478 The Cradle
Selma Payne’s POV:
Ever since I was separated from Maxine, I rarely saw her. Now, she had completely become independent and maintained a wolf’s demeanor. As she grew older, she no longer liked crowded places. More often, she hid among plants or in the corners of buildings, observing everyone in her sight with sharp eyes.
I entrusted the task of protecting Carey to her, and I was completely at ease.
Maxine was no longer as lively as before. She had matured and was gradually becoming more stable. So, when she approached me after a long time, I suddenly had a strange feeling of ‘who is this?’
However, she revealed she was still that little wild wolf when she opened her mouth. “Don’t show that stupid expression, Selma. It’s like I’m an exhibit that escaped from a zoo.”
“I’m sorry, my dear. We just haven’t seen each other for a long time.” I touched her thick hair and peeled a banana for her as compensation. “Why are you here? Is there a problem with Carey?”
Maxine finished her banana in two or three bites and said, “It’s not a problem, but my intuition tells me that something is brewing in the dark.”
“You mean to say…?”
I think the child in Carey isn’t ordinary. I’m not saying that she has some natural disease or something. The child always gives me a dangerous feeling, ‘he will bring trouble’, my instinct tells me so.”
A beast’s instincts were always accurate, so I asked, “When did you start feeling that? Are you sure it’s that child?”
“Just a few days ago, the day the wolf cub suddenly evolved. As usual, I monitored everyone’s every move. But suddenly, I felt my heart palpitate. A blurry illusion suddenly appeared before my eyes, but it disappeared a second later. Many servants have the same symptoms as me, but for some reason, they all think it’s just dizziness caused by overwork.
“This is very abnormal, Selma. Be it the illusion of that second or the servants’ strangely uniform calmness, it’s not normal. Since then, I’ve been observing the people even more carefully, but I didn’t find any clues on anyone except for Carey.
“At first, I thought something had happened to Carey, but I soon realized the child in her stomach was more suspicious than Carey. Do you still remember why Carey was sent to Lester’s research institute? The unusual rejection happened again just after I had that second hallucination. I suspect this child has some kind of power we don’t know about. He can cast illusions on people or even control people’s minds in more serious cases.
“But I think this power isn’t without a price. But because the child is still in the mother’s body, Carey has paid the price.
𝙛𝐫𝑒𝐞𝘄ℯ𝘣𝚗𝘰𝘷𝙚𝘭. c𝘰m
“The specific manifestation is the strong rejection of the fetus by the mother, but this is not a kind of rejection, but a variety of physical symptoms caused by the mother bearing the price for the fetus. However, people subconsciously think that pregnancy reactions are ever-changing, so pregnancy has become a cover for everything.
“There’s definitely a big problem with this child, Selma. I wonder if the Evaria Family has done some secret experiment on him or if this child is born with such power. But no matter what, controlling people’s minds, or powers similar to controlling people’s minds, was too dangerous. If we aren’t confident in controlling him, we shouldn’t have left such a huge threat in the palace.”
As I listened to Maxine’s deductions, I suddenly recalled the scene from a few days ago…
The crying baby, the cold and wet touch, and the despair that seeped deep into the bones.
So that wasn’t my fantasy.
Maxine’s guess was correct. The child had some strange powers. Perhaps he could not directly control a person’s mind, but this kind of illusion could change a person’s thoughts to a certain extent. Didn’t I give up on dealing with the child and decide to adopt him instead?
The truth made me break out in cold sweat.
He was just a baby – a baby who had not even fully developed self-consciousness and only survived on his biological instincts.
He was still in his mother’s womb, but he could already break through the limitations of space and affect the abilities of others. What if he was born? What if he grew up?
At this moment, my thoughts were the same as Maxine’s – we couldn’t keep this child. The sooner we dealt with him, the sooner we could be at ease.
Seeing my hesitation, Maxine said, “What are you worried about? This is not the time to be kind, Selma. He is not an ordinary baby. His background and power made him extremely dangerous. Now that you’ve let him stay because you’re soft-hearted, what if in the future… What about you? It won’t be as simple as aborting a child!”
I knew that the safest thing to do now was to put an end to everything in the cradle. If that child died, countless troubles in the future would disappear.
But was this the only way?
I didn’t believe that a fetus without self-awareness would have bad intentions. Rather than saying it had a will, it was better to say that everything it did was out of survival instinct.
Should I immediately sentence a child trying to survive to death?
