Chapter 8
Julian’s fear became anger.
It always did.
“Do you understand who I am?” he asked Nathan.
Nathan’s expression did not change.
“Yes.”
“My family funds half the private maternity programs in this city.”
“Funding does not grant access to a newborn over the mother’s objection.”
Julian looked toward the nurse.
“You will regret documenting this.”
Allison finally looked at him.
Her voice stayed professional.
“I am documenting delivery details and patient statements.”
Patient statements.
Vivian heard it.
So did Julian.
The room had become a record.
Not a battlefield.
Not a family negotiation.
A record.
Julian hated records he did not control.
Nathan looked at the newborn again.
The mark beneath the ear was mostly hidden now by the blanket, but he did not need to see it again.
It was already inside his memory with another image.
An infant in a photograph from long ago.
A family standing around a crib.
A name removed from a hospital foundation plaque after a scandal that was never called scandal in public.
The Sterlings had buried more than one truth.
Nathan had suspected that for years.
Tonight, Vivian’s son had arrived carrying a small piece of it on his skin.
Julian took one step closer.
“Doctor Pierce, I am ordering you to step away from my child.”
Nathan’s voice turned colder.
“You do not give orders in my delivery room.”
Vivian’s breathing caught.
No one had ever spoken to Julian like that in front of her.
Julian’s eyes flashed.
“Your delivery room?”
Nathan looked at the baby.
Then at Vivian.
“Yes.”
A room where medicine came before money.
Where consent came before family reputation.
Where a newborn’s safety came before a surname.
Julian understood the insult beneath the ethics.
May you like
And it enraged him.
Read the full story 👉 The delivery room became a record Julian could not control, and Nathan refused to let the Sterling name decide what happened next.
