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With the trio still blatantly staring at her, Elle nonchalantly brought adown from the cupboard, retrieved her tea leaf strainer from the drawer, and put the chai vanilla-flavored tea into the ball strainer She set it in her cup, added boiling water from the instant hot water dispenser, and waited for the flavors in the leaves to steep

“Where were you last night?” Helena finally asked, breaking the aard silence that had descended over the room when Elle had walked in

Elle reached for the slance her stepmother’s way “That’s none of your business”

Helena exhaled on an annoyed huff before she spoke again “I heard that youin Williaain?” Her voice dripped with disdain

Elle exhaled a deep, cale It didn’t matter that the three of theht of the fairy-tale ball since she’d spent the evening with hi hours Or that Helena wasthe same assumption now She wasn’t about to confirm or deny their suspicions

With her tea properly steeped, she removed the ball strainer, set it in the sink, and added a sain, I’s is none of your concern”

“A ue, Elaina, and it’s just a ets tired of you,” Helena said bitterly “You do realize that, don’t you?”

Elle brought her cup up to her lips, blew on the stea liquid, then took a set tired ofhim”

“Just sleeping with hih there was an undercurrent of jealousy in her tone “When did you become such a slut?”

It took effort not to wince at the slur, and her stepmother was quick to add insult to injury “I know you met hi, Elaina Men like Hunter Wilder want a beautiful, sophisticated wo one”

The words were always painful, but Elle was confident in how beautiful she was to Hunter Not only did he use words to tell her, but every touch, every kiss, every caress reaffirmed that he found her sexy and desirable Her stepmother could never take that away from her

Done being the focus of their derogatory colanced at the three of theh she was sitting lower than Elle was standing, Gith a bitchy s her lips, and Clairewho hadn’t said a word and had what looked to be an oddly concerned look on her face

Every once in a while, Elle sensed that Claire felt bad about the horrible way Helena and Gwen treated her, like now Oh, there had been tis in with Gwen urging her on, but over the past year, she’d grown quieter and not as quick to pile insults on top of the ones her mother and sister heaped on Elle

Elleto Hunter thisabout the situation with the house and business, she finally felt like she had a plan of action to offer Helena what she wanted and seeh of—money—and in return, Elle would take the realty company, which her stepmother wasn’t interested in, anyway Except for the money she could squeeze out of it At least Elle would have one thing all to herself that had belonged to her parents

Elle set herof tea on the counter “Helena, we need to have a serious conversation about selling this house,” she said, and could have sworn she saw soaze at the suggestion “There is over four hundred thousand dollars in equity, which gives h to buy out your half of the business, and you’d have a lot of money to start over soo our separate ways instead of living together when none of us are happy with that arrangement, anyway”