Athena's Daughter

by Juli Page Morgan

  She accepted that now, and knew she would love Derek Marshall for the rest of her life. Sure, it sounded sappy and melodramatic, but it wasn’t. It’s just the way things were. A firm believer in soul mates, Athena knew she’d found hers in Derek, but if he refused to believe or accept it then there was nothing she could do about it.

  Wiping tears from her face, she sorted the photos into different envelopes; one for general photos, another for pictures for Elizabeth, and one more for herself. In the last one went the photos she found most personal, including the one Andi had found of that kiss. Maybe someday she’d be able to look at them again.

  Once that chore was out of the way, she attacked the rest of the box. When she went through the flyers for the shows Wolf played that summer, she was glad to see she had multiple copies of each one. Good. She could give a copy of each flyer to Derek the way she’d planned, and still have one for a keepsake.

  It was only when she was putting the bits and pieces back into the box that she found the plastic baggie containing her “engagement ring.” Trapped between two boarding passes, it fell into her lap like it was demanding attention. Swallowing heavily, she picked it up and looked at it for a long time. She’d cried over the pictures, but the sorrow she felt holding the ring went too deep for tears. Finally, she sighed and put it in the envelope with the pictures she’d set aside for Elizabeth. One day she’d give it to her daughter when she was old enough to understand.

  The sound of the door opening caught her attention, and she looked up as Derek entered the room. The trepidation she felt at seeing him vanished when she took a good look at him. He was as dressed up as she’d ever seen him – a royal blue silk shirt that made his eyes even more extraordinary than usual, tight black jeans, boots, and a denim vest that hung open over the shirt. A thin black leather necklace rested just above his collarbone, calling attention to the tempting lines of his neck, and as he pushed his hair back with his right hand she caught sight of a wide silver ring on his index finger.

  She spoke before she could stop herself. “Well, you look nice.”

  “Thank you.” He stepped forward, hands tugging at his vest. “I wanted to let you know…What are those?”

  Athena followed the direction of his gaze, and saw he was looking at the flyers.

  “Oh, yeah. They’re flyers from some of the shows Wolf played the…the summer we met.” She picked them up and handed the stack to him. “I thought you might like to have them.”

  “These are super,” he exclaimed with a smile that grew wider as he flipped through the papers. “I didn’t know you saved these.”

  “I didn’t either. They were in the basement at my folks’ house.” While his attention was diverted, she slipped the envelope containing her personal pictures under the cushion of the couch.

  “Thank you, Athena.” He looked up with a small frown. “Don’t you want them?”

  “I have some,” she explained. “I had at least two of each of them.”

  “That’s good.” His eyes narrowed as he took in the things spread across the coffee table. “Are those pictures?”

  “Mm-hm.” She sat still as he picked up the larger envelope. His laughter echoed through the room as he went through the photos it contained. “Do you have copies of these, too?”

  “Not yet. But I’m planning to have some made. I take it you want a set?”

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” he said, oddly formal. He put down the envelope, and picked up the one with Elizabeth’s pictures. “What are these?”

  She shifted on the couch, uncomfortable. “Those are for Elizabeth.”

  Deep silence descended as Derek looked at them, his hands shuffling slowly through the images. The muscles in his throat moved as he swallowed. “Yeah, she…She’ll like these.” He began going through them again, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. “Are you having copies made of these?”

  Athena caught her breath. “If you want me to.”

  He nodded, his eyes on the pictures. “I’d like them, yes.” Straightening his shoulders, he put the photos back in the envelope, but paused, looking confused. “There’s something else in here.” Dipping two fingers into the envelope, he fished around and pulled out the baggie. The minute he got a good look at what it contained, he froze.

  Every fiber of her being told her to look away, but she couldn’t. She had to see his reaction.

  Almost immediately his eyes acquired an unnatural shine, and he blinked in an effort to dispel it. He swallowed again, and cleared his throat. “Really outdid myself on the jewelry, didn’t I?”

  “It meant more than any diamond you could have bought,” she replied through trembling lips.

  His chest hitched as his breath caught. He cleared his throat again. “You’re, uh, you’re giving it to Elizabeth?”

  “I thought she might like to have it.”

  His gaze stayed riveted on the purple circlet of string. “Would you mind terribly if I gave it to her? Since I…I gave it to you, I’d rather like to give it to her, too.”

  “Oh.” She licked her lips. “I guess so. Only, I wasn’t planning to give it to her for several years. I don’t think she’s old enough to take care of it right now.”

  “You’re right; she’s not. I’ll just hold on to it until she is.” He paused in the act of tucking the baggie into the front pocket of his jeans and glanced up at her. “If that’s okay with you.”

  “Sure,” she replied after a slight hesitation. “Just don’t…don’t lose it.”

  “I won’t lose it, Athena.”

  A certain tone in his voice made her look quickly up at him, but he had transferred his attention to the fireplace.

  “Anyway. What I came over here to tell you is that I won’t be eating with you and Elizabeth tonight. I’m going out to dinner.”

  Icy coldness seeped through her as his meaning became clear. She had to force her voice around an industrial sized lump that formed in her throat. “Oh? Who with?”

