Chapter 13 - Isabelle Takes the Stand
Isabelle grabbed the lamp and shouted, "Stay outside!"
Antonio raised both hands as emergency lights flickered on.
A broken security panel hung behind him.
One wire had been deliberately cut.
But Antonio hadn't cut it.
Someone else was inside the house.
He had arrived because Isabelle failed to answer his calls.
Then he saw the broken window.
Luca and police were minutes away.
Antonio moved Isabelle into the nursery bathroom and locked the door.
Footsteps crossed downstairs.
Then stopped.
Police arrived.
They searched every room.
The intruder was gone.
Nothing had been stolen.
Except one thing.
Elena's diary.
Richard was incarcerated.
Damien was monitored.
Gabriel was cooperating.
Whoever entered had wanted only the diary.
Enzo checked exterior cameras.
One image survived.
A woman.
Older.
Silver hair.
Isabelle didn't recognize her.
Antonio did.
"Damien's mother."
Margaret Cole.
The woman who had had the affair with Victor.
The woman whose secret paternity had started much of this.
Margaret had disappeared from public life years earlier.
She wanted Elena's diary because it contained correspondence proving Margaret had helped conceal financial crimes.
The final hidden participant wasn't a mastermind.
She was another person protecting herself.
Margaret surrendered the next morning after police located her.
The diary was recovered.
Isabelle refused to let the revelation consume her.
She had a more important appointment.
Court.
Her divorce hearing.
Damien sat across the room.
He looked at her once.
Then lowered his eyes.
When Isabelle testified, the opposing attorney tried to portray the gala as a marital argument distorted by publicity.
"Mrs. Cole, you confronted your husband publicly, correct?"
"Yes."
"You were angry."
"Yes."
"You grabbed Ms. Vale."
"I stopped her from taking documents."
"You were emotional."
Isabelle looked directly at the attorney.
"My husband was stealing from me, sleeping with another woman, secretly testing our unborn child's DNA, and attempting to manipulate my property rights."
She paused.
"I would be concerned about anyone who felt nothing."
Several people in the courtroom shifted.
The attorney tried again.
"Did you provoke Mr. Cole?"
"No."
"Did you insult him?"
"I exposed him."
"And he reacted."
"He chose to slap me."
Silence.
No euphemism.
No escalation.
No shared blame.
He chose.
Damien looked down.
The divorce was granted.
Financial claims remained subject to separate proceedings, but Isabelle walked out legally free.
Outside, reporters shouted questions.
She gave only one statement.
"My daughter deserves a life where love is never confused with control."
Then she left.
Weeks passed.
Richard pleaded not guilty.
Damien entered a guilty plea on several financial charges and the assault charge.
Vanessa moved away from New York.
Before leaving, she sent Isabelle a letter.
Isabelle read it once.
Vanessa apologized without asking forgiveness.
She enclosed evidence of every gift Damien had purchased with stolen funds and relinquished anything investigators identified as traceable.
Isabelle placed the letter away.
Closure didn't always mean friendship.
Sometimes it simply meant no unfinished business.
Then labor began.
Three weeks early.
At 2:13 in the morning, Isabelle called Luca.
"My water broke."
He arrived in seven minutes.
"How did you get here that fast?"
"I was nearby."
"You live twenty minutes away."
"I've been sleeping in my car."
She stared.
"You're insane."
"Probably."
Matteo arrived.
Then Enzo.
At the hospital, the three men became useless.
Luca argued with a vending machine.
Matteo tried to analyze contraction timing like litigation evidence.
Enzo searched online for information until Isabelle threatened to throw his phone out the window.
Hours later, pain consumed everything.
Then the room changed.
Doctors moved faster.
The baby's heart rate dropped.
Isabelle saw concern.
"What's happening?"
The physician remained calm.
"We're watching her."
Then an alarm sounded.
People rushed in.
Luca was pushed into the hall.
Isabelle grabbed the nurse's hand.
"Is she okay?"
No answer came quickly enough.
The doctor looked at the monitor.
Then at Isabelle.
"We need to deliver your baby now."
The doors opened.
May you like
A surgical team entered.
And as they rushed Isabelle down the corridor, the monitor beside her suddenly went silent...
