my voice becoming quieter. "Why would he even listen to her? What did you say?"

"I said I knew you would never do that." Charlotte shrugs.

"Then why didn't he tell me that? Why didn't he tell me he was mistaken?"  I ask, confused.

"He also told me something else." She begins to become more stressed and worried. "Do you remember Alissa Johnson's party that he went to and he said nothing happened, the news articles was all just a publicity stunt."

I look at her and I knew what she was going to say next.

"It wasn't all a publicity stunt was it?" I ask her quietly. "He shouted at me as I cried because he thought I cheated when all along it was him?"

I turn away from Charlotte and sit back down on the couch.

"How am I supposed to go to my awards ceremony next week knowing he will be there?" I ask her. "I can't go, I just can't. He made me look like a fool when all along everything was his fault."

"Just think about it." Charlotte tells me with a sigh and stands there for another moment. "I know you like to be alone when you're upset so I will leave you be. Goodnight, Violet."

She leaves me alone and I sit there with my head in my hands and tears falling down my cheeks. I pick up a magazine off the coffee table in front of me and there I was, on the front cover with Dylan. The headline read,

World famous model and actress accused of cheating by her boyfriend of two years.