Chapter 1 - THE FOOTAGE
Marcus did not take his eyes off Isabella.
“Daniel,” he said into the phone, his voice unnaturally calm. “Lock down this floor. No one leaves.”
Isabella’s face drained of color.
“Marcus, you’re frightening me.”
“Good.”
That single word silenced her.
Marcus crossed the room and dropped to his knees beside Khloe. The sight of her curled around her stomach made something inside him fracture. Her breathing came in shallow, uneven gasps. A dark stain was beginning to spread across the side of her white gown where Isabella’s heel had struck her.
“Khloe, look at me.”
She opened her eyes, but there was no comfort in them.
Only pain.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered.
The words hit him harder than a punch.
Before he could respond, nurses and doctors rushed into the suite. Dr. Elena Park pushed past Marcus and knelt beside Khloe.
“What happened?”
“She fell,” Isabella blurted.
Marcus slowly stood.
“No,” he said. “She was attacked.”
Isabella stared at him.
Two security officers appeared in the doorway, followed by Daniel Reed, Marcus’s head of security. Daniel had worked for the Thorne family for sixteen years. He was rarely shaken.
Tonight, he looked furious.
“Ms. Rossi,” Daniel said, “step away from Mrs. Thorne.”
“You can’t detain me,” Isabella snapped. “My father owns half the medical group funding this gala.”
Daniel did not blink.
“This hospital has already contacted the police.”
Isabella turned toward Marcus.
“You’re choosing her?”
Marcus looked at Khloe as the medical team lifted her onto a stretcher.
“She is my wife.”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“That didn’t seem to matter when you were in my bed.”
The room went silent.
One of the nurses looked away. Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Khloe closed her eyes.
Marcus felt as if the floor had disappeared beneath him.
Isabella smiled through her panic, satisfied that she had finally exposed the secret.
But when Marcus looked at Khloe again, he realized she was not surprised.
She had already known.
The doctors rushed Khloe toward the operating wing. Marcus followed until Dr. Park stopped him outside the double doors.
“She may have suffered a placental abruption,” the doctor said. “We’re monitoring the baby’s heart rate. You need to stay here.”
“Will they survive?”
“I can’t promise anything yet.”
The doors closed.
Marcus stood motionless beneath the cold hospital lights.
Behind him, Isabella was arguing with security.
“You’re making a mistake!” she shouted. “Khloe is manipulating all of you!”
Daniel approached Marcus with a tablet in his hand.
“We recovered the footage from the private suite, the hallway and the service elevator.”
Marcus stared at the screen.
“Show me.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Sir, you should prepare yourself.”
“I said show me.”
The video began.
There was no sound at first.
Khloe stood near the window, one hand resting on her belly. Isabella entered and locked the door behind her.
Then the audio activated.
“You were supposed to stay quiet,” Isabella said on the recording. “Smile for the cameras, have the baby, and disappear.”
Marcus felt his stomach turn.
Khloe ordered her to leave.
Isabella shoved her.
Then she shoved her again.
The champagne glass broke.
The heel struck Khloe’s side.
Marcus watched his pregnant wife collapse.
He watched Isabella stand over her without calling for help.
He watched her bend down and whisper something the original security message had not mentioned.
“If the baby doesn’t survive, Marcus will finally be free.”
Marcus stopped breathing.
Daniel paused the recording.
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Then Marcus handed the tablet back with trembling fingers.
“Send copies to the police, the district attorney and my private counsel.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And freeze every business account connected to the Rossi partnership.”
Daniel looked at him carefully.
“That will destroy the merger.”
“I don’t care.”
“The merger is worth almost four billion dollars.”
Marcus turned toward Isabella.
She stood between two security officers, still insisting that everyone had misunderstood.
Marcus’s expression hardened.
“Then four billion dollars is the price of learning the truth.”
Police officers arrived minutes later.
As they placed Isabella in handcuffs, she twisted toward him.
“Marcus, listen to me! I did this for us!”
“There is no us.”
“You told me you were going to leave her!”
Marcus went still.
Khloe’s earlier words came back to him.
Don’t touch me.
Isabella’s eyes filled with desperate rage.
“You promised me!”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“I made selfish promises to a selfish woman. And my wife nearly paid for them with her life.”
The operating-room doors suddenly opened.
Dr. Park stepped out, removing her surgical mask.
Marcus rushed toward her.
“The baby’s heart rate has stabilized,” she said. “But Khloe is bleeding, and we may need to perform an emergency delivery.”
Marcus’s knees nearly gave out.
“Can I see her?”
The doctor studied him.
“She asked that you not be allowed into the room.”
Marcus stared through the narrow glass panel in the doors.
Khloe lay surrounded by machines, her face pale against the pillow.
For the first time in his life, Marcus Thorne understood that all his money, influence and power could not buy him the one thing he desperately wanted.
His wife’s forgiveness.
Then Daniel’s phone rang.
He listened for several seconds before looking at Marcus.
“There’s something else,” he said.
“What?”
“Isabella didn’t enter the suite using her own access card.”
Marcus frowned.
Daniel held up a security log.
“She used a private executive card belonging to someone inside the Thorne family.”
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And the name attached to that card made Marcus’s blood run cold.
It belonged to his mother.
