Chương 10
Privately, he admitted reacting badly.
The prosecutor authorized a charge equivalent to attempted minor violence and intimidation, along with a separate investigation into the circumstances of Claire’s fall. It was not the dramatic arrest commentators expected. Adrien appeared voluntarily with counsel, answered limited questions, and left through a side entrance.
The fraud inquiry widened.
His finance director, Marc Bellon, disappeared for three days before presenting himself to authorities in Marseille. He denied creating false invoices but admitted Adrien had instructed him to use Claire’s signature template to “streamline preliminary approvals.”
Marc claimed he believed Claire had consented.
Claire had never met him alone.
His statement shifted risk toward her.
The Beaumont board placed her on paid administrative leave pending further review.
This time the vote was unanimous.
Lucien argued against it.
Claire did not.
She cleared her office on a rainy Thursday with Nina beside her. The building remained operational around them. Phones rang. Housekeeping reports arrived. Someone from marketing asked about a holiday campaign and went pale upon seeing Claire packing books.
Nina placed a framed photograph into a box.
It showed Claire and Lucien at the opening of the Antibes hotel. They were both looking in different directions.
“You can appeal,” Nina said.
“I supported the policy that requires leave during an integrity investigation.”
“You wrote the policy.”
“Yes.”
“That was shortsighted.”
“It was good governance.”
“Still inconvenient.”
Claire smiled.
She removed a small ceramic hotel model from the shelf. One tower had been repaired with visible glue after a cleaning employee dropped it. Claire had told facilities not to replace it because the repaired version looked more honest.
Not every object needed meaning.
Sometimes she simply liked the crooked tower.
As they left, two employees stood near the elevators pretending to discuss a spreadsheet. Claire greeted them. One answered too brightly. The other looked embarrassed.
Trust did not vanish all at once.
It thinned around the edges.
At home, Claire discovered that unstructured time was not restful.
She woke at six, dressed for work, and remembered she had nowhere to go. She reorganized the nursery. She attended medical appointments. She answered lawyers. She ignored news alerts. She tried baking bread and produced something heavy enough to hold open a door.
Lucien came by every afternoon.
Sometimes they discussed the investigations.
Sometimes he sat on the balcony and complained about the building’s plumbing.
Once he repaired a loose drawer in the kitchen. It took him forty minutes because he refused to watch the instructional video Nina sent.
“You own twenty-three hotels,” Claire said.
“I do not repair the drawers personally.”
“Clearly.”
He tightened a screw and the drawer jammed shut.
Neither of them mentioned it again.
The paternity proceeding moved forward. Adrien’s counsel requested delay until after the fraud inquiry, arguing that media attention could prejudice negotiations. Claire’s family lawyer opposed the request.
Then Adrien contacted her directly.
The message arrived on her personal phone at 11:43 p.m.
Please speak to me once without lawyers.
Claire stared at it for several minutes.
She showed Miriam the next morning.
“Do not answer,” Miriam said.
“I know.”
“You are considering it.”
“I want to hear what version he uses now.”
“That is not a legal reason.”
“No.”
“It is also not likely to make you feel better.”
“I know.”
Miriam took off her glasses. “You may speak to him if you choose. My job is not to control you. My job is to make sure you understand that he may record the conversation, manipulate the conversation, or use your willingness to speak as evidence of continued intimacy.”
“My father would say no.”
“Your father says no to weather.”
Claire smiled despite herself.
She agreed to meet Adrien in Miriam’s conference room with both lawyers present.
Adrien arrived wearing a navy suit instead of his usual black. He looked thinner. Gray showed near one temple. Claire hated that she noticed.
For several seconds they sat across from one another without speaking.
Then Adrien looked at her stomach.
“How is she?”
“Healthy.”
His throat moved. “I’m glad.”
“You could have asked through counsel.”
“I did.”
“You asked whether I intended to continue the paternity action.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
His lawyer shifted in his chair. Miriam remained still.
Adrien placed his hands flat on the table. “I never meant for you to fall.”
Claire looked at him.
“I raised my hand,” he said. “I was angry. You moved back.”
“Did you touch me?”
“I don’t know.”
The answer mirrored hers.
It made her feel ill.
“You told everyone you didn’t know me.”
“I panicked.”
“You had already told Elise I was an obsessed employee.”
“My mother told her that.”
“And you corrected her?”
Adrien looked down.
Claire waited.
“No,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because everything was collapsing.”
“What was everything?”
“The merger. My company. My family’s debt. The projects. You.”
“I was not one of your projects.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
His lawyer leaned forward. “Perhaps we should keep this focused.”
Adrien ignored him. “I loved you.”
Claire felt the room narrow.
Miriam’s hand moved slightly, reminding Claire she could stop.
She did not.
“You loved me,” Claire said, “and copied my access token.”
Adrien’s face changed. “I did not create the invoices.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“I used the phone once.”
“Twice.”
“To look at bids.”
“And download my signature block.”
“I needed a template.”
“For what?”
“To show the lender what preliminary approval would look like.”
Claire stared at him.
Adrien rubbed his forehead. “It was stupid.”
“It was fraud.”
“I did not submit the invoices.”
“Marc says you ordered him to use my signature.”
“Marc is saving himself.”
“Are you?”
His eyes lifted.
May you like
For a moment, Claire saw the man who had waited outside her dentist’s office and brought the wrong kind of soup when she was sick. Then his mouth tightened and he became the man who had stood over her beside the champagne table.
“My company employs four hundred people,” he said. “Do you understand what happens if financing disappears?”
