Chapter 1 - The Camera Above the Door
Isabella Rossi’s heel struck my side so fast I didn’t have time to move.
I was seven months pregnant.
One second I was standing beside a marble table in a private hospital event suite, holding a champagne glass filled with sparkling water.
The next, pain exploded through my ribs.
I stumbled backward and hit the table.
The glass slipped from my hand and shattered across the floor.
“This is the lightest punishment for daring to stand next to him,” Isabella shouted.
I wrapped both arms around my belly.
My daughter moved.
Thank God.
“Get out of this room right now!”
Instead, Isabella shoved me.
Hard.
I hit the floor on my hip.
The door flew open.
Marcus rushed inside with Elaine Parker, the hospital foundation’s event coordinator, directly behind him.
“What did you do to my wife?”
Isabella changed instantly.
Her shoulders collapsed.
Her eyes filled.
“She attacked me! I was just defending myself!”
Marcus dropped beside me.
“Khloe, look at me.”
“I’m okay. I think.”
Then I saw it.
Above the doorway.
A security camera.
A tiny green indicator blinked beside the lens.
I raised one shaking hand and pointed.
Isabella followed my finger.
Her tears stopped.
Completely.
Her face went white.
Marcus noticed.
His expression changed too.
Elaine looked from Isabella to the camera.
“That system records continuously during foundation events.”
Isabella took a step backward.
Marcus slowly stood.
For the first time that evening, she looked genuinely afraid.
But what frightened me wasn’t simply that the assault had been recorded.
It was the way Marcus stared at the camera.
Not relieved.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
I looked at my husband.
“Marcus?”
May you like
He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
And suddenly I wondered whether that camera had captured something that happened before Isabella ever kicked me.
