The Unlikely Quarterback Ch. 13

All companies, businesses, people and places described in this story are fictionalized.

This chapter reads like a romance story and there is no sex in it.

Thanks to Alwaysready64 for editing, without his help my story would not have ever got out into the ether.

This is the last chapter of the story; I do not plan to write more. I hope I tied up all loose ends.

I hope you enjoyed this series and as always thanks for reading.

*

Chapter 13 - The Unlikely Quarterback

At the end of July, Inotech was finally sold to a huge telephone company that wanted to expand their reach into areas Inotech controlled. By buying our fiber optics, it allowed them to bypass regional cable monopoly boundaries that by law kept them from competing in specific geographic areas. The cable companies wanted the Ma Bell out of their area and by driving the cost of the company up they would at least drain the phone company's cash reserves. So, a bidding war ensued and when all the dust settled and the lawsuits ran their course, Inotech was sold for just over a billion dollars. My two-million-dollar investment and Candie's ten suddenly returned more than ten times our investments. Candy took home close to ninety million after taxes and I took home about eighteen.

The only thing about the deal that did not sit well with me was that the Ma Bell was only interested in the infrastructure and assets, most of the employees were going to be laid off because they were redundant. So, I offered them a deal to buy the Inotech name, office building and its people. They gladly sold it all to me as a package deal since the firing of its people would cost them more than it would to just give it all to me.

Inotech, after the split, only consisted of fifty employees, a leased building, some computers, copy machines and various office equipment such as desks and chairs etc. I was suddenly the employer of ten engineers, various accountants and other office workers. My plan was to use the business to develop some ideas I had on a burgeoning new technology called the World Wide Web.

Candy was part of the board of directors during the company buyout and helped negotiate the deal that gave severance for the employees leaving. As good as the deal was, most people would need it in order to survive while they looked for other jobs.

Candy was my number one supporter and begged me to allow her to invest in what I was doing. She wanted to be my partner. I told her that if she was going to take part in the company, she could not be a silent investor, she'd have to work for me. She was kind of conflicted at first because she had a baby on the way. I told her that I would work around her schedule and even put in daycare on site.

After that she was on board and she insisted that for every dollar I spent she would spend just as much. We would be 50/50 partners with me as the CEO and her as the COO. Since our company was still small, she would be able to do her job part-time, and she would take an immediate six-month leave after the baby was born. That meant I would not get much help from her at first and she was the people person. That is when I got the brilliant idea to hire my sister Lorry as CFO.

Lorry over the next year did such a great job at running the company that I stepped down as CEO and handed her the reins. I took the CIO (Chief Information Officer) position and was still on the board. As one of the company's biggest shareholders, I still had a lot of sway in the policy making. But I trusted my sister and she shared my vision of the future. I was the ideas man and she was the one that made them happen. She somehow managed to run the company and complete law school at the same time. Like I said before, I am a certified genius, but I always knew Lorry was smarter than me and she proved me right every day.

I think the reason Candy was so enthusiastic about partnering with me was not because I was going to make her rich, it was because we shared a vision. Candy was, like me, did not care about money any more than the need to use it to buy food and clothes and normal everyday things. She shared my ideals and my morals and wanted to do something useful with her surplus.

Most people want to get rich so they can buy things, others do it for the power or prestige, but we wanted the money to launch ideas and to employ as many people as we could. We saw ourselves as good stewards and the money we came upon was there not to give us things, rather so that we could help others be successful.

My early years as a Christian still influenced how I acted. I didn't go to church but I still lived by the golden rule, and I believed in the "parable of the talents", as such I believed that when given more money than you need it's your responsibility to make that money work for you rather than "bury it" in the sand. Spending it wastefully on material things like expensive cars and mansions in Bel Air when I could be employing someone was unthinkable.

The new Inotech was not a success right off the bat. We did not gain immediate undying loyalty from our employees; as a matter of fact, half of them took their severances and moved on to other companies. So, from what I had left I proposed our business model and the future of our company. I offered each of them the opportunity to buy into the company and gave them a guarantee that I would personally buy them out at their buy in price within the first two years if any of them wanted to leave. If they were fired, they could keep their shares or sell them back at the current market value or buy in price, whichever was more.

To my utter surprise, all but a few of them invested their severances making Candy and I eighty percent stakeholders with the employees owning the rest. We hired a lot of computer science and math guys and got to work developing a brand-new platform selling products on the internet which would later be coined as E-Commerce.

*

On August 10th one week before her due date, Candy was rushed to the hospital after her water broke. Eight hours later an 8lb. 11oz baby boy named Ryan was brought into the world and no one was prouder than me. Jack was not around to hand out cigars, so I took over patting everyone on the back and celebrating in his stead. Jack's mom and his sister were there along with Candy's mom, a few of Candy's cousins, me, my mom and my sisters.

When Candy came home, she had so many helpers that I had to have food catered to feed everyone. I thought they were more of a nuisance than they were helpful, as well intentioned as they were, but I could see that Candy was being loved so I did not try and stop it. Luckily, it didn't last more than a couple of weeks when people naturally returned back to their own lives.

