They Were About to Split Up Five Kids Under Seven. The One Man Willing to Take All Five Knew Exactly What That Does to a Child

Holt.” His voice is level, not unkind, genuinely wanting to know.

“What is your real reason for doing this?”

I don’t answer right away.

“Why,” he goes on, “would a twenty-nine-year-old single man give up his savings, his freedom, his career, and by the look of this, his entire future — for five children who aren’t related to him by a single drop of blood?”

The courtroom goes completely quiet.

The air conditioning hums in the ceiling, and in that stillness it sounds enormous.

I turn and look back at the double doors at the rear of the room.