Chapter 7 - The Camera That Stayed On
Isabella hadn't known that the lounge camera was connected to a separate, protected recording system.
A maintenance switch near the door controlled the live display, not the security archive.
She had ordered Elaine to disable the screen and mistaken darkness for privacy.
Detective Brooks read the messages aloud.
"You were told to interfere with hospital security. Did you do it?"
Elaine nodded.
"I turned off the wall display. Then Isabella came in."
"Why?"
"She said she'd get me fired if I refused."
"That doesn't explain the false statement."
Elaine looked down.
"She paid for my son's physical therapy last year. I thought I owed her."
"Your son isn't responsible for your decisions," Brooks said.
"I know."
Elsewhere, Khloe watched a short clip of Willa sleeping in her incubator.
A neonatal nurse had helped Marcus record it.
Khloe held the phone carefully, as if moving too quickly could disturb the baby through the screen.
"I should be there," she whispered.
"You will be," Marcus said.
"I missed her first cry."
"They told me she made a sound. A tiny one."
Khloe managed a small, painful smile.
"That sounds like our girl."
Marcus sat on the far side of the bed.
"I kept telling you Isabella was just ambitious."
"She wasn't trying to win a promotion. She was trying to erase me."
He didn't argue.
Later, Avery Chen called with an update on the falsified withdrawal letter.
The digital signature wasn't merely copied from an old form.
It had been generated using an authentication token linked to Marcus's personal executive account.
The token had been activated while he was at dinner with Isabella's father.
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And the access log showed one more thing.
Someone had searched the foundation files for Khloe's medical appointment schedule.
