CHAPTER 5 — THE FIRST LIE
Marcus was escorted into Gabriel’s office.
His phone had been confiscated, his access to the Thorne private security network had been suspended, and every exit from the hospital was guarded.
Yet he remained calm.
Too calm.
Gabriel stood behind the desk.
“Isabella says you promised to leave Khloe.”
“She’s lying.”
“She has hundreds of messages.”
“Fabricated.”
“The message on your phone ordered you to obtain the footage.”
“Someone planted it.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“You stopped Elaine from calling for help.”
Marcus’s confidence faltered.
“For two seconds.”
“After waiting outside the suite for forty-seven.”
“I heard shouting. I didn’t know what was happening.”
“You heard Isabella threaten your wife.”
Marcus looked toward the window.
Gabriel watched him carefully.
“You knew she was inside.”
“I knew she wanted to speak with Khloe.”
“You arranged it?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Gabriel placed another photograph on the desk.
It showed Marcus and Isabella in the hotel elevator thirty minutes before the attack.
They were standing close.
Her hand rested against his chest.
Marcus’s eyes closed briefly.
“We had history.”
“Did Khloe know?”
“No.”
“Then your first lie has finally died.”
Marcus looked toward the medical wing.
“How is she?”
“You lost the right to ask me.”
“She is my wife.”
Gabriel stepped around the desk.
“Then explain why you watched Isabella enter her suite and did nothing.”
Marcus’s voice dropped.
“Because Isabella said she had proof Khloe was hiding something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel studied him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Marcus reached into the inside pocket of his tuxedo.
The guards immediately moved.
He slowly removed a folded envelope.
“Isabella gave me this before she went upstairs.”
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a medical document from a private fertility clinic.
At the bottom was Khloe’s name.
Beside it were the words:
PATERNITY SAMPLE DOES NOT MATCH MARCUS THORNE.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Marcus stared at him.
“I thought Khloe had betrayed me.”
Gabriel examined the document again.
Then he noticed the clinic’s seal.
May you like
It had been printed backward.
The report was fake.
