RDR: NO REGRETS - Chapter 263: Adoption (Patreon)

When it came to having a short temper, Sadie was definitely the most hot-headed of the group.

After hearing Stephen’s account, she immediately exploded in anger.

If the people Stephen and the others had already killed could somehow die a second time, Sadie would have happily shot them dead a thousand more times.

“What a poor child.”

Sadie held Alice in her arms and said gently, “How could those damn bastards do something like that?”

“They stopped being human a long time ago.”

Stephen stood nearby with a cigarette hanging from his lips and said helplessly, “Anyone with even a shred of humanity left wouldn’t be capable of something like this.”

As far as Stephen was concerned, anyone who joined a cult like this deserved to die.

He left Alice with Sadie and told her to find somewhere the girl could rest.

Perhaps it was Sadie’s gentleness, or maybe just a child’s natural instinct, but Alice glanced back at Stephen before obediently following Sadie below deck.

After everything she had been through, the girl could barely remain standing.

Stephen, meanwhile, looked around at the bodies and blood covering the ship and decided to deal with the corpses first.

As for how to dispose of them, that was easy.

He could simply throw them all into the lake.

Consider it a contribution to nature.

Sadie brought Alice into the wheelhouse, then went down to the cargo hold and found a relatively clean blanket to wrap around her.

“My name is Sadie. Sadie Adler.”

Sadie looked at Alice’s dirty little face and smiled warmly.

She and her husband had never had children, and that had always been one of her greatest regrets.

So after meeting Alice and learning what she had been through, Sadie suddenly found herself wanting to adopt her.

But now wasn’t the right time to talk about that.

Looking at the scars covering the girl’s body, Sadie felt her nose sting.

She forced back the tears gathering in her eyes and smiled at Alice.

“Sweetheart, stay here and rest for a while. I need to clean up those... dirty things outside first.”

“Then we’ll go pick up Charles and Arthur, and after that, we can go home.”

Alice obediently nodded.

Sadie smiled, picked her up, and set her down on a chair behind the wheelhouse.

“Get some rest. You can sleep if you want. By the time you wake up, we’ll be leaving this place.”

Sadie gently stroked Alice’s hair while softly humming a lullaby.

No one would have expected someone as fiery and impulsive as Sadie to have such a gentle side.

With Sadie soothing her, Alice soon fell asleep against the chair.

Sadie looked at her tenderly, carefully laid her flat, then pulled another chair over so the girl could lie more comfortably.

After tucking the blanket around her, Sadie quietly stepped outside.

“What are you planning to do with her?”

The moment she came out, she saw Stephen pushing another corpse into the lake and asked, “Are you going to adopt her, or what?”

“What else am I supposed to do?”

Stephen lifted a corpse with one hand and tossed it straight into the lake.

The strong smell of blood had attracted a large number of alligators and other predators from the water, turning the lake into a frenzy.

Watching the surface churn like boiling water, Stephen sighed.

“Where else could we send her? An orphanage?”

“Forget it. Sending her to an orphanage would be as good as sending her to die.”

This was nineteenth-century America.

Everyone knew what orphanages could be like.

Stephen figured that the moment they left, some depraved bastard might set his sights on the girl.

Wealthy perverts with twisted tastes, scientists who wanted children for human experiments, and people looking for free servants.

America had no shortage of people like that.

“I want to adopt her.”

Sadie fell silent for a moment before speaking firmly.

“You’re the one who saved her, but... I’ve made up my mind. I want to adopt this child.”

Stephen looked at her curiously.

Her expression was resolute, almost exactly like it had been when she decided to avenge her husband.

“I’ve got no problem with that.”

Stephen smiled.

“I’m a man, after all. Raising a little girl isn’t exactly my specialty.”

Stephen’s original plan had been to take Alice back to the gang and leave her in Mrs. Grimshaw’s care.

After all, just as he had said, it would be inconvenient for a grown man like him to look after a little girl by himself.

Besides, his current line of work was hardly suitable for someone raising a child.

Mrs. Grimshaw would have been a good choice.

She might be strict and fierce, but Stephen believed she would make a good guardian.

Still, if Sadie wanted to adopt Alice, Stephen certainly wasn’t going to object.

Sadie had seemed much more cheerful lately, but Stephen knew she was still trapped in the pain of losing her husband.

That grief had left her with a constant self-destructive streak.

In a fight, she always threw herself in recklessly, as though killing one enemy meant breaking even and killing two meant coming out ahead.

Her own safety never seemed to enter into the equation.

Maybe Alice’s arrival could pull Sadie back from that kind of extreme thinking.

“All right. We can talk about that once we’re back.”

Stephen patted Sadie on the shoulder, then pointed at the remaining corpses on the ship.

“I’ll deal with these. You take the helm. Let’s go pick up Arthur and the others.”

With that, Stephen rolled up his sleeves and went back to work.

There were a lot of corpses, and every one of them had died horribly.

It was summer, and the weather was hot.

If they didn’t get rid of the bodies soon, the entire ship would be unbearable by morning.

Sadie turned and headed for the wheelhouse.

Before long, the ship began moving again.

Since Sadie was operating it alone and wasn’t familiar with the area, she didn’t dare go too fast.

She carefully kept close to the shoreline as she navigated around the island.

Even though the island itself was tiny, it still took her a full twenty minutes to reach the small dock at the back.

Arthur and Charles were already waiting there.

Beside them sat two fairly large crates.

“We made out pretty well.”

Arthur struggled to haul one of the heavy crates aboard, grinning with satisfaction.

“That church was loaded with gold and cash, plus plenty of other valuables.”

With a heavy thud, he opened one of the crates, revealing the loot packed inside.

“Conservatively, I’d say all this is worth five thousand dollars. We’re rich!”

Stephen looked over the haul and nodded in satisfaction.

At least after risking their lives like this, they had something to show for it.