It was the end of summer, so Stephanie and Lorry were returning to school while Candy and Simone took a semester off. Lorry got a new place in Santa Monica to be closer to work and school, leaving my mom alone. My Mom with her mental health issues would not do well living by herself in a big house, so I suggested that she take on renters. There were plenty of students going to Cal State Long Beach that needed housing, and with three free rooms she could easily take on a few students.

My mom actually listened to me and rented out two of the three spare rooms to two female students, leaving a spare room for Stephanie or Lorry when they came to visit. With the house paid off and the rental income my mom was doing pretty well financially. Having female students in the house was great for her, since they were there enough to keep the house noisy and often hung out with her on nights, when they were not studying or on date, just watching TV.

I tried taking care of the girls the best I could, but I had a company to run so I was not there every day. Jack's relatives were estranged with the pending divorce so asking for their help was not an option. So, Candy's Mom took a few weeks off her marketing job and came over every weekend to help.

Jack was scheduled to be released from prison in early December, so we had a few months before we had to deal with him. Jack was the closest thing to a war hero that we had at that time and somehow his sentence was pled down to a misdemeanor and he was discharged and was able to keep his military benefits.

There was a part of me that wished that he would have died in Somalia because he hurt Candy and tried to keep us apart. Candy never said he raped her, but I still believe he did, but he was at least a cheater and verbally abusive to boot. He might have deserved punishment for it, but he did not deserve to die for it.

His anger was even understandable, he wanted to be a part of his son's life. The problem was that he was planning on fighting for visitation of his child and if he won, he would get child support. In California even if you have custody 90% of the time if you make 100 times more than the other custodial parent, you will be the one paying child support.

Money was not really the issue because even though we did not want to be paying him any money, the main problem was how disruptive he would be. He was already proving to be toxic and hostile and we did not want him in our lives.

My previous contacts kept me informed and let me know that Jack was still in contact with the ambassador's daughter; however, the ambassador did not want his daughter to have anything to do with him.

I found out that the Ambassador was hosting a political fundraiser for his potential bid at a California Senate seat. The ambassador was known to personally invite his biggest contributors to his home in Bel Air, so I became one of his biggest donors and sent one of my representatives to the fundraiser to represent me. Sure enough, my rep came back with a personal invitation for me to come to his home in the future.

Candy's divorce was only pending a decision on custody of baby Ryan. I was hoping to use the Ambassador as leverage against Jack, I just needed to talk to him personally first. If custody could be settled, then there would be nothing keeping the divorce from being finalized.

Jack only had money to have lawyers process his paperwork and file motions for him, they would not represent him in court. On a legal standing he really did not have much to go on. The problem was, his parents offered to loan him money to fight and if he did drag it through the courts it could take years to resolve, meaning it would take years until we could marry.

*

More than a month after Ryan was born, my first child was born - a beautiful 7lb 6oz baby girl who we named Stephanie after my sister. In order to distinguish between the two Stephanies we took to calling my daughter by a nickname Stephy. Stephanie was not able to miss school to be there, so I recorded as much as I could. As the father, I could be in the delivery room, and I filmed the birth. I filmed Simone holding our baby and one of the nurses took my camcorder and recorded my "proud papa" face as I held my little girl for the first time.

"Hey Steph," I said, "We named her after her auntie because she will be the only girl I could ever love as much as you... and I think Simi feels the same."

I overnighted her the VHS the very next day, I was anxious for her to share our joy. Stephanie called me crying a day later, blubbering about the fact that she got the tape and how beautiful her niece was... but she could not talk; she was too choked up. So, I told her I loved her and could not wait until Thanksgiving where she could see her niece in person.

Little Ryan was unofficially my son from day one. I learned how to prepare his bottle, feed him, burp him and change his poopy diapers. I read to him before he went to bed and rocked him to sleep every night. I know he was too young to know what I was saying to him, but Ryan was a colicky baby and my reading to him was the only thing that seemed to soothe him. If I was not reading to him, I found that strapping him into his car seat and driving him around late at night also did the trick.

Once Stephanie was born, it was automatically given that they were siblings even though not technically related. I found myself on diaper and late-night bottle duty and I rarely got much sleep. It got hard running from room to room to take care of the babies, so Simone and Candy slept in the upstairs master bedroom with the babies in their bassinets off to each side of the bed. I slept in one of the guest bedrooms with a baby monitor to warn me when the babies needed me.

I must admit I felt like a trained monkey at times, but I loved my children just like I loved both women. I tried helping as much as I could. I started cooking and cleaning more, but I had to also balance that with the long hours of work I was doing trying to get my new business up and running and profitable.

It was quite the bonding experience, having three parents taking care of two children. When Simone did not feel well, Candy stepped up and took care of Stephy and vice versa with Simone taking care of Ryan. However, a disturbing pattern emerged where Simone seemed to be "sick" more and more. Where Candy took to motherhood like a duck to water, Simone, on the other hand, dreaded it and came up with more and more ways for Candy to take over for her. I guess I missed the signs of Simone's neglect because I was so overwhelmed by everything. But Candy did not complain and instead picked up the slack.

