And the Shadow's line started, "Who knows what EVIL lurks in the hearts ..."
I think that's quite relevant to this story.
Thank you! That's it exactly. Unfortunate reference for me. I'll jump to Dickens (Bleak House, I think): "What have the poor if not their children?" Meaning (to me) that children, even when they're undeserved (talk about moral judgment) are the greatest of all wealth and understandably pursued or coveted maybe even against reason.