"I don't know." And wasn't that the crux of the problem. "She wants me to... come and live with her. Attempt to form a family... I suppose. I did not think I had any family to speak of." She had long ago passed the time when she had attempted, with childish desperation, to see the Demiels as such. They were her keepers, nothing more, until she could be handed over to her husband like some sort of parcel.
Was Alys different? How much would she really want Juliette in her life once she realized she was... awkward and not at all amiable and generally lacking in... appeal?
"It could be better," she said after a few moments of thoughtful silence. It could hardly be worse. "There are... certain factors about my current situation which... could be improved. But if she decides, after the fact that she has made the wrong decision... I do not think I would be able to go back."