Chương 4
Claire managed a tired smile.
Nina was thirty-six, American, raised in Arizona, and incapable of whispering unless someone was asleep. She had worked for Claire for four years and had disliked Adrien from the beginning, though her reasons had once seemed petty.
He never thanked drivers.
He pronounced her name correctly in public and incorrectly in private.
He sent emails marked urgent at 11:58 p.m. and ignored replies until noon.
At the time, Claire had accused Nina of building a criminal case from manners.
Now Nina sat beside the bed and folded the paper sleeve from her coffee cup into smaller and smaller rectangles.
“The baby?”
“Fine.”
“You?”
“Bruised.”
“I meant—”
“I know.”
Nina stopped folding.
Claire looked toward the door. Lucien had left for the hotel after agreeing, reluctantly, that Claire could choose independent counsel. Two security officers remained outside the clinic room. Claire had asked for one. Her father had sent two.
“Did Adrien contact you?” Nina asked.
“Not directly.”
“He emailed the office.”
Claire turned.
“At four twelve,” Nina said. “He requested confirmation that all communications related to his companies be preserved. Very lawyerly. Very innocent-man-at-four-in-the-morning.”
“What did you do?”
“Forwarded it to compliance and did not answer.”
“Good.”
“I also removed his access to the renovation data room.”
Claire pushed herself higher against the pillows. “You had authority?”
“No.”
“Nina.”
“I called Laurent in information security. He had authority. I supplied enthusiasm.”
Despite herself, Claire laughed.
The sound startled her. It felt disloyal to the seriousness of the night, then necessary.
Nina’s expression softened. “There you are.”
Claire looked down at the blanket. “I approved his introduction to Montclar Stone.”
“You approved due diligence.”
“I gave him access to people.”
“You trusted someone.”
“I ignored things.”
“Yes,” Nina said.
Claire looked at her.
Nina did not retreat. “You ignored things. That is not the same as causing everything he did afterward.”
“I don’t know what he did afterward.”
“Then we find out.”
“We?”
“You can fire me later.”
Claire reached for the decaf coffee. It had already gone lukewarm.
At ten that morning, Sofia Arnaud took Claire’s statement.
The lieutenant did not ask questions in the order Claire expected. She began with Claire’s arrival at the hotel, moved backward to the messages that brought her there, then forward again to the champagne table.
“Why did you attend the banquet?”
“Adrien asked me to meet him privately at seven.”
“Where?”
“The library beside the ballroom.”
“Did he meet you?”
“No.”
“What happened instead?”
“His mother came.”
“What did she say?”
Claire remembered Madeleine closing the library door without touching the handle directly, using a handkerchief as if the brass might be dirty.
“She told me Adrien had made his choice. She offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Two million euros through a trust for the child.”
“In exchange for?”
“Silence. No public paternity claim. No contact with Adrien unless approved through counsel.”
Sofia’s pen paused. “Do you have the offer?”
“She gave me a document.”
“Where is it?”
“In my handbag.”
The taupe bag sat in an evidence box on the table. Claire had consented to its examination but watched Sofia remove the folded papers with unexpected discomfort. The bag had been a gift from her mother during the last summer of her life. Claire used it rarely because the chain caught on silk.
Sofia opened the document.
“This was prepared by a law firm.”
“Yes.”
“Did you sign anything?”
“No.”
“What did you say to Madame Moreau?”
“That Adrien needed to speak for himself.”
“And then?”
“I went into the ballroom.”
“Were you invited?”
“No.”
“Did anyone try to stop you?”
“No.”
“Describe the confrontation.”
Claire did.
When she reached the moment of Adrien’s raised hand, her memory refused to slow down. It came in fragments: the white pocket square, the smell of champagne, Elise’s necklace flashing under the chandelier, the heel slipping beneath her.
“Did you see his hand make contact?”
“No.”
“Did you feel contact?”
“I felt heat. Pressure, maybe.”
“Where?”
“Near my left cheek.”
“Do you have pain there?”
“No.”
“Did he push you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you fall because you were touched, startled, or off balance?”
“I don’t know.”
Sofia sat back.
Claire pressed her thumb against the square gold clasp of the handbag.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“For not being useful.”
“You are being precise. That is useful.”
“My father will want certainty.”
“I do not work for your father.”
“No one says they do.”
Sofia’s mouth almost moved into a smile. “I will interview the guests. Security footage may clarify part of it. The camera angle is not ideal.”
“Why?”
“The champagne tower blocks the lower half of both bodies. A floral arrangement blocks the reflection in the western mirror. We see his arm rise. We see you move. We do not see contact.”
Claire nodded.
“The absence of visible contact does not prove there was none,” Sofia said. “But neither does the fall prove there was.”
“I understand.”
“Do you wish to make a formal complaint?”
Claire thought of Adrien’s face when the doors opened. She thought of his voice saying her name in the corridor as though the private use of it might still control her.
“Yes.”
Sofia closed her notebook. “You should understand that this will not remain private.”
“It already isn’t.”
“No. But there is a difference between gossip and a proceeding.”
Claire placed her hand over the baby.
“Yes,” she said. “File it.”
Adrien issued a statement that afternoon.
He expressed concern for Claire’s health, denied striking her, and described their relationship as brief, private, and concluded months earlier. He claimed she had arrived uninvited during an emotionally difficult period and that his attempt to keep her away from Elise had been misinterpreted.
He did not mention the pregnancy.
Elise released no statement.
Madeleine did.
May you like
She called the event a painful misunderstanding exploited by individuals hostile to her family. She praised Adrien’s restraint. She said the Moreaus would cooperate fully with authorities.
By evening, three former employees of Adrien’s development company had contacted journalists.
