Chapter 8 - THE FATHER WHO SIGNED AWAY HIS CHILD
“YOU KNEW SHE WAS MY SISTER, AND YOU LET ME GROW UP WITHOUT HER?”
Camille stood in Raphaël's private study, holding the hospital transfer document.
Three days had passed since the sisters returned from Lyon.
The birthday celebration had become a distant nightmare.
Now the Delcourt mansion was quiet, its elegant rooms filled with the uncomfortable silence of a family waiting for its secrets to collapse.
Raphaël stared at the document.
“I never saw this before.”
Camille's eyes filled with tears.
“Your name is on it.”
“I know.”
“Then explain it.”
Raphaël took the paper.
His signature appeared beneath a paragraph authorizing the private transfer of a newborn child.
He examined it carefully.
“The signature resembles mine, but I didn't sign this authorization.”
Léa stood near the fireplace.
“Do you expect us to believe that?”
“No. I expect you to investigate it.”
Adrien, who had remained silent throughout the meeting, finally spoke.
“Father, there's something I need to tell you.”
Raphaël looked at him.
Adrien took a breath.
“When I was twelve, I heard Mother arguing with Henri. She said something about a child who had been promised a better life.”
Camille turned toward him.
“You knew?”
“I didn't understand what they were talking about.”
“And you never asked?”
“I did. Mother told me it concerned an adoption through one of the family charities.”
Léa stared at him.
“And you believed her?”
Adrien looked ashamed.
“I wanted to.”
That admission changed something in the room.
For the first time, Léa saw Adrien not as the arrogant man who had grabbed her at the party, but as someone who had spent his life avoiding questions because he feared the answers.
It did not excuse what he had done.
But it helped her understand him.
Victor entered with an elderly woman named Madeleine Roche, a former nurse at Saint-Claire Maternity Clinic.
She had agreed to speak after learning that the investigation concerned Elise Martin's twins.
Madeleine sat carefully.
“I've waited twenty-nine years for someone to ask me about those babies.”
Léa leaned forward.
“What happened?”
The nurse folded her hands.
“Your mother gave birth to two healthy girls. There were no complications serious enough to explain a death.”
Camille began crying silently.
Madeleine continued.
“On the second night, the head administrator ordered us to separate the babies. We were told one child had developed a medical emergency.”
“Was that true?” Victor asked.
“No.”
“Why didn't you report it?”
Madeleine looked down.
“I was twenty-four. I had just started my career. They threatened to accuse me of stealing medication if I spoke.”
Léa felt anger rising.
“And you stayed silent?”
Madeleine nodded.
“Yes.”
“While my mother believed her baby was dead?”
“Yes.”
The old woman began to cry.
“I've regretted it every day.”
Léa looked away.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to ask how many people had watched her mother's life fall apart and decided that keeping their jobs mattered more than telling the truth.
But then she saw Madeleine's hands shaking.
The woman had come voluntarily.
She was finally speaking.
And the truth mattered more than punishing every frightened person who had failed to act.
“Who ordered the separation?” Victor asked.
Madeleine swallowed.
“Henri Beaumont.”
Raphaël closed his eyes.
“And who instructed him?” Victor continued.
Madeleine hesitated.
“Catherine Delcourt.”
Camille pressed her hand against her mouth.
Madeleine looked toward Raphaël.
“But there's something else you should know.”
Everyone waited.
“Mr. Delcourt visited the clinic that night.”
Raphaël looked up.
“I came to see Elise.”
“Yes.”
“I was told she didn't want to see me.”
Madeleine nodded.
“Because Henri had already told her you had ordered the babies separated.”
Raphaël stared at her.
“What?”
“He told Elise that you wanted one child raised within the Delcourt family and the other kept away from public attention.”
Léa felt sick.
“And my mother believed him?”
“She was exhausted. She had just given birth. She was frightened. Henri showed her papers with your signature.”
Raphaël lowered his face into his hands.
“I never knew.”
Madeleine continued.
“When Elise refused to sign the agreement, they sedated her. By the time she woke, Juliette was gone.”
Camille began sobbing.
Léa moved beside her.
Madeleine looked directly at the sisters.
“I am so sorry.”
The room fell silent.
Then Adrien asked the question everyone had avoided.
“Why would Mother want to raise Elise's child?”
Madeleine looked toward Raphaël.
“Because Mrs. Delcourt had recently lost a pregnancy. She believed giving her husband another daughter would save their marriage.”
Camille stared at the floor.
Her entire childhood suddenly felt like a performance written by someone else.
But Léa refused to let that thought take root.
She held Camille's face between her hands.
“Listen to me. You were never a replacement for anyone.”
Camille shook her head.
“Then what was I?”
“My sister.”
The answer was simple.
And it was enough to make Camille collapse into her arms.
Later that evening, Victor received a telephone call from a forensic document examiner.
The signatures on the transfer authorization had been analyzed against verified examples of Raphaël's handwriting.
The examiner's preliminary conclusion was that the signature had probably been copied.
But another discovery was more troubling.
The original authorization contained an embossed corporate seal.
The seal belonged to a holding company that had been dissolved in 2000.
Victor traced its ownership.
The majority shareholder had been Henri Beaumont.
The minority shareholder was someone nobody expected.
Adrien Delcourt.
Victor stared at the record.
Adrien had been only eight years old when the twins were born.
Someone had placed company shares in his name.
And those shares had later been used to transfer millions of dollars.
When Victor confronted him, Adrien turned pale.
“I never knew about any of this.”
May you like
Victor placed the records on the desk.
“Then explain why the company transferred eight million dollars into an account opened in your name three days after Elise Martin died.”
