“Stay out of his office. Don’t interrupt business meetings. Don’t enter the west wing. If he asks a question, answer directly.”

“What happens if I don’t?”

Theresa glanced toward the staircase. “People rarely ask.”

Lucas stirred in Hannah’s arms, then settled again at the sound of her voice. Theresa’s expression softened. “Come upstairs. The nursery is this way.”

For two days, Hannah barely left Lucas. She learned the tiny noise he made before waking and the way his forehead wrinkled when he was hungry. She learned he calmed when she placed her palm between his shoulder blades.

She slept in short intervals, rising every few hours while nurses recorded his temperature and weight.