Page 6 of Tales of Obsession Epilogue
“I brought food for them.” She pointed at the white tote bag. “And I was hoping one of Damon’s foundations could help them figure out the next step.” She glanced at him wistfully, searching his face.
Well, fuck that.
“We can take the girl until we find a good home for her,” I told Rose before he could respond.
Rose stilled next to me.
“You said the boy looked to be about sixteen. I can give him an aptitude test and mentor him. If he’s smart, I’ll get him enrolled in a boarding school. If he isn’t academically inclined and can’t get into college, I’ll find him work at my new lab after he graduates. I’ll pay him enough so he can take care of his sister.”
Rose’s pupils were blown wide. “You? You want to foster? You?”
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Damon wasn’t the only charitable fucker. How hard was it to take care of a couple of kids? “Yes, Rose. Me,” I said with a bite to my tone. “Damon does it all the time before he transitions them into homes. And I’m much smarter than him, so how hard can it be?”
“I-I am sorry,” Rose stammered, while Damon and Poppy stopped a few feet away from us, realizing we needed the space. “I didn’t think you were child-friendly. Also, what did you mean bywe can take the girl?”
I stared at her for a few moments. “You’re moving in with me, obviously.”
Rose opened her mouth, but I cut her off.
“Social services prefer it when couples foster children, not single men. In any case, do you really want to live with your father instead of your fiancé?”
Rose cringed. “Well, no, I don’t want to live with him.” She seemed thoughtful for a moment before she spoke more decisively. “I want to live with you. You just caught me off guard because we never discussed it.”
A slow smile crossed my face. “What’s there to discuss? You’re my fiancée, so it makes sense to live together, especially if we are fostering a little girl. It’d be specifically beneficial to the process if we got married. Social services look down on couples living in sin. They prefer traditional homes.”
Rose didn’t know how to argue with my logic and kept quiet.
“We’re engaged, Rose,” I pressed. “That means we’ll be getting married sooner or later. I thought that much was a given.”
“How soon were you looking to get married?”
“By Valentine’s Day.”
“That’s next week,” she shrieked.
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind being married to you by next week and fostering a few hungry children. Would you?”
She stared at me, unblinking. Slowly, she whispered, “I wouldn’t mind being married to you, either.”
With a smile, I grabbed her hand. We resumed our walk along the deck. Now, I really hoped to find those kids. Who knew having kids was so advantageous?
Just as Rose fell into step behind me, I stopped short. There were two kids—a teenager and a little girl—going through the trash at the far end of the deck. The way Rose’s face lit up told me everything I needed to know.
Well, I’ll be damned.
Itended to hold on to resentment, or so I had been told by Rose. I couldn’t refute the accusation, not when I purposefully made Damon my best man to give him a front-row seat while I married Rose.
Damon only had eyes for Poppy, with a baby on the way. Still, I had to make sure he knew the only one in Rose’s heart was me. The reason Rose might have liked him once was because she mistook Damon for me. Nonetheless, I was a bitter man who held on to grudges, and the fact that I could put my brother through the wringer today brought me solace.
“She should be here by now,” I muttered under my breath.
Damon sighed. “I suppose it’s pointless to ask you to exercise patience. You do know it’s a virtue.”
“And as I have told you many times, I’m virtue deficient. Now go and find out what’s taking so long.”
Though Damon made a face, he couldn’t flip me off on my wedding day. Instead, he left themandapto check on the bride’s arrival.
The hotel ballroom looked great, though we only had a week to plan the wedding. I glanced at Enzo and his sister—Brynne—in the front row. They had been staying in my spare rooms. Enzo was curiously smart. It was a piece of cake to get him enrolled in a boarding school, though he had concerns about leaving his sister behind. After receiving many reassurances from Rose, he agreed to biweekly weekend visits while we found a stable home for his sister. It was disgustingly easy to get Enzo and Brynne’s biological mother to agree to the adoption. Even she knew she wasn’t meant to be a mother, and this was for the best.
