novelraw Chapter 163: Mother & Daughter
Chapter 163: Mother & Daughter
By the time they returned to Gideon’s house, Delilah had calmed down enough to think clearly.
There was still one conversation she needed to have with Summer.
No matter how shocked or conflicted she felt, she had already promised herself that she would not get angry with her daughter.
Summer had been emotionally unstable lately, and her body was already under enough strain from the morning sickness. The last thing she wanted was to make things harder for her.
As they walked through the house, she remained quiet but her mind clearly was the opposite. Sensing the tension, Gideon glanced at her and gave a small chuckle.
"Guess I am kind of lucky you didn’t bring up how weird our relationship is. Pretty taboo, you know?"
Delilah shot him a sharp glare and jabbed him in the side with her elbow.
"Seriously?! There are far more disturbing things happening in this post-apocalyptic world. I’ve seen relationships much stranger than this."
Her eyes narrowed at him. "But stop irritating me, okay?"
Gideon raised his hands in surrender and nodded obediently, though he still could not suppress a quiet laugh.
To Delilah’s annoyance, that laugh drew a reluctant smile from her.
A few moments later, they stopped in front of Summer’s bedroom. The atmosphere immediately grew tense again.
Gideon reached for the doorknob, but before opening it, he turned to look at her.
"You ready?"
Delilah took a slow breath, steadying herself, then gave him a firm nod.
Gideon opened the door, revealing Summer lying in bed. She looked much better than she had a week ago. At the very least, she was finally able to eat without immediately becoming nauseated.
He and Delilah stepped inside and quietly closed the door behind them.
Hearing them enter, Summer’s eyes fluttered open, and the moment she saw the worried expressions on both of their faces, she tried to push herself into a sitting position.
Delilah quickly crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, resting a hand on her daughter’s shoulder to gently ease her back down.
"It’s okay. You can just lie there, Summer."
Summer nodded and settled back against the pillow. She was still weak and constantly drowsy, with barely enough energy to do anything other than rest in bed all day.
Delilah hesitated for a moment before speaking, her voice soft and careful because the last thing she wanted was to frighten her daughter.
"I wanted to talk to you about your condition. This isn’t a normal sickness, is it?"
The moment the question left her mouth, Summer’s face turned pale, as if she had known exactly where this conversation was heading.
Slowly, she turned to Gideon, her expression full of confusion and accusation, silently demanding to know what had happened.
Gideon gave her a reassuring nod. "It’s okay, Summer. I told your mother everything."
"What?! She’s going to kill me!"
Summer whipped her head back toward Delilah, her face filled with dread.
"I’m so sorry, Mom, but I don’t want to abort this baby! I want to be a mother!"
She immediately wrapped both arms around her stomach, holding it protectively as though Delilah might somehow snatch the child away on the spot.
Delilah could only stare at her in complete confusion before turning to Gideon, who merely shrugged with an infuriating little smile that seemed to say, ’See? Everyone thinks the same thing I do.’
That alone was enough to make her head throb.
"No, you do not have to do that. Oh, God." She pressed her fingers to her temple and let out a long sigh. "Do I really look like some crazy old witch who wants to abort every baby in every woman’s stomach?"
Summer gave a small, silent nod while Gideon finally lost control and burst into laughter. Delilah narrowed her eyes and pinched his palm hard enough to make him flinch, but he continued laughing anyway.
"Ugh, you were constantly giving Kanna unnecessary ’advice’ when she was pregnant and silently judging her the entire time," Summer groaned.
"Of course, I thought you’d do the same to me. Especially when you still treat me like I’m a child and criticize almost every decision I make. I can live on my own too, Mom."
Delilah gasped, genuinely stunned that her children saw her that way.
"I’m not like that," she protested, though her voice faltered almost immediately.
"Well... yes, I was worried about Kanna. She’s tiny, and I knew labor would be painful and difficult for someone with that kind of figure. Was it really so wrong for me to say that her decision was absolutely wrong?"
Summer and Gideon nodded so quickly and so firmly that Delilah let out another long sigh of exasperation.
"Fine. I was wrong."
