Shanghai's Elite

Prologue

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shanghaiselite.com

 2/4/2018: THE BITCH IS BACK

Hello, SE readers! Although I'm sure all of you have heard about a certain strawberry-blonde's disappearance by now, I'm going to catch up the rest of you that are spending your Chinese New Year break island-hopping in the Amalfi coast, skiing at your family's luxury retreat in Switzerland, maxing out your dad's Am-Ex card in Vienna, or doing whatever ridiculous opulent thing out of the country, on all the deets. I wouldn't pause the festivities and interrupt your break if it wouldn't earn you major gossip cred. So stop whatever you are doing, put the magnum bottle of champagne down, curl up under your cashmere blankets, and demand one of the butlers get you a cup of tea, because I'm about to spill. 

After her disastrous sixteenth birthday, socialite Dakota Winslow disappeared. Like poof, 'fell off the face of the earth' disappeared. She was last spotted leaving the Four Seasons in a helicopter the morning after her birthday party, make up smudged, hair dishevelled, and high-heels missing. After that, not an instagram, tweet, or snapchat was posted in ninety eight hours, leaving her millions of loyals followers confused. Several magazines and gossip sites, including SE, reached out to her fellow private school classmates, who said they hadn't seen or heard from Dakota since her party. Which only meant one thing: Dakota Winslow was missing.

Rumours began to swirl in high-society's inner-circle. A source claimed she saw her in a club's VIP section in Ibiza, where she bought 200k worth of champagne, drinking away her problems whilst high off ecstasy. Another had told us they spotted her in the South of France, prepping her family's yacht, and then vanishing into the deep blue all by lonesome. While others had sworn they had seen her back in her hometown of London, where she got emancipated and then fled the country in one of her various private jets. And then, of course, the most morbid rumour we had heard: Dakota Winslow was dead.

All those were proven to be false when a week after her sweet sixteen went wrong, Dakota Winslow stepped out of her grandeur building, impeccably styled in all black, as if she were attending her own funeral. Expressionless, the socialite was accompanied by two staff members as she cut through a sea of papparazi and reporters, that had been camped outside her building for days. 

Cameras flashed as journalists questioned at her, all surprised to see Dakota after her social media/real-life blackout. Strutting her way through the crowd in her Louboutins, she was calm, cool, and collected. As if her party had never happened. It was hard to believe just five days ago she was having a psychotic breakdown, destroying everything in sight after she heard the news that her father, Richard Winslow, CEO of Winslow Finances, was being accused of sexual harassment by illegally-employed underage girls.

Snaps surfaced of the intoxicated socialite on top of a bar, stripping down to her Agent Provocateur lacey bra and thong set, which has seen a 105% rise in sales since the party btw, and then offering her father a lap dance via FaceTime, however that was suppose to work. After smashing liquor bottles with the heel of her pumps, she then proceeded to have a drunken-meltdown. 

Wow, I know right? I'm sure your mouths are agape right about now. Feels like I'm writing about Dakota's party-animal bestie, Lennox Richmond, and not the queen herself! Talk about out of character. I assure you all the prestigious guests who managed to snatch an invite to the exclusive event were all just as terrified. The night didn't end until Dakota's bestfriend-turned-boyfriend, Gabriel Salvatore, dragged her, kicking and screaming, out of the hotel's roof-top party venue and into her suite. 

All this seemed to be a mere dream as the girl flowed down the concrete sidewalk, massive Chanel sunglasses covering her sapphire-blue eyes and copies of event-planning magazines in hand. Unamusement painted on her beautiful features and not a reddish curl out of place as the mundane reporters interrogated her.

"Where were you? With Richard Winslow?"

"What do you have to say for your father being such a filthy animal?"

"How do you feel now that your one and only sweet sixteen has been ruined?"

A glass-shattering chuckle unexpectedly escaped her lips, silencing the journalists. Without warning, she slid her sunnies onto the top of her head and looked straight into the lens of one of the cameras, "All I can say is, seventeen is the new sixteen. I promise you that my next birthday party will be the most lavish, outrageous, exorbitant, party ever thrown. That's it." Then with a flick of her hair, she put the sunglass back on and dove into a black Lincoln as the questions and roars of the paparazzi intensified. 

Where was Dakota Winslow and what was she doing all this time? The world may never know. The one thing we have gotten word of is that there have been no charges pressed or lawsuits filed against Richard Winslow. The ladies that accused him of sexual assault have taken back their claims, admitting that their stories were fabricated. Hm, I smell a bribe...

Any chance this was all just a sick, twisted publicity stunt? Or a move to destroy the Winslow financial empire by one of his business competitors? Either way, dramaa! All I know is that Dakota Winslow has taken back her rightful place in Shanghai's social hierarchy. So move over designer-clad prepsters who had hopes in stealing Dakota's number one spot, THE BITCH IS BACK. "

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Thank you so much for reading the prologue for Shanghai's Elite! I hope I kept you interested enough for you to give the book a try. I assure you that there is soo much more drama in store! 😉