Chapter 1 - THE KICK THAT STOPPED THE GALA
The kick landed before Khloe could call for help.
Pain tore through her side, and the marble floor rushed up beneath her. She curled around her stomach as crystal shattered near her cheek.
Then the suite door flew open.
Marcus Thorne stood there in a black tuxedo, his face drained of color. Behind him, event coordinator Elaine Parker froze with one hand still on the handle.
Isabella Rossi did not hesitate. She stepped backward, clutched her wrist, and filled her eyes with tears.
“Marcus, thank God,” she gasped. “She attacked me.”
Khloe could barely breathe. “She kicked me.”
Isabella shook her head wildly. “She came at me. I only tried to protect myself.”
Marcus crossed the room, dropped beside his wife, and touched her shoulder with shaking fingers. “Khloe, look at me. Can you hear me?”
“My baby,” she whispered. “Please check the baby.”
Elaine grabbed the wall phone and called the emergency team. Nurses rushed in within seconds, but Isabella kept talking over them.
“She was jealous. She has been unstable for weeks.”
Marcus looked up slowly. “Stop talking.”
For the first time, Isabella’s confidence slipped.
Two nurses lifted Khloe onto a stretcher. As they wheeled her out, a man in navy scrubs came running down the hall. Dr. Gabriel Hale, the hospital’s chief medical officer, was also Khloe’s uncle.
“What happened?” he demanded.
Isabella opened her mouth.
Gabriel did not look at her. His eyes were fixed on the small black camera above the suite door.
Then he said, “Seal this floor. Nobody leaves until security pulls every recording.”
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Isabella’s face went white.
Marcus heard Khloe cry out from the hallway and rose at once. Before following the stretcher, he looked back at Isabella. "Do not leave this building," he said. Her tears stopped as quickly as they had started. For one second, the woman behind the performance stared back at him.
