All Chapters of More Than Just Her Stepfather: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

RipI could see the shock on Naomi’s face when Becky ran up to us to hug her leg, which snapped her out of her trance like shock. Noami sank to the floor in front of Becky to pull her into her arms.“Hey, love! What are you doing here?” Naomi asked her.“Mr. Tom and Mrs. Aisha said that we had a special treat today. Everyone is here. They said we could play games and eat pizza!” Becky gushed before looking up at me. “Can I have cheese pizza? It’s my favorite.”I smiled down at her as I ruffled her hair. “Yes! If that’s what you want! Why don’t you go get your game card and let Miss Naomi teach you how to play a few of the games?”Her eyes widened as she saw the ball and club still clutched tightly in Naomi’s hand. “What’s that?”Naomi smiled softly at her. “It’s called mini golf. Would you like to play?”“Can I?”“Yeah, I’ll teach you. Come on! Let’s get you a pink ball! Only princesses get to use pink balls!”Becky’s face immediately lit up as she took Naomi’s hand. “I’ve never been a

RipI tossed and turned all night. I couldn’t sleep at all. I wanted to talk to Naomi about everything, especially about why she had been crying when I went to her door, but I didn’t want to push her. When she was ready to talk about it, she would come to me. She knew that I was here for her for whatever she needed. I had no idea what had upset her. I thought it had been Natalie, but when I went to her room, she reassured me that Naomi thought her room was beautiful and absolutely loved it. Natalie promised that when she left Naomi, she had been just fine. I hoped that it was just lingering emotions from earlier that day. I really need to explain everything to her, but I wasn’t going to pressure her.All I could think about while I got ready to go golfing with my business partner was about how much I needed to check on Naomi and make sure that she was okay. I sighed as I realized that I spent the whole night thinking and worrying about Naomi. Maybe I was the reason she was so upset. D

I sighed as he glanced at me. “Okay, first things first, Omi! Where am I taking you?” he asked.“I’d like to go back to my place so I can shower and change before I go to the orphanage. I’ve been in the same clothes for going on three days!” I told him.“Did he not have clothes you could use?” he inquired.“Eh. I’m sure the closet was full of things, but I had no interest in taking anything from him.” I paused for a moment. “From either of them.”He sighed as he reached out to take my hand, immediately tangling our fingers together. “What happened, Naomi? Rip seemed like such a good guy yesterday. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you, and the way he kissed you at the orphanage… You can’t fake that kind of passion.”I gave a sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, well he did! When we got back to the house, there was a woman waiting there for him. For him, Tom. She didn’t even bat an eye when I walked in next to him. She told me that he has had several different ‘Naomis’ come through the house. And he d

The whole way back to the house, all I could think about was what Jon said. I knew that Natalie was not someone I would ever be keeping around. There was a reason I insisted on using donated eggs. I didn’t want her growing attached to my child and putting up a fight to retain her rights. This was my child! I was paying really good money to have the chance at having a child, which was why I wanted to explain it to Naomi. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to replace her or anything like that. Not that it mattered anymore. It was clear that I didn’t see her as my daughter anymore, but she was always going to be someone I wanted to take care of. Natalie, on the other hand, was just a young woman with a great uterus. She had produced a child for my adopted brother and his wife in no time. While the experience wasn’t exactly pleasant at all times, it worked. I had three other surrogates before I decided to try with Natalie.Granted, I could just find a woman who would be more than wil

I hummed to myself as I drove to Wal-Mart. It was the only place where I knew I could get everything I needed. As soon as I got in my car, I called Caroline to ask her to meet me there so she could help me transport things. I knew that I was going to go overboard buying stuff for the kids, and my flashy little car was not going to have room for everything, but I knew that it would fit into her Suburban. She was a little further away, but I didn’t mind waiting, because it gave me the opportunity to start looking through my property portfolios to look for a building that would be able to house the kids. All of them. Just because they aged out didn’t mean that they weren’t still kids. They were just legal-aged kids. They still had a lot to learn about life. By the time I marked four to explore deeper on my computer, Caroline appeared beside my door.“Are you ready, Mr. Gerrett?”“Yeah. Just give me one moment.”I quickly shot Jon an email, asking if we could use the grounds of the private