516 The Child
Selma Payne’s POV:
I was so mesmerized by the painting that I didn’t hear Emma and Jordin’s shouts.
In the end, they shook me a few times before I came back to my senses. The girls jumped in shock and asked worriedly, “What’s wrong, Selma? You were in a daze while staring at the painting just now. We even went close to your ear to call you, but you didn’t respond. Have you been too tired recently? Why don’t we call it a night and rest first?”
I shook my head and recollected my thoughts. “It’s nothing, I might have... drank a little too much, so I didn’t react.”
Everything disappeared when I raised my head to look at the draft again. The angry goddess, the innocent baby, the despicable man, and the fluttering moth. There was nothing on the canvas, only colors of various sizes. It was as if everything I had just seen was an illusion relying on paint.
But that vision was so clear that everything was happening before me.
It was so real that it made one’s heart palpitate.
He came in high spirits and left in a daze. My troubled expression attracted Aldrich’s attention, and in response to his question, I told him everything about my illusions and questions.
Aldrich thought awhile and said, “Perhaps you can ask Dorothy. Isn’t this like peeking into the past?”
I was suddenly enlightened and asked Dorothy about what I had seen.
However, to my disappointment, Dorothy had no clue about this either.
“I can’t see the gods, my dear.” She shrugged. “Even the Goddess of Fate can’t spy on the past and future of a god.”
“Okay.” I was a little disappointed, but I didn’t take it seriously. “Maybe I drank too much, so I was hallucinating. But that legend is novel, the temple’s nuns would never tell such stories.”
And so, it didn’t take long for me to forget about it.
Life in the Spring Rain Pack made me feel relaxed. I did not doubt that this was because the big stone pressing on my heart had been lifted.
A month had passed since I arrived, and with the combined efforts of many parties, Aldrich had recovered very quickly, and most of the terrifying illness had disappeared without a trace. He had moved out of the secret ward half a month ago and was now recuperating in the top-floor ward of the central hospital.
Aldrich had no negative feelings toward his ‘daughter’, Cynthia. On the contrary, sometimes, he got along with Cynthia even better than I did. Cynthia was a serious little adult. However, no matter how serious she was, she was still a newborn. Her reservations quickly melted in the face of a gentle and loving father.
For example, the father and daughter were on a video call with the wolf cub. The wolf cub missed his sister very much, but he was a little shy when facing Aldrich – since he was born, he had only spent a few days with Aldrich.
Besides being the matchmaker for this father-son pair who had just acknowledged each other as strangers, I didn’t participate in their conversation. If I were around, the wolf cub would naturally focus all its attention on me and be even more unwilling to communicate with Aldrich.
The wolf cub missed her sister very much. Although Cynthia would sometimes find her younger brother too childish, there was no doubt that she missed the wolf cub very much. Aldrich held his daughter and faced his son, the corners of his mouth almost reaching his ears.
“When will Mom, Dad, and Cynthia return?” the wolf cub asked. “It’s snowing heavily. I want to build a snowman. Grandma said Mother is the best at building snowmen, so I want to build a big castle with Mother. There will be Mom and Dad, Cynthia and Sunflower, Grandpa, Grandma, Kara, and Bertha.”
The young child’s voice made the people in the house laugh kindly, and my mother holding the wolf cub, laughed so hard that she bent over.
“The castle is huge,” Aldrich said. “Can you make it?”
The wolf cub puffed out its chest, unconvinced. “Of course, I can. Grandma said that I’m growing very fast. I’ll be as tall as the vases in the house soon!”
They chatted for a while, and Aldrich was about to undergo his routine examination. I took the video and asked about how my parents and my two children were.
Speaking of young Sunflower, my mother was a little hesitant. “What did you and Aldrich say about that child? He was different from Cynthia. The Evaria Family... Sigh.”
I was also worried about this, so I haven’t thought about how to tell Aldrich. However, this kind of thing couldn’t be hidden. After a few video calls with the wolf cub, he easily learned about this ‘little brother’.
It was a hot-headed decision to adopt him back then, and I only realized now that I was worried about Aldrich’s opinion.
However, to my surprise, Aldrich seemed very calm about this.
“He’s just a child,” he said. “He doesn’t even know who his parents are. Even if he has the blood of the Evaria Family, I should not have poured my hatred on an innocent child. The enmity between the Evaria Family and I will be settled sooner or later, and this child has already left that sinful family and has nothing to do with all this.”
He agreed to adopt the child.
