Chapter 3: What Marcus Said
The gurney wheels clicked down the corridor.
Khloe kept her eyes open.
She refused to close them.
Every time she blinked, she saw Isabella standing above her, and the look on Marcus's face when he saw the phone.
Not surprise.
Not fury.
Recognition.
A nurse pressed a hand to her shoulder.
"Mrs.
Thorne, you need to stay still.
We're taking you to monitoring now."
"My baby," Khloe said.
"We're watching her.
Try to breathe."
Her.
Khloe hadn't known until that moment.
The nurse caught herself, glanced away.
But Khloe held onto it — a girl.
She pressed both hands flat against her stomach and breathed.
Back in the suite, Marcus hadn't moved.
Richard stood between him and the door.
Not blocking it.
Just present.
The kind of presence that made it clear leaving wasn't an option.
"That message," Richard said quietly.
"You want to explain it, or should I read it out loud?"
Marcus looked at the phone in the evidence bag.
His jaw shifted.
"It's not what it looks like."
"It never is." Richard set the bag on the table.
"Her last message was sent to your private number.
The one you've had for two years that isn't listed anywhere.
The one Khloe doesn't know exists."
Isabella had gone very still in the corner.
The performance was over.
She watched Marcus with something careful in her eyes — not fear exactly.
Calculation.
"Marcus," she said softly.
A warning dressed as his name.
He turned to look at her.
Something passed between them.
Elaine Parker saw it.
She had been standing near the window, quiet enough that everyone had half-forgotten she was there.
Now she took one step forward.
"I need to say something."
Richard looked at her.
"Go ahead."
"I've been coordinating events for the Thorne Foundation for three years." Elaine's voice was steady.
"Isabella Rossi has attended fourteen of them.
She was never on the official guest list for a single one."
Marcus's head turned slowly toward Elaine.
"Someone always added her name the morning of the event," Elaine continued.
"I checked the access logs twice because it bothered me.
The additions came from an internal account." She paused.
"Mr.
Thorne's internal account."
The room went quiet enough to hear the air system running.
Isabella moved first.
She reached for her purse on the chair beside her.
"Leave it," Richard said.
He didn't raise his voice.
She left it.
"I want a lawyer," Isabella said.
"You're not under arrest," Richard replied.
"Yet.
Right now you're a witness to an incident involving my pregnant niece.
You're welcome to sit down and wait, or I can make a call and change the nature of this conversation entirely."
She sat.
Marcus finally spoke.
His voice came out lower than before, like something had shifted in his chest.
"I can explain everything.
But not here.
Not like this."
"Then when?" Richard asked.
"Because Khloe is in a monitoring room right now wondering if her daughter is going to be all right.
And the last thing she saw before they wheeled her out was your face when you recognized that phone." He stepped closer.
"So I'm asking you one more time.
How does Isabella Rossi have your private number?"
Marcus looked at the floor.
"Because I gave it to her," he said.
"Eighteen months ago."
The door to the suite opened.
A junior security officer leaned in.
"Mr.
Hargrove.
The doctor wants you in monitoring.
Mrs.
Thorne is asking for you."
Richard held Marcus's gaze for one more second.
"We're not finished," he said.
Then he walked out.
Marcus stood alone in the suite with Isabella, the broken glass, and the footage still running silently on the monitor behind him.
Isabella looked at him from across the room.
May you like
"You should have told her yourself," she said.
"When you still had the chance."
