CHAPTER 12 — ISABELLA DISAPPEARS
The officer guarding Isabella had been found unconscious in a supply room.
His uniform was gone.
So was Isabella.
Security footage showed a figure in a police jacket leaving through a service elevator twenty-seven minutes earlier.
Marcus stared at the image.
“How did she get out of handcuffs?”
Detective Brooks answered, “Someone brought her a key.”
“Luca?”
“He was already in custody.”
Khloe sat upright in her hospital bed.
“Elaine.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Marcus frowned.
“Elaine helped us.”
“She also knew the gala schedule, the suite number, and every private exit.”
Brooks immediately called security.
Elaine’s radio was found abandoned near the loading dock.
Her car was gone.
Brooks searched her employment records.
Her real name was not Elaine Parker.
It was Elena Rossi.
Isabella’s cousin.
Marcus looked sick.
“She stood outside the suite.”
Khloe nodded.
“She didn’t freeze. She was waiting.”
Elaine had been instructed to delay anyone who approached. But Marcus had arrived earlier than expected, forcing her to enter behind him and pretend shock.
Brooks tracked the charter flight.
“It’s registered to leave from a private airfield forty miles north.”
Marcus checked the time.
“They could still be on the ground.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Khloe said.
He stared at her.
“My wife was attacked. My daughter was kidnapped.”
“And you were shot.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
Khloe’s voice hardened.
“That attitude destroyed us.”
Marcus stopped.
The room fell silent.
Then he nodded.
“You’re right.”
Brooks looked between them.
“We’ll handle the arrest.”
Marcus turned to Khloe.
“But there’s something I can do.”
He called Thorne Aviation and ordered every company-owned aircraft grounded.
Then he contacted the airfield’s fuel supplier and froze Sebastian’s payment accounts.
At the private runway, Isabella sat inside the charter plane, wearing a borrowed coat and dark sunglasses.
Elaine occupied the seat across from her.
“Why aren’t we moving?” Isabella demanded.
The pilot entered the cabin.
“Payment was declined. The fuel company won’t release us.”
Isabella pulled out her phone.
Every account showed frozen.
Then red and blue lights appeared outside the plane.
Elaine looked through the window.
“We need to run.”
“Where?”
“The service gate.”
They jumped from the rear stairs and sprinted across the runway.
Elaine reached the fence first.
Isabella’s stiletto caught in a drainage grate.
She fell.
“Help me!” she screamed.
Elaine kept running.
Isabella stared after her.
“You coward!”
Detective Brooks approached with her weapon drawn.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Isabella pushed herself upright.
“You have no idea who I am.”
Brooks handcuffed her.
“I know exactly who you are.”
Isabella turned toward the flashing lights.
Her perfect makeup was streaked. Her crimson dress was torn. Her confidence was gone.
But as Brooks led her toward the police car, Isabella smiled.
“Khloe thinks she won.”
Brooks tightened her grip.
“She survived you. That’s enough.”
“No.”
Isabella looked over her shoulder.
May you like
“I sent Marcus’s private messages to every news outlet in the country.”
By sunrise, the entire world knew what he had said about his pregnant wife.
