4 A loving Mother - Part 2

February 26, 3052

As the child grew, Amme's regular life gradually became more and more bizarre. And at this point, she was like a completely different person.

For a child-loving mother like her, a child that neither smiled, cried, or showed any child-like characteristics was definitely something to be worried about. But that wasn't all. At this point she used to feel like she was being watched by the child.

It was as if the child could understand everything that was going on around him.

At first, she tried to believe that this was just her imagination, and everything was fine. But slowly she started noticing it more and more often.

She was worried about this to the point where she started losing sleep and appetite. As a result, she started looking tired and unwell. Her once charming skin started looking pale and she started losing weight.

She used to space out often and get irritated easily. That wasn't all. Slowly, her worry changed into an anxiety, and at times, she started getting scared of the baby.

"Amme, I know you are hiding something from me, and things can't continue like this. Look at yourself, it's that baby isn't it. It all started after we adopted him."

Lucas, who had stayed quiet for all this time, couldn't take it any longer. He was waiting for her to open up, but she never did, and whenever he brought the subject out himself, she always replied with something like, 'there is nothing wrong, everything is fine'.

Amme didn't say anything and just kept on staring at her dinner plate on the table. She used to eat twice as much as Lucas, but now it wasn't even one third.

"Amme, try to understand. If there is a problem, we will fix it together but if you stay like that, things will only get worse."

Amme was startled when Lucas got louder. She had never seen Lucas this angry before, so she had no idea how to respond to that. At this point, she was no longer trying to keep it a secret. Instead, she was scared about how he will react when he finds out that she was keeping it a secret for this long.

Lucas was working hard while trying to cover up for both of them. He used to spend almost ten hours at work even during the weekend. In a way, he felt like he was responsible for this change in Amme because he wasn't able to spend enough time with his family.

When he saw Amme's reaction, he realized he was being harsh on her. He took a long breath in to calm himself down and said, "Amme, I can't see you in that state any longer. I promise I won't get angry at you. Please tell me."

Amme's eyes widened and tears started falling from her eyes.

"It's that boy Lucas, it's that boy. He scares me. I can't take it any longer, I can't."

Lucas caught her hand that was on the table to comfort her. A part of him was regretting his inability to notice all this before. But as he did that, she started crying even louder.

He stood from his chair and hugged Amme while petting her head saying, "It's okay, don't worry".

After Amme calmed down, he got back to his chair. The dinner in their plates was getting cold but at this point they no longer had the appetite for it.

"Amme, we still have time. We can send this child back to the orphanage."

"But lucas-"

Amme paused when she was trying to say something against the idea. It was natural for a mother to object to any such ideas. Even though she was just an adopted mother she still raised the child for a year as her own. But she couldn't complete her sentence considering how this child, who was supposed to bring happiness to their house, brought only sorrow to them.

"Don't worry, we can start again by adopting a new child."

"No Lucas, I don't want a baby anymore. Let's just stay like this, just the two of us, just like before."

Lucas held her hand tighter than before. Hearing those words from his wife who had always wanted a child made him realize what kind of psychological toll the baby had taken on her.

"Okay, don't worry. Everything will go back to how it used to be."

Amme was surprised to see Lucas agreeing to that so easily. She always thought he wanted a child as much as she did.

"I am sorry Lucas; I know that you want a child, but I don't think I can raise a child anymore."

"It's alright. I wanted a child because of you. The way you used to talk excitedly about your co-worker's children made me realize how much you wanted a child of your own. I thought adopting one would make you happier but looks like it did the opposite. I want my cheerful Amme back."

"Oh Lucas."

After hearing Lucas say those words, Amme's gloomy face became a bit brighter. Her sorrow of losing a child that she raised for a year was overwhelmed by her emotion of love and admiration for her husband.

----

The next day, Lucas took the child that they had raised for a year back to the orphanage.

A part of him could never really accept the child from the start. He only adopted this child in respect of Amme's wishes. She was the one who needed a child more than him. But now that he knew how she felt, he had no regrets.

He knew that it could take months for Amme to recover completely, but the way things were going, this was for the best.

Under normal circumstances, babies would react to the change in their surrounding and show their discomfort in several ways. Especially when they no longer had their doting mother around them.

But in this case, even when all this was happening around him, the child never cried or reacted in any way. He was just there watching everything that was happening around him.