Sunny

Chapter 14

Present Day...

Her father picked that same day to show up unannounced at the house. As far as days went she didn't think it could get much worse. First Lola's assumptions and now this.

"Daddy, stop! You can't just barge in here unannounced!" She clutched at her father's arm trying to keep him from going up the stairs to her mother's room.

"Child, leave me, it's between me and your mother," he insisted, gently removing her hand from his arm. "I love all of my girls and my son, and it's past time that I fix this." He turned to start up the stairs once more.

"This is not the way to fix it Daddy!" she hissed, grabbing for him once more.

Her father was a gentle man and would never hurt any living thing. He lived in books, he was so far into them that he sometimes forgot the real world. It was how she had ended up having to take care of the businesses and her mother.

When her mother had gotten so ill, during her pregnancy with Aion, he had escaped into his books and he had never come out. Rhea hadn't worried at first because she thought having a new son would pull him back into the real world, but it hadn't. Her mother had remained ill for a long time after Aion's birth and her father had continued to escape that fact by staying buried in his books.

She almost wished he had a drinking or gambling problem because there were treatment programs to help with that, she had yet to hear of a program for obsessive readers.

Rhea felt Eli's presence as he entered through the screen door behind her. Both she and her father paused and turned to look at him.

"Am I interrupting?" Eli asked.

"No," Rhea said licking her lips nervously. "Daddy, this is Elias Emory, Eli this is my father Linus Harris."

Eli took stock of her father not saying a word, and when her father turned to head up the stairs to her mother she stopped him again. "Please Daddy, let me go and let mother know you're here at least. You know she won't want you to walk in on her if she's a mess. She always likes to look her best for you."

He stopped and looked at Rhea as he considered her words. "There is sense in what you say," he agreed. "Don't take to long about it." He stood aside, allowing Rhea to climb the stairs two at a time to get to her mother.

"He's here, isn't he?" her mother asked as Rhea entered her bedroom, watching as she flew around the room, cleaning and dressing at the same time. It was apparent that she had been expecting him.

"Yes," Rhea confirmed, holding back a weary sigh. They were harder to keep up with than Aion and Phoebe. "I can only hold him off for a few more minutes." She started to help her mother clean, giving in once more to the chaos that surrounded her.

She was suddenly very weary, why should she keep fighting to make sense of it. It was an impossible task and she was exhausted. Somehow her life had gone horribly wrong and the harder she fought to get it back on track the worse it derailed.

"Go, send up your father, I'm ready," her mother insisted.

Rhea headed down the stairs at a much slower pace and told her father that her mother would see him. He rushed up the stairs and Rhea sagged against the banister, too tired to move.

"Come on Sunny," Eli said, putting his arm around her shoulders as he led her into the living room. "Relax, I'll play you a song." He pushed her into the soft couch and she let herself fall into the plushness, curling up into a ball and resting her head against the arm of the couch.

"What would you like to hear? Ladies, choice."

She shrugged, not really caring, knowing anything would be wonderful.