Running a new company was taking a lot of my time, so I decided to hire a live-in personal assistant for both Candy and Simone. I had both women interview each of the candidates but could not find one that they both liked. I got lucky though, one of the cheerleaders from our clique, Pamela, needed a job.

Pamela was a good-looking woman, but I really did not know her very well despite being in the same circle of friends. She was one of the few girls that never showed any interest in me, as a matter of fact, I could not recall her ever having a boyfriend and I guessed she was gay. Gay or not, I was not going to judge her by her sexual proclivities, I only cared about her work ethic and how she was with children. My not knowing her did not matter because Candy and Simone did, so we finally agreed to hire her to help after they insisted, she had a character above reproach.

Pamela was to work for the girls eight hours a day every day of the week. Her duties included helping keep the girls organized and help them with whatever they needed. She was a part time house cleaner, shopper, errand runner and sometimes babysitter. She moved in with us taking the second spare room.

Hiring a helper was a godsend for Simone and Candy, their moods seemed to improve, and they did not seem as tired or worn out at the end of the day. They had enough energy to watch TV with me again and our cuddle sandwiches started up once again.

Despite the lack of sleep, this was one of the happiest times of my life. Life was good. I had more love, affection and sex than I deserved. My company was almost making a profit, and my babies were both healthy. I loved Candy so much that I planned to ask her to marry me just as soon as the ink dried on her divorce.

My relationship with Simone had not cooled either, despite her saying that it was only temporary, and she was waiting on her soulmate. I think our baby bonded us together more than our mutual attraction. We started respecting each other more and made decisions together about our future. There was no jealousy between Candy and Simone, which I did not get but how was I going to complain? I think it helped that they loved each other and not only as friends but sisters. I think Simone was hoping Candy would come around to some bi-sexual action, but Candy did not swing that way.

The funny thing about Simone and I was that we never formalized the rules of our relationship like we did when we were dating. However, she knew there were rules and as far as I knew she never broke them. She did go out on a date with an occasional woman from time to time, but she did not date guys while we were sleeping together.

The family dynamic just worked, but it was not accepted by everyone. My mother kept reminding me that polygamy was against the law and it was sinful. I had to remind her that I was not married so I was not committing polygamy. When she didn't accept that I went the other way, accepting the false premise just to make an argument and I pointed out scriptures that supported polygamy, including the New Testament scripture that talked about the Levirate marriage which stated that if your brother died you were responsible to marry his widow (even if you were already currently married). The point was, there was not anything I was doing that was sinful per se unless you pointed out the fact that I was having sex out of wedlock, but Mom never went that route. My mom only cared about the fact that I had two girlfriends, to her it had to be sinful even if it was not in the Bible.

Candy's Mom adored me, and really wanted me to marry her daughter. She was not bothered by Simone at all and I think she knew that ultimately if Candy and I did get together all others would fall by the wayside anyway.

The same could not be said of Simone's mother. She called us all kinds of vile and insulting names and refused to see her granddaughter. It bothered Simone for a couple of months until I pointed out that our baby had two other grandmothers if you were to count Candy's mom. If her mom did not want to be there, then that would be her loss. So, we put our foot down and demanded she be civil, and when she would not, we cut off all contact with her.

My Mom, to her credit, did not let her feelings get in the way of loving us. She saw how lost Simone was without her Mom and quickly filled that void becoming a surrogate Mom to her.

Besides family having problems with our, I hate to say, "polyamorous relationship", we also had a bunch of stress on our love triangle coming from other sources. Candy's ex Jack was about to return to the states and was demanding custody of their son. Normally the courts would side with the mother over an absentee father, but Jack used my polyamorous relationship against me, saying he did not want his son raised in an immoral environment. We guessed he found out about our relationship through Simone's mother.

I finally got to meet the ambassador after he sent me an invitation to his estate where he held a party for his biggest contributors. I was greeted warmly until he found out who I was.

"Let me get this straight, you're Jack's wife's boyfriend?" he asked carefully.

"Yes sir! I wanted to talk to you about how we can help each other out."

"Why would I want to help you? I don't want anything to do with Jack - whatsoever. I certainly don't want to know anyone he knows."

"Ambassador, I think your budding political career is dependent on you listening to what I have to say."

"That's an arrogant assumption. What? You got dirt on me, son? Are you going to blackmail me or something?"

"Yes and no. I do have dirt on you but no, I don't plan to use it against you. I'm just here to give you advice and I want to propose a solution to what I see is a forthcoming problem."

"Oh, really?" he started and looked pissed, but then he seemed to think better of it. "What do you have to tell me?"

"First off, I know you pulled a Bathsheba."

"You're referring to the woman that King David married..."

"Yeah, more specifically, she was a married woman whose husband he sent to the front lines..." I started to explain the connection, but he seemed to get it.

"I'm not going to use that against you. But the fact is, that if I know about it... how long do you think it'll take before your rivals find out. Not to mention your daughter being pregnant with a bastard child..." I said.