449 The Family Photo
Selma Payne’s POV:
I’d leave these things to Jordin to arrange. No one knew the Spring Rain Pack better than her, and I believed she could protect the little elves.
Not long after I left the Spring Rain Pack, Dorothy suddenly said to me, “Don’t you think he looks a little familiar?”
Half of my mind was on the Lycan pack, and the other half was on my husband, so I didn’t pay attention to anyone else. “Who?”
“One of the boys from the exchange, the one named Amario,” Dorothy said. “I somehow feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before. I suddenly remembered this morning. Do you still remember the children we saved from the school’s storage room? Amario was one of them. Although unconscious then, he still held the dagger tightly in his hand, which left a deep impression on me.”
I thought about it carefully, and I did remember this child.
“We managed to save him and the other children, but there were no other living people in the city. This child is probably an orphan because of this,” Dorothy said softly.
“I chatted with the teacher leading the exchange students and found out that most orphans were children who lost their parents in several attacks by the cultists. The teacher said that she guessed it was because the government was afraid that the children who suddenly lost their loved ones would be reminded of the past and that they had no time to care about such details, so they brought forward the time of the exchange. Otherwise, the exchange activities would normally be carried out in the winter.”
I didn’t have any particular impression of Amario. I only remembered that he was a delicate-looking and responsible little boy. Compared to his peers, he seemed a little thin and slender.
I hadn’t really checked out the exchange team. On the one hand, it was because I didn’t have the intention, and on the other hand, I was deliberately avoiding them. I was afraid to see the orphans who had lost their loved ones in the disaster. They would remind me of the mournful cries and tears colder than the flood under the city walls.
The Silver Moon Pack was as lively as ever. Neither the dark clouds in the Lycan pack nor the disaster in the Elf Forest had any effect on this prosperous border city. People treated the news of the capital and their neighbors as funny stories, as if they were separated from their city.
In my opinion, the Silver Moon Pack was the most human-like city I’d ever seen, although I’d only seen a few. But the feeling it gave me was similar to the human cities under the Rocky Mountains.
The complex races, the young population, the accents of people worldwide, and the never-ending neon lights. Countless lives contributed their passion and youth to the Silver Moon Pack, shaping it into a paradise on earth.
Here, I could even see humans swaggering on the streets. In fact, it was difficult to tell the difference between humans and werewolves from their appearance alone. There was almost no intuitive way to distinguish a person’s race without being rude.
The prosperity of the Silver Moon Pack and the Lycan pack was completely different. The latter carried years of prestige and a strong foundation, while the former fulfilled the fantasies of all guests with the promise of being forever young.
Once again, Francis welcomed us warmly. I liked his tactfulness, which let people know he was an intelligent man, but not too arrogant. He had defeated 99% of the world’s officials and businessmen from this point alone.
His perfect attitude also made me heave a sigh of relief. Along the way, whenever I passed by a pack that was rather influential among the werewolves, countless people would come forward to ask me for information.
It was about the Lycan pack, the elves, and the Spring Rain Pack. Some were worried, and some were only here to gather information for others. The good and the bad were mixed together, and all forces were intertwined. It made me physically and mentally exhausted.
During the dinner, Francis showed me recent photos of Teresa. She and Daniel were smiling brightly while holding the children. Even I couldn’t help but smile after seeing the photos.
But then I thought of Aldrich and my child. One was unconscious, and the other had an unsolvable mystery, which made my mouth drool.
Although it was only for a moment before I regained my proper expression, I knew that my momentary loss of self-control must have been noticed. Francis was a little embarrassed as he didn’t understand why my attitude suddenly changed.
I knew that Francis didn’t mean it. Showing off one’s family was just a common way of socializing. I was the one who had a problem.
I didn’t want to hurt this kind father and good grandfather’s hearts, so I found an excuse. “I saw some bruises on little Allie’s calf in the photo.”
“Oh, please don’t worry about that. Children at this age can’t sit still and run away. It doesn’t matter if it’s a boy or a girl. When they go crazy, they want to fly into the sky. It’s normal for them to bump and fall.” Francis smiled kindly as if his granddaughter was being naughty in front of him. “When your child grows up, you will have such sweet troubles too!”
My child?
I agreed on the surface, but I could only smile bitterly in my heart.
It would be great if he were like any other ordinary child in the world.