Artemis steadied herself before replying, "I'm fine Dad. No need to worry! I plan on completing your challenge after all!" Artemis smiled mischievously.
"Ha Na, you don't need to complete the challenge. I will still give you one chance to ask me for anything," Damien only called her Ha Na, her Korean name, when he was worried for her.
"No! I will feel like I haven't earned it. So please let me finish the challenge out," Artemis requested. She was stubborn.
"You have inherited that stubborn streak from your mom. Victoria was always so stubborn," Damien reminisced. He truly missed his best friend.
"What was Mom like when she was my age?" Artemis asked. She knew that Damien and her mom were best friends for a long time.
"I can tell you one thing, she was just as brilliant as you. She was always curious about the world and she knew how to take care of her family. I wish she didn't need to be so strong at such a young age, but circumstances were like that. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother was working as a nurse in night shifts. They used to argue all the time and would continuously put Victoria in the middle," Damien looked sad as he recounted their past. He didn't have the power or strength to help Victoria when they were younger, and often she would look out for him. It was one of the reasons that Damien was so doting to Artemis.
"She had a tough childhood, didn't she? I wish I had the opportunity to meet her and get to know her. She seemed like a wonderful person," Artemis wasn't an emotional person, but for her mother that she had never met, she started to tear up. She knew that her mother had a tough time as she had died in giving birth to her, but she hadn't understood the depth of her difficulties. She wanted to know her, but she never had the chance. She could only learn more about her through Damien. She knew that Damien was not her real father, but he treated her like he would if he had his own daughter.
"She was the best person I have ever known in my life, besides you of course!" Damien added with a laugh. Damien found it hard to recount his stories with Victoria because every time he did, he would remember her on her death bed no matter how much he tried not to. Her last words made him feel a world of regret and there was no medicine that he could take to heal that wound. His love for her ran deep in his bones.