Chapter 2 - Forty-Seven Seconds
"Is that her heartbeat?" Marcus asked.
He stood beside a mobile ultrasound monitor while nurses moved Khloe toward the operating floor.
"It's the baby's," Dr. Nair said. "And it's slowing."
Marcus looked at the bright numbers as though staring hard enough might make them climb.
"Tell me what to do."
"Give us room to work."
She explained that the impact might have caused the placenta to separate from the uterine wall.
There was no time to wait for another examination.
Khloe needed emergency surgery.
"Can I see her?"
"For a moment."
Khloe was conscious just long enough to recognize him.
"Don't let her near us," she whispered.
"I won't."
"You said she was harmless."
The accusation landed harder than any shout.
Marcus had told Khloe for months that Isabella was merely an old business friend who misunderstood boundaries.
Now his wife was being wheeled away because those boundaries had meant nothing.
"I was wrong," he said.
Khloe's eyes closed before he could say more.
In the corridor, Jonathan put a hand on his shoulder.
"Your wife's obstetric team is doing everything possible. But you need to hear the rest."
"What's the rest?"
"The police are treating this as a deliberate assault. Save every message Isabella sent you."
Marcus opened his phone.
Isabella had texted three times that evening, each one describing Khloe as unstable.
He had not questioned a single one.
"I came because she said Khloe needed me," he admitted.
"And where were you before that?"
"At a board dinner two floors below."
"With Isabella's father?"
Marcus nodded.
A nurse appeared from the operating-room doors.
"Mr. Thorne, we are delivering the baby now."
"She's only twenty-nine weeks."
"We know. The neonatal team is ready."
Marcus tried to ask another question, but the doors were already closing.
May you like
Forty-seven seconds later, an alarm sounded from inside.
And no one would tell him whose heart had triggered it.