  The fingers of his left hand twisted the ring on his right, betraying his nervousness. “Barbara, the receptionist at the attorney’s office.”

  “Hm.” She tried to keep her voice neutral. It was hard since what she really wanted to do was scream at him, jump up and slap the hell out of him. “I didn’t know you two were so close.” In her mind’s eye she saw the slim receptionist sitting behind her desk with every shining hair in place, and wearing a suit that cost as much as Athena earned in a month. If that bitch dared to show her face in Athena’s house then she’d get slapped, too.

  “Well, we’re not.” He moved forward and touched the items on the mantel, fingers moving restlessly over picture frames, candlesticks, and a lumpy ceramic pot Elizabeth had made at school for Athena’s Mother’s Day gift. “But I thought I needed to get out for a bit.”

  “Sure.”

  “I guess I’d better go up and tell Elizabeth I won’t be here to tuck her into bed tonight.”

  Oh, so he was planning on a late night, was he? The icy feeling disappeared, replaced with a white hot sheet of anger. “Yeah, good luck with that.”

  He opened his mouth as if to reply, but shut it again without saying anything. With a nervous shrug he left the room.

  Athena jumped to her feet and yanked the picture envelope from under the cushion. It took every bit of willpower she possessed not to shred it into confetti and flush it down the toilet. With shaking hands she threw it back into the shoebox, followed by the rest of the memories that now meant less than nothing to her.

  An indignant shriek from Elizabeth made her jerk her head up. Just wonderful. He was going to get the child all upset, and then walk out and leave Athena to deal with the fallout. And the son of a bitch was taking her ring with him!

  At the sound of his footsteps on the stairs, she dashed into the kitchen and pretended to be busy. Of course, that might not have been the best idea since the kitchen was where all the sharp knives were.

  The sound of a car horn out front brought
as much dread to Athena as the sound of Charon’s boat would bring to doomed souls waiting on the banks of the River Styx. She clutched a half used roll of paper towels so hard it bent double.

  “That’s her, then,” Derek said from the living room. “I’m gone.”

  “Goodnight,” she called after him. As the door closed behind him, she added in the same sweet sing-song voice, “I hope you get a venereal disease.”

  The sound of a car door was followed by the purr of what was undoubtedly an expensive motor pulling away from the house. Athena stifled a tortured cry of grief into the mangled paper towels as a swift, sharp pain cut through her chest.

  Yep, there went her heart breaking again, just like she’d predicted.

  “Three strikes, Derek,” she whispered. “Three strikes and you’re out.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Elizabeth rejected supper, fought Athena through her bath, and refused to be comforted at bedtime. For the first time in years Athena was forced to let her daughter cry herself to sleep, and it made her livid.

  Seething with anger, she sat in the den listening to Elizabeth’s sobs drifting down the stairs, and directed every curse she knew at Derek’s head. This little date of his was so obviously meant to hurt her, and it was unconscionable of him to let his daughter become collateral damage.

  Worrying about Elizabeth kept her mind off her own pain, but as the little girl slipped into sleep and the house grew silent, Athena’s thoughts turned to her own broken heart, much as she tried not to think of it. He was leaving the following week for Muscle Shoals; why did he feel the need to do this now? She hadn’t made any further advances, and did her best to keep her distance. The only thing she could think was that the morning after their escapade he was so disgusted by what happened that he wanted to erase her from his memory as quickly as possible with the first woman that came along.

  She grabbed the remote control and aimed it at the television hoping to find something to take her mind off the searing hurt at the thought of Derek with someone else. But Friday night programming was more inane than the usual fare, and she flipped past Chico and the Man, Planet of the Apes and The Six Million Dollar Man before she gave up and turned the set off. There was no way she’d be able to keep her mind on a book or magazine, so she accepted the fact that she was just going to torture herself all night and no help for it.

  Hoping music would help, she got up and turned on the radio. Huge mistake. 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love” flowed through the speakers and straight into her heart where it stabbed like shards of ice. She stood in front of the stereo staring at the lighted dial, and let the tears slide down her cheeks as she listened to the singer try to convince himself that he wasn’t in love. Athena could have written that song about denial and pain and love that wouldn’t quit. No matter how much she tried not to love Derek Marshall, she loved him all the more. Even though he didn’t love her.

  As the song ended, she turned off the stereo and all the lights, and determined to go to bed. Maybe she could fall asleep and escape the hell her life had become. But even the thought of bed held no comfort. All she could think of was waking up the week before next to Derek.

  Her iron control broke, and she crumpled back onto the couch in the dark room, deep sobs tearing through her chest. She wrapped her arms around her body and rocked back and forth, keening with grief. Her mind kept conjuring up the image of that receptionist with her perfect smile, perfect hair, perfect life. She recalled with clarity the gleaming polish on the woman’s nails, an indulgence for which Athena never had the time or money. And then she imagined those nails digging into Derek’s back as he touched her the way he’d touched Athena, his beautiful body sliding over that skinny bitch, and…

  “No,” she moaned. “Please, God, no more. I can’t.” She had to stop it. It would drive her completely insane if she didn’t.

