Rise Like The Sun

CHAPTER ONE

MADISON

"Windsor, don't."

Madison Sutton looks at her dog very carefully until he whines under her crippling, cool gaze, but stays where he is. Years of growing with her trained him well, she thinks, with some satisfaction before turning her attention back to her favourite large Venetian mirror. Music runs faintly through her set of rooms, as Madison eyes herself.

She presses down her black school skirt demurely, her fingers trailing against the immaculate white blouse, with a purse of her lips. School uniform is a bitch, but she still looks good, she thinks approvingly. Madison eyes her white Louboutins carefully before her attention turns to the minimal jewellery she wears (Bulgari necklace and ring ensemble, because she wouldn't be seen dead wearing anything else) and she picks up her Chanel handbag.

It is too small to actually hold anything practical, like the pens and various books school required, or be of any use, other than to hold her phone and look pretty. It is too ambitious of her school teachers to actually expect that Madison Sutton would bring in anything like the oversized ugly backpacks like she is some eager-eyed, first year troll.

Windsor whines for her and Madison lets her heart give in.

"You big lug," she murmurs affectionately.

She bends down quickly and reaches to pet her dog, running her fingers through his coat. Windsor gives an audible rumble of satisfaction and she is sure the dog would smile at her, if it could. The sound of a text trills through the room and makes her still briefly.

Madison rubs Windsor once more before she sends him off and pats down her clothes once more, eyeing herself critically. She reaches for her phone, as it lights up, distractedly and her lip curls with distaste, at the text message.

Have a great first day back at school, Madison!

For a moment, Madison swallows tightly. But she shakes her head in the same moment, presses her lips together in derision.

"Pathetic," she mutters before she dumps the phone disparagingly into the wastepaper basket and turns her back on it.

Madison descends the stairs to the breakfast room as elegantly as she can make it, long and languid as she moves past the hurrying servants. She seats herself at the breakfast table, eyeing Mother's empty seat with some worry, before her gaze turns to her own plate.

The breakfast plate in front of her is pitifully bleak.

Half  of a fresh grapefruit gleams up at her, the bone-white china shining brightly. Thin strands of gold sunlight cast against the plate, making it ripple and glow briefly. Madison reaches for the grapefruit but the housekeeper clears her throat awkwardly.

"What is it, Becky?" Madison asks tautly, her fingers lingering in the air, and her stomach aches with hunger.

Becky looks uncomfortable as she reaches forward to pick up the plate of grapefruit. "Sorry, Miss Madison –,"

"Where is my mother?" Madison demands, her voice cool and blank, though her heart hammers uncomfortably in her chest and makes it feel tight. "And my breakfast? Am I to starve for the whole day? Why have you not readied anything, Becky?"

Becky lifts her head and tries to meet her flashing gaze, looking suddenly quite uncomfortable, as her fingers clench the expensive white plate. "Mrs Sutton is on another business trip, Miss Madison. She had to leave quite – quite early," Becky explains and her voice is too soft for Madison, who stiffens immediately. "And, well – she – she said that the late dinner parties have been having too much of an effect on you, Miss Madison. Mrs Sutton believes it is better for you to – to skip a few meals, for a few days."