Chapter 2 - The First Recording

Khloe was taken to the maternity wing under armed hospital security.

The doctors performed an ultrasound and monitored the baby’s heartbeat.

The waiting felt endless.

Khloe lay beneath white sheets, staring at the ceiling while the monitor produced a steady electronic rhythm beside her.

Finally, Dr. Nina Brooks entered.

“The baby is stable.”

Khloe released the breath she had been holding.

“Are you sure?”

“The heartbeat is strong.”

Dr. Brooks rested a hand on the railing beside the bed.

“You have bruising and signs of early contractions, but there is no immediate indication that you will deliver tonight.”

Khloe closed her eyes.

Relief moved through her so sharply that it almost hurt.

“Thank you.”

The door opened.

Marcus entered without knocking.

His tuxedo jacket was gone, and his bow tie hung loose around his collar.

Dr. Brooks immediately stepped between him and the bed.

“She needs rest.”

“I’m her husband.”

“And I am her doctor.”

Marcus looked past her.

“Khloe, we need to talk.”

Khloe turned her face toward the window.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“Isabella lost control.”

Dr. Brooks glanced between them.

Khloe looked back at Marcus.

“You sound certain.”

“I saw enough.”

“No.”

Khloe’s voice remained quiet.

“You saw me on the floor.”

Marcus rubbed one hand across his face.

“I should have protected you.”

“You should have believed me.”

A long silence followed.

Then Richard entered carrying a tablet.

Elaine came in behind him.

Richard placed the tablet on the rolling table.

“The security team recovered the recording.”

Marcus became perfectly still.

Khloe saw it.

So did Richard.

“Play it,” Khloe said.

Richard hesitated.

“You should rest first.”

“Play it.”

He pressed the screen.

The video began with the empty suite.

The camera angle showed the door, the marble counter, and most of the room.

Isabella entered first.

But the timestamp proved it had happened forty-three minutes before Khloe arrived.

She was not alone.

Marcus walked in behind her.

On the screen, Isabella crossed her arms.

“You promised she would never learn the truth.”

Marcus turned toward the camera, but his face remained clearly visible.

“She won’t.”

“You said the trust would already be under your control.”

“It will be after the baby is born.”

Khloe stopped breathing.

Richard paused the recording.

The room became painfully silent.

Khloe stared at her husband.

“What trust?”

Marcus did not answer.

Richard’s expression hardened.

“Continue.”

The recording resumed.

Isabella moved closer to Marcus.

“And what happens to Khloe?”

Marcus lowered his voice, but the camera’s microphone still captured the words.

“She signs the medical authority documents.”

“And if she refuses?”

Marcus looked toward the closed suite door.

“Then we prove she is unstable.”

Khloe felt the room tilt around her.

She remembered the papers Marcus had placed beside her breakfast two weeks earlier.

He had called them routine maternity forms.

She had signed without reading every page.

On the recording, Isabella touched Marcus’s chest.

“You always were good at making people trust you.”

Marcus caught her wrist.

“This is business.”

Isabella smiled.

“It stopped being business a long time ago.”

The image froze.

Richard had paused the recording again.

This time, he looked ready to tear the tablet apart with his bare hands.

Khloe watched Marcus.

Her voice came out as a whisper.

“You planned this before she attacked me.”

Marcus stepped closer.

“Khloe, there is more to the situation.”

Richard moved between them.

“You will stay away from her.”

Marcus’s face darkened.

“She is my wife.”

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Richard held up the tablet.

“According to this recording, she was your target.”