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She had wanted a different life for herself and that ht not have been, were it not for the fact that her parents were not capable of si her choices to ree andto make her see that her life would be so reed to follow the plan they had set out for her life

She looked at her sister’s life Emily had a career her parents were proud of, in fact, they were the ones who had suggested it and given her the necessary contacts towas no doubt a member of their circle, there was no other way they could be so happy about it Elena kneould go Eet married in a year in a lavish and tasteful ceremony, she would work occasionally, simply so that she could talk about her career at dinner parties she would be invited to on a weekly basis, and after a few years, she would have a child ould one day inherit her fortune, and she would spend the rest of her life row up to follow the same path as his parents before him

She knew the path her sister’s life would take, but she knew , that she did not want that for herself She wanted her life to be a surprise She wanted to be free and excited about things She wanted to know different kinds of people, not just different variations of the same person She wanted to travel, to backpack around the world She wanted to create sculptures that she could one day exhibit in galleries

Elena knew that in order to achieve any one of those things, she needed to have financial independence, too Her parents hadher ‘own path’, as they called it, she would not have their help Elena thought about what Neal had asked of her

She felt a wave of fear when she considering going through with it Nine e favor to ask Elena had never seen herself as a mother She had never even seen herself married When she saw her future, it included different countries, lots of different adventures and sporadic and te asked to be a ate’ The egg was hers, however, and that made all the difference

Elena sat in her roonored the knocks on her door froh her door, but she tuned theiven up and left her alone She just lay on bed, watching as the light fled the room and was replaced with darkness, and the whole tiht

Her thoughts eventually ht lines to erratic waves and her e recollections frootten She remembered the parties she had been forced to attend, the boy she had loved in high school, the difference in the way her father looked at her compared with how he looked at Emily

At some point, she eventually started to drift off, exhausted fro Just before she fell asleep, she reuely, the juice herShe had really not been in the mood for juice, but she drank it anyway That really was the only way to be left alone in this house

Chapter7

“I’ll do it,” Elena said as soon as the door had opened

Neal stood opposite her, stunned into silence by her declaration He realized that he had not expected her to say yes Or at least, a large part of him had doubted that she would, but she stood there, her eyes strangely focused, her expression resolute

“You’ll do it?” Neal said, htly shell shocked

She sain, slowly

“Well then,” he said, sith huge relief, “you’d better come in”

Elena followed hiht away The kitchen was spacious and well designed, but the focal point of the rooe cushy sofa that sat in front of it To the side of the sofa was a large leather recliner, complete with a built in cup holder and aout froainst the backdrop of an i books, they held DVDs She wondered why men had such a complex with size