3: 3
3
I looked down at the baby in its wrappings, and a chill crawled through me.
In my last life, this boy had dragged me by the hair and shoved my face into a dog bowl to lick up spoiled leftovers. To win favor with his real mother, he'd taken a whip to me until I was crawling across the floor.
Not a shred of memory left in him of the way I'd loved him, of twenty years raising him like my own.
I gave a cold laugh and knocked Phil's arm off my waist.
"Smart? Show me a baby whose eyes don't move. The ones that don't are dead."
"Phil, I'm not adopting him. I won't raise the child of a cheap, loose woman."
Two plain sentences, and Rose Fox froze on the spot, the tears stalling in her eyes.
The tender smile on Phil's face went stiff too.
He'd been so sure of it. I was always the soft one, always giving in to him on everything. They'd put on such a convincing show today, and instead I'd cut them off flat.
After a moment of shock.
The tears started rolling down Rose's cheeks again, and the performance began.
"Sister, I wasn't seeing anyone. I was forced. I was just too scared of upsetting you to tell you."
Then, weeping harder, she turned her eyes to the baby in her arms.
"I meant to end it. But the doctor said my uterine wall was too thin, that forcing an abortion would leave me unable to have children ever again, and could even cost me my life. I really had no other choice."
She wept, frail and pitiful, and for the sake of dumping the child on me she'd thrown herself into the part, tears as cheap and endless as tap water.
In my last life, this was exactly how she'd worn me down, how her crying had softened my heart until I agreed to take the child and walked straight into their trap. My mother-in-law couldn't hold back any longer. She rushed over, snatched the baby up, and patted him with an aching tenderness.
"Oh, my precious grandson. You poor little thing."
"Christina, what gives you the right to be so willful? Your own belly's the one that failed. Who else is there to blame? Rose is grateful enough to give you her own child as a son, and here you are, never satisfied."
"What's so wrong with adopting a child? It's a good deed, a blessing earned. Maybe once you do, you'll finally carry your own flesh and blood. Don't go cutting off your own good fortune."
The uncle-in-law stepped forward too, his face dark.
"A person ought to do some good in this world. Your Gilbert line runs thin on heirs. You'd do well to ask yourself why."
"One little child, how much can it cost? Raise him and call it charity. Why be so hard, so cornering? Rose has always been such a sweet, obedient girl. Maybe she really was forced."
Every head in the room swung toward Rose Fox in her worn cotton dress, the picture of misery.
The Floyd relatives read the look on my mother-in-law's face, rose from their seats, and fell in one after another.
"Yes, poor girl. It was kindness that made her keep a little life."
"Christina, your second uncle's only saying this for your good. A person has to have a kind heart, or the good fortune won't stay. Raising a child is always a happy thing. It'll bring some warmth and life into the house."
Every last relative was accusing me of being cold, of being cursed with no luck, all of them dead set on forcing me to adopt Rose Fox's child.
No one asked whether I was willing.
Phil stood among them, watching me get squeezed under the weight of it all, letting every accusation land without a word, waiting for me to bow my head and give in.
He was certain that, like last time, I couldn't hold out against all the coaxing and the pressure, that in the end I'd fall in line and take the child.
My mother-in-law patted the baby, her face still furious, waiting for me to soften and cave.
Seeing that I wouldn't budge, she turned and announced it loudly.
"I've decided. I'll adopt this child for Phil myself, and there's nothing anyone can say about it."
Then she cut me a sidelong glance.
Everyone crowded around to congratulate her, praising how bright and lovely the baby was.
Phil rushed to help Rose Fox up, and the two of them met each other's eyes, both brimming with delight.
Calmly I picked up my water, listening to those familiar words, and took a slow sip to press down the fury churning inside me.
This life, if they thought they could bring an illegitimate child to my face and force me to take him, they'd have to lose a layer of skin first.
I stepped forward too, ran my finger lightly across the baby's soft cheek, and gave my gentlest smile.
"Mom, Uncle, you're right. Since you all say it's a good deed, a blessing earned…"
"Then I'll adopt this child!"
The whole room went silent in an instant.
Rose Fox's head snapped up, the wild joy beneath her wet lashes almost impossible to hide.
The tension drained from Phil's face too, a smug little smile settling in his eyes.
My mother-in-law's anger flipped to delight in a heartbeat, gloating as though she'd won some great war.
"Christina, now you're being sensible. Since you can't have your own, another person's child raised as your own is just the same."
I nodded and went on, calm as ever.
"Since it's my Floyd family taking in a child, we can't do it in some careless fashion."
"We'll choose a good day and throw a grand one-month celebration. I'll invite every relative, every friend, every distinguished guest from our business circles. And there, I'll formally name him the sole heir of the Gilbert Group."
The room broke into a roar of praise, the whole hall bright with celebration.
My mother-in-law was already calling for the butler, telling him to set up the nursery at once, ordering the housekeeper to find a postpartum nurse…
The living room dissolved into happy chaos, and no one could see it — the strange little smile lingering deep in my eyes.
