บททั้งหมดของ The Price of Their Fortune: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

Before the final words had left her mouth, her hand flew up."Slap! Slap!"Two blows struck my face. My ears rang, and my cheeks burned.After hitting and condemning me, Delia looked as though she'd completed some sacred duty.She turned and gathered the three boys into her arms."It's all right, sweethearts. We'll ignore your cruel father. Mommy will take you into the bedroom to rest."She shepherded them into our bedroom and locked the door behind them.Laughter soon drifted through the walls.The sound scraped back and forth across my heart like a rusted saw.This time, I didn't call my best friend and ask him to mediate as I had before.I wouldn't stand helplessly by and let them destroy me again.Then someone knocked on the front door.My body tensed, but I didn't move.My best friend Travis Cole's familiar booming voice immediately sounded from the hallway."Nathan, what are you doing in there? Open the door!"Did you make Delia angry again? She stayed with you whe

Delia nodded obediently. "Thank you, Mrs. Lynch."Watching them, I felt the last warmth in my heart turn cold.In my first life, my parents had beaten me to death with a garden hoe. In this one, they'd nearly done the same inside my apartment.They no longer saw their son. They saw only three boys of unknown origin.Too weak to keep arguing, I said, "You can have the divorce, but my name must be cleared. These children won't be attached to me."A strange smile crossed Delia's face. "Fine."She lifted one hand, and Travis strode toward me with murder in his eyes.He hauled me up, threw me into the cargo area of his SUV, and drove us to the Cedar Hollow Family Genetics Center.The physician looked at me with open contempt, clearly assuming I was a wealthy man trying to abandon his children.Delia lowered her head, her shoulders trembling.Despite everything, seeing her cry still hurt, and I stepped toward her.The moment my fingers touched her arm, she recoiled like a frighten

I leaned against the hospital pillows and stared at the gray sky beyond the window.The memory of Travis breaking my ribs and my parents beating me to death remained painfully vivid, yet the truth behind it was almost laughably stupid.A fierce will to survive rose inside me.I wouldn't wait helplessly for death this time.Anyone who wanted a sacrifice could volunteer themselves.I'd turn their precious legend against the people who wanted me dead.The rumor might have been invented from nothing, but the three children were real.Real children had histories, records, and people who had known them.My eyes returned to the DNA report. Where were their biological parents?Had the boys been abandoned, or had they been trafficked?A plan took shape at once.I picked up my phone."Aaron, I need help. I believe three trafficked children are being kept at my apartment. Contact someone at the Cedar Hollow Police Department and a reputable child-recovery organization as quickly as yo

"I'm not going anywhere. You can't arrest me!"My mother dropped to the floor and began wailing."Nathan, you heartless monster. You called the police on your own mother. God will punish you!"She struck her head against the bed rail, her gray hair falling loose as she performed for the room.My father pointed at me and cursed."We raised you, and this is what you became? You'd send your own parents to jail? Have you no conscience?"From today forward, you're no son of mine. You won't be buried with the Lynch family.""Nathan, I'm so disappointed in you." Delia twisted free for one step and rushed toward my bed, pointing tearfully at the boys."Look at them. How can you reject such innocent children?"I already forgave you. What else are you afraid of?"She turned toward the detectives, shaking with sobs. "He's the one who cheated. I only wanted to protect the children, and now he's punishing all of us.""Enough!" Travis roared at her. "You told me Nathan was abandoning his

As the case developed, the truth about the three boys also emerged.The Interstate Missing Children DNA Network identified their biological parents, a struggling couple from the remote community of Pine Hollow in western Franklin.When the exhausted parents arrived at the Cedar Hollow Child Advocacy Center and saw their missing sons, they nearly collapsed from grief and relief.Their account, together with the boys' fragmented memories, revealed an even more painful story.The criminal group led by the so-called spiritual adviser had deliberately targeted a family with identical triplets.Taking advantage of the parents' isolation and limited access to information, recruiters posed as talent scouts and claimed the boys had extraordinary faces suited for advertising.They later promised a large payment if the parents allowed the children to attend a special promotional event in the city.Desperate for money and dangerously trusting, the couple handed the boys over to the traffick