Page 1 of Eros
Chapter One
Janea
The music posters of my youth, and the pictures I’d taken from different vacations hang on the beige walls of my bedroom like a shrine to my childhood. Every day I wish for the days when my life was so much simpler. I had a close-knit family, and everyone seemed happy. Now, everything had gone to shit.
I blew out a breath while gazing out the window of my bedroom. After my mother’s cancer diagnosis, I ended my lease on my apartment and moved back into my childhood home to help. My father worked all the time, and I didn’t want my mother to be surrounded by nurses she didn’t know. I wanted her to be as comfortable as she could be despite the circumstances.
Even though both my parents were against the move, there was no way I was going to let them go through such a difficult time alone. But now I hated living here. Despite the beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean and the gorgeous sunsets, this place felt more like a prison than a home, especially since my mother had passed away six months ago.
My father went from being a doting parent to a tyrant just as soon as she was lowered in the ground. When I was growing up, it was hard for me to grasp that Roger and Elizabeth Thorne weren’t my biological parents despite the difference in our race. They adopted me when I was just two years old because doctors said she couldn’t have children after years of trying. However, after they finalized my adoption, my mother ended up getting pregnant with my little brother two years later. But none of that mattered. While they had a biological son, they treated me like their daughter. At least until the day she died.
My father became distant and even mean sometimes after my mother’s death. At first, I thought it was grief and maybe he didn’t want to be around anyone, including me. Everyone dealt with death differently. And losing someone you’ve spent most of your life with had to be difficult. But now I didn’t know if the changes in him had anything to do with grief or loneliness. Maybe this was the man he had been all along, and as his child, I ignored it. Now I was seeing a side of him I’d never seen before.
After her death, my father got elected Lt. Governor of California because he had desires to be Governor of California one day. It had been one of his ambitions since I’d been a child. He rose quickly in the political world, serving as Mayor of San Francisco and serving in the State House, before becoming Lt. Governor.
My parents groomed me to be the perfect daughter for the cameras and the public for as long as I could remember. As a small child, I’d been used as a campaign prop, dressed in frilly dresses that cost a fortune, to show how the loving couple took in the product of two underage kids who couldn’t provide for their child. But when she was here, she kept him grounded. But now that she was dead, that man was gone too.
Power had gone to his head, changing the man he once was to a person I barely recognized. Now, he was short with everyone,always yelling at the staff, and sometimes at me. Brent, my brother, thought I was overreacting whenever I called him to vent, but he wasn’t here to see how much our dad had changed. He was living his life on an island in Hawaii, giving surfing lessons. He didn’t have a care in the world because, like always, my dad never let him grow up. My brother had always had an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude. So, as long as the drama was far away from him, there wasn’t a problem.
“I’ve got to get out of here.”
My emotions were all over the place. Love, hate, disbelief, heartache, all of it was overwhelming me all at once. The walls of my childhood bedroom closed in around me. Like I said, being here was like being in prison. I had no privacy despite being almost thirty with a career. I provided for myself and never asked my father for anything. But now that my mom was dead, and my dad had turned into a total asshole, it was time for me to move out again. I doubted he would try to stop me.
I turned away from the window and grabbed my camera from the vanity, then headed downstairs. At this time of the day, the house was virtually empty. A few of the cooks and the head servant still meandered around getting dinner ready for my father and his new girlfriend, Shannon. Another reason I needed to move out. Shannon, my former best friend, would be someone I would never respect or accept as a part of my family. She betrayed me by having a relationship with my father. And so did he.
Another reason our relationship has gone straight to shit.
It didn’t take long for him to replace my mom. Shannon was the same age as me and had been my friend since she was my college roommate. Now she wanted to act like she was my mother because she was fucking my father. The amount of anger I experienced when I found out about their relationship wasunreal. I’d never felt so much hatred for someone in my life until the night they made their relationship known to me.
I could have killed them both.
Even though they both denied that their relationship started before my mother’s death, I didn’t believe them. I’d be a fool to believe a snake. Sometimes I came home, and Shannon would be there. I just assumed she had come to see me, but now I knew that wasn’t the truth. She used me as an excuse to get close to my father. But whatever happened between them, I blamed them both and would never forgive either of them.
When I reached the first floor, I heard my father’s voice. The door to his office was cracked open. He probably assumed I wasn’t home because he never discussed business with his door open. My father having an argument with someone wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the amount of anger and the topic. Terror raced through me, and if I hadn’t heard his side of the conversation, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“What are you doing?”
I jumped at the sound of her voice, then my father’s voice stopped before he cut off his phone call.
“I don’t owe you any explanation,” I said to my former best friend, who had just caught me eavesdropping on my father’s conversation.
“I didn’t know you were home, Janea,” my father said, his face flushed with anger. “Were you listening to my conversation?” my father asked.
“She was Roger,” Shannon said before I could answer him. “I saw her.”
Hell yeah, I was listening, but there was no way he could know that.
“No.” I looked at him confused even though I wasn’t. “When do I ever involve myself in your business, Dad?” He looked at me with skepticism. While she caught me this time, I had neverwalked in on him discussing his business, and he’d never get me to admit that I heard anything this time. “And when did you start believing people over me?”
For a moment his eyes softened. He looked like the man who raised me. “I’m sorry, honey.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I’m just stressed with work. Did you need something?”
I kept my fear at bay.
“I just wanted to let you know I was going out, and I won’t be back for a week just in case you can’t get in touch with me.”
His brow pinched together. “Where are you going? You have a new assignment for work?”
“You do realize how old I am, right?” I asked. “You don’t need to know my every move.”