  Though she would never do it, she imagined herself marching into the attorney’s office on Monday morning. She would borrow something smashing to wear from Andi, and look every inch as self-assured and haughty as that slut Barbara. Sweeping into the partner’s meeting – because all lawyers had partner’s meetings on Monday mornings, didn’t they? – she would announce that their receptionist was…was…behaving lewdly, that was it. Yes, she was behaving lewdly with one of their clients. Then they would fire her on the spot, and Athena would stand there and gloat.

  For a little while she was comforted by the thought of Barbara being out of her cushy job, forced to work as a cook at a barbeque joint in Midtown where her skin would get greasy and her hair would be covered by an unflattering plastic hairnet. She’d lose whatever fancy living arrangements she had, and would have to move to the crummy apartment Athena endured for so many years. That expensive sounding car would get repossessed, and she’d be forced to take the bus everywhere.

  As the fantasy wore down, Athena sighed. Not only would she never have the guts to tell on the little bitch, even if she did it probably wouldn’t matter. Girls like that always fell on their feet. Girls like that had rich parents who supported them until they could marry an equally rich man and continue the golden life they’d led in high school. Fuck, she’d probably end up with Derek if she was forced out of her job.

  Huddled in a miserable ball, she at first thought the car outside was just driving by at a slow speed. But when it came to a halt, she raised her head, alert. The motor shut off, and Athena jumped to her feet. There was no way in hell she was going to allow Derek to take that woman to the guest house, not with Elizabeth at home.

  She ran barefooted into the living room and approached the large multi-paned window from the side. Hiding behind the curtain, she peeked out and saw the dark shape of a car parked at the curb in front of the house. As she watched, the passenger door opened, and the dome light illuminated Derek’s hair before he got out of the car. Before she could move, the driver’s side door opened and the skinny, snake-like silhouette of Barbara the Bitch slinked around the car. Athena heard her muted voice and saw Derek turn back to her.

  Bile rose in her throat as the woman swayed into Derek and pressed her nasty lips to his in a kiss that seemed to go on for hours. At last they separated, and Derek started for the house again. Alone. Athena’s shoulders sagged as she watched Barbara get back into her car. The tension returned when she realized that when Derek came in he would find her standing there spying on him.

  Heart pounding, she darted out of the living room and into the hall just as Derek’s key scraped against the lock. Her hip banged painfully into the doorway to the kitchen as she skidded on the tiles. Damn it! Why had she gone into the kitchen? She should have run into her bedroom and pretended to be asleep. Too late now.

  As Derek’s footsteps approached from the living room, she ran on tiptoes into the small pantry and pulled the door almost closed. Adrenaline made her breathing quicken, and she clapped her hands over her mouth to try to muffle the sound as she heard Derek cross the kitchen and step down into the den. The French doors rattled as he went out, followed by the sound of his key locking the doors behind him.

  Athena slipped from the pantry and watched him through the breakfast nook window. The lights from the pool were bright enough that she could make out his form as he went into the guest house. He was home. And he was alone.

  Her breath gusted out of her in a huge sigh, and she started shaking with reaction. She stumbled over to the stove and leaned close to see the clock. It was only nine o’clock. Well. Either Barbara was a lousy lay, or Derek’s evening hadn’t panned out the way he’d planned. Her momentary elation evaporated as quickly as it had come. One night he wouldn’t come home, and she couldn’t bear another night like this one.

  Things were going to have to change.

  *****

  The next morning, Elizabeth woke doing an excellent impression of Reagan from The Exorcist, only it was Reagan after she’d been possessed by the devil. She refused to cooperate with Athena about anything, whether it was breakfast, brus
hing her teeth, getting dressed or brushing her hair. At her wit’s end, Athena finally left her daughter wailing on the floor of her room dressed only in a pair of light blue panties and with her hair a tangled nest.

  Dashing into her bedroom to do something with her own hair, Athena caught a glimpse of the clock and moved even faster. If she didn’t hurry, she was going to be late. Of course, the minute she tried to put her hair into a ponytail, the elastic broke. Muttering an obscenity, she searched the various jars and baskets on the counter in vain for a replacement. She crouched down and opened the cabinet under the sink, hoping a new package might be lurking within.

  Good grief, she hadn’t even opened this cabinet since the day they moved in. Andi had unpacked the bathroom for her, and it was clear she just shoved everything under the sink in no order whatsoever. Grimacing, Athena pushed aside a half-used can of hairspray, a dusty glass with four old combs in it, and a box of tampons until she found an unopened package of hair elastics. She ripped open the package and took one out before shoving everything back into place with a half-formed thought of organizing the cabinet that night.

  The can of hairspray toppled onto its side and knocked the box of tampons over, and she sighed. Why did this kind of thing only happen when she was in a hurry? She righted the can and began scooping the tampons back into the box, but stopped, frowning. Something about that didn’t add up. Why were the tampons under the sink instead of in the basket beside the toilet where she could get to them?

  The reason why hit her like a thunderbolt, and she dropped the box, tampons spilling out again into the cabinet. She sat down on the floor with a boneless thump and scooted as far away from the evidence as she could, coming to a stop only when her back hit the side of the bathtub.