“He said I embarrassed him,” Megan whispered, her voice trembling as she stared at the hospital blanket clutched in her fists. “He said I gave him nothing but burdens and bills.”
According to her, Eric refused to take her to a proper hospital for delivery, insisting a home birth would save money. When complications arose, he blamed her for the medical costs that followed. The night before I found them, he loaded Megan and the newborns into his truck under the guise of driving to a pediatric appointment. Instead, he drove out past town limits, past the gravel roads most people avoided in winter, to a stretch of land near my property where isolation was guaranteed. There, under a sky heavy with stars and wind, he tied her to the fence post and laid the babies at her feet.
“He told me the storm would erase everything,” she said, tears slipping silently across her temples. “He said by morning it would look like an accident. Or an act of God.”
Sheriff Brooks’ jaw tightened. “Did he say he’d come back?”
She nodded faintly. “He wanted to watch the sunrise.”
