Chapter 3 - The Blinking Red Eye
I followed her gaze, straining my neck despite the ache in my spine.
There, nestled almost invisibly between the crown molding and the smoke detector, was a tiny dome of dark glass. Inside it, a minuscule red light was blinking.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
A security camera.
It had been installed three days ago when Marcus upgraded my security detail following an anonymous threat. Neither Isabella nor I had paid attention to it since then.
Marcus hadn't noticed it in his blind rage. But Isabella had.
And the sheer, unadulterated terror spreading across her features told me a story far more horrifying than her physical attack on me.
She wasn't afraid of Marcus slapping her. She wasn't afraid of being exposed as a liar. She wasn't even afraid of the police being called for assault.
She was terrified of the recording.
My mind raced through the haze of pain. Why? What could be on that tape? Marcus had walked in when her foot was on my chest. That alone was enough to send her to prison for attempted murder or aggravated assault against an expectant mother. What could possibly be worse than what Marcus had just witnessed with his own eyes?
Marcus felt me tense up. He turned his head, following my fixed gaze up to the corner of the room.
His expression hardened. "What's wrong?" he muttered.
Isabella said nothing. She couldn't speak. Her lips parted, her jaw working silently, her eyes locked on that tiny red light like a condemned prisoner staring at the executioner's blade.
"Isabella," Marcus said, his voice dropping into a register that was dangerously quiet. He stood up slowly, leaving my side for a brief moment to step closer to the wall beneath the camera. He looked at the camera, then turned back to face her.
"What did you do before I came in?"
Isabella’s breath hitched. She took a step back, her back hitting the edge of the hospital bed.
The camera continued its silent work above us, a tireless witness capturing every twitch of her lips, every bead of cold sweat forming on her forehead, every second she had believed she was completely alone with me.
And suddenly, the terrifying reality dawned on me.
Marcus thought he had caught her in the act. But he hadn't walked in at the beginning of her crime. He had walked in at the very end.
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The real question wasn't whether Isabella had kicked me.
What else had that camera seen?
