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The two of them looked back on their last few weeks together and both had the same dim enlightenment that came with the sobering news that the first step of their plan was underway. It was the knowledge that somehow, they had both been uncertain that this plan would work. In the back of their minds, Elena, and even Neal, had not thought it would go this far. They started on this path, because they were both desperate, and somewhere along the way, their reasons had mingled in with their sudden connection to one another. They had pushed the end goal far from their minds, so that now, faced with the little pink positive, Neal and Elena found themselves on the edge of a large cliff, and the fall was likely to leave permanent damage.
“Oh God,” Elena breathed, her tone laced with anxiety, “I’m pregnant.”
Neal fastened his hands around her arms, rubbing slowly and adopting what he hoped was a calm, soothing tone.
“It’s going to be alright,” he said unconvincingly, “we’re going to get through this.”
“How?” Elena asked looking up in trepidation.
“Because… because I will be here every step of the way.”
Elena smiled, but her eyes were weary and her smile was sad. Neal recognized that, and knew internally, that she had every right to be.
Chapter10
Elena turned the key in the latch and pushed the door open. The space was tiny, but it had worked well for her in the last year. She rented it out for a reasonable fee and used it to exercise her artistic frustration. That was what her art always felt like lately – frustration. She had no ongoing jobs. There were a bunch of supplies pushed toward one corner of the room, and a large oddly shaped form that had been draped over with an old shirt.
Elena had started work on a statue for a particularly fussy client, and mid-way through, that client had called in and canceled the order, leaving Elena in the lurch. She had wanted to kick herself for not insisting on an advance before she had begun work, but the client, a Mrs. Ludington, had convinced her that her word was good. That had been almost seven months ago, and the memory still rankled. Elena walked over to the half-finished statue and pulled off the white sheet.
The statue was a beautiful mold of a young girl reading a book. Unlike some of her other pieces, this one was near perfect, such as it was, in its half-complete state. Elena got the girl’s features perfectly, she almost looked real. Even the pages of her book were carved so intricately that they had the feel of authenticity.
Elena sat down on a crate that was pushed to the corner, and stared at her statue. It was a good one and it would have been great had it not been for the unreliable Mrs. Ludington. She had made so many stupid mistakes, mostly because she was so scared to lose a client, that she gave in to whatever they asked for. Elena sighed. In seconds, her life had changed completely. She had just come from the doctor's office.
He had confirmed her pregnancy. She recalled the look on Neal’s face – half relieved and half scared. She understood what he was feeling, his goal to keep the family business was a little more attainable at this point, but she couldn’t help feeling alone in the matter.
Neal would save his business, raise his child, and get on with his life. Elena was not so sure what she had planned for her own life. It suddenly struck her that when this was all over, she would have financial independence, something she had craved since she was a teenager, but what was most startling was the fact that the thought gave her no satisfaction whatsoever.
She felt hollow inside, the money was necessary to survive, but it did not make a happy person. Elena started to wonder if she had wanted the wrong things her whole life, but her thoughts couldn’t focus, they darted around, in search of clarity and direction, but her mind was preoccupied with
images of babies and swollen limbs and morning sickness.
She tried to ignore the soft little voice in the back of her mind that told her there was nothing to look forward to at the end of all this, because she would not get to keep the baby.
Elena rested her tired head on her palms. Now that she was well and truly in it, she questioned every single reasoning process that had led her to accept Neal. She enjoyed the last few weeks, there was no denying that. She found herself intoxicated by Neal, charmed by his easy charisma and his slow smile. She developed feelings that she should have stamped out the moment they flitted to her consciousness, but she realized that no amount of money and security could remove these memories from her life.
She could travel everywhere, she could have a hundred different lovers and create a thousand different sculptures, but she would always know that she had slept with a man for money. She would always know that she had given birth to a child. She would always know that she had given that child up to be used as a piece in the games of men.
Elena understood Neal’s reasoning, but her mind had suddenly awoken to the fact that there was a child she was bringing into the world soon, and no matter which way she looked at it, she could not escape the fact that the decisions she and Neal made would directly affect that little person, for better or for worse.
Neal had prepared himself for this very reaction. The board appeared frantic in disbelief and barely controlled outrage. None more so than Cliff. He had puffed himself up in anger, and stared daggers at Neal, as though he could force the truth from him solely through intimidation. Neal’s nerves flitted around in his stomach, but his determination was unbending. He had come too far to turn back now.
“I don’t know what to tell you all,” Neal said, making a show of deliberate calm. “She came to me yesterday and told me the news, and now I’m telling the board.”
“You’re bluffing, boy,” Cliff growled at him from across the room.
“I’m not,” Neal said confidently, “she’s pregnant with George’s baby, and I believe her.”
“Of course you would believe her,” Cliff said darkly, “it’s convenient to believe her, isn’t it?”
Neal rolled his eyes, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I know this one here,” he jerked his face in the direction of Harry, “told you about the codicil. You knew that the only way to keep control of the company was to manufacture a child you could claim was George’s.”
“You’re saying I had something to do with this pregnancy?” Neal said, feigning incredulity.
“I think you have everything to do with this pregnancy.”
“That's quite an accusation. You’re getting paranoid in your old age, Cliff,” Neal said lightly, pouring himself a glass of water, as though he was thoroughly unconcerned by this whole business.
