The Price of Their Fortune Chapter 08
“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 biological sons. You said he was a monster.”
“Nathan, I was an idiot. She told me that if you refused them, all of us would be cursed. I believed her.”
I laughed without humor. “Save the performance for the interview room.”
As the police escorted them away, I leaned back and slowly released the breath trapped in my chest.
The nurse changing my dressing asked carefully, “Mr. Lynch, are you all right?”
I nodded.
“I’m fine.
“I’ve never felt better.”
As the investigation widened, detectives uncovered a criminal enterprise behind the ridiculous triplet legend. The arrested leader admitted that “Three at the Threshold, Fortune Follows” had begun as a lurid story he posted on an obscure foruin
Its mixture of identical children, supernatural luck, and ritual sacrifice spread quickly.
Within private groups, strangers repeated and embellished it until it sounded like established folklore.
The creator saw an opportunity to make money. He organized a network to package the story, circulate it, and identify potential customers.
They targeted people desperate for sudden wealth and alreally inclined to believe in occult solutions.
Delia had been one of their ideal prospects.
Police discovered that she’d spent years gambling online and had accumulated enormous hidden del
When every ordinary way out failed, she found the self–proclaimed spiritual adviser.
He sold the legend to her as a secret method for “rewriting late,” exploiting her desperation.
She believed him because she needed the promise to be true.
He instructed her to recruit the intended sacrifice’s closest relatives and friends, claiming the fortune could be transferred only if they acted together.
