Chapter 5 - the woman marcus once trusted
Isabella sat in the secured guest suite with her hands folded calmly in her lap.
She had stopped crying.
When Marcus entered with Ethan, she looked almost relieved.
“You finally came without Khloe.”
Marcus remained standing.
“This is not a private conversation.”
“It used to be.”
“That ended years ago.”
“Did it?”
Ethan placed a recorder on the table.
“Isabella Grant, you are being questioned regarding an assault, unlawful access to private medical information, financial misconduct, and conspiracy.”
Isabella smiled.
“You should wait for the police.”
“They are delayed,” Ethan said. “Someone reported an armed threat at the west entrance. It was false, but it diverted the nearest units.”
Marcus understood.
The people behind Isabella were still controlling events outside the house.
“Who told you to push Khloe?” he asked.
“I did not push her.”
“We watched you.”
“You watched a camera angle.”
“We heard the voice in your earpiece.”
Isabella’s confidence shifted.
“The recording has sound?”
Marcus did not answer.
She looked toward Ethan.
“What else did you hear?”
“Enough.”
“No, you didn’t. If you had, you wouldn’t be standing here.”
Marcus leaned over the table.
“My wife and child were threatened. This is your final opportunity to tell me who is responsible.”
Isabella’s eyes filled with anger.
“Your wife was never supposed to become part of this.”
“She became part of it when you touched her.”
“I was trying to frighten her.”
“You could have hurt the baby.”
“I knew she would turn.”
Marcus froze.
Isabella realized she had revealed too much.
“You planned the direction she would fall,” he said.
She looked away.
“You knew where she would stand. You knew the table would catch her. You knew the camera was supposed to be off.”
Silence.
Marcus sat across from her.
“You planned every second.”
“I followed instructions.”
“Whose?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Because you’re afraid?”
“Because you should be.”
Ethan opened the evidence photograph showing Thomas, Isabella’s father, and Julian Vale outside the Aurelia hospital.
Isabella’s face changed.
“Where did you find that?”
“In Thomas Vale’s archive.”
“That room was empty.”
“So you have been inside it.”
“No.”
“You just said it was empty.”
Isabella pressed her lips together.
Marcus pointed to her father in the photograph.
“Your father helped create Aurelia.”
“He was the foundation’s legal counsel.”
“He created the shell companies.”
“He followed Thomas’s instructions.”
“My father was investigating those transfers.”
“That is what Margaret told you.”
“What does that mean?”
Isabella leaned back.
“Your father was not the hero you remember.”
Marcus fought the instinct to defend a dead man.
“Then prove it.”
“Give me immunity.”
“You assaulted my wife.”
“I did what was necessary to stop her from finding the archive.”
“Why?”
“Because once the trust activates, everyone named in Thomas’s agreement loses control.”
“Who is everyone?”
“The Vale board. The foundation trustees. Several people whose careers depend on the company remaining exactly as it is.”
“And you?”
Isabella’s voice softened.
“My father left me nothing except his mistakes.”
Marcus studied her.
“You expected to marry me.”
“I expected to protect the future my family spent thirty years building.”
“You mean you expected control.”
“I expected order.”
“Khloe interrupted your plan.”
“Khloe interrupted everything.”
Isabella looked toward the door.
“You believe she was chosen by chance? That an ordinary woman happened to meet Marcus Vale in a bookstore while he was avoiding a charity dinner?”
Marcus felt the room narrow.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Khloe did not find you.”
“Be careful.”
“She was placed in your path.”
Marcus stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
Ethan stepped between them.
Isabella did not flinch.
“Ask her about her first job,” she continued. “Ask who paid the company that sent her to that bookstore. Ask why her university records were accessed by Aurelia Holdings one month before you met.”
Marcus stared at her.
“You’re lying.”
“Check.”
Ethan received a message through his earpiece.
He turned away, listened, then looked at Marcus.
“We found a second set of payments from Aurelia.”
“To whom?”
Ethan’s silence was answer enough.
“Say it.”
“A consulting company Khloe worked for five years ago.”
Isabella’s smile returned.
“She did not marry into the conspiracy, Marcus.”
May you like
She leaned forward.
“She was part of it before she ever knew your name.”
