Chapter 8 - I Made Marcus Leave
I went home three days after the attack.
Marcus didn’t.
I asked him to stay at a hotel.
He didn’t argue.
“You’re pregnant,” he said. “I should be here.”
“That stopped being the deciding factor when you gave your former mistress access to the room I was in.”
He lowered his head.
“I understand.”
“No. I don’t think you do yet.”
The affair mattered.
The badge mattered.
The deleted messages mattered.
But the deepest betrayal was smaller and uglier.
Marcus had repeatedly made decisions about what I was allowed to know.
He decided I didn’t need to know about Isabella.
He decided I didn’t need to know she was threatening him.
He decided I didn’t need to know the company was under pressure.
Then he walked into the hospital suite shocked that all of those hidden decisions had finally reached me physically.
I changed our living arrangement.
I told my obstetrician everything.
I started meeting with a therapist.
And I hired separate counsel to advise me about my financial interests in Thorne Medical and our marriage.
Marcus didn’t fight any of it.
Meanwhile, Andrew learned an internal review was underway.
His reaction was immediate.
He resigned.
That surprised everyone.
More troubling was what happened next.
Before leaving, he remotely deleted a folder from his company account.
The files were recoverable through proper technical procedures.
Inside were draft agreements between Andrew and Isabella.
One document contained a line neither Marcus nor I understood.
Personal pressure on M.T. may be necessary before final signature.
M.T.
Marcus Thorne.
Personal pressure.
The affair hadn't merely created leverage.
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Someone had planned to use it.
And I had become part of the pressure campaign.
