Chapter 12 - What Isabella Said Before She Kicked Me
The footage included audio from the hallway.
Not inside the suite.
But enough.
Just before Isabella entered, she made a phone call.
The other side wasn't audible.
Her words were.
“He chose her again.”
Pause.
“No. I’m done being patient.”
Pause.
“I know what Andrew said.”
Then:
“She gets the husband, the baby, the company, and I get bought off?”
That sentence changed the emotional meaning of everything.
Isabella didn't simply want Marcus romantically.
She believed she had helped build part of his success.
Their affair had distorted her expectations.
Marcus had apparently promised her greater professional influence during the relationship.
When he ended it, those promises disappeared too.
I confronted him.
“Did you promise her equity?”
His face answered before his mouth did.
“I said we'd discuss it.”
“During the affair?”
“Yes.”
“So when you ended the relationship, did the professional promise disappear?”
“Yes.”
There it was.
Another layer of betrayal.
Marcus had mixed sex, power and business.
Then acted surprised when separating them became impossible.
Isabella was responsible for assaulting me.
Andrew was responsible for his secret financial arrangements.
But Marcus had created the unstable triangle both of them exploited.
When we finally spoke together in a structured setting, Isabella looked at me once.
“I didn't plan to hurt your baby.”
I answered quietly.
“You still kicked a pregnant woman.”
She looked away.
No speech could erase that.
Then I asked:
“Why did you lie and say I attacked you?”
Her voice dropped.
“Because Marcus walked in.”
That answer was devastatingly simple.
She didn't want him to see what she had become.
But he had.
May you like
So had the camera.
And this time, none of them could rewrite it.
