Vance absolutely did not bother to make a polite appointment when he walked aggressively into the gleaming glass lobby of Ellison Medical the very next morning.
The sheer power and terrifying reputation of his name alone parted the sea of armed security guards and terrified corporate receptionists like the Red Sea.
He forcefully kicked open the heavy, solid oak doors of Grant Ellison’s top-floor executive office without even a single knock of warning.
Grant was sitting casually behind his massive desk, calmly reviewing a legal document with a smug, knowing smile plastered across his face.
He did not look surprised in the slightest to see the furious, practically vibrating billionaire standing violently in his office doorway.
Grant simply waved his nervous executive assistant out of the room with a flick of his wrist and calmly closed the manila file he was reading.
Vance walked right up to the front of the desk, aggressively placing both of his large hands flat on the polished wood and leaning his weight forward.
He demanded in a low, terrifying growl to know exactly what Grant thought he was doing playing house with his ex-wife and his biological children.
Grant slowly leaned back in his expensive leather chair, casually steepling his fingers together and looking at Vance with absolute, pitying disgust.
He calmly corrected Vance without raising his voice, stating smoothly that they were Maddie's beautiful children, and they belonged to no one else.
Grant clinically explained that Vance had legally and permanently surrendered all marital and parental rights during his aggressive, highly one-sided, and ruthless divorce proceedings.
Vance gritted his teeth so hard his jaw ached, his voice dropping to a dangerous, lethal whisper that had made countless powerful men tremble in fear.
He viciously threatened to bury Grant's entire pharmaceutical company in a mountain of endless lawsuits, hostile takeovers, and completely fabricated federal investigations.
He promised with burning, toxic sincerity to spend every single dollar of his vast, bottomless fortune to tear the twins away from Grant's hands.
Grant’s calm, smug demeanor vanished in an instant, quickly replaced by a cold, deeply protective, and surprisingly violent fury.
Grant stood up abruptly, leaning aggressively across the desk until their faces were mere inches apart, breathing the same tense air.
He angrily told Vance that Maddie still woke up screaming in the middle of the night from horrific nightmares about the cold, lonely day he abandoned her.
Grant vowed with a deadly seriousness that he would absolutely never let a monster like Vance break her fragile heart a second time.
He reached down, pulled a thick, legally sealed folder from his top desk drawer, and tossed it arrogantly onto the polished wood directly between them.
It was an official, fully expedited legal petition for the formal adoption of Leo and Lily Rowan.
Grant calmly announced with a triumphant smirk that he was legally marrying Maddie on the first weekend of next month.
He was going to officially and permanently become the loving father that the twins so desperately deserved.
Vance stared blankly at the crisp legal papers, the blood in his veins instantly turning into freezing, paralyzing ice.