AMBITCHIOUS.

“And you call me her limpet, I’ve got nothing on Patrick. He’s going to develop separation anxiety if he’s not careful.” Not that that would be the only mental health issue within the family she almost added, but stopped herself just before it came out of her mouth. What would that achieve? Nothing. She didn’t need to explain to Madeleine of all people how fucked up they alll were. Even if the family refused to talk about it to one another, it was impossible to notice from time to time. Amelia’s eyebrows show up in surprise when she was given a genuine complaint, turning to look over at the other with the shock written all over her features. “Thank you…” Was all she managed for a second because this was such a rare event she was rendered frozen until finally finding her words. “It’s uh, it’s Balmain. I knew I wasn’t going to be in the snow tonight so the length wasn’t an issue.” She just muttered, wondering what the explanation was for the compliment but coming up empty, it didn’t seem like the older woman wanted anything from Amelia right now which was the only thing she could think of. “You look nice too.” That was said more out of obligation but it wasn’t a direct lie, her sister did look stunning but that was nothing new, the whole family knew fashion if nothing else. They knew how to make themselves look good. “Maybe you should marry one of them, pop out a couple of kids, then you can relinquish the position for someone else if you hate it so much.” There was that bitterness back in her tone, so fleeting was the moment they were actually nice to each other, blink and you miss it. Even Mia felt like it might have been a conversation mirage. “Count yourself lucky you don’t have keep up with all the investors and the laws and policies that come with every single one of them. No need to I guess, you have staff for that now.”

     Truth be told, Madeleine had been trying her best to hide from her siblings how uneducated she felt now that she occupied that position. She had wrecked her brain wondering why her father had left her the CEO chair, when both her brother and her sister were much more prepared for it. She didn’t know the company like they did, she needed a while before she could learn the policies and get her mind wrapped around the position she occupied. She had gone through both business and law school, but once she was sitting there, it felt like everything had completely vanished from her mind, but she was damned if she was going to prove Amelia and Patrick right. If their father saw something in her, something other than a petulant child ▬ her mother’s absolutely favorite words ▬ she was going to see it through. Only it scared her even more not to have anyone there with her. Kit wanted nothing to do with the company. Amelia and Patrick were the front against her. Clara needed not to be there. She was alone. Nodding along at her sister’s words and offering a small thank you in response to her compliment, Maddie felt the need to adjust her posture and clear her throat. “It’s not my intention of giving away my position to anyone who doesn’t have our last name, I reckon that’s not what dad would have wanted,” there was something behind her eyes. Anger, hurt, sadness, betrayal? Her sister’s words felt like a knife. She believed that all Rockefeller women needed extensive therapy before motherhood, Patrick already had a failed marriage to prove that they were not suited for love. “If those are mother’s intentions than I’ll take a few pages out of Clara’s book and continue fucking them and leaving them,” maybe her words were too crude, but their conversation had gone over another realm completely. The niceties were off the window now, and Maddie couldn’t help but feel the resentment which had always festered inside her against members of her immediate family. “Of course, I need to, I don’t want to just be a prop Amelia, I want to learn how to do whatever father wanted me to do, I want to make him proud. I’d like to think he saw something in me nobody else has, I wasn’t expecting this position as much as you or Patrick, for that matter.”

Maddie looked stunning, Amelia looked stunning, and both girls were on their very best behaviour. It just so happened that because of the nature of their relationship, or lack their of, they were fending for themselves entirely at this event. Feeling the pressures in different ways but never mentioning it to each other their performance of perfection extended to each other when they weren’t behind closed doors. Happy family, that was the key, they had to show everyone they were the perfect family. Leaning against the other side of the doorframe to mirror her older sister the blonde let out a breathy laugh, shaking her head. “She would, but we both know that Kit wouldn’t listen, he’d throw himself into it headfirst if he even got wind mother was suggesting he shouldn’t.” Her voice was low as she sipped her vodka soda, the champagne having been replaced by something a bit stronger, it was getting to that time in the evening. “I wouldn’t want to ruin my dress anyway, it’s too pretty.” It was like a nervous tick, even in front of Maddie she couldn’t admit that going down the slope in the snow would give her an adrenalin rush she’d been craving for years. One that for once wasn’t brought on by a spike of anxiety but instead because she was actually enjoying herself. Imagine that. “Doesn’t matter anyway, she’ll find something to get mad at us about tonight regardless of what we do.” It was the truth, Amelia was resigned to that, she would just punish herself when she was alone later. “I’m surprised you’re not busy shaking hands, you are the figurehead afterall.” 

