Chapter 2 - THE ICU CONFRONTATION 💣The Intensive Care Unit smelled of sharp antiseptic and metallic blood. Monitors beeped in a steady, frantic rhythm.
Khloe lay in the center of the room, her face pale, an IV drip attached to her arm. Her hands were still wrapped protectively around her waist. Across the room, two armed police officers held Isabella Rossi in handcuffs. Isabella was screaming, her hair disheveled, tears ruining her expensive makeup.
"He's lying! She set me up!" Isabella shrieked, struggling against the steel cuffs. "Marcus, look at me! She provoked me! She told me you never loved me! She said I was just a disposable toy!"
Marcus walked into the room slowly. His Tuxedo jacket was gone, his sleeves rolled up, revealing the dark veins pulsing in his forearms. He ignored Isabella entirely, stepping right past her as if she were invisible.
Isabella gasped, her voice breaking. "Marcus! Tell them to take these off me! You know who I am to you!"
Marcus stopped at the foot of Khloe’s bed.
Khloe opened her eyes. They were filled with soft, fragile tears. "Marcus..." she whispered weakly, reaching out a trembling hand. "The baby... is our baby okay?"
It was a performance that could have won an Oscar. Any man on Earth would have fallen to his knees, wrapped her in his arms, and begged for forgiveness.
Instead, Marcus stood rigid, looking down at her with eyes like frozen void.
"The baby is fine, Khloe," Marcus said, his voice dangerously quiet. "The doctor said the impact hit your shoulder, not your stomach. You protected yourself very precisely."
Khloe’s hand froze in mid-air. A microscopic flicker of panic crossed her eyes before she quickly masked it with pain. "What are you saying? She kicked me! She tried to kill our child!"
"She did kick you. And she will go to prison for a very long time for it," Marcus replied, pulling a sleek black USB drive from his pocket and tossing it onto her hospital tray. It landed with a sharp clack. "But you knew she was following you. You unlocked the suite door from your phone. And you stayed in front of that mirror waiting for her to snap."
The room went dead silent.
The police officers stopped dragging Isabella out, sensing the shift in oxygen. Isabella herself froze, staring between Marcus and Khloe in utter confusion.
Khloe’s weak, victimized expression slowly began to dissolve. The softness in her posture vanished. She pulled her trembling hand back and laid it calmly on the sheets.
"You watched the footage," Khloe said. Her voice was no longer weak. It was cold, steady, and sharp as a razor.
"I watched all of it," Marcus said. "I watched you transfer $400 million out of Thorne Capital six minutes before Isabella walked through that door."
Isabella’s jaw dropped. "What?! $400 million?!"
"Shut up, Isabella," Khloe hissed without even looking at her.
Khloe sat up straight in the hospital bed, discarding the frail victim persona completely. She adjusted her gown, looking Marcus straight in the eyes.
"You think you're so smart, Marcus," Khloe said, a chilling smile touching her lips. "You think you caught me. But you still don't see the full picture, do you?"
"The money is in an offshore trust," Marcus said. "I’ve already frozen the accounts."
Khloe let out a quiet, dark laugh that gave everyone in the room goosebumps.
"You froze one account, Marcus. The sacrificial account," Khloe whispered, leaning forward. "Did you really think I’d steal money from you? I don't need your money. I took something far more valuable while you were busy watching me pretend to get beaten up."
Marcus’s phone suddenly buzzed violently in his pocket. Then it buzzed again. And again.
He pulled it out.
A notification flashed across the screen from his Chief Technology Officer: ALERT: SYSTEM BREACH DETECTED. ENTIRE THORNE BIOTECH PATENT DATABASE HAS BEEN DOWNLOADED AND DELETED FROM PRIMARY SERVERS.
Marcus raised his head, his chest heaving. "What did you do?"
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"Isabella thought she was ruining my life tonight," Khloe sneered, glancing at the terrified woman in handcuffs. "She was just a distraction. While you were crying over my broken body on the floor, my team breached your central server using your private encryption key—which I copied off your phone while you were sleeping last night."
Khloe leaned in close, her eyes blazing with pure retribution. "You thought I was just your trophy wife, Marcus. You forgot who my father was before you destroyed his company ten years ago."
