For a moment, I did want to prove something.

Patrick had humiliated me in a room full of people.

I wanted to enter his boardroom in person, see him look up, and refuse to become small when he said my name.

Then another contraction came, and the wish stopped being more important than the child.

“Hospital,” I said.

Gavin nodded immediately.

I went in the vehicle arranged for medical transport, following the team’s advice, without a detour to the corporate headquarters.

At Saint Clara, the staff assessed me and the baby, explained what they were observing, and made a plan.