A detective explained what they had found. A nurse who had vanished two years after the births. Paperwork that had been falsified. Newborns funneled into illegal channels for profit. A charity-run orphanage that had closed abruptly due to financial scandal. Children turned out onto the streets.
It took Augustine five minutes to decide.
He filed for emergency custody. He hired lawyers who specialized in corporate law to tear apart the shell companies behind the adoption ring. He demanded accountability from the hospital administrators. He offered rewards for witnesses. He appeared on the news not as a polished businessman but as a grieving father.
He did not care if shareholders panicked. He did not care if the board bristled. He cared about two children who had slept on garbage because the world had failed them.
Milo visited the hospital every afternoon. He sat beside Rafael and Finn’s beds, reading picture books and telling them about his toy dinosaurs. The boys listened like stories were blankets they could wrap around themselves.
“Papa,” Milo said one day as they ate sandwiches in the cafeteria. “Can they come home with us now? For real?”