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“Thanks, mom,” she mumbled

“I knowher up the ay

Elena wished that so such a show of helping her out It was bad enough to count on other people for help, but when they made you feel helpless and incapable, it just increased the hu to take their help at all She followed her atory chat, she excused herself and walked up to what used to be her room

It no longer rese up When she had lived there, three of the four walls had been a bright turquoise blue The fourth wall had nothing pushed up against it It was left free and clear so that whenever Elena felt a surge of artistic inspiration, she could go to work on the wall, transfor it into whatever she felt like in that ed that wall eleven times over the course of her adolescence, alone

After she had moved out, her parents had proe and white interior that pervaded through the rest of the house Elena put down her sht stay Already, she felt the familiar sense of claustrophobia that usually settled over her whenever she was close to her family

She , but eventually she forced herself downstairs She heard her parents’ voices froed to her sister Elena sighed in resignation and walked in They turned to her with big suilt for how badly she wished to be away from them

Her father was a tall, balding , warm, dark brown eyes Ee and tailored to perfection They looked like they could be in an elite clothing catalogue or soed and kissed her father and sister, she settled around the massive, black marble, kitchen island with them

“Juice, darling?” her mother asked

“No, thank you,” Elena replied politely

“It’s so good – try soet insisted

“I’m not in the mood, Mom,” Elena said She had to work a little harder to be polite this time

“Hoork?” her father asked in his deep baritone

Louis Parker was an impressivesetic about his fortune He had married a woman as just like his mother, and perfected the life that his parents had lived before hihters, but only one of them ired the same way that he was Sometimes Elena felt that his disappointment was the hardest to bear

“It’s… well, it’s not going so well,” Elena was forced to adet clients soh”

“You need the right contacts for that business darling,” her father said “It’s all about who you know Everything is always all about who you know”