Chapter 5 - THE THORNE INHERITANCE
Marcus placed the call on speaker.
Khloe listened from the hospital bed.
“What did you do?” Marcus asked.
Victoria sighed.
“You are emotional.”
“My wife is bleeding.”
“Your wife is a liability.”
“She is carrying my child.”
“She is carrying leverage.”
Khloe felt colder than the hospital sheets.
Victoria had opposed the marriage from the beginning.
Khloe came from a respectable family, but not an old dynasty.
Her father owned a regional manufacturing business.
Her mother died when she was sixteen.
Nathaniel was successful, but he had never participated in elite social circles.
Victoria believed Marcus had married beneath the Thorne name.
“You worked with Isabella,” Marcus said.
“I introduced her to people who understood what was at stake.”
“Did you order the attack?”
“No.”
The answer arrived too quickly.
“Did you tamper with Khloe’s medication?”
“I protected the company.”
Marcus gripped the phone.
“From my child?”
“From a succession crisis.”
Victoria explained that Marcus’s grandfather had changed the trust shortly before his death.
The first legitimate child born to the current chairman would receive twenty percent of the controlling shares at birth.
Those shares would be managed by the child’s mother until adulthood if Marcus became incapacitated or died.
Khloe had more future power than she realized.
Victoria could not tolerate that possibility.
She wanted Marcus married to Isabella before any heir was born.
Lorenzo Rossi had promised to combine the families’ hospital and shipping interests.
The resulting empire would dominate three states.
Khloe and the baby stood in the way.
“You wanted me to divorce her,” Marcus said.
“I wanted you to make a rational choice.”
“And when I refused?”
Victoria became silent.
Khloe understood.
“Isabella was supposed to cause a miscarriage.”
Victoria’s voice hardened.
“You have no proof I instructed anyone to use violence.”
Elaine pointed toward the laptop.
“We have more proof than you think.”
Victoria ended the call.
Marcus immediately ordered his security team to detain her at the family estate.
The team commander refused.
“The board has suspended your authority.”
Marcus stared at the phone.
“On what grounds?”
“Medical incapacity.”
An official document arrived by email.
It claimed Marcus had suffered a mental breakdown after witnessing Khloe’s accident.
The board voted to appoint Owen Black as temporary chief executive.
Victoria had prepared the corporate takeover before the hospital attack.
Lorenzo Rossi controlled enough votes to approve it.
Khloe’s injury was supposed to discredit Marcus, destroy the marriage and remove the unborn heir.
Marcus had walked into the trap exactly as planned.
Nathaniel looked at the monitor.
“We need to move Khloe.”
“Why?” Marcus asked.
“Because this suite is connected to Thorne International’s private medical network.”
Nathaniel removed a syringe from the medication tray.
The label was correct.
The liquid inside was not.
Someone had replaced another drug.
Elaine looked toward the hallway.
“Isabella is still inside the hospital.”
A fire alarm suddenly activated.
Sprinklers opened across the maternity floor.
May you like
The lights went out.
Through the smoke and water, a woman in a crimson gown entered Khloe’s room carrying a second syringe.
