Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN RED RETURNS
Isabella locked the door behind her.
Her hair was wet from the sprinklers.
Blood from a cut near her forehead had mixed with her makeup.
Marcus moved between her and the bed.
“You should have left the state.”
Isabella raised the syringe.
“You should have married me.”
Nathaniel stepped toward the emergency alarm.
“Do not.”
She pressed her thumb against the plunger.
“One drop inside her IV and the baby’s heart stops.”
Khloe reached for the tubing beside her arm.
Isabella smiled.
“Pull it out and you could trigger bleeding.”
“You have already lost,” Marcus said.
“The video exists.”
“Videos disappear.”
“Elaine has copies.”
Isabella glanced toward Elaine.
That look revealed more than she intended.
Elaine backed toward the wall.
“You followed me.”
“I did not need to.”
Isabella explained that Owen Black had installed tracking software on every device used during the gala.
The backup footage had automatically uploaded to Elaine’s production laptop.
Owen knew where it was.
Marcus looked toward Elaine.
“Send it now.”
“To whom?”
“Everyone.”
Elaine opened the laptop with shaking hands.
Isabella pressed the syringe against Khloe’s IV port.
“Touch one key.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“Take me instead.”
Isabella laughed.
“I tried.”
“You never wanted me.”
“No.”
Her eyes filled with something closer to obsession than affection.
“I wanted the life that was supposed to be mine.”
Isabella and Marcus had known each other since childhood.
Victoria once promised Lorenzo that their children would marry.
Then Marcus met Khloe.
He broke the private agreement and chose a woman Isabella considered temporary.
For years, Isabella convinced herself he would return.
When Khloe became pregnant, hope turned into panic.
“I gave you every opportunity,” Isabella said.
“You humiliated me.”
“I never promised you anything.”
“Your mother did.”
Marcus’s expression became cold.
“My mother did not own me.”
“No.”
Isabella looked at Khloe.
“But she believed she owned your child.”
Elaine suddenly threw the laptop toward Nathaniel.
Isabella turned.
Marcus seized her wrist.
The syringe fell.
Khloe ripped the IV line from her arm.
Isabella drove her heel into Marcus’s knee and reached for the syringe.
Nathaniel kicked it beneath the bed.
Security officers forced the door open.
Isabella fought until three people restrained her.
As she was dragged into the hallway, she looked directly at Khloe.
“You think he chose you?”
Khloe said nothing.
“He chose the heir.”
Marcus flinched.
Isabella smiled.
“Ask him why he married you six weeks after learning about the trust amendment.”
The hallway fell silent.
Khloe slowly turned toward her husband.
Marcus did not deny knowing about the clause.
The security footage had exposed Isabella’s attack.
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Her final accusation exposed something that might be worse.
Marcus had known their child would strengthen his control of the company before he proposed.
