He tugged his jacket straight and reached for the booming tone he used on suppliers who fell behind.

“Mr.

Vandergriff, this is a private family matter.”

Bram’s eyes moved over the scene with the unhurried attention of a man cataloguing evidence: the folder on the baby blanket, the pen beside Adele’s hand, the medical bracelet on her wrist, the IV line, the fact that his son’s mother was seven hours out of surgery.

“It stopped being a family matter,” he said, “the moment you cornered a postpartum patient in a hospital bed to extort corporate shares, using a newborn as leverage.”

The hospital director stepped forward, tablet in hand.