Chương 7
Sofia’s answer was not what he expected.
Lucie needed the photographers to stop waiting outside her aunt’s gate. She needed her classmates not to discover her family history through a phone screen. She needed adults to stop discussing where she might live as though she were furniture attached to an estate.
Étienne arranged an emergency injunction against harassment using evidence collected by Sofia’s lawyer. He instructed the company to acknowledge the biological finding while stating that Lucie’s privacy and existing guardianship would be respected. He removed every reference to inheritance from the final statement.
Alain issued his own response within an hour.
He questioned the reliability of private testing and called for a full judicial review. Through unnamed associates, he suggested Sofia had manipulated Camille during illness and concealed Lucie for financial advantage.
The allegations were not entirely effective, but they were effective enough.
Reporters examined Sofia’s career. An old lawsuit involving a collapsed restoration project was revived without context. Photographs of her apartment building appeared online. Parents at Lucie’s school complained about media attention.
Sofia withdrew Lucie temporarily.
Étienne drove to Tours that evening despite Sofia’s request that he remain away. He reached the apartment building and saw three cameras near the entrance. His arrival attracted more.
He had made the situation worse.
Sofia refused to let him upstairs.
He sat in the car across the street for nearly an hour, watching rain collect on the windshield. His driver kept the engine running. A delivery cyclist argued with a photographer blocking the pavement. Lights turned on in apartments above. Families ate dinner behind curtains while Étienne’s presence converted their street into a spectacle.
He left without seeing Lucie.
On the return journey, he understood that power applied without judgment was merely another form of intrusion. He could command lawyers, cars, statements, and security teams. He could not force himself into a child’s life without becoming one more threat Sofia had to manage.
The next morning, he transferred responsibility for direct contact to an independent family mediator chosen jointly with Sofia. He agreed to scheduled visits, limited public appearances, and no unannounced travel. He also offered to cover Lucie’s security and educational costs through a blind arrangement that gave him no control over decisions.
Sofia accepted the security funding and rejected the education fund for the time being.
The refusal stung.
Étienne allowed it to stand.
Three weeks passed before he saw Lucie again.
The meeting took place in a rented art studio above a bakery. The room smelled faintly of yeast and paint. Sofia sat near the door while Lucie worked at a large table covered in paper, rulers, and colored pencils.
Étienne brought the silver locket, which he had cleaned only enough to remove dirt from the hinge. He had considered having the scratches polished. A conservator warned that doing so would erase part of the object’s history.
He returned it unchanged.
Lucie examined the photograph and then placed the locket around her neck. The chain was too long. Sofia adjusted it with a small temporary clasp.
Étienne had brought his father’s watch as well, though he did not know why. It remained in his pocket.
For most of the visit, Lucie drew.
Étienne tried drawing beside her. His first attempt at the greenhouse roof had no proper perspective. Lucie studied it, erased two lines without asking, and returned the pencil. The correction was so casual that he nearly laughed.
The sound escaped as a short breath.
Lucie looked at him.
For the first time, her mouth softened.
The moment lasted only a second. Then she returned to the page.
Étienne went back the following week and the week after that. Some visits were easy. Others were not. Lucie occasionally refused to speak or left early with a headache. Once, when Étienne moved the chair beside her, she shifted away. He spent the remainder of the hour at the opposite side of the table, pretending to concentrate on a drawing of a staircase.
He learned not to interpret every reaction as a verdict.
Children could be tired. They could dislike a room. They could become irritated by an adult who watched too closely. Lucie did not exist to heal him.
Meanwhile, the inheritance conflict intensified.
Alain petitioned the commercial court to delay any recognition of Lucie within the trust, arguing that Camille’s long concealment constituted abandonment of her rights. His lawyers demanded access to medical records, guardianship files, and correspondence between Sofia and Camille. They also sought to examine whether Sofia had influenced Camille’s decisions while she was critically ill.
The legal theory was weak.
Its purpose was not victory. It was pressure.
Every document produced would expose more of Lucie’s life. Every hearing would create news. Sofia might eventually accept a financial settlement in exchange for withdrawing the claim.
Étienne recognized the strategy because he had used versions of it in business.
He met Alain in the library at Château de Varenne.
No other family members attended. Lawyers waited in adjoining rooms but did not enter. The meeting lasted forty minutes and contained no raised voices. Alain denied personal hostility toward Lucie. He described his actions as protection of the trust. He suggested that Étienne’s guilt had impaired his judgment. He reminded Étienne that thousands of employees depended on stability.
Some of it was true.
That made Alain harder to dismiss.
Recognition of Lucie would alter voting rights. Litigation could damage financing. Hotels under renovation might close. Employees in smaller properties could lose work. Étienne could not behave as though the company were merely an extension of family shame.
Alain also revealed something Étienne had not known.
Henri had believed Camille was alive for at least two years after the crash.
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He had received photographs taken outside a clinic. He had chosen not to confront her because he feared that acknowledging her pregnancy would reopen the original trust. Alain had found the file after his father’s death and destroyed most of it.
The confession was not offered from remorse. Alain wanted Étienne to understand that both branches of the family were implicated. If Étienne publicly exposed Henri, Alain would release Étienne’s signed memoranda and the voicemail transcript.
