The next day Elena was instructed by her mother to go to a boutique for choosing her dress which she would be wearing at her father's birthday party.
Elena freshened up and stood in front of her wardrobe to choose an outfit to wear. Her eyes skimmed past the clothes Vanessa had once insisted "suited her"—all carefully chosen to dim her presence. Now she saw it. Elena knew now that Vanessa did so because she didn't want to be paled in comparison to Elena while standing beside her.
Still, she had nothing that truly felt like her. So, she chose a middle ground: a plain black top with clean lines, tucked into soft gray trousers. The fit was decent, neither flattering nor unflattering. White sneakers, no jewelry, hair pulled back simply.
Just as Elena descended to the living room, she saw Vanessa waiting for her. Vanessa also saw Elena and was slightly surprised when she saw what Elena was wearing. Her outfit was not something that Vanessa had bought it with her and it neither dulled nor lighted up her presence. This made Vanessa very uncomfortable.
'Why is she here? Who called her?' Elena was puzzled as well as upset to see Vanessa. She hadn't called her as a surge of hatred arose in her heart whenever she saw Vanessa.
"Elena, you're here!" Elena's thoughts were disrupted by Vanessa's voice. "Elena, why didn't you call me? I think you didn't want to go shopping, right? Don't worry. Aunt Evelyn knew that you would resist so she called me."
Elena now understood what had happened. She sighed. Her mother thought that she was an introvert and didn't like to go out a lot. So, she thought of calling Vanessa who would drag Elena to go shopping. Elena didn't know what to say. Her mother didn't like Vanessa, but to make her more socially active, she didn't hesitate to take Vanessa's help. After all, she was Elena's only friend.
Elena shook her head helplessly before walking out with Vanessa, "Let's go."
Vanessa felt that Elena didn't look happy after seeing her as she always did. However, she ignored this when she thought of how reluctant Elena was every time they went shopping.
…
In the boutique owned by a famous designer.
"Elena, you will look very beautiful in this dress!" Vanessa said while holding a pure black dress in her hands. The dress was nice but it was not meant to be worn by the host of the party.
Also, in her past life, Vanessa had made her wear that dress in her father's birthday party, that had made her father disappointed in her. This was because family members avoided black for the birthday parties of their own family as black was worn on funerals. And wearing the color worn on funeral at the birthday party of their own family member was considered inauspicious. This act of hers was condemned by the entire city. Some people said that the heiress of the Ashford Group lacked basic sense while the vicious ones said that she wanted to curse her father to death.
Vanessa knew that black shouldn't be worn but she wanted Elena to become the laughing stock of the society, so she had made Elena wear it.
"Vanessa, this dress is gorgeous!" Elena said making Vanessa's eyes light up. She knew that this fool would definitely fall in her trap.
"I'll buy it, but I'm not going to wear it at my father's party. My dad wouldn't like it." Elena said in a direct tone. Elena's words shocked Vanessa. This was the first time that Elena had rejected her opinion. It had never happened before. Vanessa fell deep in thought.
'Was her intuition right? Was there something wrong with Elena? She could feel that something had changed yesterday also. But what was it? It couldn't be that Elena had guessed her intentions, right? No, no, Elena was just a fool.' Vanessa comforted herself.
Elena saw the look on Vanessa's face and smirked inwardly, 'Vanessa, don't get disappointed so soon. This is just the beginning. There's more to come.'
Vanessa collected her emotions and smiled sweetly at Elena, "Oh okay! We don't want your dad to get disappointed on his special day."
When Elena saw Vanessa's fake smile, she really wanted to punch her. Elena's hand was itching to do it badly, but she knew that now was not the time. So, instead of wasting her time on Vanessa, Elena started to scan the boutique for a dress that she would like. At this time, a beautiful dress caught her eyes.
An off-shoulder gown in deep midnight blue color with silver embroidery of celestial beings. It was a floor-length gown which complied exactly with the theme of the party "Legend of the immortals".
It was so breathtaking in Elena's eyes that she wanted to grab it. But just as she was about to do so, somebody abruptly stopped her.
"Hey! Don't you dare touch that dress, it's mine!"