CHAPTER ONE
I’m downing the vitamin water I drink right after another massive concert night when the dressing room door slams open. Chad, our tyrant of a manager, pushes a phone onto my face.
“What the fuck is this, Rosie? Who release this information to the news?”
From the corner of my eyes Ginny, who is our leader and the oldest of us four, stands up. I shake my head towards her before I grab the phone in Chad’s hands. On one side, there is a picture of Richard kissing, or more like sucking the life out of an unknown woman. Beside their photo is mine. The same one in our press kit that’s available through our website.
“Why would I know about this? I only talk to him when you orchestrate a date for the press and the public to see. Maybe you should ask him how the press knows his whereabouts. Maybe you should ask him to stop being such a playboy and stop smearing my name and the Royal Family he so desires to be accepted in.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass.”
“Stop blaming me for everything. I follow all the rules. I gave up love and friendships. I talk with my parents only when allowed. I dress how you tell me. I speak how you tell me. I inhale and exhale when you tell me. So how his behavior is myfault? He was your idea. Staging a relationship with him was your idea.”
“If you were more genuine with him or reply to his messages more often, this wouldn’t have happened.” Chad says.
The staff around us talks in hush voices. Ginny’s manager and the manager team leader walk closer to us.
“You control every second of my life. My phone is more in your hands than mine. Therefore, I was and will not be genuine with him. He is a joke looking for clout and someone to step on to reach royalty status. If you wanted me to talk to him, you would have given me my phone. You never did. You ignore his comments the same as I do. So again, enlighten me how this is my fault.”
He glares at me, and I watch his taut jaw. I imagine he is gritting his teeth wondering how he will chew me and humiliate me in front of the staff right after one of the best concert nights we had during this nation tour. Ginny’s manager grabs his shoulder and pulls him back.
“Call the company’s publicist and have them communicate with Mr. Pierce’s publicist. We need to come up with a join statement. Most likely, we need to say they have broken off or rethinking their relationship since both are extremely busy with their careers. We are right smack in the middle of one of their biggest tour. We don’t have time to point fingers.”
Chad looks around before storming off the room and spurs everyone into motion. I don’t remember us clearing a back room as quick as we did today.
“Let’s get the girls safely to their hotel rooms and we can figure out what to do about this,” says Vivi’s manager.
The group of bodyguards for this stop of the tour make a circle around us. I notice one bodyguard standing a little too close to Vivi, the youngest in the group. He’s been working as a bodyguard for almost all our stops, which, for us, is a little unusual. He frowns and glares at me when I pull Vivi to the front. We all make our way outside when an onslaught of screams startles me. It is so loud it feels like my ears are going to explode. We rush into the tinted vans and drive away from the venue and the screaming fans.
The front of the hotel is not different from the venue, except all the paparazzi waiting to get a photo of us, of me.
I’m no stranger to the constant flash of lights and the sound of the camera shutter. As the face and lead singer of VERA, I’m tasked to always be visible. To look the picture perfect for the concept created for me within the group. Our group got crafted by LuxeMuse Entertainment seven years ago when we were teens and our parents, with little to no knowledge about contracts or the industry, sign our lives to this company that sees us as products to sell.
I can’t believe he let himself get caught. He begs LuxeMuse Entertainment to help him fix his image. Help him get in the good graces of the Hastings Royal family. I haven’t read the article, so I don’t know if I’m just mentioned or if there’s anything else linking me to his playboy behavior. I’m constantly in the public eye. I have the big role of pulling fan’s heartstrings and to command the public’s attention so the name of VERA is in their minds constantly. I have to sing perfectly every time to uphold the standard of quality LuxeMuse Entertainment, the industry, the media, and the fans’ demands. This fool can’t be tainting our image like that.
The vans head to the back of the hotel, where we could get out into the backside elevators. Our staff helps us cover our faceswith jackets as we reached the elevators inside of the hotel that would lead to our rooms. Hotel security is keeping most of the paparazzi out of their lobby, but there are a few who outsmarted the hotel staff and pass as guests. Thankfully, they were too far from the elevators to catch us.
We stay in our connected rooms waiting for our managers. They should work on damage control. They must be coming up with ways to make clear Richard’s behavior has nothing to do with us and doesn’t represent us. They must be making it clear I know nothing and that I’m appalled, heck I would even act heartbroken at his so call betrayal.
At three in the morning, Ginny order us to get to bed and catch a few hours of sleep. “We have many stops, many fans waiting for us to give them a once in a lifetime experience. The least we can do is sleep.”
Things turn for the worst when we wake up in the morning. Ginny is on the phone fighting with her manager.
“The CEO will lose millions of dollars just like that?” I hear Ginny ask.
“I understand the board of directors love of pulling strings, but this is pulling the entire carpet. He might sink us just when we are getting the best traction.” I frown because every word Ginny says doesn’t sound good.
“Whatever, it is not like any of you listens to what we think. At least send me an email when you stop being my manager.”
I look around, confused at the sound of Maggie tapping like a madwoman on her phone. I recognize the tapping madness; she is fighting a troll online. Vivi is scrolling through social media headphones on, so I can’t hear what she is watching.
I catch some of the text in the video.
‘If Rosie can’t keep her boyfriend; can she really keep her fans?’
I frown. Why they are talking about me? I check the nightstand and my phone is still there. Chad, my manager, hasn’t come to get it. I open it and watch in horror at the news articles, social media posts, reaction youtubers and tiktokers talk about me. What I can do and what I can’t do. What I’m good for and what I’m not.
I stop scrolling when I find a post calling for people to sign the petition to kick me out of VERA.
