CHAPTER 11 — HOPE
Hope looked impossibly small beneath the surgical lights.
Adrian stood over his grandniece while another neonatal surgeon reviewed the scan.
“There’s bleeding near the liver,” the surgeon said. “Likely related to the placental trauma.”
“Blood pressure?”
“Falling.”
Adrian looked through the observation window.
Khloe stood outside in a wheelchair.
Marcus, his shoulder bandaged, stood beside her.
Neither spoke.
The marriage between them was broken.
But their fear was the same.
Adrian entered the hallway.
“We need to operate.”
Khloe’s face crumpled.
“She survived the delivery. She survived being taken. How much more can she survive?”
“More than you think.”
Marcus crouched beside her wheelchair.
“Hope is strong.”
Khloe looked at him.
“You don’t get to say her name like everything is normal.”
“I know.”
“No, Marcus. You don’t know what it felt like to protect her while someone kicked me.”
His eyes filled.
“You’re right.”
She had expected excuses.
Instead, he said, “I was selfish. I was weak. I humiliated you, and then I doubted you when you needed me. There is no excuse.”
Khloe looked away.
“I don’t need an apology right now.”
“I know.”
“What do you need?” he asked.
“My daughter alive.”
“Then that’s all that matters.”
The surgery lasted two hours.
Khloe counted every minute.
At 4:12 a.m., Adrian emerged.
His face was exhausted.
Khloe rose too quickly from the wheelchair.
Marcus caught her, but she pulled away.
Adrian approached.
“The bleeding is controlled.”
Khloe covered her mouth.
“Is she—”
“She’s alive.”
Marcus bent forward, hands on his knees, crying silently.
Adrian continued.
“The next twenty-four hours are critical, but she made it through surgery.”
Khloe hugged her uncle.
For a moment, Adrian held her tightly.
Then his eyes went toward the empty chair where Marianne had sat before her arrest.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“You didn’t betray me.”
“But I brought her into your life.”
“She made her own choice.”
Adrian nodded, but the guilt remained.
Later, Marcus stood beside Hope’s incubator.
He placed his injured hand against the glass.
Khloe entered quietly.
“She squeezed my finger earlier,” he said.
“She does that when she hears voices.”
Marcus looked at her.
“May I stay?”
“For five minutes.”
He nodded.
They stood on opposite sides of the incubator.
Hope slept between them.
Marcus spoke softly.
“I’m resigning as chairman.”
Khloe looked up.
“Why?”
“I need to cooperate with the investigation. I also need to repair the hospital fund.”
“That doesn’t require resigning.”
“No. But accountability does.”
Khloe studied him.
He looked different.
Not redeemed.
Not forgiven.
But finally awake.
Before she could respond, Detective Brooks entered.
“We found another account.”
Marcus frowned.
“Sebastian’s?”
“No.”
She placed a financial report on the counter.
“It belongs to Isabella.”
Khloe scanned the page.
Nearly six million dollars had been transferred from Sebastian’s shell company.
Brooks pointed to the final withdrawal.
“It happened two hours before the assault.”
Marcus looked at Khloe.
“What was she planning to do with it?”
Brooks’s expression darkened.
“She purchased a one-way charter flight.”
“To where?”
“Switzerland.”
Khloe’s eyes narrowed.
“She never planned to be with Marcus.”
Brooks nodded.
“She planned to frame him, take the money, and disappear.”
But there was one problem.
May you like
The charter plane had already departed.
And Isabella was supposed to be in police custody.
