Chapter 4

Mr. Ferguson shoved Mrs. Ferguson aside before looking at me with a kindly smile.

"Your mother is just a little emotional because she's missed you so much. You don't need to be scared. I've already contacted our lawyer. Once you come home with us, you can sign the agreement and inherit the family's entire billion-dollar fortune. Consider it our way of making up for all your suffering."

I'd never been more alarmed than I was at that moment. I hastily plucked a hair from my head and handed it over to them. I told them that I would wait until the DNA results confirmed our relationship before returning to the family, as I didn't want to get my hopes up prematurely. Once I fed them the excuse, I hurried off at once.

The restaurant was packed, so the Fergusons didn't come after me.

When I got back to the orphanage, Luke, Simon, and Tom immediately surrounded me.

"So what's the secret?"

"I don't know," I said, groaning.

The three of them looked like they were on the verge of breaking down. Gaze hollow, they started mumbling, "Even if we pool our money together, we still can't afford a single flight ticket. We can't even make a run for it."

"Why don't we just take our own lives? That's still better than being murdered by someone else."

Nevertheless, none of them could actually bring themselves to do that.

Luke grabbed all of our wrists.

"Look, why don't we just dissolve a bunch of sleeping pills in some water, and we can all drink it together. That probably won't be very painful, right?"

I hastily reassured them, "It's not a lost cause yet! Someone still needs to admit to being the Fergusons' son. I'll do it."

The three of them looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Why are you saying that you'll do it when you know you'll die if you do? What's the point?"

"Are you that greedy? You'd throw your life away just for money?"

Memories of the horrific ways the three of them had died came flooding back to all of us. One had been ripped into pieces. Another had been skinned alive. And the third had been mauled to death by a dog.

Each of them had died most painfully, and I was no exception. I was still alive when my body hit the ground. I had to suffer the excruciating agony of having every bone in my body broken, painfully aware that my life was slowly coming to an end.

The so-called billion-dollar fortune had been our one-way ticket to hell.

Clutching the photocopy of the asset transfer agreement, I declared in a firm voice, "Yes. I know I'll be walking to my doom if I knock on the Fergusons' door and claim that I'm their son. But this is also our only chance of making it out of this alive."

But they didn't understand what I was saying.

"Why do you say that?"

I glanced at them but didn't bother explaining. At the moment, I wasn't even sure if I would succeed in exposing the truth. I figured that it would be better if I kept it a secret from them. That way, even if I failed, I could at least buy them some time to make their escape.

I gave them all of my savings. "Buy whatever ticket you can to skip town. Do it as fast as possible. That's all you need to do right now."

Luke teared up. "You don't actually have a plan, right? You're just trying to buy us time to escape?"

"When did you become such a saint? Don't even think about it!" Simon snapped at me.

Even Tom slammed his hand on the table. "They've already locked on to all of us. There's no way we can escape. Just tell us your plan—tell us how we can help."

I was surprised and a little moved.

Ever since we were kids, the four of us had always been competing with one another. We fought over everything and hated seeing any of the others do well.

But now that I thought about it, we'd never caused any real harm to each other.

Meanwhile, my so-called biological parents had killed me without a hint of hesitation, condemning me to a miserable and agonizing death.

Seeing how they were standing by me, I decided not to hide what I knew from them.

"In her rush to drag me back to their house, Mrs. Ferguson knocked over the desserts on the table, and that allowed me to realize the truth. The long-lost son of the Ferguson family really did grow up in the orphanage, and he's someone you all know."

Under their expectant gazes, I finally gave them the answer.