2 A shadow pays a visit to the baby

"I won't stop you this time as well but remember, the mother did not do it for free. She took lumpsum money from that family to give birth to the babies. If she is capable, she would have not sold her womb for money. I highly doubt if she would be able to take care of this baby and provide all her needs," Mariah uttered.

At that moment, nurse Ava came rushing into the ward and shouted, "The patient who gave birth to the twins is in critical condition. She is having a seizure."

"Inform the doctor who is on shift today, immediately. I will go and check right away," The Head nurse ordered and rushed towards the room. But before she could even reach the door, the mother had already passed away.

In the meanwhile, a white shadow came near the baby, who was kept in the incubator. She caressed the baby's face with her invisible hands but she couldn't touch her. The baby smiled looking at her mother and lifted her hands in the air to grasp the shadow.

"I am sorry! I am sorry! My time is over, it's now yours to live with this curse." The shadow whispered near the baby's ears and disappeared from the room.

The infant blinked her eyes for a few seconds and then dozed off without any worry about the unknown future ahead of her.

...

Several miles away, in a private jet at the city's airport, the couple with one of the twins boarded the plane. Grace didn't keep the baby down even for a second and neither did she let anyone carry her. Looking at her obsessive behavior, her mother, Millie shook her head in contempt. Millie had not spoken to her from the time, she heard that Grace left the other baby in the hospital.

Mason looked at Grace and asked for the hundredth time, "Do we really need to leave this place?"

"How many times do I need to say, yes. Yes, we need to leave as soon as possible. I don't want to live here knowing that other people know our secrets. They would talk behind our back and our baby would come to know one day that I did not give birth to her. I don't want that to happen. So yes, we are leaving and that's final!" Grace replied irritatingly.

She walked to the comfortable sofa seat in the middle of the plane and sat next to the window. She stared outside the small window wondering when the plane would take off. She could not understand the reason behind, why the pilot delayed the take-off for such a long time. She looked at her husband, Mason with doubtful eyes.

She then glared at Mason and declared, "So, no, I won't let that happen to her or me. She is my daughter and she will only be my daughter. I can't share her with any other woman. I love my baby girl and she is mine. I would never let anyone or anything come between us."

Millie wanted to rush towards her daughter and give her a tight slap. She already had enough with her daughter's nutty behavior. She couldn't take in any more of her craziness. If possible, she wanted to take her granddaughter and get down from the plane. Mason shook his head and stopped Millie from doing that. Or else she would have run off with the baby long ago.

"OK. I understand what you are trying to say. But what about the other twin? Isn't she, our baby as well? How could you abandon her alone in the hospital? She is our daughter and we have the responsibility to take care of some formalities. At least, let us finish those before we leave this country," Mason begged Grace.

Grace played with the child and ignored his begging. Mason finally lost his patience and said,

"Grace, I have been talking to you about our other child and you have been ignoring me from the time we came out of the hospital. I had already asked you for a long time now. Even if you keep on evading my questions, it doesn't mean that I don't have any other source to find out. If you don't give me a proper answer then I will directly call the hospital and ask them."

He announced and looked at her. Grace frowned at him but was not ready to say anything about the other baby yet.

"Did the mother want to keep the baby with her? Don't you think as the father, I deserve to know the details about my child?" Mason asked her while holding his anger in place.

"That's born dead as we expected. So, what is the use of talking about something that is not alive? Moreover, we had already discussed this, that child will have nothing to do with our family. So, she is not your child. Look at our baby here. She is our only child and there is no one else. Do you understand?" Grace asked him.

Millie wanted to correct the way she was addressing her granddaughter. Every time she addressed the baby as 'that', her blood boiled. She could still not believe that she gave birth to such a lousy daughter who doesn't know what humanity is!

She couldn't sit there anymore and watch her foolish daughter utter more cruel words. She stood up and walked away with a stony face.

Mason held his head and tried to analyze why his wife had turned into such a cruel person. He wanted to tell her that she was the one who didn't want to do anything with the other child but not him. As he knew his wife's temper, he controlled his urge to start a fight with her in the mid-air.

Grace noticed the changes in his face and knew exactly what he wanted to argue with her. So, she wanted to end this topic right away. In her new life, she didn't want anyone to bring about that dead child in front of her or her baby.

"Listen, I don't want to discuss that depressing topic now or ever. Our baby may get unlucky if you keep on talking about that dead child again and again. So please, at least, in front of me or my baby, do not bring this subject about the other child ever again. Please, I beg you." Grace muttered under her breath and held her child closely to her body.

She stood up from the sofa to leave from there as she did not want to argue with her husband anymore. She walked into the tiny bedroom in that private jet. She laid the infant on the soft mattress and sat next to her. She caressed her baby with motherly love and kissed both her cheeks. She couldn't believe she is a mother now and that too for such a lovely girl.

Once Grace left, Millie came back and spoke for the first time that day.

"You need to give her some more time to let her come back to earth. Whatever you say now will only fall on deaf ears. Right now, she is flying very high in the sky thinking that she will never fall to the ground. Later, just make sure when she falls, she doesn't get hurt much. Even if she gets hurt then we have to assume that she got punished for whatever sin she did," Millie said to Mason with a sarcastic smile.