All Chapters of BENEATH THE SAME SKY: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Just when I thought that life would continue to be peaceful and happy, a new challenge arose. One day, I received a letter from a group of local business owners who were protesting against the foundation’s activities. They claimed that we were competing with their businesses and taking away their customers, and they demanded that we stop our programs or face legal action. I was shocked and confused. We had never intended to compete with anyone. Our programs were designed to help people who had no other options, and we always made sure to work with local businesses whenever possible. I decided to meet with the group to hear their concerns. When we met, they were angry and defensive, but I listened carefully to what they had to say. "We have been working hard for years to build our businesses," one of them said. "And now you come along, giving away goods and services for free, and we can’t compete. We are struggling to make ends meet, and you are making it even harder for us." I und

Life with Lina was full of challenges, of course. There were sleepless nights, tantrums, and moments when I felt overwhelmed and unsure of myself. But there were also so many blessings—her first words, her first steps, the way she would run to me and throw her arms around me when I came home, the way she looked at me with love and trust in her eyes. One day, Lina came home from school with a drawing she had made. It was a picture of our family—me, Dimas, my father, and her—all holding hands and smiling. At the bottom, she had written: "My family. The best family in the world." I looked at the drawing and tears filled my eyes. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. "Thank you, Lina," I said, hugging her tightly. "This is the best gift you could ever give me." Dimas came home and saw the drawing, and he too was moved to tears. "We are so lucky," he said, putting his arm around both of us. "We have everything we could ever want right here." As I looked at my family, I thoug

With the custody battle behind us, we thought that we could finally go back to living our lives in peace. But we soon realized that Mr. Wijaya was not going to give up so easily. Even though he was in prison, he still had people on the outside who were willing to do his bidding. One day, we received a threatening letter in the mail. It was not signed, but we knew who it was from. "You may have won this battle, but the war is not over. I have many secrets, and I have many people who owe me favors. You will never be safe. I will make sure that you pay for everything you have done." We immediately reported the letter to the police, and they increased security around our home and the foundation. But the threats continued—phone calls in the middle of the night, strange cars parked outside our house, and anonymous messages sent to our office. We tried not to let it affect us, but it was hard. We were constantly looking over our shoulders, always worried that something bad was going to h

Over the next few weeks, we began to investigate the secrets we had uncovered. We talked to old family friends, looked through more documents, and tried to piece together the puzzle of my past. We discovered that my real father was a man named Ardi Pratama. He had been a close friend of my father’s, and he had worked for the family business many years ago. According to the documents, Ardi and my mother had fallen in love, but their relationship had been forbidden because of family differences. When my mother became pregnant with me, Ardi had been forced to leave the country, and my father had agreed to raise me as his own, to protect me and my mother from scandal and danger. But there was more to the story. It seemed that Ardi had not left by choice. He had been tricked into leaving, and he had been kept away from us for all these years. And now, according to recent records we found, he was still alive. He had been living in a small village in a remote part of the country, and he h

We stayed hidden behind the rocks, trying to come up with a plan. The men were getting closer, searching every corner of the cave, and we knew that it was only a matter of time before they found us. "We need to do something," I whispered to Dimas and Ardi. "We can’t just stay here and wait for them to find us." Ardi looked around the cave, his eyes scanning the walls and the ceiling. "There is another way out," he said quietly. "I found it when I was hiding the evidence. It’s a small passage at the back of the chamber. It leads out to the other side of the mountain. But it’s narrow and dark, and it will be difficult to get through." "Do you think we can make it?" I asked. "We have to try," Ardi said. "It’s our only chance." We waited until the men had moved further into the cave, then we quickly made our way to the back of the chamber. There, hidden behind a pile of rocks, was the entrance to the passage. It was small and dark, just as Ardi had said, but we squeezed through it on