Chương 5
I remembered that trip.
I had returned early after a supplier meeting collapsed.
By the time I reached home, Margaux was gone and Lucie was nervous.
She told me she had a migraine.
Two hours later, an anonymous email arrived containing photographs of Lucie and Paul at the hotel.
"What did Margaux say?"
"She cried."
Lucie's expression had gone strangely blank.
"She said Paul was blackmailing her because she'd made a mistake with a vendor account."
"What kind of mistake?"
"She claimed she had changed banking details on a legitimate supplier and accidentally redirected a payment."
"And you believed her?"
"For about twenty minutes."
"What changed?"
"She knew details I hadn't told her."
"Such as?"
"The exact amount Paul said had already been diverted."
My father closed his eyes.
Lucie looked at him.
"Arthur found out later."
"How?"
"He came to see me after you threw me out."
That sentence stripped the air from the room.
I looked at my father.
"You saw her?"
He nodded.
"When?"
He lifted three fingers.
"Three days after?"
Another nod.
"You never told me."
Dad's mouth trembled.
Lucie answered for him.
"He tried."
I remembered an argument.
Dad appearing at my office without an appointment.
His face red.
His fist striking my desk.
"You've made a terrible mistake, Alex."
I had assumed he meant the divorce.
I had told him Lucie had betrayed me and that there was nothing else to discuss.
He had called me arrogant.
I told him to leave.
That was the last serious conversation we had before his stroke.
"He knew?"
"Not everything."
Lucie sat again.
"But enough to suspect Margaux."
"Why didn't he go to the police?"
Dad opened his eyes and stared at me.
Lucie answered softly.
"Because Margaux threatened to tell them he was part of it."
I looked between them.
"That's ridiculous."
"Not entirely."
My father covered his face with his hand.
For the first time that night, Lucie's anger softened.
She touched his shoulder.
"Arthur."
He shook his head.
"What did he do?"
I asked.
Lucie did not answer immediately.
My father reached for the notebook.
She tried to stop him.
He pulled it closer.
His fingers shook as he wrote.
S I G N E D.
"What did you sign?"
He wrote another word.
L O A N.
I frowned.
"A loan?"
He nodded.
Lucie looked at me.
"Margaux used your father's property as collateral for a business loan."
"What business?"
"Sorelle Conseil."
The room went completely still.
I looked at my father.
"You signed for her?"
He nodded.
"Why?"
His face crumpled.
Lucie answered quietly.
"Because she told him she was starting her own company and didn't want you to know until she could prove she was capable of doing something without your help."
My father pressed his hand over his eyes.
I sat beside him again.
"How much?"
Lucie swallowed.
"Four hundred thousand euros."
I stared at her.
"Where did the money go?"
"Some went into the supplier scheme."
"Some?"
She glanced at the pharmacy bag on the table.
"The rest is what Arthur was trying to trace when he had the stroke."
My phone vibrated.
A message from Margaux appeared on the screen.
Thanks for sorting Dad's payment tomorrow.
A second message arrived almost immediately.
And Alex, please don't visit this week.
He's been having confused episodes and the doctor thinks familiar stress could make them worse.
I read the words twice.
Then I handed the phone to Lucie.
She looked at the message and returned it without comment.
My father watched my face.
I typed a reply.
No problem.
I won't come.
Margaux responded with a heart.
I stared at that tiny red shape until it blurred.
"What are you doing?" Lucie asked.
I slid the phone into my pocket.
"Exactly what you told me to do."
She waited.
"For once, I'm going to ask questions before I start accusing people."
My father gripped my sleeve.
I covered his hand with mine.
"But I'm done paying for lies."
The next morning, I did not transfer the money.
Instead, I sat in my office before sunrise with the blinds closed and called Claire.
She answered on the fourth ring with the cautious voice of someone who had been awakened by a number she recognized but did not trust.
"Alexandre?"
"I need you to come in early."
There was a pause.
"How early?"
"Now."
Another pause followed, longer this time.
"Is someone dead?"
"No."
"Then I am making coffee."
She arrived forty minutes later wearing jeans, a raincoat, and the expression of a woman already regretting every decision that had brought her into my employment.
Claire had returned from maternity leave two years earlier and now ran procurement compliance for all five showrooms.
She was one of the few people in the company who had never laughed too loudly at my jokes or pretended my bad ideas were visionary.
She placed a paper cup on my desk.
"This had better involve fraud or murder."
"Fraud."
She removed her coat.
"Good."
I pushed a list of old supplier accounts toward her.
"I need everything we still have on Sorelle Conseil."
Claire stopped.
Her hand stayed on the back of the chair.
"Why?"
"You remember it."
"Everyone in finance remembers it."
"What do you remember?"
She looked at me carefully.
"Why are we doing this at six fifteen in the morning?"
"Because I should have done it three years ago."
That answer changed something in her face.
She sat down.
"The company was registered as a consulting intermediary."
"That makes no sense."
"It didn't then either."
"Who approved it?"
"You did."
I rubbed my eyes.
"Yes, apparently I approved many things."
"You approved vendor status."
She leaned back.
"That was not the same as approving every payment."
"Who entered the account?"
Claire glanced toward the closed door.
"Margaux."
Hearing another person say my sister's name made the situation feel less like fever.
"You knew?"
"I knew she entered it."
May you like
"Did you investigate her?"
"No."
