Thinking of the two rescued children, a look of pity crossed Winnie Summers’s face. She shook her head and said, "Those two kids are in a terrible state. Their entire bodies are covered in signs of abuse... They must have been through too much trauma. Ever since they were rescued, they’ve just been in a daze."

Officer Tristan Tanner brought the two children back to the emergency response office, where Crystal Lynch quietly gave them some canned food and compressed biscuits.

She had expected the children to wolf down the food, but instead of taking it, they just cowered on the floor in fear.

It was as if they had been starved to the point of numbness.

The staff at the emergency response office saw this and didn’t know what to do with them. In their condition, they surely wouldn’t survive, even if they were sent to a government shelter.

For the time being, all they could do was leave the two children in the property management office, where the staff would take turns looking after them.

Winnie Summers sighed and continued, "After what happened, the emergency response office is taking this very seriously. They’re planning to conduct a full door-to-door survey over the next few days to see if anyone has vanished without explanation..."

Although The Metropolis Residences had just experienced a terrorist attack yesterday, before that, it had always been one of the safest communities in the city.

That’s why since the catastrophe, many people have come to The Metropolis Residences to rent homes or seek refuge with relatives. The community’s population has nearly doubled in just a few short months.

The more people, the more problems—especially in a dog-eat-dog world like this.

You can’t gamble on people’s hearts in the apocalypse. Just look at those two poor children; before they arrived, they had no way of knowing whether the relatives they had traveled so far to join were people or monsters. All the emergency response office can do is investigate promptly.

Melody Summers sighed softly. The long night was due to end next month, but that meant the blizzards and extreme cold would come. She wondered what things would be like then.

******

「The Simmons Villa.」

Joanne White’s mother bustled about the villa’s kitchen for hours, finally finishing a fragrant pot of celtuce chicken soup.

She ladled the soup into a white porcelain bowl and carefully carried it to Joanne White.

Joanne White’s eyes lit up at the familiar aroma.

She immediately lifted the porcelain bowl, took an eager sip, and said happily, "Thank you, Mom."

Joanne White had been suffering from morning sickness for nearly two weeks. This pregnancy was even harder than the last; she couldn’t keep anything down. Today was a rare day when she had an appetite, and she’d been craving the celtuce chicken soup her mother used to make. Mrs. White had immediately rushed to the kitchen to cook it for her personally.

Watching Joanne White finish the entire bowl of soup, spoonful by spoonful, Mrs. White gave a relieved smile. "As long as you’re eating, that’s what matters," she said, fussing. "Eat a little more. You’ve lost weight since getting pregnant. That won’t do. You need to eat more meat."

Joanne White set down the empty bowl, and her mother immediately moved to refill it. "Have another bowl. I made a whole chicken’s worth."

But Joanne White shook her head, a wry smile on her lips. "No more, Mom. I’m afraid if I eat any more, I’ll just throw it all up again."

Mrs. White sighed at her daughter’s words, her face clouding with worry. She glanced at the maid cleaning outside the door, then turned back to Joanne White and whispered, "My child, you’re suffering... If you’re really this miserable..."

Mrs. White trailed off, unable to finish.

’She wanted to say that if Joanne White was truly this miserable, she should just terminate the pregnancy with medication while it was still in the early stages.’

’In these years since the catastrophe, with unrest everywhere and medical resources stretched thin, it was a terrible time to have a baby.’

’On top of that, Joanne White had been frail since she was a child, and her last delivery had been a brush with death.’

’It had only been a few months since her last delivery; her body hadn’t recovered, and getting pregnant again was incredibly dangerous.’

’Mrs. White only had one child, Joanne White, and she was terrified that something would happen to her.’

Although Mrs. White didn’t say the words, Joanne White understood what she meant.

Joanne White silently shook her head. She opened her mouth, wanting to tell her mother not to worry, but when she tried to speak, her voice was choked with emotion. She wanted to cry.

Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones, but no matter how hard she tried to hold it in, Joanne White couldn’t stop herself. She fell into her mother’s arms and began to weep softly. "Mom, I’m so glad you’re here..."

’It wasn’t that Joanne White didn’t know how risky a second pregnancy was right now. She could feel it herself; this one was so much harder than the last.’

’Not only was her morning sickness severe, but she also had low blood pressure, low blood sugar, and an abnormal heart rate... Her body was in no condition for a second child!’

But Joanne White had no other choice.

During the Lunar New Year, Zane Simmons took the child Joanne White had borne him to The Simmons Ancestral Home for the celebration, and then he never brought the child back.

Before Joanne White even had a chance to ask, Zane Simmons told her bluntly that the child would be raised at The Simmons Ancestral Home from now on.

Looking back now, Joanne White couldn’t even remember what she had felt. She only recalled that she hadn’t cried or thrown a fit. Upon hearing the news, she had simply returned to her room in silence. She sat numbly before her vanity mirror, only to look up and see her own face, ashen and pale...

There is nothing in this world crueler than tearing a child away from its mother, but Joanne White was in no position to argue the matter with Zane Simmons.

Joanne White knew she was just a Canary. Because she had gotten pregnant, Zane Simmons kept her here as a prized possession, but she had no say whatsoever in matters concerning her child.

After more than a year with Zane Simmons, Joanne White knew that for all his apparent affection, he was in reality the most ruthless of men.

’If she were to argue with him about the child, he would surely kick her to the curb.’

It was the second year of the catastrophe; if she left here, Joanne White would have nowhere to go. Without Zane Simmons’s financial support, her family couldn’t possibly maintain their current comfortable standard of living.

Not long ago, Mr. White had suffered a heart attack triggered by an infection from volcanic ash. It was only thanks to Zane Simmons that he got surgery in a private hospital. Medical resources were scarce now, and private hospitals were all based on a VIP system; you had to pull strings just to fight for a surgical slot. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Joanne White didn’t dare to imagine what the consequences would have been without Zane Simmons.

But ever since the child had been taken to The Simmons Ancestral Home, Joanne White often had nightmares about her baby being snatched away, waking up to a tear-soaked pillow. She felt like she was developing postpartum depression.

Of course, her grief didn’t have time to linger, because something even more terrifying soon happened—

A few months ago, she overheard the maids in the villa gossiping. They said that Zane Simmons was entering into a marriage alliance with the eldest daughter of the Walsh Family, and that she would soon be his wife.

The words plunged Joanne White into an icy despair.

For the next several days, she was too anxious to eat or sleep. She prayed constantly, hoping the maids were wrong, that it was just a few gossips wagging their tongues.

Until the day a woman named Zara Walsh came to her door.

Zara Walsh was a true heiress, her family’s wealth spanning three generations. Her bearing, taste, and style were all on a level that a girl from a modest, middle-class family like Joanne White could never hope to match.

Furthermore, Zara Walsh was a full head taller than Joanne White and had a commanding presence. When Zara looked at her, Joanne couldn’t even meet her eyes, and could only hide meekly behind Zane Simmons.

Joanne White had a premonition: if she couldn’t become Zane Simmons’s wife, the moment he married Zara Walsh, she would be thrown out!

And so, despite her last delivery being a brush with death, despite her body not having recovered, and despite the enormous risks of a second pregnancy, Joanne White still chose to gamble on getting pregnant one more time.