Chapter 13: Isabella’s Final Bargain

The bullet struck Adrian in the shoulder.

Marcus tackled Isabella before she could fire again.

The pistol slid across the laboratory floor.

Adrian staggered behind the testing table, blood spreading across his shirt.

Police flooded the chamber.

“Hands where we can see them!”

Isabella did not resist.

She looked almost relieved as officers pulled her away from Marcus.

“I saved your life,” she told him.

“You attacked my wife.”

“I lost control.”

“You tried to kill my child.”

Isabella’s face tightened.

“I did not know about the embryo.”

“That changes nothing.”

“It changes everything.”

Ortiz handcuffed her.

Adrian laughed from the floor.

“She still thinks confession will make you love her.”

Isabella looked at him with pure hatred.

“No. I think confession will destroy you.”

She told Ortiz where the remaining evidence was stored.

Not in the facility.

Not in the hospital.

Inside a private cloud account connected to Victor Thorne’s former legal firm.

The archive contained records of illegal trials, bribed regulators, falsified deaths, embryo manipulation, and the Vale crash.

It also contained proof that Isabella had tried to withdraw from Adrian’s plan three weeks before the gala.

Adrian had threatened her younger sister.

That did not absolve Isabella.

She had still followed Khloe.

She had still shoved her.

She had still kicked a pregnant woman lying on the floor.

But the evidence made her something more complicated than the monster she first appeared to be.

She had been recruited as a teenager.

Controlled for years.

Then transformed into an abuser herself.

As paramedics treated Adrian, Khloe entered the chamber.

Marcus rushed toward her.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Stop telling me where I should be.”

She walked past him and faced Adrian.

He studied her with unsettling interest.

“You have your mother’s eyes.”

“You tried to kill her.”

“She made herself an enemy.”

“You used your genetic material to create my daughter.”

“I created an heir.”

Khloe slapped him.

The sound echoed across the laboratory.

Adrian smiled despite the blood on his teeth.

“That anger belongs in the family.”

“She does not belong to you.”

“Her blood says otherwise.”

Khloe leaned closer.

“Blood is the smallest part of being a father.”

For the first time, Adrian’s smile faded.

Outside, reporters were already gathering.

The police could arrest Adrian.

They could charge Isabella.

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But the truth would soon reach the public.

And when it did, Marcus would have to decide whether to save the Thorne empire or finally destroy it.