Chapter 10
Khloe asked for the phone.
I gave it to her.
She searched quietly for several minutes before stopping on a folder labeled ADR.
Inside were photographs of Adrian.
At school.
At a park.
Asleep in the back seat of a car.
Years of surveillance.
Khloe looked at Isabella.
“You’ve been watching him.”
No answer.
Khloe opened another video.
Elena stood outside a grocery store arguing with Victor. Victor pointed toward a parked car. Elena slapped his hand away.
Then Isabella entered the frame.
Elena’s entire posture changed.
Fear.
I saw it immediately.
The next clip had audio.
“You said Anthony wanted him protected,” Elena said.
Isabella answered, “He did.”
“Then why can’t Marcus know?”
Silence.
Elena continued.
“Because if Marcus knows Adrian exists, you lose leverage.”
Isabella’s voice sharpened.
“Watch yourself.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“You’ve been using a child to keep your place beside him.”
I stopped the video.
Nobody spoke.
Khloe looked at Isabella.
“You wanted me gone because I was making Marcus less dependent on you.”
Isabella stared.
“And Adrian could do the same thing.”
I understood.
Not because I would instantly love a half-brother I had never met.
Because truth would break Isabella’s monopoly.
Khloe threatened her through intimacy.
Adrian threatened her through blood.
Our baby threatened her through permanence.
Three relationships.
One fear.
Isabella looked at Khloe with contempt.
“You think being pregnant makes you special.”
Khloe looked at her.
“No.”
Then she placed her hand over her belly.
“But I think hurting children because they might matter someday makes you pathetic.”
Victor looked away.
Isabella did not.
She smiled.
“At least I never pretended to be kind.”
Khloe’s expression sharpened.
“No.”
“You just pretended cruelty was loyalty.”
That finally hit.
May you like
I saw it in Isabella’s face.
Because loyalty was the word she had hidden behind for years.
