"Elena, clean your damn room!" A flushed, swollen face bellowed from the doorway.
"No! You clean it." The voice of a defiant teenage girl yelled back.
"You're worthless just like your mother..." he stammered off. His eyes immediately turned apologetic. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I didn't..." He stumbled around, unsure of his position. He closed the door and walked away.
Elena moved a black strand of hair behind her ear. She was used to these confrontations with her father. They have been increasing ever since he introduced her to that man she refused to see again. She dared not try to understand her father's underlying motive, but her disobedience was troubling him, this much was obvious.
Elena began to pick up her clothes that scattered across her bedroom. She had already ran away twice this month and her eyes wandered to her bag.
Her life was privileged, this fact was made clear on a daily basis. Grandfather and father lived in a Victorian-era house and employed the services of a maid and cook. Grandfather never left the 3 bedroom addition that was built during her childhood. She hadn't seen him emerge in 10 years, yet the continuous flow of business partners and his assistant reassured her of his existence. Her father, on the other hand, made his presence known incessantly. While he tried to keep her favor, he was never open to discussion of her mother or any other family. He expected her to believe this arrangement to be in the norm and this infuriated her.
"How can he believe me to be so stupid?" She muttered. She finished putting her clothes away and sat on the bench in front of the bay window that overlooked Toften Lake. "A privileged life...yeah...imprisoned more like it."
She stared at her reflection. Her eyes, the ones father said could melt anyone's heart, did not belong to him. They belonged to her mother, the mother she knew existed but could not meet. Her lips and delicate nose, also a gift from her. She wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her face. Why was she given this life? Why couldn't she be like the girls in the magazines, worrying about her hair and makeup and not about loneliness?