     For years had the Rockefellers been trained in the fine art of veiled insults, threats and even dislike. Neither Amelia, not Madeleine for an instance were above it, in fact, both blondes found themselves, more often than not, trading insults disguised as compliments with one another, but that night Maddie felt tired. Ever since occupying their father’s chair in the group she felt like she was proving herself to everyone around her, from her mother to her siblings and among all of them Patrick made no mention in hiding the dislike he felt with seeing his sister taking a place which had always been his. He was never good at losing, neither of them were, it was simple as that. Yet, underneath the war all of them were having amongst themselves, there was no one in the world who quite knew them better. One needed to be a Rockefeller to know how painful it was to walk in their shoes. “That is true, though, it surely beats Patrick who’s been walking around by her side the entire night like her lap monkey,” there was disgust in her tone. If there was one relationship of hers that might be doomed forever, that might be it. “You look beautiful,” Madeleine offered her sister, a true compliment this time, after all, even if they had eyes on her as usual, this conversation was only happening between them. She hoped, for once, that Amelia recognized the honesty in her voice, although she wasn’t sure she would want to. At the mention of what she should have been doing, Maddie’s face souered and she took a long sip out of her champagne, she hated the taste, it felt weird against her tongue. “I did, for a while, and then she started introducing me to men she wants me to marry, so far three, one all the way from Ireland. When Patrick offered his arm, I jumped the chance and walked away, we have far too many investors, I cannot keep up.”

     With so much of her family around it wasn’t uncommon for Madeleine to feel unnerved. She had attempted her very best to stray away from her sisters, older brother and mother, but the latter seemed to find her at every turn. She had pulled Maddie by the arm to criticize her from head to toe ▬ which was pretty common when it came to Raquel ▬ and tell her to keep an eye on Clara, as if her youngest sister wasn’t out there somewhere overdrinking or snorting something out of the bathroom sink. Maddie was stressed, so she gave the bartender a hefty tip for him to give her a bottle of their best bubbly and a water bottle and chased down both of her best friends until she had successfully pulled them by the arm onto the nearest available balcony. “Okay, I just need five minutes in here with both of you before I absolutely go mental,” she smiled a bit too manically and exhaled a bit too forcefully as she gave Jasmine the water bottle and served some of the alcohol for both her and Hannah, taking a much needed sip. “God, this is gross,” Maddie made a face before turning down the rest of what was left in the glass and filling it up again. ( @hannahgrvce​ & @jasmine-mousavi​ ).

     Maddie had been sporting optimal behavior for someone who was feeling so stressed. Even though the present event was not Rockefeller hosted, there was still things she was expected to do, like bid higher for charity, shake hands with investors and friends of her father’s alike. She was supposed to smile, be polite and charming, and not to disregard her mother any time the woman came to talk her down in some way. For the first time in the entire evening she felt not smothered, she had maybe the next two minutes for herself before it all started again and she took advantage to grab a drink at the bar and not the God-awful thing they were calling champagne either. With not a lot left to do, the blonde stepped towards the entrance, being able to hear other people’s laughters as there were plenty of them enjoying themselves with a carefree attitude on the outdoor events, something that was out of her possibilities that evening. Sighing lowly, she leaned herself on the frame of the door and observed until she felt a presence she would recognize just about anywhere. “Lucky them, right?” She said absentmindedly, “mother would most likely kill us if we got anywhere near the snow in our outfits. Today of all days.” ( @miarockefeller​ )

     Look for your brother, it was hard to deny her mother when she asked for anything, if not from her sheer determination of getting something done, then because of her murderous eyes, which made Madeleine be in absolutely no mood for the repercussions of contradicting her mother in any way. With a gentle smile, she excused herself from the ladies they were talking with, all of them noveau rich, something her mother hated to please, but needed to since their husbands invested deeply in the company which in return banked her mother’s luxurious life. The blonde allowed her heels to click against the floor as she looked high and low for her brother until she came upon a slightly hidden place, she didn’t blame him, she just wished she had thought of it first. Clearing her throat and announcing her arrival, she slipped in with her, shivering a bit as the cold wind blew her hair back. “Satan’s looking for you, you know that?” She said, looking over at him and raising a bit of her eyebrow. “Why is it that every time we meet, we’re running away from family?” ( @kitrockefeller​ )

     She still didn’t believe she had left home to be stuck with a bunch of people she had absolutely no idea who they were, not to mention bumping shoulders with old friends of the Rockefellers. Where the hell were her friends? Maddie could surely recognize the distinctive head of dirty blonde hairs around. Amelia and Clara, Kit surely was somewhere around and Patrick walked dutifully arm in arm with her mother, she could feel their glances ever so often, and she was pretty sure that here and there, she could see Patrick sneering at her, every time that happened she knocked back her flute, only to be badly surprised by the taste of cheapness on her tongue and her face could not be controlled. That was a mess, or maybe she was a mess, it was hard to detect. Pushing herself off from the bar, Maddie decided to walk around, maybe she’d find Hannah or Jas, maybe both, and steal them away somewhere, however, her eyes landed on someone she knew for a while, but that she had absolutely no idea had landed on Elisabeth Island. She couldn’t be more grateful. “Alicia?” Maddie called, walking over to where the woman was, “Ali, what the hell are you doing in this hell hole?” ( @aliciapvlmeiro​ )

