So many complicated feelings ya’ll

It's OK you said it best for those of us not good with words

I agree it’s a well done story indeed. :) However, I have to ask why no one acknowledges her four dead children with Oscar. They had souls too. Why don’t their souls count? Why must it only be Luca’s soul that ‘goes back to her’ although I’m not exactly sure what that means because there is no such thing in Christianity/Catholicism. None of her dead children’s soul will go back to Ines and she knows this. Are you suggesting that Luca’s soul will come back to her in her future children?

Babe ngl im an atheist so i don’t have any idea about the religion side of it i was just going through IT.
But the reason i would think that Luca is more talked about is bc she actively chose to take his life. Although one could argue that she also played part in the miscarriages bc she was actively having an ED while pregnant. I would say nobody blames her for it, so i would def say at least on my point of view she didn’t actively cause her miscarriages/death of her soon to be kids especially bc she wanted to have them. But Luca on the other hand was killed by her own hand…… of course to save him from his future death by the hand of her family, but she still carries the guilt of Luca bc she actively choose to kill him. So to me i would just love to see her have a redemption with Luca. I just want her to be able to have that peace with Luca, her being able to actually raise her baby. And i know Luca doesn’t blame her but still its just a hope of mine. <3

The author is realistic. There are parents in the real world who experience guilt over their children dying when they thought they could have prevented it or mothers who feel guilt over an abortion they took. There’s a way to be forgiven and move on without that child coming back to life. The author treats each soul as unique because her writing is based on the real world. A dead child’s soul cannot replace a new child’s soul.

It also doesn’t make sense that Luca becomes Carcel’s child or Oscar’s child becomes Carcel’s child. Those children had distinct fathers and have nothing to do with Carcel. Carcel’s children have their own souls. We already know Ines was married to Carcel in her first true life. What if she had children that somehow ended up dying because she unwittingly killed them? Wouldn’t she also feel guilt over those children? Yet, those children won’t be born again just because she feels guilt over inadvertently killing them even though they were her children with Carcel. Ines just needs to forgive herself. All her children were innocent and they’re presumed to be in a better place. One day Ines should be able to understand that just like mothers who have lost children in the real world eventually comes to terms with that particularly in the Christian world which this story is based upon. The painter even said something like this to Carcel to pass on to Ines as his message to her.