Chapter 2 - Eleven Seconds
Khloe kicked instinctively.
Her heel struck something solid.
A man cursed in the darkness.
The hand released her ankle.
Emergency lights flashed on a second later, filling the examination room with a dim red glow.
Two nurses moved in front of Khloe.
Dr. Shaw grabbed a metal instrument tray and held it like a shield.
Mara Voss drew the compact weapon concealed beneath her jacket.
“Everyone stay where you are.”
A figure slipped through the doorway.
Mara chased him into the corridor.
Khloe heard running footsteps.
A service door slammed.
Then the hospital’s backup generators activated.
White lights flooded the room.
The fetal monitor continued shrieking.
Dr. Shaw dropped the tray.
“Her blood pressure is falling.”
She returned to Khloe.
“Prepare for an emergency ultrasound.”
A nurse locked the examination room.
Another called security through a handheld radio.
Khloe could no longer feel her feet.
“Was he trying to hurt the baby?”
“We do not know.”
Dr. Shaw applied cold gel across Khloe’s abdomen.
The ultrasound screen flickered.
For several agonizing seconds, no one spoke.
Then the pulsing image of a tiny heart appeared.
The heartbeat was fast but steady.
Dr. Shaw exhaled.
“She recovered.”
Khloe covered her mouth.
Tears slipped into her hair.
“Is she safe?”
“There is a small placental separation.”
Dr. Shaw moved the probe.
“I do not see active catastrophic bleeding, but you will remain under continuous observation.”
“For how long?”
“Possibly until delivery.”
Khloe stared at her.
“I am only twenty-nine weeks.”
“I know.”
The locked door rattled.
“Khloe!”
Sebastian’s voice came from the hallway.
A nurse opened the door after confirming his identity.
Sebastian entered alone.
His face was pale.
“What happened to the power?”
“Someone interrupted the hospital systems,” Dr. Shaw answered.
“Your wife and daughter are stable, but any further trauma could change that.”
Sebastian moved toward Khloe.
She raised one hand.
“Do not touch me.”
He stopped.
Everyone in the room became suddenly interested in the medical equipment.
Sebastian lowered his voice.
“I received a message from Isabella.”
“I saw it.”
“It was designed to make you think something happened between us.”
“Did something happen?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation gave Khloe her answer.
She looked away.
“Leave.”
“Khloe, listen to me.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
“Did you kiss her?”
Sebastian said nothing.
Khloe laughed once.
The sound came out broken.
Dr. Shaw glanced toward the nurses.
“Give them privacy.”
The staff moved reluctantly into the adjoining observation area.
Sebastian approached the bed.
“Three weeks ago, after the foundation dinner, Isabella kissed me.”
“And you forgot to mention it.”
“I stopped it.”
“How long did it take you?”
His jaw tightened.
“I made a mistake.”
“A mistake is missing an appointment.”
Khloe looked at the blood on her gown.
“This was a campaign.”
“I did not know she would attack you.”
“You knew she was trying to come between us.”
“I thought she was emotional.”
“You thought she was available.”
“That is not fair.”
Khloe’s eyes snapped back to him.
“Fair?”
She pointed toward the monitor displaying their daughter’s heartbeat.
“Your mistress nearly killed our child, and you want to discuss fairness?”
“She is not my mistress.”
“She believes she is.”
Sebastian lowered his voice.
“Isabella has been sending me things.”
“What things?”
“Photographs of you with another man.”
Khloe stared at him.
“What man?”
“Owen Mercer.”
“My family attorney?”
“At the Langford Hotel.”
Khloe remembered meeting Owen in the hotel restaurant to discuss her mother’s estate.
“The photographs were cropped.”
“I know that now.”
“Do you?”
Sebastian reached into his pocket.
He opened several images on his phone.
The first showed Khloe entering a private elevator with Owen.
The second showed Owen touching her lower back.
The third appeared to show them entering a hotel suite.
Khloe studied the third image.
“That is not me.”
“The coat is yours.”
“The woman’s face is hidden.”
“I realize that.”
“When?”
Sebastian looked toward the door.
“Tonight.”
Khloe’s anger cooled into something harder.
“You believed I was having an affair while carrying your child.”
“I did not want to believe it.”
“You punished me anyway.”
“I became distant.”
“You missed three medical appointments.”
“I know.”
“You stopped sleeping beside me.”
“I know.”
“You allowed Isabella to stand next to you at every public event while people whispered that I was losing my husband.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
Khloe turned away.
“No, Sebastian.”
Her voice became quieter.
“You know the facts.”
“You have no idea what they cost me.”
The door opened.
Mara entered with an ice pack pressed against her forehead.
The external drive remained in her hand.
“Mr. Thorne, I need to speak with your wife.”
“You can speak in front of me.”
Mara looked at Khloe.
“That is her decision.”
“Stay,” Khloe said.
