CHAPTER ONE The Footage Marcus Never Expected to See
The man rushing toward the luxury suite wasn’t wearing scrubs.
He wasn’t carrying a medical chart.
And he didn’t stop when two security guards stepped into his path.
“Move.”
Dr. Gabriel Thorne’s voice was quiet.
That made it more frightening.
At sixty-two, Gabriel was one of the most respected maternal-fetal surgeons in the country. He was also the founder and chairman of Thorne Medical Center.
And Khloe was his late brother’s only daughter.
The guards moved immediately.
Gabriel entered the suite and saw Khloe curled around her stomach on the marble floor.
Something inside him changed.
“Khloe.”
He dropped to his knees beside her.
Khloe’s eyes opened slightly.
“Uncle Gabe…”
“I’m here.”
Her fingers clutched his sleeve.
“The baby.”
Gabriel pressed two fingers against her neck while examining the blood spreading beneath her dress.
“We’re going to protect both of you.”
Marcus finally moved.
“Someone call a doctor!”
Gabriel looked up at him.
“I am the doctor.”
The words hit Marcus like a slap.
Gabriel turned to the medical team gathering in the doorway.
“Possible placental abruption. Prepare an operating room and alert neonatal intensive care.”
The nurses placed Khloe onto a stretcher.
She cried out as they lifted her.
Marcus reached for her hand.
Khloe pulled away.
It was a small movement.
But everyone saw it.
Isabella remained near the overturned table, her expression carefully arranged into shock.
“She came at me first,” she whispered. “I only defended myself.”
Gabriel slowly stood.
Crystal cracked beneath his shoe.
“You kicked a pregnant woman while she was on the floor.”
“That’s not what happened.”
Elaine Parker finally found her voice.
“I saw her standing over Khloe.”
Isabella turned sharply.
“You saw the end of an argument. You don’t know how it started.”
“I know what I saw.”
Marcus stepped between them.
“Enough. Khloe needs help.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“Your wife needed your help before I arrived.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“I wasn’t here.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “You weren’t.”
Khloe was rushed from the suite.
Marcus attempted to follow, but Gabriel blocked the doorway.
“Only medical personnel beyond this point.”
“She’s my wife.”
“Then perhaps you should start behaving like her husband.”
The elevator doors closed with Khloe inside.
Marcus stood helplessly in the corridor.
Behind him, Isabella began to cry.
“Marcus, please. You know I would never hurt your child.”
Marcus turned toward her.
For the first time, Isabella’s confidence wavered.
He looked at the shattered glass.
Then at the blood on the floor.
Then at the thin scratch on Isabella’s arm—the only injury she had.
“What happened in that room?”
“I told you. Khloe attacked me.”
Elaine shook her head.
“She’s lying.”
Isabella pointed at her.
“You walked in after Marcus. You didn’t see anything.”
Gabriel removed his phone.
“I don’t need her testimony.”
Isabella stopped breathing.
Gabriel tapped the screen.
“Security Control, this is Gabriel Thorne. Lock down the west wing. Preserve every recording from the fourteenth floor.”
Isabella’s face lost its color.
“There are no cameras inside private suites.”
“Not usually.”
Gabriel looked through the open door.
“That suite was upgraded two months ago after medication disappeared from a locked cabinet. The cameras are hidden and connected to an independent server.”
Marcus stared at him.
“You recorded Khloe without telling us?”
“Patients sign a security disclosure when using that suite. Your assistant returned the paperwork.”
Marcus looked confused.
“I never saw it.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“Then perhaps you should ask who handled it.”
Isabella backed toward the elevator.
One of the security guards blocked her path.
“You can’t detain me,” she snapped.
Gabriel didn’t raise his voice.
“No one is detaining you. The police will decide what happens next.”
Twenty minutes later, Marcus stood in the hospital’s executive security room.
Isabella sat across from him.
Elaine remained near the door.
Gabriel watched the largest monitor.
A technician opened the recording.
The footage began with Khloe entering the suite alone.
Isabella appeared two minutes later.
There was no argument before the first shove.
No attack from Khloe.
No threat.
The recording captured everything.
Isabella driving Khloe into the table.
Khloe begging her to leave.
The second shove.
The kick.
The moment Khloe collapsed and wrapped her arms around her unborn child.
Marcus turned away.
Isabella’s voice became desperate.
“She provoked me before that. Downstairs. At the gala.”
The technician paused the video.
“There’s more,” he said.
Gabriel looked at him.
“What kind of footage?”
“Hallway recordings from before Mrs. Thorne entered the suite.”
Another video appeared.
The timestamp showed eleven minutes before the attack.
Isabella stood near the service elevator.
She wasn’t alone.
Marcus was standing in front of her.
The recording had audio.
Marcus’s voice filled the room.
“End this tonight.”
Isabella smiled.
“And if she refuses?”
Marcus glanced toward the suite.
His next words destroyed the silence.
“I don’t care what you have to do. Make sure Khloe understands there’s no place for her in my life anymore.”
The video stopped.
Every person in the room turned toward Marcus.
He stared at the frozen image of himself beside Isabella.
Gabriel’s voice was almost a whisper.
“You knew she was going into that room.”
Marcus shook his head.
“No. That isn’t what it sounds like.”
Isabella began to smile.
Not because she was innocent.
Because Marcus was finally trapped beside her.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What happened?”
The surgeon on the other end spoke quickly.
Gabriel closed his eyes for one second.
When he opened them, he looked directly at Marcus.
“Khloe is bleeding internally.”
Marcus gripped the table.
“And the baby?”
May you like
Gabriel’s voice broke.
“They’re performing an emergency delivery now.”