Then she turned back to Summer, her expression growing stern as she leaned closer to the bed.
"But, Summer, most of your decisions really are terrible and usually end in disaster and chaos. Need I remind you what happened the last time you fell in love with some musty old man who was the same age as your father and clearly only wanted to sleep with you, but you were too foolish to notice?"
She did not wait for an answer.
"You wanted to run away with him. You cried for days and called me an old hag for separating the two of you. And what happened the very next day? He was thrown out of Freebound because he raped underage girls. Girls, plural. Not just one."
"See? You always bring up the past!" Summer huffed as she turned onto her side, making it clear that she no longer wanted to look at her mother. "That happened seven years ago. Move on already."
Then she gestured dramatically toward herself.
"And now look at me. I’ve become an old virgin. What would have happened if Gideon hadn’t come to live with us? I’d probably still be a virgin at forty and turn into a legendary wizard."
Gideon placed a hand on Delilah’s shoulder and nodded solemnly.
"She’s right. You’re welcome."
Delilah immediately slapped his hand away.
"Shut up, Gideon! Go, leave the room. I want to talk to my daughter alone!"
Summer immediately pushed herself into a sitting position and exclaimed, "No! I want my husband to stay here!"
"Oh, come on. He isn’t your husband."
"He will be. In the spring, he said he wants to marry me."
Summer beckoned Gideon closer with an insistent wave of her hand, and he moved to her side.
"Fine."
Her expression softened as she took her daughter’s hand and held it firmly between both of hers.
"I’m not here to lecture you or force you to get rid of the baby. I just want to know how you’re feeling. Are you alright? Has morning sickness been too hard on you? I can make a remedy for it. It’s a recipe my mother used to make for me when I was pregnant."
Before she could finish, Summer’s expression crumpled. Her eyes filled with tears, and without warning she leaned forward and threw her arms around Delilah.
"I’m okay. Thank you, Mom." Her voice trembled as she clung to her tightly. "I’m just so happy that you accepted our relationship and this baby. I thought you would kill me for sure."
Delilah froze for a moment in surprise, but her arms soon wrapped around Summer in return.
As she held her daughter, warmth spread through her chest.
For a brief moment, it felt as though time had turned back and Summer was a little girl again, racing into her arms every afternoon after school and chattering excitedly about everything that had happened that day while they ate dinner together.
Those had been peaceful days, and more than once Delilah had prayed that she might experience something like them again.
"Of course I’ll always be here for you, Summer," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "I’m your mother. I will always protect you, and I will always believe in you."
Tears slipped down her cheeks before she could stop them. She tried to blame it on the pregnancy and the unruly hormones that came with it, but deep down she knew that was only part of the reason.
Summer nodded against her shoulder.
"Okay, but you have to stop treating me like a child. I’m going to have a baby in eight or nine months."
Delilah let out a watery laugh and gently brushed a strand of hair from Summer’s face.
"I can’t do that. You’ll always be my baby. You’ll understand once your own child is born."
When they finally pulled apart, Delilah kept her hands on Summer’s arms and looked at her with quiet certainty.
"You’re going to be a wonderful mother. Better than I ever was."
Summer stared at her in disbelief before smiling through her tears.
"What are you talking about? You’re the best mother in the world."
At that moment, Delilah felt happier than she ever thought possible after the apocalypse.
She had never imagined that their small family would survive long enough to grow, much less find a safe place where they could finally settle down.
Yet here they were, living in this modest territory, their bodies no longer tense with constant fear and their hearts slowly learning how to be happy again.
Turning to Gideon, she said softly, "Thank you, Gideon, for giving us a new life."
Gideon’s expression softened. Unable to hold himself back any longer, he leaned forward and wrapped both women in a warm embrace.
"Then promise me you’ll help this territory thrive," he said. "And don’t worry. I won’t let your dreams end just because you’re becoming a mother."
The three of them remained there together, holding one another in a rare moment of peace.
None of them noticed the figure standing quietly in the doorway.
She watched them with eyes filled with both happiness and sorrow. One hand drifted to her stomach, rubbing it absentmindedly as she whispered to herself.
"Is it impossible for me to get pregnant too?"