Chapter 3

I suppressed the hatred in my heart and blurted out, "'Baby?' I scoffed, 'More like bad news.'"

"Honey, I don't want to adopt her anymore."

Mark looked stunned. "But you just said you wanted to adopt her. What made you change your mind so suddenly?"

I snatched the child from his arms, staring at the incessantly wailing Ruby.

"I just remembered something I once heard."

"Some children are just born to bring bad karma, to make your life hell."

"And these bad kids, they get their evil from their parents, you know."

"Mark, think about it. If we had a child, would we ever abandon them? Even if they weren't smart, or healthy, or beautiful, or even if they had a serious illness?"

Mark immediately replied, "Of course not. Even if it meant selling everything we owned, draining our life savings, and piling up debt, I would never give up on them."

"See? That's what normal people think."

I took a deep breath. "The parents of this child, they're not normal people."

"There's no telling if this child might have inherited their twisted genes."

Reincarnation was too unbelievable, and society wasn't ready for talk of it back then.

And my sudden change in demeanor, from doting to disgusted, would have been enough to convince anyone I'd lost my mind.

"Alright, you're right. Then we won't adopt her."

Mark nodded, understanding.

Ruby, in my arms, seemed to understand our conversation and cried even harder.

Tears streamed down the tiny person's face, her wails tearing through the air.

Her little hands flailed desperately, trying to grasp my clothes, as if by doing so, we wouldn't abandon her.

Mark saw this and his face softened with pity.

"So, what do we do now?"