     What is she doing here? Madeleine listens to her mother loud words, briefly a group of five women turn their heads and follow her mother’s eyes to a brunette in a great LBD. Maddie for once is absolutely ecstatic, someone that’ll occupy her mother’s mind for some of the night, not the entirety of it, but definitely enough to take her focus off of her. Maddie can recognize Nicolette Jude from a mile away, she still owned the same doe eyes she did when she used to date her brother, and to be quite fair, the brunette looked like a more sophisticated version of her younger self. “Don’t worry mother, I’ll go take her away from your line of vision,” the blonde quickly offered, feeling especially up to the task just so she could step away from the ladies that were members of her mother’s book club. With purpose she walked up to the beautiful brunette, she had stopped dating her brother when Maddie was about 11 years old, and she could just bet Kit would swallow his tongue when he saw her, but with a smile, she was quick to greet. “Nic, walk with me?” ( @nicolettejude​ )

@elisabethstarters​

Anybody on the island that was anybody important was going to be at the Rockwater Charity Event, and Ophelia Wilson wouldn’t miss it. She’d spent the day pampering herself and a friend and was ready to party. Phil lifted the side of her long green dress train and stepped through the doors into the parlor, noting she’d arrived at the perfect time. While she noted the glances her way and the chatter that turned to a whisper as her heels clicked against the floor, she held her head up. Brown curls bounced with each step, sweeping off her exposed shoulders. Her eyes connected with another’s and she stepped their direction. “People act like I’m not supposed to show up places.” she said casually as she approached. “Maybe next time I’ll just show up naked and see which is worse.” Phil reached a hand out and grabbed a champagne glass off one of the trays as a waiter passed.

Frankie was glad that the male had seemingly taken it on the shin and moved the fuck on. He seemed to be laughing with the waitress which gave her hope that they could go about drinking and have a good night. “I like this place so I’m glad he didn’t say it. I’d rather not get banned for punching someone tonight.” It had happened more than once in the past and she was limited on the places she could go. Not that every man deserved it. “I can respect someone who wants to keep their partners to themselves.” She said on a nod. Frankie didn’t particularly care about what people did in bedroom and while the idea of a threesome had always intrigued her, she respected those who felt otherwise. “But if you ever wanted a threesome, we could do a lot better than him.” The brunette snorted. At the sight of the flute of champagne, she wrinkled her nose slightly and took a whiskey sour instead. Pushing some strand of hair from her face, she looked over at the other who introduced herself. Right, that was a good step. “Maddie. I’m Frankie.” It was a nickname but she never told anyone that. “You’re welcome. It’s my pleasure to help a pretty girl out. Especially when I can stomp on a man’s ego a bit.”

end of thread headcanon ▬

Outside, Shea is pleased with the response and now, standing outside with the woman, she’s just laughing. The man’s face had been priceless and now, hearing that her mother would certainly be appalled, well, it’s enough to make her think of her own mother pursing her lips and shaking her head at the way Shea tended to behave. Like it or not, it was just who Shea was, always looking for trouble. “Oh, even better,” she comments, loving the idea of her name buzzing around town. Maybe a few of them would even end up dropping by her store for a sneak peek of the woman who’d melted down in the middle of a busy business. “I love a good scandal,” she nods. Shea knows the woman, considering she’s a town native, which probably made it all the more hilarious. Her own father being an entrepreneur in Elisabeth Island, before his passing and them both being natives of Whitview made them similar enough. “You know that next time you can always just say no,” she shrugs, considering she’d done it a million times to her own mother. 

Shea knew that her family was likely a different story. While confused with the fact that they were given an outspoken daughter and a quiet son and the harsh reality that neither of them would go the career path their parents had imagined… Well, inevitably they gave it up, expecting anything from them, considering it was always the opposite of the plan. Even Shea’s mother setting her up on dates awry when Shea preferred to make out with her date’s sister, rather than her date. “I’d love a drink but I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be allowed back in there for at least a month or so so I think that my future wife should escort me elsewhere,” she mocked. “Plenty of options around here.”

end of thread headcanon ▬

AMELIA: I don't have the time to spare to be drinking fairy potions.

AMELIA: Is it an open bar? If so then she'll be there to prop it up I have no doubt. Someone should call ahead and tell them to order more alcohol to have in reserve.

AMELIA: Oh please, she could bid any number and mom would chalk it up to her giant philanthropic heart.

MADDIE: Because the law department is *so* busy? 🙄🙄🙄

MADDIE: Of course it is, do you think anyone would host a charity and not have it open bar?

AMELIA: Your optimism is inspiring.

AMELIA: Take a look at his track record, it speaks volumes. Kit does what he wants apparently.

MADDIE: I know, you should take a drink out of it.