323\u2013Cooking Evilness\u00a0<\/p>\n
Graham:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bothered felt like too small a word for what I was feeling at that moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was beyond humiliated by the way my own daughter rushed over to Baxter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It felt like a slap. But who was responsible for it?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was it Madeline\u2019s fault for pushing my child toward Baxter, or was it my own fault?\u00a0<\/p>\n
As I stepped toward the car parked on the road, I kept thinking about the events leading up to the rejection I gave Madeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I should not have been rude to my daughter, at least. But I never was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had always been kind to Gina. All these thoughts were driving me crazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I thought maybe having a child with Kaylee would be enough for me to forget Gina. But it seemed it was not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her innocent little face reminded me of my desire to take care of my daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of it was snatched from me, and I found myself wishing I had not taken a wrong step.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d Elgin asked as he caught up with me, still carrying Hailey in his arms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I wondered if he felt the same. I noticed the way he looked at Elara, but there was not much compassion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was probably because he had a daughter of his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe once my babies were born, I would completely shut Gina out of my mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you think they try to act very understanding in front of us?\u201d I remarked to Elgin. (1\u00a0<\/p>\n
He grunted and walked ahead of me, waiting for me to open the door so he could buckle Hailey into her seat in the back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I quickly opened the door. Once he put Hailey down and closed it, he turned to face me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t care,\u201d Elgin replied. \u201cI care about my wife and my daughters. I\u2019m keeping those thoughts at bay. You should do the same. Madeline and her children should not be our concern\u00a0<\/p>\n
He then strolled toward the driver\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I could tell why. Seeing his daughter that way might have triggered something in him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maybe he had grown cautious of his actions and decided to pay more attention to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or maybe he was afraid of upsetting Madeline to the point where she would not help him next time if any of his children were\u00a0<\/p>\n
sick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I turned around and looked back toward the cabin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, as if something shifted in me, I sat down in the car and cleared my throat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was my way of telling Elgin I had something to say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you think it\u2019s strange how quickly she took care of Hailey? I asked. That was all I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When I was no longer searching Elgin\u2019s face for answers, he was staring right back at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d he questioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, come on, Elgin,\u201d I pressed. \u201cYou really want to believe it was a coincidence that she asked us to leave so she could give Hailey a cure?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elgin\u2019s hands rested on the steering wheel, but he had not started driving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
173\u00a0<\/p>\n
323\u2013Cooking Evilness\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you really think she just pulled something out and it worked? I continued. \u201cWhat could she have given a sleeping child? A cure that woke her up? Or do you think she sang her a lullaby and that woke her up? Because trust me, I\u2019ve seen Silver try that\u00a0<\/p>\n
too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I reminded him of how Silver had tried everything to wake Hailey earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n
so they have a cure and they\u2019re not giving it to us?\u201d Elgin asked, shifting in his seat to look at me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course,\u201d I replied. \u201cThey\u2019re going to hold it against us to make us obey them and bow to their demands. People will push us to do it for the sake of the sick children.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Elgin fell silent. I paused, then placed a hand on his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t hate her like we do,\u201d I added. \u201cThey\u2019re not as concerned with her life as we are, or Baxter\u2019s either. That powerful wolf was taken away because he could have been a threat to all of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As for Madeline, I hesitated, beginning to wonder why\u00a0<\/p>\n
we\u00a0<\/p>\n
were so against her in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was as if the more I tried to focus on why I was so angry with Madeline, the more I began to realize it had something to do with me and my own actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, I shut down the part of me that was trying to awaken some sense. I did not need that. 2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth was, I was bothered. Madeline, together with Baxter, was going to be dangerous for us, especially since she knew the cure and was not helping us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, I was angry with her because she was not helping the children\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what are we going to do now?\u201d Elgin asked, and I started to smirk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cElgin, you know this is a rogue community,\u201d I replied. \u201cAnything can happen here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagined we and our warriors entering the cabin, beating down the woman\u2019s weak husband, then grabbing her and demanding the cure from her. The cure that was promised to us,\u201d I gave him a scenario and then smirked at him, and he seemed to ponder the idea before giving me the same grin. (2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cForcing the woman- \u2013\u201che paused as he mentioned madeline, \u201cfor cure!\u201d That was his way of speaking in riddles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen are we going to do that?\u201d he asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow about tonight?\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
BIG SALE: 3500 bonus free fou you\u00a0<\/p>\n
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323\u2013Cooking Evilness\u00a0 Graham:\u00a0 Bothered felt like too small a word for what I was feeling at that moment.\u00a0 I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-daddy-novel-by-novelnozi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19692,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19524\/revisions\/19692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}