Sebastian moved to the far side of the room.
Mara connected the drive to an isolated laptop.
“I was able to preserve eleven seconds before the security cache was corrupted.”
The video began with Isabella shoving Khloe.
It showed the kick.
It showed Khloe striking the table.
Then the image distorted.
For one frame, a reflection appeared in the polished marble.
A person stood near the service entrance.
Only his lower body was visible.
Dark trousers.
Hospital identification badge.
A hand holding a black tablet.
The recording ended.
Sebastian leaned closer.
“Can you identify him?”
“Not from this copy.”
“Where is the original?”
“Erased from the primary server.”
“Restore it.”
“I am trying.”
Sebastian’s tone hardened.
“This hospital has redundant storage in four locations.”
“Three locations were wiped simultaneously.”
“And the fourth?”
Mara met his eyes.
“The fourth server was physically removed.”
Khloe remembered the maintenance worker.
“The man in the corridor.”
Mara nodded.
“He was not hospital staff.”
“How did he enter the restricted wing?”
“With an executive credential.”
Sebastian’s expression changed.
“Whose credential?”
“The identification number belonged to your father.”
The room went silent.
Alexander Thorne had died eleven months earlier after suffering a sudden cardiac event in his office.
His credentials should have been canceled the same night.
Sebastian reached for the laptop.
“That is impossible.”
“Someone reactivated the number six days ago.”
“Who had authority to do that?”
Mara closed the screen.
“Your chief technology officer.”
“Damian Holt?”
Mara nodded.
Sebastian took out his phone.
He called Damian.
The call went directly to voicemail.
He tried again.
Nothing.
“Find him.”
“I already sent officers to his home.”
Mara glanced at Khloe.
“His apartment was empty.”
“Then track his vehicle.”
“It is parked in the employee garage.”
Sebastian’s frustration sharpened.
“People do not disappear from a hospital.”
Mara’s expression remained calm.
“Your father did.”
Khloe looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Mara placed a second file on the laptop.
“This access credential was not first reactivated six days ago.”
She displayed a list of dates.
“It has been used sixteen times since Alexander Thorne’s death.”
The locations included the executive maternity floor, the private records wing, the pharmacy archive, and the hospital morgue.
Khloe felt a chill.
“Why would anyone use his badge in the morgue?”
“We do not know.”
Mara opened the last entry.
The credential had entered the morgue thirty-seven minutes before Isabella attacked Khloe.
Sebastian stared at the timestamp.
“Who was brought into the morgue tonight?”
Mara’s expression shifted.
“No one.”
“Then why was the door opened?”
“That is what I went downstairs to determine.”
Khloe noticed blood on Mara’s sleeve.
“You were attacked.”
“Someone struck me before I reached the archive room.”
“Did you see who?”
“No.”
Mara removed the ice pack.
“The person took my master key but failed to find the external drive.”
Sebastian moved toward the door.
“I am going to the morgue.”
“No,” Mara said.
“You are one of six people currently capable of opening its internal vault.”
“Then you need me.”
“I also need to establish whether you can be trusted.”
Sebastian stared at her.
Khloe expected him to react with anger.
Instead, he slowly placed his phone on the table.
“You think I helped Isabella.”
“I think somebody knew your arrival time, your father’s access architecture, your wife’s location, and the security blind spots.”
Mara looked at him directly.
“You fit all four categories.”
Khloe watched Sebastian absorb the accusation.
Before he could answer, someone knocked on the observation window.
Celia Thorne stood outside.
Beside her was a uniformed police captain.
Isabella waited behind them in a wheelchair.
A white bandage covered her shoulder.
She looked fragile.
Victimized.
Triumphant.
The police captain entered.
“Mrs. Khloe Thorne?”
“Yes.”
“I need to ask you several questions regarding an alleged assault against Ms. Rossi.”
Sebastian turned toward Isabella.
“You are accusing my wife?”
Isabella’s eyes filled with tears.
“I did not want this.”
Khloe nearly laughed.
The captain opened a folder.
“Ms. Rossi has provided photographs, witness testimony, and an audio recording.”
“What recording?”
He placed a phone on the table.
Khloe’s own voice came through the speaker.
I swear I will kill your baby before I let Sebastian leave me for you.
Khloe stared at the device.
“That is not my voice.”
It sounded exactly like her.
Isabella covered her mouth and began crying.
The captain stopped the recording.
“We also received a signed statement from a member of the hospital staff.”
Mara stepped forward.
“Which staff member?”
The captain looked at the page.
“Dr. Evelyn Shaw.”
Khloe turned toward the observation room.
Dr. Shaw stood behind the glass.
Her hand rested against the door.
She would not meet Khloe’s eyes.
Then Khloe saw two police officers approaching the doctor from behind.
Dr. Shaw looked up at last.
May you like
She mouthed three words through the glass.
They have my son.
