All Chapters of Dad Tried to Kill Me, but Mom Heard My Thoughts: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"What's wrong, darling?" my father asked, stroking her back.My mother stared into space, as if she'd just woken from a dream."Nothing... I must have misheard."My father smiled and brought the baby boy closer to the bed. "Look. He looks just like you."Furious, I kept opening my mouth and kicking as hard as I could inside the basket. But the stench of the blood-soaked rags overwhelmed me. I couldn't make a sound or muster any strength.Don't listen to him.Mom! I'm in the basket.My mother went deathly pale. Clutching the covers, she jerked upright, gasping like a fish out of water.She'd heard me! Hecate's soul-link really worked.My mother shuddered again.I hurried to tell her more.Mom, that baby isn't yours! Myra Selwyn had him. She's my father's lover!Everyone in the Selwyn family bears Artemis's sacred brand behind one ear.My mother looked sharply at the boy, her gaze uncertain.My father mistook her look for affection. His expression softened even more as he brushed a finge

Chapter 10

The archon's court moved swiftly and handed down a decisive verdict.My father was stripped of his citizenship and banished from the city-state, never to return. This was atimia, a punishment second only to death. From then on, he would not even have the right to speak publicly in the agora.As his accomplice, Myra was exiled to a harsh, freezing colony on the frontier.Orion, the baby who had been switched with me, was sent to a foundling home at the Temple of Artemis. Its priests took in children with nowhere else to go.With the divorce declaration officially recorded, my mother returned to my grandfather's estate in triumph, taking me and her entire dowry with her.That day, the whole city turned out to watch.A long line of mule carts carried away gold and silver vessels, bronze statues, and painted vases made by master craftsmen. My father's house was stripped bare. My mother even ordered his wax writing tablet, inlaid with topaz, smashed on the spot."He won't keep anything that

Chapter 2

Chione glanced up, looking as if she had something to hide.She slowly lifted the lid. Harsh light flooded in.My heart hammered like an antelope's pounding hooves. The lack of air had left my whole body limp. Too weak to make a sound, I could only scream in my head.I'm right here.Chione bent over me, blocking my mother's view with her wide skirt. My mother craned her neck but still couldn't see into the basket.Chione reached in and lightly prodded me through my linen wrappings. An eerie smile crossed her face.Then I saw the red mole on her wrist. I went cold with fear.I'd seen that mole five times before.Every time my mother came close to losing me, that same hand had brought her medicine, lit incense, and guided her along slippery corridors.It was her... She was the one who'd done it!"My lady," Chione said, closing the lid, her expression unchanged. "There's nothing inside but blood and afterbirth. It's filthy. Please don't look. You'll only make yourself ill."I was so despe

Chapter 3

"Get away from me!" My fading voice seemed to light a fire in her.She shoved my father, sending him stumbling, then ran barefoot toward the basket. She hadn't even stopped to put on her leather sandals.Blood ran down her legs, leaving a horrifying red trail across the stone floor."Give me the basket!"My father's face darkened with rage. A vicious gleam flashed in his eyes."She's lost her mind! Hold her down!"The birthing room erupted into chaos.Chione lunged forward first to block her path, but my mother shoved her aside.Daphne backed away with the basket, but my mother lunged after her. She grabbed it and fought to wrench it free. Her pearl armlet was pulled off and her hairnet fell in the struggle, but she wouldn't let go.My whole world lurched and spun.A pair of large, rough hands reached in and grabbed me. Then I was stuffed into something soft and scratchy.Darkness swallowed me.The jostling left me dizzy, and I couldn't draw a breath.Mom!I'm here!My mother reached t

Chapter 4

My eldest uncle, Damon Theron, strode in from the cold night. His gaze swept over the wrecked room and stopped at my mother's reddened wrist.His face darkened at once."Cassian, is this how you take care of my sister?"He fixed my father with a hard stare.My father hid the malice in his eyes and slipped back into the calm, gentle manner of a priest of Hestia."You've got this all wrong." He even gave my uncle a small nod. "Thea's just given birth. She's confused. I just asked them to calm her down.""I'm not confused!" My mother struggled upright. "Damon, that baby isn't mine. They've switched my baby with someone else's."She clung to his arm. "She's still in this room. She's calling for me to save her."Her words made me want to cry.I knew how desperately she wanted to find me.When I was in her womb, she'd told me Aesop's fables every night. She told me about the gods and their tangled lives, about cities rising and falling. She'd whispered that when I was born, she would gather

