Chapter 90

**Artemis**


I had meant to let Blue rest but she’s an addiction and I felt this urge to be inside her the second I saw our bed. She obliged me for about an hour, first in our bed and second in the shower, before I finally let her rest. As soon as her head hit the pillow she was out. As I promised her, I stay in the bed next to her and I don’t bother getting dressed again. Instead, I chose a pair of loose basketball shorts which had Blue looking at me with that look she gets every time she sees me naked.

While I let her sleep I decide to check in on my father. Dane has him in a secret location until we undo what he’s done to my company. All current employees have been let go with a healthy severance package to be sure that they do not claim any sort of injustice. Which is more than they are owed after going along with my father’s plans. I also had my lawyers write up NDAs for everyone as well just in case. Only a few people gave us a problem in which we kindly told them the contract they signed says anyone involved in sabotage of the company would be punished by the law.

Unfortunately, because of my deal with my father it won’t be possible to restart our business with the same name, but I’m oddly happy about that. I have an idea of what I want our company to be called and this name will mean more to me than the last. All the funds not under the control of the terms of my contract with my father have been moved to our new business account. I was able to move it to a secure bank that handles special cases. This will be so that no one can access it but me, not even Alan.

My hope is to drain funding from my father so he will need to close the business for good. I should have done all these years ago but before now I was focused on my work. Giving my father a share of my company seemed a small price to pay to do what I loved. Now I realize that it was easier to not stir things up too much. Some scowls and harsh words were all that would move between us otherwise my displeasure and resentment staying bottled up.

Ignore the problem and it doesn’t exist right?

Even though everything has turned to shit…I’m glad things worked out this way. It was the final push I and my sisters needed to finally confront our father. Breaking ties with him and our mother won’t be easily given the connections they have, but I have connections too and I will use them if need be. Anything to shove it to the old man and protect my wife.

I never thought that word would be so powerful. Wife…it’s a simple word but with how much I feel for Blue it has much more weight. I’ve tried to imagine what things would be like if I married one of the girls my mother picked, and I cringe at the idea of being within five feet of those women. Everything about those women grated on my nerves, and even though Blue can be a smart-ass brat it in no way compares to the wining and pouting of those gold-digging women. Even while we were at the home furnishing store, she would check the prices and make a choking sound and quickly run away like the tag bit her.

More than once I had to remind her that we could buy the whole store if she wanted and several more as well. I could see the battle in her when she saw something she liked but as soon as I got any hint that she liked it I sent a message to my guy from the store. I made sure to call ahead and pick out a sales guy to work with as we went. I knew it would be hard for Blue to allow herself to splurge so I was ready. Then she saw the kids room stuff and all her worries melted away. She was grabbing every kid item they had available, and I helped.

I have been thinking over the suggestion she made about adopting or fostering kids as well as trying for our own, and although I can’t say for sure that I’ll know how to be a good parent to them I’ll try for Blue. At this point Alan is right…I’m completely whipped for this woman.

While the subject is my mind, I decide to look up some information on adoption and fostering children. I’m furious when I find websites where pictures and descriptions of these children are posted as if they are animals. How can a system that is meant to help children be this uncaring? That anger leads me to research how to open a home for kids. Apparently, it isn’t that hard. So, I start to look up buildings in our city that would work for a children’s home. It will have to be big if we want to help as many children as possible.

Also, we would need good people to work there. That may be tricky because I don’t trust anyone on first meeting them, so there will have to be a thorough exam of their past and experience before they are considered. I quickly make a list of everything I need to get started on the children’s home and send it to Abigail. I also made her promise not to tell Blue yet because I want to surprise her when it’s finished.

Once that’s done, I move back to the adoption website. So many of the kids are older or have disabilities. They are all trying to smile but I can see the same sadness in their eyes that Blue has. No one wanted them and they think no one ever will. So many times, growing up I wished I didn’t have the parents I had, but that was selfish of me even if I didn’t know better. As I scroll through the images of kids fake smiling for the camera someone catches my attention.

It’s a boy who seems to have the same name as the girl in the next photo. Siblings…

They are ages six and ten. The blurb next to the photos says that their parental situation is unknown since they were left at a hospital when they were two and six years old. They were severally malnourished and dehydrated with traces of drugs in their system from secondhand exposure.

“Artemis?” Blue’s voice breaks my concentration and I look her way to find her moving to sit up next to me.

She looks at the screen of my computer and that sadness she always tries her best to hide comes out in full force. “Brother and sister?”

I nod.

“I bet this is the first time they have been together in far too long. The system hardly every keeps siblings together.” she says with a sigh. “Sometimes I wonder if maybe I had siblings that I just can’t remember.”

She rests her head on my shoulder and reaches over to the computer to scroll further down. “God all of these kids need so much, and no one wants to help them.”

She stops at a photo of a little girl who is in a wheelchair.

“Lilly was injured in a car accident that killed her entire family. No other relatives or friends were located to take her in. She is paralyzed from the waist down but enjoys playing sports.” That last part makes Blue smile. “She sounds incredible.”

“Do you want to go meet her?” I ask her without thinking.

Her head snaps up and she looks at me in shock. “What?”

“We got all that stuff for the kid’s rooms, so we need to find kids to use them. Although I have a few words for them about how they posted these photos on their website.”

“Yeah, it’s weird. They could use a good Artemis Rhodes scolding.” She chuckles at herself, and I smile slightly.

“So, are we going to visit the kids?” I ask her.

She looks at the computer screen again and nods slowly. “Yeah, let’s go meet some amazing kids. I just have to make sure not to fall in love with all of them immediately or we’ll be taking them all home.”

That statement has me glad that about my plans for the children’s home and I can tell if I ask her to run it she will jump at the chance. She might be the one working late nights instead of me, but when she gets pregnant she will have to fight me to let her work long hours. My baby and her come first no matter how many people need her help.