Chapter 10 - The Midpoint Child
Sebastian overturned the hospital bed.
The mattress and metal frame created a barrier between Khloe and the armed men.
Isabella fired once into the ceiling.
“Everyone stop.”
Smoke drifted through the room.
Celia remained hidden behind Gabriel near the bathroom.
Mara’s injured wrist prevented her from using her weapon properly, but she moved toward the side corridor.
Isabella saw her.
“Do not try it.”
Mara stopped.
Isabella approached Khloe.
The black gloves made her look less like a frightened socialite and more like what she had always been beneath the gowns.
“You could have signed the renunciation.”
“You could have asked without kicking me.”
“I did ask.”
“You threatened me during the gala.”
“You laughed.”
Khloe remembered Isabella leaning close beside the ballroom staircase.
She had whispered that Sebastian would be free before the baby arrived.
Khloe had assumed it was another cruel boast.
“I did not understand what you meant.”
“That has always been your problem.”
Isabella’s gaze moved over the room.
“You inherited power without understanding its price.”
“And you think attacking pregnant women makes you powerful?”
Isabella’s face tightened.
“Miles promised no one would be hurt.”
“You kicked me.”
“I lost control.”
“You aimed for my child.”
For the first time, shame flickered across Isabella’s face.
Then it vanished.
“My family spent generations serving the Thornes and Vales while both families pretended the Rossis were merely financiers.”
“Your father helped steal medical records.”
“My father kept the system alive.”
“He helped turn patients into property.”
Isabella raised the pistol.
“Stop speaking about him.”
Khloe noticed the slight tremor in her hand.
“Matteo Rossi is beneath this hospital.”
Isabella’s expression confirmed it.
Sebastian saw the reaction.
“You knew?”
“I knew he was alive.”
“You told the world he suffered a stroke in Italy.”
“He did suffer a stroke.”
“Why hide him in a morgue?”
“Because Alexander poisoned him.”
Celia emerged from behind the wall.
“That is a lie.”
Isabella aimed at her.
“You would know.”
Celia stopped.
Isabella’s voice broke.
“You poured the drink.”
Khloe looked at Celia.
“You poisoned Matteo?”
“I gave him a sedative.”
“It left him unable to speak for seven years.”
“Alexander changed the dosage.”
Celia’s defenses were collapsing one by one.
Isabella turned back to Khloe.
“My father began communicating through eye movements last year.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That Charles Vale survived.”
“And where is Charles?”
“Miles knows.”
The armed man beside Isabella received a message through his earpiece.
He whispered something to her.
Isabella’s face changed.
“No.”
The man repeated it.
She lowered the pistol slightly.
“What happened?” Khloe asked.
Isabella looked toward the fetal monitor.
“Miles moved the delivery schedule.”
“For Avery?”
“He is beginning the procedure now.”
The midpoint of the conspiracy arrived with brutal clarity.
Miles did not intend to wait until Friday.
He would deliver the twins immediately.
He would register them inside the succession system before Khloe could protect them.
“Take me downstairs,” Khloe said.
Sebastian turned toward her.
“No.”
“Miles needs my biometric authorization.”
“Then staying away denies him.”
“He has Owen.”
“He cannot reproduce your biometric signature.”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“He does not need to.”
She pointed toward the fetal monitor.
“Khloe’s daughter carries the signature.”
Gabriel understood.
“The system can authenticate through fetal DNA.”
Miles could take a sample from Khloe’s unborn daughter.
The man who had grabbed her ankle during the blackout had likely attempted exactly that.
Khloe looked at the blood drawn after the attack.
“Did they already obtain it?”
Isabella did not answer.
“Did they take my baby’s DNA?”
“They took amniotic material during the winter procedure.”
“That was before she existed.”
Isabella’s expression became almost sympathetic.
“The procedure was not six months ago.”
Khloe went still.
“What?”
“You have been pregnant longer than you were told.”
Dr. Reed’s face changed at the doorway.
Khloe looked at him.
He backed away.
Mara blocked the exit.
“How far along am I?”
Dr. Reed said nothing.
Sebastian grabbed his coat.
“How far?”
“Thirty-three weeks.”
Khloe stared at the fetal monitor.
Her due date had been falsified by nearly a month.
The trust was already active.
Miles had hidden the activation inside the hospital network.
“Why alter my pregnancy dates?” Khloe asked.
“To keep you from accessing the trust,” Gabriel said.