Chapter 5

"My baby! My baby!"My mother tore free of my father's arms and stumbled toward me.She picked me up with shaking hands. Warmth wrapped around me. For a moment, it felt as though I were back inside her womb."I knew I wasn't imagining it!"She kissed me all over. The olive oil used during the delivery still clung to my skin, its scent mingling with the smells of blood and burning mugwort in the air.So this was what my mother smelled like. This was how warm and safe it felt to be with her."Waaah!" At last, I let out my first weak cry.At the sound, my mother could finally breathe again. She held me, laughing and crying, whispering, "My baby, my baby..."Mom, I made it...My uncle finally understood what had happened. He held his bronze short sword to my father's throat and demanded an explanation.My father went white but struggled to stay calm. "Damon, there has to be some misunderstanding."After a moment's thought, he pointed at Daphne. "She hid the baby. I knew nothing about it."

Chapter 6

My uncle wasted no time. He laid out each item in front of the threshold.Holding me in one arm, my mother took the torch in her free hand. Standing at the familiar doorway, she closed her eyes and recited the ancient prayer, speaking each word carefully. "Key-Bearer, threefold goddess, guardian of crossroads, mistress of thresholds. Through your power, I heard my daughter's cries. Please lend me your strength once more."The flame flared, then abruptly went still, as though an invisible hand were holding the wick steady.Hecate appeared before me in a white robe, a torch in one hand and a mottled snake coiled around the other. A black hound lay curled at her feet.But no one else in the room seemed able to see her.Hecate circled my mother with light, graceful steps, then surveyed the birthing room.I grew anxious and let out a small whimper.Goddess, please help my mom.When she heard me, my mother instinctively held me tighter. "If you are here, please make the flame flicker three t

Chapter 7

My father bit his lip hard, unable to speak.Seeing him like that was so satisfying.He's still shifting the blame!Mom, question Chione first. She must be working with my father.There's still rue in her hiding place under a floor tile in her room!Chione lay limp with terror on the cold stone floor and refused to get up."Spare me, my lady. I don't know anything."My mother kept her gaze locked on Chione, but for a long time she said nothing.At last, she crouched and grabbed Chione's left hand. She pushed Chione's loose tunic sleeve up to her shoulder, exposing her whole forearm.The red mole stood out starkly in the lamplight."You don't know?" My mother's voice trembled slightly. "I wish that were true. We've been together for ten years. But during all five pregnancies I lost, you prepared every dose of medicine I took and every scented oil I used, didn't you?"Chione's pupils narrowed sharply, but she kept shaking her head. "I've never betrayed you. Please believe me, my lady."M

Chapter 8

"Cassian!" Once my mother was seated, Damon seized my father's collar. "Only priests are allowed to obtain rue. Anyone else who wants it refined has to find a witch. A single pouch costs a fortune."Where would a slave like Chione get the money? Where would she find someone to sell it to her?"Are you still going to say you had nothing to do with this?"My father was white with fear. Still, he gripped Damon's fist and shook his head, trying to stay calm. "Damon, I knew nothing about it. This has nothing to do with me."He was making one last attempt to pin it all on Chione.He won't admit it until he's staring Hades in the face.Mom, his secret accounts are on a scroll in the study. It's hidden in a two-handled jar on the bottom shelf of the scroll rack.It lists every payment he made for rue!I shouted the truth in my head, trying to pull my mother out of her grief.My mother jerked her head up and fixed my father with a hard stare."Damon, send someone to search his study!"His accou

Chapter 9

It was Myra.She wore a striking saffron chiton. Her face was powdered with white lead, and her lips were thickly coated with vermilion.This time, her beauty earned her no mercy.They threw her hard to the floor. She screamed at the sight of the roomful of guards with swords and my father's deathly pale face.My father's eyes suddenly lit up. He pointed at Myra. "It was her. She wanted everyone to think her son was legitimate so he could inherit. That's why she bribed the midwife to switch the babies."He shuffled forward two paces on his knees and clutched my mother's robe. "Thea, I only wanted someone to carry on the temple rites. A daughter can't inherit the family estate... I just wanted an heir."Myra froze. Her eyes reddened, and she shook her head over and over."No, no! Cassian was the one who thought Thea couldn't give him a child."He said that if I had a son, we could take her dowry. Switching the babies was his idea too!"A long silence settled over the room.Lying in my m

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