Chapter 2 - THE MISSING TWELVE MINUTES
Khloe was taken into emergency imaging while Marcus waited outside.
He stood beneath the fluorescent lights with blood from her dress across his hands.
Isabella sat at the far end of the hallway with an attorney beside her.
She had made one phone call before security confiscated her device.
That call had been enough.
Her father, Lorenzo Rossi, arrived within twenty minutes.
He wore a black suit and the expression of a man accustomed to entering buildings as their unofficial owner.
“This has been exaggerated,” he said.
Nathaniel stepped between him and the restricted doors.
“My niece is being examined for placental abruption.”
“Isabella defended herself.”
“Against a woman seven months pregnant?”
Lorenzo looked toward Marcus.
“Tell him what Khloe has been like lately.”
Marcus remained silent.
Lorenzo’s meaning was obvious.
Khloe had been emotional.
Suspicious.
Exhausted.
Isabella had spent weeks ensuring everyone noticed.
Marcus had noticed too.
He had simply failed to ask why.
A hospital security supervisor approached Nathaniel.
“We have a problem.”
Nathaniel followed him into the monitoring room.
Marcus entered behind them.
The suite recording jumped from 9:14 p.m. to 9:26 p.m.
Twelve minutes were missing.
The remaining footage showed Khloe on the floor and Isabella standing several feet away.
It did not show the shove.
It did not show the kick.
Someone had deleted the attack.
Lorenzo appeared in the doorway.
“So there is no evidence.”
Nathaniel turned.
“There are access records.”
“Perhaps your niece erased it herself.”
“She was unconscious on the floor.”
“Then perhaps an employee made an error.”
Elaine stood near the wall.
Her face tightened.
She knew the camera system had been tested that afternoon.
She had signed the inspection form.
Marcus saw her reaction.
“What do you know?”
Elaine looked toward Lorenzo.
“Nothing.”
“Ms. Parker.”
“I said nothing.”
Nathaniel’s phone rang.
He listened for several seconds.
Then he looked at Marcus.
“The baby’s heartbeat is unstable.”
Marcus moved toward the operating wing.
Nathaniel stopped him.
“You cannot enter.”
“She is my wife.”
“That did not seem to matter when Isabella spent months humiliating her beside you.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“You do not know anything about my marriage.”
“I know Khloe called me three weeks ago.”
Marcus froze.
“She told me she was afraid someone was tampering with her prenatal medication.”
“What?”
Nathaniel removed a sealed evidence bag from his pocket.
Inside was a bottle bearing Khloe’s name.
“These pills were delivered to her home through a Thorne family physician.”
“They are vitamins.”
“No.”
“They contain a hormone that can increase bleeding risk during pregnancy.”
Marcus stared at the bottle.
“Who prescribed them?”
“The electronic order carries my signature.”
Nathaniel’s expression darkened.
“I never wrote it.”
Marcus looked through the glass toward Isabella.
She sat beside her father without fear.
May you like
The missing security footage was no longer the only crime inside the hospital.
Someone had been preparing Khloe’s body to fail long before the kick.
