The ambulance arrived, siren wailing. Paramedics lifted the boy and the triplets inside, wrapped the babies in warm blankets, checked the child’s pulse. Adrian climbed in without asking permission and sat beside them, his heart pounding harder than in any boardroom.
At the hospital they were rushed to the emergency room. Behind the glass, Adrian watched as nurses settled the boy into a bed and the triplets into heated cribs. A gray haired doctor joined him.
“Are you family” he asked.
“No,” Adrian replied softly. “I found them in the park.”
“The boy is not their father,” the doctor said. “He is still a child himself. It seems he was living outside.”
“And yet he held them like they were his own,” Adrian murmured.
“Sometimes those who have nothing are the ones who love the most,” the doctor answered.
The next morning they were declared out of danger. The boy was awake but weak, the triplets sleeping deeply in clean new blankets. Adrian signed every form they put in front of him and arranged to cover all expenses. When a nurse asked where he would take them, he answered,
“Home.”