Chapter 4 - The InitialBy evening, every member of the Thorne family had an attorney.
She walked into Khloe’s room smiling.
“Oh my God, I came as soon as I heard.”
Marcus was standing by the window.
He didn’t turn around.
Khloe noticed it immediately.
Camille didn’t.
She placed the coffee on a table.
“Khloe, are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“The baby’s stable,” Khloe said.
“Thank God.”
Camille touched her chest dramatically.
“I barely slept.”
Marcus finally faced her.
“That’s strange.”
Camille stopped.
“What?”
“You didn’t call.”
“I thought you were busy.”
“You called Isabella six times.”
Silence.
Khloe watched every trace of concern disappear from Camille’s face.
Not completely.
Just enough.
“What are you talking about?”
Marcus crossed the room.
“Yesterday.”
Camille removed her sunglasses.
“You had someone checking my phone?”
“No.”
Marcus’s voice remained steady.
“Isabella’s calls to you showed up because you both used Thorne corporate devices registered through the family plan.”
Camille’s face tightened.
“Those calls were nothing.”
“Six calls are nothing?”
“She was upset.”
“About what?”
“You.”
Marcus stared.
Camille sighed.
“She said you were humiliating her.”
“By being married?”
“Don’t twist this.”
Khloe almost laughed.
Marcus did not.
“You accessed my calendar thirteen times.”
Camille glanced at Khloe.
“There were schedule changes.”
“You don’t manage my schedule.”
“I was helping Mom with the gala.”
“The private hospital appointment wasn’t part of the gala schedule.”
Camille’s mouth opened.
Then closed.
Marcus stepped closer.
“How did Isabella know Khloe would be in that corridor?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you access the calendar?”
“I already told you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Camille’s eyes hardened.
“This is ridiculous.”
She grabbed her purse.
“I came here because I was worried about your wife, and you’re interrogating me like some criminal.”
Khloe noticed something else.
Camille never asked what Isabella had done.
She only asked whether Khloe was okay.
Someone who had just heard vaguely about a hospital incident would normally ask questions.
What happened?
Why were police involved?
Was there an accident?
Camille seemed to already know.
“Who told you I was hurt?” Khloe asked.
Camille froze.
Marcus looked at his sister.
Camille recovered quickly.
“Mom.”
“Your mother hasn’t spoken to anyone,” Marcus said.
He knew because Evelyn Thorne was on a flight from London.
Her plane had landed only twenty minutes earlier.
Camille swallowed.
“I saw something online.”
“The story hasn’t leaked,” Khloe said.
Marcus’s eyes darkened.
“Camille.”
His sister’s confident posture collapsed by an inch.
“I knew Isabella was going to confront her.”
Khloe’s heartbeat accelerated.
Marcus said nothing.
Camille looked at him desperately.
“But not like that.”
“You gave her the schedule?”
“She wanted to talk.”
“You gave a woman who has harassed my wife for six months the location of a private medical appointment.”
“I didn’t think she was dangerous!”
“You knew she hated Khloe.”
“She doesn’t hate her.”
Khloe stared.
Camille immediately realized the mistake.
Marcus’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Explain.”
Camille looked away.
“Isabella has been struggling.”
“With what?”
“With losing you.”
Marcus almost laughed.
“We broke up five years ago.”
“She never thought it was permanent.”
“I married someone else.”
“She thought you would realize you made a mistake.”
Khloe’s stomach twisted.
Not because she feared Marcus’s feelings.
She had seen his horror yesterday.
She feared the people surrounding them.
People who had been treating Isabella’s obsession like some romantic misunderstanding.
Marcus took a slow breath.
“Did you know Isabella planned to injure my wife?”
“No.”
“Did you know she planned to stage an attack?”
“No!”
“Did you know she expected the corridor camera to be disconnected?”
Camille’s face went blank.
Marcus saw it.
“So you did.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Camille backed toward the door.
“I’m getting an attorney.”
Marcus stared at her.
“You should.”
Camille’s eyes filled with tears.
“You’re choosing her over your own sister?”
Khloe expected Marcus to explode.
He didn’t.
Instead, he said something far worse.
“There should never have been a choice.”
Camille flinched.
She left.
Twenty minutes later, Marcus’s mother arrived.
Evelyn Thorne was sixty-two and normally impossible to unsettle.
She walked into the room, saw Khloe, and immediately began crying.
“Sweetheart.”
She wrapped her carefully in a hug.
Khloe felt herself soften.
Evelyn had never treated her badly.
In fact, she had often defended Khloe when Camille made cutting comments.
“Is the baby all right?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn pressed both hands to her mouth.
Marcus stood behind her.
“Mom.”
Evelyn turned.
“You need to know about Camille.”
By the time he finished, Evelyn looked ten years older.
“She gave Isabella the schedule?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Evelyn shook her head.
“No, Camille is irresponsible, but she wouldn’t intentionally—”
“She knew the camera was supposed to be offline.”
Evelyn sat down.
For a long time, she said nothing.
Then something unexpected happened.
She whispered, “That renovation.”
Marcus frowned.
“What?”
“The maternity renovation.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Camille’s foundation donated money to that wing.”
Khloe felt the room change.
Camille had not merely known about the renovations.
She had helped fund them.
Marcus called Chief Ellis.
Within an hour, security investigators confirmed Camille had attended three planning meetings during the hospital renovation.
One of those meetings included camera replacement schedules.
But something worse surfaced.
A maintenance technician named Aaron Bell had received five thousand dollars three weeks earlier from an LLC.
The company had no employees.
No public office.
Its registered manager?
An accountant employed by the Rossi family.
The payment appeared suspicious.
Police began looking for Aaron Bell.
He didn’t come to work.
His apartment was empty.
His car was gone.
By afternoon, investigators had upgraded the case.
This was no longer simply an assault followed by a lie.
Someone had allegedly tried to create a blind spot.
Someone had expected no footage to exist.
Marcus sat beside Khloe as rain struck the hospital window.
“I need to ask you something,” Khloe said.
“Anything.”
“Did Isabella ever threaten me directly before this?”
Marcus hesitated.
Khloe saw it.
“Marcus.”
“There was one message.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“What did it say?”
He looked sick.
“She said sometimes people disappear from lives they were never supposed to enter.”
Khloe stared.
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I blocked her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I thought she was trying to scare me.”
“She was talking about me.”
“I know.”
Khloe turned away.
This was the first crack between them.
Not because Marcus had betrayed her.
But because he had protected her from information she had the right to know.
“You decided for me,” she whispered.
“I was trying to keep stress away from you.”
“You kept danger away from my attention.”
Marcus had no response.
His phone buzzed.
A text from Detective Brooks.
They had found Aaron Bell’s abandoned car.
Inside it was a hospital access badge.
Five thousand dollars in cash.
And a handwritten note.
Marcus read the photograph.
His face went white.
Khloe reached for the phone.
The note contained only seven words.
CAMERA OFF. 9:15. SHE FALLS. NO WITNESSES.
May you like
Below those words was a single initial.
C.
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