Empathy
The two were protesting, clinging onto each other's hands as they were guided into the car. Rachel had allowed them to be taken on one condition- that they remain together. It seemed cruel to separate twins, but life had already been cruel to them.
She had promised to look after them, that things would be okay. But with one twin sporting a black eye and the other, a broken hand, she knew that things were not okay. That they must be taken into care.
Crying, pleading with her, they were still not as upset as when they had been living with their parents. One had told her that they were grateful but she could never understand. How naïve. To think that she had never been in the same position.
Rather sooner than later, she had told herself. She preferred to see the twins separated from their parents than have them turn to other means of living. That would be the cruellest thing of all and she had made a promise that no other child would ever have to experience that again.