The More the Merrier

“Yes, there is a mine on the mountain. It’s hard to build a road up the mountain, so the owner of the mine hired many adults and children from the village to carry the mining products from the mountain…” Rick said.

Ethen could not imagine how a young child could work.

Benjamin went into the house and took a look around.

The house consisted of three rooms. The one in the middle was the living room.

The other two rooms were most likely bedrooms.

One of the rooms had a big bed made by combining a few benches.

“Mary and Tim stayed in this room,” Rick explained.

The room was messy, but it was clean.

The other bedroom belonged to Raphael. None of the doors had locks and were only partially closed.

Anyone could enter and leave freely. Furthermore, the kitchen consisted only of a thatched roof surrounded by a fence.

The house was dilapidated and had nothing of value.

seen the house in person, he would not have believed that

surroundings and felt uncomfortable about

child grew up in such an impoverished

must find

they could not ascertain whether Tim was the child they had been

Ethen immediately ordered his

analyzed where a child and an old lady could go at

life?” Benjamin sat on a stone bench and looked at the messy kitchen. He frowned when he thought there might have been a scuffle earlier based on the state

him as their own. Unfortunately, life became difficult after Raphael came out of prison. Raphael liked gambling, so he would often force

rapidly. He soon passed away, leaving only Mary and Tim. Since Mary could hardly walk and had many illnesses, she could not work. Thus, it fell onto Tim to provide for the family. He had to go

that, Ethen ordered someone to

he emanated an icy

Tim. “Terrible. Raphael frequently scolded and beat Tim up. Furthermore, he even wanted to sell Tim, but Mary protected the boy from him. Since Tim has been earning money, Raphael had probably taken him

fury. “Why did

a complicated matter, and the police are reluctant to get involved in family matters. As long as it is not too much, no one

footage and quickly sought Rick’s confirmation. “Mr. Griffin, is this old

side and looked at it before nodding. “Yeah, it’s them. It seems they have

surveillance footage. It showed Tim’s back but not his