“While Miles used the embryos to create competing claims.”
Isabella lowered her weapon.
“Your daughter became the primary successor three weeks ago.”
“Then Miles does not need to wait until Friday.”
“He needs the annual reset to make his changes permanent.”
Khloe looked toward the hospital floor beneath them.
Avery was being prepared for premature delivery.
The twins were older than reported.
Her own daughter was older than reported.
Every medical appointment had been part of an elaborate timeline.
Dr. Shaw had participated.
Dr. Reed had participated.
Celia had known part of it.
Sebastian had signed forms without understanding them.
Khloe had been living inside a manufactured pregnancy.
“Take me to Sublevel C,” she repeated.
Sebastian faced her.
“You could go into labor.”
“I may already be close enough that Miles can force it remotely through medication.”
She looked at the intravenous line she had removed.
“How many times did they administer something without telling me?”
Dr. Reed lowered his head.
“Answer her,” Mara said.
“Three.”
Sebastian’s hand closed around the doctor’s collar.
“What did you give her?”
“Medication to slow fetal lung development.”
Khloe’s breath left her.
They had intentionally kept her daughter medically vulnerable.
“Why?”
“To ensure the baby required intensive care after delivery.”
“So Miles could control her.”
Dr. Reed nodded.
Sebastian struck him once.
The doctor fell against the wall.
Khloe did not stop her husband.
Isabella watched with an unreadable expression.
Then her phone rang.
Miles appeared on the screen through a video call.
He stood inside the original laboratory.
Avery lay behind him.
Dr. Shaw was strapped to a surgical chair.
“Isabella.”
His voice carried mild disappointment.
“You were instructed to bring Khloe downstairs.”
“I am negotiating.”
“You are delaying.”
“You never told me the pregnancy dates were false.”
“You never asked.”
“You promised my father would be released.”
“He will be.”
“When?”
“When his usefulness ends.”
Isabella’s pistol lowered another inch.
Miles continued.
“Bring Khloe to the laboratory within ten minutes.”
“And if I refuse?”
The camera moved.
An elderly man lay inside a glass medical chamber.
His body was thin.
His face had changed with age and illness, but Isabella recognized him.
“Papa.”
Matteo Rossi opened his eyes.
A ventilator moved beside him.
Miles placed one hand on the power switch.
“Ten minutes.”
The call ended.
Isabella stood motionless.
Her entire performance had been built around saving her father.
Miles had used her devotion exactly as he had used everyone else’s weakness.
Khloe stepped toward her.
“You can still help him.”
Isabella looked at the blood on Khloe’s dress.
“Why would you help me?”
“I would help your father.”
“After what I did?”
“What you did will have consequences.”
Khloe held her gaze.
“But I will not let Miles decide who deserves to live.”
Isabella’s eyes filled with real tears for the first time.
She ordered the armed men to lower their weapons.
One obeyed.
The other raised his gun toward her.
Mara fired first.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell.
Sebastian disarmed the remaining man.
Isabella gave Khloe the executive access badge.
“This opens the morgue elevator.”
Mara called the legitimate tactical team.
No response.
The hospital communication system had been disabled again.
They would have to descend without backup.
Dr. Reed was restrained.
Gabriel remained with Celia and Owen’s medical team.
Khloe entered the hidden elevator with Sebastian, Mara, and Isabella.
The doors closed.
The car began descending beneath the hospital.
Isabella looked at Khloe’s stomach.
“Miles did not choose the name Patient Violet for Avery.”
“Who did?”
“Your mother.”
Khloe turned toward her.
Isabella continued.
“Violet was the code name Eleanor used for the daughter she lost before you were born.”
The elevator passed Sublevel C.
It continued downward.
“That level does not exist on the map,” Mara said.
Isabella’s face went pale.
“Miles changed the route.”
The elevator stopped at Sublevel E.
The doors opened onto a brightly lit nursery.
Six incubators stood in two rows.
Five were empty.
Inside the sixth lay a newborn baby.
Khloe stared through the glass.
The child wore a bracelet printed with her name.
MOTHER: KHLOE VALE THORNE.
Sebastian moved closer.
“How is that possible?”
The newborn opened her eyes.
A nurse stepped from the shadows.
Dr. Evelyn Shaw had not been kidnapped.
She had been working in the laboratory.
May you like
She looked directly at Khloe.
“This is your first daughter.”
