This is a very short prelude to

'The Price Brothers Stories"

A Series of Five Books

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CONTENT WARNING!

THIS STORY AND THE FOLLOWING SERIES IS NOT MEANT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED. THERE IS SOME CONTENT IN THIS STORY THAT WILL UPSET SOME PEOPLE. IT’S MEANT FOR MATURE READERS WHO UNDERSTAND THAT LIFE ISN’T ALL ROSES.

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COPYRIGHT 2015

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No unauthorised copying of this book in any form is permitted.

MARI MITCHELL-BAKER

The Beginning

His hands gripped the steering wheel with a twist. He grimaced at the pain that shot across the back of his hand. The skin that was trying to heal breaking open and small drops of seeping blood coming through to mock and taunt him. He had nothing to put over it.Damn that woman!Every single damn time he tried to make things right that woman made him feel less of a man than he actually was and he couldn't... wouldn't... live with that. Her tears almost always broke him. The pain and fear in her eyes gripped him to the point of almost feeling guilty for what he'd been forced to do.Damn her!She made him do it. Every damn time. If only she treated him like he deserved to be treated then his hand wouldn't be bleeding. It was her own fault and he refused to give in to the guilt. He refused dammit!He slammed his hand against the dash and cried out as the pain seared through him and travelled up his arm. He didn't ask for much; he never did but still she was determined to defy him. Every damn time!His car veered to the left on the dirt road as his tyres lost traction and he was forced to correct it or end up in a tree. He needed to calm down... she wasn't worth him dying.He'd been quite cheery when he walked into the house three days earlier. His mood soon changed when he saw toys spread across the floor and no one in sight. Apparently the damn woman couldn't pick them up before bathing the children. Lazy damn cow.A man's home is his castle? Not his... Oh no. He had a hovel that resembled a dump. He was ashamed to be associated withthat house, that woman and those damn brats.Were they even his? He had suspected for a long time that the damn woman had been having lovers on the side while he wasn't home. He chuckled darkly. At least she showed some brains by picking the same man to father them. His twin brother William. Both of them be dammed to hell!He played happy father to them in public. People even commented on how much they looked like him. Carbon copies some said. If only they knew...Oh William denied it profusely as did she but he wasn't stupid. He could see the affection they had for one another. They didn't hide it. If anything, like the blood that left his hand at that moment, they mocked him by being open with their affair.The youngest, the boy, was his. He made sure of that He refused to leave during that critical time of month when Christine could fall pregnant and he damn well made sure she knew who was taking her in the bed. He wanted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that his and William's children looked nothing alike and thereby providing the truth about the parentage of the oldest two boys. Even then, the fates laughingly mocked him by creating Grayson in the image of William and his two unlawful children Maxon and Damon.His beautiful Grace would never do anything like Christine. Never would he doubt the sincerity of her love for him. If only he'd thought to do something about having children. He didn't want any more after the boy. He had enough already but Grace had her heart set on a large family and he knew he didn’t have the heart to disappoint her.

He himself had grown up in a family of three children and in his mind that was more than enough for any one man but knowing the love of his life and the woman he was expected to marry had both wanted families meant that his own children would number anywhere from four and up.

His brother William was the proverbial golden haired boy who could do no wrong in the eyes of their elders while their sister Cerina was a sickly girl and was babied more than she really needed to be. At the age of twenty Cerina had married a local land owner and after the birth of their first child the doctors had determined that she would be unable to carry another. Thankfully for Cerina’s sake she’d given birth to a son and so had done her duty to her husband in giving him an heir. Her husband reigned from a large family of which he was the monarch and knew it in so many ways that those who knew him cringed in fear of his anger. For Cerina though, he had a soft spot and she was spending her life being lavished with everything a woman desired.

William. Well his brother was a good reason why people should take contraception seriously. His ideas about life were off with the fairies and his wonderful nature as people called it was all a rouse to hide the truth behind who he actually was. A lying, cheating, wife stealing arsehole who conned the world to fall at his feet. The first born son and didn’t Nicholas know it. He’d grown up in the shadow of the wonderful William and more often than not the finger was pointed at him for his brother’s faults… no one ever listened when he tried to tell them the truth. He watched as everyone fawned over William day in and day out. He watched as his brother sucked up all the attention without a care in the world. He watched as he was forgotten. In the end he gave up trying.

God he hated him!

Now he was left with a raging hatred of all things William and as that included his relationship with his own first wife there was no reason why he should feel guilty for the things that he did. The woman was a whore regardless as to how much she tried to deny it. She deserved everything he did and a whole lot more.

She was a weak woman in every way possible. Hell maybe it was William who pushed her to betray him but that was no excuse in his book. If anything he was angered at how she never told him of William’s advances. Now he was stuck with her but it was her own stupidity made it possible for him to remarry and remarry he did as soon as he was able to his beautiful Grace.

Never once did Christine question why he got her to sign things without reading them. In all, it was really quite easy for him to end their marriage… if only he could simply walk away. It was his father’s wish that had him marrying her in the first place but now it was his son, Grayson, who determined his attachment to that family but it was just time before he would teach Grayson to be a man whom he could be proud of. A man who knew the truth of women who acted like they were above all others. Whores. The whole damn lot of them… except for Grace. She was the shining light amongst them all. A true woman with a heart that beat with pure love for him and for him alone.

He turned the steering wheel with the indicator showing all behind him that he was about to turn into the driveway. He sat for a moment and looked at the house and knew that his life, his real life was beyond that closed door. Behind that door was the woman he loved. Behind that door was… home.