Chapter 11 - The Choice They Tried to ForceThe call came at 9:03 that night.
Marcus was beside Khloe in the NICU, watching Julian’s tiny chest rise and fall beneath blue light. Khloe had finally fallen asleep in her wheelchair, one hand resting against the incubator glass.
Marcus saw the unknown number and nearly ignored it.
Then a text arrived.
Answer, or your son pays for your pride.
Every muscle in his body locked.
He stepped into the hallway before answering.
“Who is this?”
A distorted voice replied, “A friend giving you one chance.”
Marcus signaled to his security chief at the end of the hall. Trace it.
The voice continued, “Withdraw cooperation with federal prosecutors. State publicly that Khloe suffered a medical episode and that Isabella Rossi acted in confusion.”
Marcus said nothing.
“Do it before noon tomorrow.”
“No.”
There was a pause.
“Pride is expensive.”
Marcus’s voice was ice. “So is threatening my child.”
The caller laughed softly. “Ask yourself how secure a NICU really is. How many nurses. How many visitors. How many machines.”
Marcus’s vision narrowed.
“You touch my son, there won’t be a courtroom deep enough to protect you.”
“You have until noon.”
The call ended.
Marcus turned.
Khloe stood in the doorway.
She had heard enough.
Her face was white.
“Julian,” she whispered.
Marcus reached for her, but she moved past him into the NICU.
Within four minutes, the floor was locked down.
Within seven, Elias had every NICU staff member reverified.
Within twelve, police were on-site.
Within twenty, Marcus had transferred private security from three properties and placed them under hospital command, not above it. Elias insisted on that. Marcus agreed.
He was learning.
Khloe sat beside Julian, refusing to leave.
A nurse tried gently. “Mrs. Thorne, you need rest.”
“My son was just threatened.”
“I understand.”
“No,” Khloe said, not unkindly. “You don’t.”
The nurse fell silent.
Marcus crouched beside Khloe.
“We’ll move him to a secure neonatal wing.”
“Can he be moved safely?”
“Elias is checking.”
Khloe looked at him. “No decisions without doctors.”
“I know.”
The fact that he said it without irritation made her look at him longer.
Outside, Elaine entered with a laptop.
“We traced part of the call routing,” she said. “Burner, bounced twice. But the first connection came from inside the hospital guest Wi-Fi.”
Elias’s face darkened.
“They’re here?”
“Or they were.”
Marcus stood.
“Get every visitor log.”
Elaine nodded. “Already pulling them.”
Then her screen refreshed.
She frowned.
“What?”
“There’s a visitor badge issued tonight under the name Daniel Reed.”
Khloe went still.
The room froze around her.
Marcus turned slowly.
“Daniel Reed is dead.”
Elaine swallowed.
“I know.”
The badge had been printed at 8:47 p.m.
Sixteen minutes before the threat call.
Khloe’s hands shook.
“That’s Celeste.”
Marcus looked at her.
“She’s the only one who would use that name to hurt me.”
Elias stepped forward. “Or someone wants us to think that.”
Khloe looked toward Julian.
The baby slept beneath the glow, unaware that adults with money and revenge had turned his first days of life into a battlefield.
Marcus’s phone rang again.
This time, it was his mother.
He answered on speaker.
Celeste’s voice was calm. “Marcus, we need to talk.”
“You used Daniel Reed’s name.”
A pause.
Then, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Someone issued a hospital badge under his name.”
“That is disturbing.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
Marcus watched her face and knew.
Celeste was lying.
His voice dropped. “Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Which home?”
Another pause.
“Don’t take that tone with me.”
“Answer.”
Celeste exhaled. “The Fifth Avenue house.”
Marcus looked at Elaine.
Elaine typed fast, checking property security feeds.
Then she shook her head.
Celeste was not there.
Marcus closed his eyes briefly.
“Mother,” he said, “listen carefully. If you are in this hospital, leave now.”
Celeste’s voice sharpened. “You think I would threaten my own grandson?”
“I think you stopped seeing him as a child the second he became leverage.”
The line went quiet.
When Celeste spoke again, the elegance was gone.
“That woman has ruined you.”
“No,” Marcus said. “She revealed you.”
He ended the call.
Elaine’s laptop chimed.
“I found her.”
Everyone turned.
Elaine’s face had gone pale.
“Service elevator. Basement level. Ten minutes ago.”
Elias was already moving.
Marcus followed.
Khloe grabbed his hand before he passed.
“Don’t go alone.”
He looked down at her hand wrapped around his.
For the first time since the attack, she had reached for him.
“I won’t,” he said.
But by the time security reached the basement service corridor, Celeste was gone.
Only one thing remained.
A small white envelope taped to the elevator wall.
May you like
Inside was a photograph of Julian in his incubator.
Taken from inside the NICU.
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