The Price of Gold | Fortune's Fool #1

25 | good old reconciliation

• [ g o o d o l d r e c o n c i l i a t i o n ] •

♥ louisa ♥

"YOU NEED TO send me your headshots by tomorrow if you want any chance whatsoever at becoming the new face of Moschino's spring edition," Fleur said in a heavy french accent. She was dressed in a sharp, pristine red suit that I recognised at Christopher Kane and had managed to catch me before I left for the Academy.

I covered a sigh of annoyance with an illusive dazzling smile at seeing my modelling agent's face at seven-thirty in the morning.

"Ah, how lovely for you to visit Fleur. Do come in," I stated, walking down the marble twisting staircase of my home towards the front door where she stood. "I wasn't aware we had an appointment this morning. I would have made some breakfast arrangements. How embarrassed I am." Fleur's face stayed emotionless and rather taut as if somebody had pulled it so tight that she could no longer move it herself.

The troubles of botox.

Julia, the younger maid that worked at my house, stood by the door and tried to bite back a smile, clearly noticing the sheer pretentiousness in my voice. She lifted a dainty hand to cover her mouth, disguising it as the action of tucking stray blonde hairs behind her ear. I had got always gotten along well with the Japanese girl for she was more of an older sister to me; we had celebrated her twentieth birthday last month.

"We don't have an appointment today. I thought I'd drop by since I am going to be overseeing the London agency this week instead of Paris. But as I was saying, I need you to give me your headshots from summer so I can send them off as soon as possible," Fleur dictated in the ever so robotic voice that I was accustomed to.

"They are keen to enlist new talent so this is a perfect opportunity for you. I've heard that they have their eyes on you and another student at Forteux Academy."

I looked away from her dark brown hair and bright red lips that matched her overwhelmingly bright suit.

Modelling sure was fun and I'd always enjoyed it but recently, I'd completely lost any enthusiasm towards it. When I was sixteen, I'd jetted all around the world to walk the runway at numerous fashion weeks but nowadays I didn't really see the point of pursuing it.

The only reason my parents were supporting it was because it brought publicity to the Darling company. As soon as I was of age to manage the company, modelling would be an activity of the past and I'd be forced to follow in my fathers business footprints.

Till then I'd rather spend time doing activities that I enjoyed more. Like art. Things I would have pursued as a career if I wasn't born as the heiress, Louisa Darling.

"I'll send them to you soon," I said, hiding my disinterest and giving her the warmest smile I could muster. "You said there's another student at Forteux? Am I allowed to know who it is?" It would probably be Olivia Green. Her mother was a supermodel of the late eighties.

Fleur gazed at her watch as if she had expected the conversation to be finished a lot earlier. "Yes, yes. You can know. Keep it hush though," she continued, her French accent once again drowning her words, in particular the word hush. "A beautiful Indian girl. Anna Wadia, I think."

My smile dropped as I stared blankly ahead. Why did this girl keep popping up everywhere?

Fleur had said her name wrong but it was enough to tell me that she was talking about the fox faced girl with jet black hair.

First, she bitched about me when I refused to use her notes that day in exchange for her sitting with us. Then she tried to eavesdrop on my conversation with Gabriel. Now, she wants to compete with me to become the new face of Moschino.