Deception by VK Powell

Author:VK Powell [Powell, VK]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2016-07-09T04:00:00+00:00

*

Adena walked into her family home praying for a dose of strength before facing the mayor and DRC donors. The living room still smelled musky from years of her father’s Cuban cigars. She inhaled deeply, and the faint scent of clove mixed with cherry summoned another surge of emotion. She turned in a circle on the hardwood floor, staring at the popcorn ceilings, waiting for her father to pick her up and swing her around until she was dizzy. Those days were gone. She was an orphan, and it hurt more than she’d imagined it could. Her eyes filled with tears. This might not have been such a good idea.

A portrait of her parents commissioned early in their marriage hung over the huge fireplace, and a leather recliner stood empty nearby, legal journals stacked precariously beside it. A pair of her father’s old-fashioned wire-rimmed glasses rested on top of the magazines. When she’d kidded him about upgrading, his standard response was always, “What am I, a fashion plate for optometry?” She picked up the readers and hefted the weight in her palm, the legs sprawling sideways at odd angles. A tear splashed onto one of the thick lenses.

When had she last visited him? Had they shared a meal, a glass of wine, or a meaningful conversation? When had they spoken of anything except work? Memories were details wrapped in painful feelings. Where were her happy memories? Were they simply buried deeper? Even now could she release the reins of control and responsibility enough to enjoy life? Was Oliver right? Could she walk away from the law practice and the DRC without betraying everything her father worked for? So many questions without answers.

She replaced the glasses by his chair and went into his study. Cigar-smoke residue tinged the glass covering his legal diplomas with a yellowish haze. He’d been an accomplished man, and she was proud to call him father, but she’d missed the gentility and nurturing of a mother. Had the lack of emotional guidance steered her in her father’s responsibility-laden footsteps, away from the desire for love, home, and family?

Colby’s stories of her parents’ concern about her air-force career, her mother lovingly crafting biscuits, her father’s struggles with PTSD, and their closeness as a family had touched Adena in places that ached for love and intimacy. She believed in the concept of family and the commitment and longevity required to maintain it, but she’d never found the person who spoke to her heart and asked her to try.

Had Colby experienced such a relationship? Did she know how it felt to commit totally to another person? Had that commitment shattered her family and home and left her destitute on the streets? Adena knew beyond any doubt that love could wound and obliterate as easily as it healed and restored. Was it too late for her to try love?

She wandered through the other rooms of their ranch-style home, recalling memories in each one, saying good-bye: her father’s fumbled explanation of sex

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