Borrowed Blood

When I said that, my three-year-old son, Noah, stared at me in disbelief.

Then he immediately opened his little arms and threw himself toward me, crying in a small, childish voice, "Daddy! Daddy, don't you want Noah anymore?"

He rarely acted spoiled with me like this, so that one word, Daddy, made me pause.

Had I just imagined it?

Of course. It was too absurd. How could he possibly be my little brother?

I hugged him and thought my wife, Clara, must have lied to me after all.

But in the very next second, I heard his voice again.

[Ha, throw me away? I'm his little brother!]

[Divorce is fine, but throwing me away isn't! Otherwise, how's he supposed to willingly buy me a house, a car, and everything else?]

I stared at his mouth again.

That was when I realized I wasn't hallucinating. I could really hear Noah's thoughts.

I was so frightened that I let go of him at once and stared at him in horror.

Clara finally came back to herself and hurriedly said, "Honey, I swear to you, I've never touched another man besides you!

"Maybe the hospital made a mistake. Why don't we go ask them?

"And he's only three. How can you say we should throw him away..."

"Throw who away?"

Suddenly, my own mother, Margaret Griffin, burst in from outside and roared, "Who wants to throw Noah away?"

The moment I saw Margaret, Noah's thoughts rang out again.

[My mission after transmigrating here is to make this idiot Dylan Griffin raise me until I turn eighteen, then buy me a car, a house, and give me a million-dollar wedding fund!]

[So I absolutely can't let him get his way!]

[Now my real mom is here. Let's see what he dares to do!]

So that was it.

Noah was a soul from somewhere else. No wonder his mind was so terrifying despite being only three years old.

Clara still didn't know what was happening. She handed Noah's physical report to Margaret. "Mom, Noah's blood type doesn't match either of ours. I don't know which step went wrong."

Margaret froze when she heard that. Then she reached toward me and yanked several strands of hair from my head.

I gasped from the pain, but she ignored me completely. "I told you not to let Noah take those useless checkups. They're all scams!

"Now look what happened. They made you lose your mind and want to abandon my precious grandson!

"If you don't believe it, I'll do a paternity test for you. Wouldn't that settle everything?"

Right.

I suddenly remembered that every time Noah needed a physical or blood test, Margaret had stopped it in every possible way.

Either she said she couldn't bear to watch Noah cry from pain, or she said it was all a scam for money.

Now it seemed she'd only been afraid that I would discover the blood-type issue too soon.

The force of her tug made me stagger a few steps. Noah couldn't help laughing. "Grandma beat the monster! Beat that fat pig monster!"

He had often mocked me for being fat before, but I'd assumed he was only a three-year-old who didn't know better.

Now I realized he hated me. He treated me as free labor and a sucker.

He believed that no matter what he did, I, his so-called father, would never get angry with him.

At that thought, I raised my hand and slapped him across the face. "Noah Griffin! Who taught you to speak with so little manners?"

Noah's cheek instantly turned red, and he burst into tears.

Before Clara could say anything, Margaret pointed at me and shouted, heartbroken, "Dylan Griffin! I'm still your mother!

"You hit my precious grandson right in front of me. Where are your manners? I raised you for nothing!"

Our shouting drew my sister Paige and her boyfriend, Trevor Bell, in from outside.

"What happened?"

When Noah saw them, his thoughts screamed with excitement.

[Daddy! Daddy's here too!]

[Ahhh, my daddy's so handsome!]

[No wonder my real mom fell for him the first night Paige brought him home to meet the family!]

[But at least my real mom is still decent-looking. Daddy did it willingly, hee hee!]

Hearing that, I froze where I stood.

So the son I'd raised for three years was actually the child of Margaret Griffin and Trevor Bell?

Then where was my child?

Where had my child gone?