Page 115 of The Bridesmaid
‘Titan Magazinehas been exploiting women for years,’ she was quoted as saying, ‘why shouldn’t women get their own back?’
Elysium Island Sold to Medical Group
Elysium Island, famously known for louche parties and all-night clubs, has been sold, for an undisclosed sum, to a private buyer. Elysium is due to be repurposed as a high-end luxury rehab, aimed to attract celebrities with addiction problems. The Kensingtons have refused to comment on whether the choice of buyer represents a kind of tribute to the late Silky Eversfield, who died of an overdose on the island. The new owner, Dr. Lutz of The Clinic Group, plans to roll out a range of luxury centers around the globe, from its flagship facility in Seattle.
Bodies Found on Elysium
Mass graves have been found all over Elysium, the former party island of Leopold Kensington. Producers have released the last ever episode ofWrongfully Accused, compiled from material gathered by host Simone Walters, before her brutal murder. The feature-length show theorizes a dark history to Elysium, in which hundreds of women were secretly buried on the island, near a schoolhouse built with the explicit purpose of forcibly re-educating ‘fallen’ women.Elsewhere, prison cells were uncovered and further graves. In the 1950s, the island was part of a drive to turn out marriageable Catholic girls, with a programme of deprivation and penance. The model of ‘Discipline, Self-Restraint, and God’ was to be the founding principle of the famous Kensington Manor School in New York, which boasts several generations of prestigious alumni.
Kensington Manor School to Close
After decades of educating schoolgirls in the famous Kensington ethos of Discipline, Self-Restraint, and Godliness, the prestigious New York boarding school will close its doors next week. Founded by descendants of Lady Margaret Kensington, who opened the first Kensington Manor School on the Caribbean island of Elysium, the principles of indoctrinating girls with a firm religious education and hardy outlook have fallen out of favor in recent years. Founding pupils had their hair shorn, and wore head coverings during their time at the school, but this practice was dropped in the New York iteration, with hygiene conditions improved.
The current headmistress, herself a former pupil, blames ‘soft’ parenting styles and use of cellphones to contact parents. The school denies the decision to close is linked with accusations of negligence and abuse, which saw many wealthy families withdraw their girls. A spokesperson from the public school system claims Kensington Manor School was a relic of female oppression, where women were groomed as marital commodities.
Georgia Kensington new CEO of Kensington Brand
Georgia Kensington, best known for spectacular PR campaigns, got a promotion this month, to become CEO of the Kensington brand.
She plans on working closely with supermodel Petra Morka to reimagine the famous nightclub empire. She assured fans that the door was open for Adrianna to return, but thinks it unlikely.
‘Adrianna likes a quiet life now,’ explains Georgia. ‘She probably always did.’
Chapter Ninety-six
HOLLY
The realtor is handing me the keys to my new downtown office. There’s a freshly carpeted floor,box-fresh desk, newly painted walls, and a great view of Central Park.
‘Thanks,’ I say, smiling as I take the keys. ‘This looks perfect.’
I notice she’s looking me up and down a little too quickly, in that way people have taken to doing of late.
‘I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?’ she says, shifting to adjust the weight on her high heels. ‘You were one of Adrianna Kensington’s bridesmaids.’
She’s taking in my pastel blue hair, and toned-down eye make-up with renewed interest now. Like she can’t quite marry my appearance with Adrianna’s photoshoot perfection.
After the wedding was called off, Adrianna’s sponsor pulled out, but she and Georgia worked around the clock on an alternative PR campaign for the aborted wedding. They left enough gaps to let the press fill in the blanks. The speculation stories ran, that Silky Eversfield died on the island, and Leopold shot his mistress, before vanishing.
The day it went to press, the Kensington nightclubs all over the world sold a year’s advance tickets overnight.
‘What did I tell you, Holly?’ smiled Adrianna, in response to my open disbelief. ‘Silky had four million followers. Her death got so many clicks it almost broke the internet. And she wasexactlyon brand. Glamorous, sexy, and drug-fuelled. The perfect snapshot of what people can expect when they visit a Kensington Club.’
The joke was on me, since I’d agreed to pose for bridesmaid pictures, thinking no one would want to run them. But I guess I didn’t mind so much. And it benefitted me in the end.
‘I saw you in theNational Enquirer,’ adds the realtor, referencing the picture that became the most famous. Georgia’s unerring intuition for publicity meant she released just the right images to grab worldwide attention.
Adrianna in the tatters of her gown, make-up running down her face, Petra with a bloom of blood on the chest of her magenta bridesmaid dress. Georgia and I helping them both back to Fortune House.
Ophelia is out of shot, since she took the picture. Since the wedding, she has decided to cut back her involvement with Adrianna’s life. I wonder if the spell was finally broken when she processed the depths the Kensingtons would go to for publicity.
‘I was also inNew York Magazinefor my forensic work,’ I tell the realtor, smiling, ‘but no one seems to remember me for that anymore.’
She smiles. ‘I thought you’d be like the rest of the uptight Kensington entourage,’ she confesses. ‘It’s like they speak another language.’
I nod. ‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘Took me a while to get my head around that too. I guess you could say I’m a little more bilingual, nowadays.’
I look around my new office. The pay-checks I collected from post-Elysium cases paid the rental on this office for two whole years in advance, with enough left over to put down the security on my very own apartment. Nothing fancy, but it’s good to have a place to store all my dungeon gaming cards and arrange my candles.
