Chapter 6
Khloe heard Dr. Reid call for an emergency cesarean section.
Bright lights blurred above her.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted Marcus.
She hated herself for wanting him.
Then the medication pulled her into darkness.
When Khloe opened her eyes, the room was quiet.
Her stomach felt empty.
A small incubator stood near the window.
“Where is my baby?”
A nurse hurried to her side.
“He’s alive.”
Khloe began crying.
The nurse rolled the incubator closer.
Her son was tiny, covered in wires, but his chest rose and fell.
“He weighs three pounds, eleven ounces,” the nurse said. “He is breathing with support.”
Khloe slipped her hand through the opening.
Her baby wrapped his fingers around one of hers.
“Ethan,” she whispered. “Your name is Ethan.”
Daniel waited outside the room.
Khloe saw him through the glass but did not invite him inside.
Detective Torres arrived with news.
“Marcus’s message may have been fabricated.”
Khloe looked up.
“How?”
“The hospital’s network records show the response came from a computer in Evelyn’s office. Marcus’s phone had been remotely mirrored.”
“So he was telling the truth about that.”
“About the message, yes. We are still investigating everything else.”
“Where is he?”
“In custody.”
Khloe looked at Ethan.
“Does he know his son survived?”
“No.”
The answer hurt more than she expected.
“Tell him Ethan is alive. Nothing more.”
Torres nodded.
Isabella requested to speak with Khloe that afternoon.
Khloe refused.
Then Isabella offered evidence about Evelyn in exchange for the meeting.
Detective Torres arranged a video call.
Isabella appeared in a jail uniform.
The confident woman from the hospital suite was gone.
“Evelyn used both of us,” Isabella said.
“You poisoned me.”
“She told me the pills would make you deliver early. She said the baby would be safe.”
“You kicked me.”
Isabella looked away.
“I lost control.”
“That is what cowards say when the truth sounds too ugly.”
Isabella’s eyes hardened.
“You think Marcus chose you? His mother arranged your first meeting.”
Khloe went still.
“She knew who your father was. She wanted Marcus to marry you because she believed your missing shares could be claimed through the marriage.”
“Where is the evidence?”
“In a red ledger hidden inside Evelyn’s lake house.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because that ledger also proves Marcus planned to expose her.”
Khloe frowned.
“What?”
“Marcus discovered the payments three weeks ago. He asked me to help him collect evidence.”
“You were sleeping with him.”
“Once. Months earlier. He ended it.”
Isabella leaned toward the camera.
“When he started investigating Evelyn, I pretended to help. Then Evelyn offered me custody and money.”
“You thought you could become Ethan’s mother.”
“I thought I could become a Hale.”
Khloe ended the call.
That night, police searched the lake house.
They found no ledger.
They found something else.
A hidden room filled with photographs of Khloe.
Pictures from childhood.
College.
Her wedding.
Even photographs taken through her bedroom window.
On the wall hung a family tree.
Khloe’s name was connected to Marcus’s.
Beneath Ethan’s name, someone had written one word in red ink.
CONTROL.
Detective Torres photographed everything.
Then an officer called from the basement.
Behind a locked door, they found an elderly man alive.
When police asked his name, he gave an answer that changed the entire case.
May you like
“Samuel Carter,” he said.
Khloe’s father had been declared dead eighteen years ago.
