Chapter 3 - The Unraveling
Marcus tapped the screen. It wasn't the leaked video from the gossip blogs. It was an encrypted audio recording dated three months ago, played directly from an cloud storage drive.
His own voice boomed softly from the tiny speaker:
“...It doesn’t matter if Khloe finds out about Isabella. She has nowhere else to go. Her father left her penniless, and her uncle is just a middle-class doctor. Once the child is born, I’ll transfer her share of the Thorne Estate trust into my holding company. She’ll get a comfortable allowance in the countryside, and Isabella and I can handle the public relations...”
Marcus froze. The blood drained completely from his face. The room seemed to tilt beneath his feet.
"Where... where did you get this?" Marcus stuttered, his confidence evaporating into thin air.
Khloe didn't blink. "Isabella sent it to me three weeks ago. She wanted me to know that I was just a surrogate in my own marriage. She wanted me to suffer every single day until I broke."
"Khloe, listen to me, that was just talk!" Marcus stepped closer, panic finally clawing at his chest. "I was negotiating with her father! I had to play along to protect our stock positions! I love you, Khloe. I love our son!"
"You didn't step between us," Khloe said softly. "When she raised her foot, you looked at me like I was a mess on your carpet. You told the coordinator to close the door so no one would see."
"I was trying to prevent a media war!"
"No," Khloe said, finally turning her full gaze toward him. For the first time, a sharp, deadly spark flared in her dark eyes. "You were trying to protect yourself. But you forgot one tiny detail about my family, Marcus."
Marcus swallowed hard. "What detail?"
"My uncle Robert isn't just a chief surgeon," Khloe said, her voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "He is the majority shareholder of Hayes Global Logistics. The very company that holds eighty percent of your foreign shipping contracts. The company your father stole from my grandfather thirty years ago."
Marcus’s phone violently vibrated in his hand. He looked down at the screen.
It was a urgent push notification from the Wall Street Journal:
[ALERT: Hayes Global Logistics Terminates All Supply Chain Contracts with Thorne Enterprises Effective Immediately. Trading Suspended.]
Marcus stared at the screen, his breath catching in his throat. "What... what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," Khloe said, laying her head back down on the thin pillow and closing her eyes. "You did this to yourself the moment you let her kick my baby. Now, get out of my room."
"Khloe, please!" Marcus took a desperate step forward, reaching for her shoulder.
The door flew open, and two burly security guards stepped in, grabbing Marcus by his arms.
"Let go of me! I'm her husband!" Marcus roared, thrashing against their grip as he was forcefully pulled backward out of the room. "Khloe! Tell them! I'm your husband!"
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As the heavy wooden door slammed shut in his face, Marcus found himself face-to-face with Dr. Robert Hayes once again. But Robert wasn't wearing his white doctor's coat anymore. He was wearing a tailored black suit, holding a leather briefcase.
"Your mother is waiting in the lobby, Marcus," Robert said coldly, pulling a stack of legal documents from his briefcase. "And these are your divorce papers. Khloe signed them ten minutes ago."
