By midnight, his attorney and a private investigator were digging into hospital records from five years earlier.
What they uncovered by morning shattered everything.
Patricia had not given birth to one child.
She had delivered triplets.
All three boys had survived the initial delivery.
But complications arose. The hospital required additional fees for neonatal care. Edward had been unconscious in the waiting room after collapsing from shock at Patricia’s death. Paperwork had been signed.
By Marcia.
She had claimed Edward couldn’t afford the extended care for all three infants. Claimed he wanted only the strongest one saved.
It was a lie.
Records showed Edward’s accounts were more than capable of covering the costs.
Security footage from that night, preserved in hospital archives, revealed something worse.
Marcia leaving the NICU with two newborns.
No formal adoption papers were ever filed.
No transfer of custody recorded.
She had simply taken them.
For years, she had collected small private donations under the story of “orphaned nephews,” moving from town to town. When the money dried up, she abandoned them.
Edward didn’t sleep.