CHAPTER 01. – BABY, THEN WATCH ME
- BASH -
It was my job to just stand there. Scan the party goers and make sure nothing was off. We had a security detail outside in full force but nothing was ever guaranteed no matter how good my team was. I heard nothing suspicious in my earpiece which was a good sign. Should anything come up, I'd get to move from my spot in the back corner of the yard. For now, I stood with my arms crossed, scanning the crowd.
I was only partly born into this world. Fancy parties, money, glamor. My father, Henry Valois, was as A-List as they came in the acting world: six Oscars, three Golden Globes, one Emmy, and even a Grammy believe it or not. My mother, Diane, was just 'some tramp' (as Catherine liked to call her) whom he had a one night stand with and… well, here I am. My parents' on-going affair wasn't a secret to Catherine Medici-Valois, my father's wife, but for some reason she still clung to him for dear life. Catherine was hardly my step-mother. More like some cruel bitch I had to endure for most of my life. My father didn't even know about me until I was three. He took us in when I was seven and my mother was struggling to make ends meet.
With my father's help and money, I was able to finish school two years earlier than I should have. I'm only twenty-two, but I graduated from college two and a half years ago and now I'm the head of my father's security team. Father's away in Prague right now, filming a new movie, and Catherine's… well, doing whatever it is she does. She's a high class fashion designer. She's probably in Paris or something. I have no idea. Mother's with my father right now. For all intents and purposes, everyone knows Diane Poitiers in the business as a 'socialite.'
So, that begged the question for those who wonder—who's party is going on right now at our Malibu beachfront villa?
Well that would be my half-brother, Francis'. Francis is Catherine's son with Father. They actually have four children. Francis is the oldest, though technically I'm the oldest son Henry has, and then there's Elizabeth (the only daughter), Charles, and Henry III. (My father is Henry II, and Francis is actually Francis II. Our paternal grandfather's name was also Francis.)
Francis got lucky in the same arena my father did. At first he was just some punk rich kid that got into all kinds of trouble and involved in tabloid scandals. Then when he was sixteen he decided to try his hand at acting—instant praise. He didn't have any big awards yet but I doubted it would be long before he was giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars.
It was no secret that Francis threw a big blowout whenever Father was away. That was at least ten to fifteen times a year. In the past, these parties always ended in disaster… that was until about two years ago, right after I graduated from college, and Father got sick of the bullshit in the tabloids. Francis had been ruining not only his own reputation, but Father's as well.
So here I was… standing guard in the back yard, making sure nothing went wrong.
No one actually knows I'm Henry's bastard son. I was given my maternal grandmother's maiden name, (don't ask), Granger, to keep me 'safe' in the public eye. For the most part, it's been nice but there's always a part of me that's jealous that my brothers and sister get to enjoy the wealth while I stand in the corner like a statue.
Normally I'm really good at keeping my focus. But tonight there's a problem.
It's nothing that the security team should be concerned about… yet. I, however, just can't take my eyes off it for more than two seconds at a time. Or… maybe I should say her.
Mary Stuart, Francis' fiancée, and all around socialite. She was born into this world but she comes from old money, whereas my families' wealth came from my father's successful acting career, which eventually branched out to directing and producing, tripling his profits. I'm almost afraid one day the wealth will be gone. But even in that respect, that's why I have a college degree in Business.
It's never bad to have a backup plan.
Getting stuck in the security business mostly came from two things: A) my interest of it as a child, always asking questions to my father's bodyguards, and B) my father insisting on keeping me close to home and making sure I keep an eye on my brother. No matter how much he adores Francis, he can never truly trust him.
Although it's nights like tonight when I'm glad I'm here, because it leaves me free to watch Mary. Mary's been with Francis for as long as anyone can remember. They were practically engaged in the womb, since her mother, Marie, was a co-star of my father's in a movie he did early on in his career. Mary's father, James, was the director of that movie. The Stuarts used their 'old money' to start their own production business back in the fifties. It only made them wealthier.
Mary, herself, was not much of an actress. She really had no other talent than getting drunk in public and the occasional flipping the photogs the bird. In private—kind of like right now—she was known for still getting drunk and usually shedding her clothes.
It was… part of the reason I couldn't take my eyes off her right now.
The other half of it was I was afraid she might get so drunk, she'd fall into the pool and drown. Mary practically lived here and I was known to watch her in the pool from time to time. She was always on a blow up lounge toy working on her tan and refused to actually get wet in the water. It kind of defeated the purpose, but I'd grown to tolerate uppity girls like that. For some reason, when it came to Mary, I found it oddly attractive.
Mary was surrounded by her group of girlfriends while she sat on Francis' lap, dress half off at this point and her bra completely visible. I knew we'd come to the point of the evening when she needed to get cut off, but I had no say in the matter. Her girlfriends Lola, Greer, Aylee, and Kenna, were continuously feeding her shots of tequila and anything else they could get their hands on from the bar. I was pretty sure I—along with the rest of my security team—were the only ones here A) not drinking and B) over twenty-one, the legal drinking age in the United States. I might have been wrong—there were probably a few legal ones here. But I knew most of these people… very few of them were actually legal.
Francis is two years younger than me. Elizabeth is a year younger than him. Charles and Henry are both very young. They're with their mother, wherever she is, but Elizabeth is also here tonight with her new husband, Philip. Nineteen and married. It seemed ridiculous to me. But Mary and Francis were supposed to be getting hitched soon…apparently whenever Father returned from filming. Catherine had been trying to put off the wedding for some time now because she thought Mary was just a gold digging tramp like my mother. However, I think sometimes Catherine forgets that Mary's family is much more wealthy than the Valois and Medici families combined.
The irony is not lost upon me.
My ears start to hurt, mainly from the fact that I'm right next to the DJ booth and the speaker is right in front of me. It could be worse—I could be in front of it, but it's still just as bad. I recognize the song playing and try my best to subtly mouth along since it's one of my favorites.
I take my eyes off Mary for a few moments as one of my team members comes over to me with an update. Things are well, as they should be. Since I started taking over the security details, we've never had problems come from the outside. Inside however… well those are easily detained, but not preventable.
Hence the reason I started mentally kicking myself…
I heard a scream and then the sound of water, like someone had just fallen into the pool. I was right. I wasn't even the least bit surprised to find out that I was also right when I found it was Mary who was screaming in the water, in the deep end—ten feet—and splashing around for help.
. . .
A/N: Chapter 02 coming soon. Song featured in this chapter, Meteor by Simon Curtis. Please review! :]