Chapter 8 - Isabella’s Bargain
Isabella Rossi stopped asking to leave.
By morning, she was asking for a lawyer.
By noon, she was asking for a deal.
Detective Lena Ortiz entered the interview room carrying two cups of coffee.
Isabella refused hers.
“I want immunity.”
Lena sat down.
“You assaulted a pregnant woman on camera.”
“You’re not negotiating from a position of strength.”
“I know things.”
“Then talk.”
“First I want protection.”
“From whom?”
Isabella looked toward the mirrored glass.
“You already know.”
“Say his name.”
Silence.
Lena waited.
Finally Isabella whispered.
“Damian Thorne.”
Behind the glass, Sebastian watched with Marcus and Khloe.
Khloe had insisted on coming downstairs despite medical advice.
She sat in a wheelchair.
Marcus stood several feet away.
Inside the interview room, Lena leaned forward.
“What did Damian ask you to do?”
Isabella’s jaw tightened.
“He wanted the marriage broken.”
“How?”
“He told me to make Khloe discover the affair.”
“Why?”
“He needed a public separation before the trust activated.”
“Did he ask you to attack her?”
“No.”
Khloe stared at the glass.
Lena continued.
“Then why did you?”
Isabella looked down.
For the first time, she appeared ashamed.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Explain.”
“I was supposed to provoke her.”
“Get her angry.”
“Get her to say something ugly.”
“There was another phone recording audio in my purse.”
“She was supposed to look jealous.”
“Unstable.”
“Vindictive.”
“And you were going to use that recording in court?”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
“She looked at me like I was nothing.”
Khloe’s expression hardened.
“She told me Marcus had chosen his family.”
“She said whatever happened between us was over.”
“And?”
“I hated her.”
Lena stared at Isabella.
“So you attacked a seven-month-pregnant woman because you hated the way she looked at you?”
Isabella wiped her eyes.
“I lost control.”
Behind the glass, Marcus looked away.
Khloe did not.
She wanted to see every second.
Lena slid a photograph across the table.
It showed Damian entering the Halston Hotel.
“How long have you worked for him?”
“Almost three years.”
Marcus’s head lifted.
The affair had begun two years earlier.
Khloe looked at him.
He understood.
Lena asked the question.
“Did Damian send you to meet Marcus in Boston?”
Isabella did not answer.
Lena repeated it.
“Did Damian Thorne arrange your first meeting with Marcus?”
A long silence followed.
Then Isabella nodded.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Khloe felt no relief.
Being manipulated did not erase his choice.
But it changed the shape of the conspiracy.
“Why?”
Lena asked.
“He needed leverage.”
“Against Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“Did he tell you to sleep with him?”
Isabella looked at the table.
“He told me to get close.”
“The rest was my decision.”
Marcus looked as if someone had struck him.
Khloe watched him.
Now he understood the same thing she did.
Both of them had been betrayed.
But only one had betrayed the other first.
Lena continued.
“What was Damian planning after the trust challenge?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What do you know?”
Isabella hesitated.
“There was supposed to be a board vote Friday.”
“Yes.”
“Marcus was going to be removed.”
Khloe turned toward Sebastian.
He nodded grimly.
Isabella continued.
“And after that, Damian planned to sell the biotech division.”
Marcus stepped forward.
“He can’t.”
Khloe looked at him.
“Why not?”
Marcus’s face had gone pale.
“Because Thorne Biotech owns the patents behind six experimental pediatric treatments.”
Sebastian frowned.
“So?”
“So one of those treatments is being fast-tracked for approval.”
“What’s it worth?”
Marcus answered quietly.
“Potentially forty billion dollars.”
Suddenly the attack inside a hospital suite looked very different.
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This was no longer only about control.
It was about one of the largest corporate thefts in recent history.
