She looked away from him, a little flustered. How could he say something like that with a straight face after what she had confessed?

"So, you are not going to take the children and kick me to the curb?" She asked.

He looked at her solemnly. "Now why would I do that? Our lives are good the way they are. I am more worried about you abandoning the children because technically, you are not their mother. I am...." he stopped. But in his mind, he finished the sentence. He was not her husband. He was married to the body, but not the soul. Elias took a deep breath, thinking that this was a matter they would deal with slowly.

"I am their mother." Sienna responded firmly. "I am now Sienna Miller. Something in the universe gave me a second chance at life with her identity. So, I will not take that for granted. I will fulfill her duties."

"Duties." He repeated after her slowly. Was that how she saw him and the children? It almost sounded like they were a burden she could put aside when she was tired of, and that did not sit well with him.

Without knowing what was on his mind, Sienna nodded. "Yes, duties. To the children, to her family, to the responsibilities she had. I will do my best to fulfill all them to the best of my ability. Besides, I love the children. They have grown on me. I have accepted everything about the old Sienna Miller, good and bad. It is all mine now." She reached for a cup that held water.

He rose abruptly, reached her in two strides and picked up the cup for her. Elias did not let go of the handle, placing the cup on her lips directly.

While she quenched her thirst, he thought about how she didn’t hesitate to throw herself in front of Eli, and he thought that maybe it was enough that she was even willing to do this much for them. As long as she accepted the children and raised them well, he should be satisfied.

"What else do you have to confess?" He asked, taking the cup away from her mouth. "Even if the soul is different, your mental strength is another story. This body is still human. It did not grow a beast gene when you showed up." He walked back to the chair and sat down, facing her with a solemn face.

She took a calculated breath. It was time to reveal the system and ask for a favor.

[Warning! Warning! Host cannot reveal the existence of this system.]

Sienna’s mouth that had been opened was closed immediately. Immediately, she thought of how to get around this blockage. "I have...a special way of gaining mental strength." She leaned her head forward, biting her lower lip. "I can’t explain how, but it is connected to you."

His brows furrowed and his eyes became suspicious. "How?"

She cleared her throat. "As long as we do certain things together, I can gain mental strength." Her cheeks turned slightly red. The words were so normal, but somehow, they sounded off! "Not weird things or intimate ones." She blurted out. "Just playing around. It is not complicated."

His brows remained in the same position.

She looked at the doubts on his face and sighed. "I am tired, I can’t explain it all right now." Sienna figured she had explained just enough. If she revealed more, the system would unbind or something, and she could not take any risks.

Slowly, she laid down and wriggled her body upward like a worm. Elias leaped into action like a fussy mother, moving her body into the right position and covering her with a light quilt. "Are you too tired to talk?"

Sienna yawned softly in response.

He backed away from her. "It’s okay, we can talk another time. I just wanted to ask what your name is or was."

She raised her head a little. Of all the questions she expected from him, this was not one, because it didn’t matter. "Mills, Sienna Mills," she replied slowly and then rested her head on the soft cushion, closing her eyes ultimately.

He didn’t want to contribute to her discomfort by looming over her, so he returned to his chair. He itched to step outside for a breath of fresh air but the Linus 300 did not have deck. Additionally, he could not leave her here alone, in case she needed anything. So, he remained awake in his chair as the weight of her confession pressed against his chest. This was not the wife he married, but another soul inhabiting her body.

Their names were similar. Did that have anything to do with why she was pulled here? Where was his original wife? Was she now living in another world as Sienna Mills? Had she been erased, or was her soul lingering around them? Perhaps, it was somewhere beyond the veil of worlds.

Threads of doubt and certainty tangled and snapped as he pondered on the matter. Priests often talked about souls, but he gave a second thought to it, considering it all to be simple talk. Were there more people like Sienna out there whose souls had been swapped?

Was this a secret they would need to tell the children at some point? Eli had said it many times, that the bad woman was acting suspicious. Deep down, even he knew that something about his mother was not right.

He shook his head. "Not necessary," he muttered. Telling the children about it was not needed. It would just confuse them.

His eyes wandered back to Sienna’s sleeping form, thinking how scared she must have been to wake up in the body of another person and be faced with all the bad things this person had done. Things that were now her burden. How hard had it been for her adjust? How much had she cried for her own family that she would never see again?

Elias sighed. He would have to be nicer to her from now on, to fill the gaps in her heart. Reality was not entirely bitter. This Sienna, though foreign, had brought vitality into his home. She challenged him, soothed him, wrangled their cubs, handled official matters and carried burdens with a resilience that was more genuine than the original wife he had.

Perhaps the fox god had arranged this, giving him a partner better suited to his path? She was both familiar and unknown, both his wife and not. He was torn between suspicion and tenderness. Her confessions had left him restless in a way he didn’t like at all.