Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
Elodie spent the night locked in a guest suite.
The door had no visible keyhole on the inside.
A security camera watched the hallway.
Her phone had been confiscated.
She sat beside the window until dawn, holding the photograph Catherine had left behind.
Marie Laurent.
Her mother.
Or perhaps a woman who had once been her mother before someone rewrote the story of her life.
At seven in the morning, a maid arrived carrying breakfast.
Her name was Sofia.
She was in her late fifties, with tired eyes and hands roughened by years of work.
Elodie had seen her several times but had never spoken to her privately.
Sofia placed the tray down.
Then she noticed the photograph.
Her face changed.
"Where did you get that?"
"Catherine gave it to me."
Sofia glanced toward the door.
"You shouldn't have it."
"Did you know her?"
The maid hesitated.
Then she whispered:
"Everyone who worked here twenty-three years ago knew Marie."
Elodie stood.
"Was she my mother?"
Sofia looked at her for a long moment.
"Yes."
The answer struck harder than any denial could have.
Elodie gripped the back of a chair.
"Then why did my father tell me her name was Anne?"
"Because Anne was the name she used after she escaped."
"Escaped from whom?"
Sofia's eyes filled with tears.
"From this family."
She crossed to the window and checked the courtyard.
Then she spoke quickly.
"Marie worked for Henri's first wife, Geneviève. She helped manage the charitable foundation's records. Your father printed confidential financial reports for the family."
"Was Catherine involved?"
"She controlled the family investment office."
Sofia lowered her voice.
"Marie discovered that foundation money was being diverted through companies that existed only on paper."
Elodie felt sick.
"How much money?"
"Millions."
"And my father?"
"He printed the reports. He saw things he wasn't supposed to see."
"Did he help Catherine?"
Sofia looked away.
"At first."
Elodie closed her eyes.
The debts.
The fear.
The photograph.
Her father's desperate insistence that she accept the marriage.
It was beginning to make sense.
"What happened to Marie?"
"She threatened to expose everything."
"And Catherine?"
"Catherine arranged an accident."
Elodie went cold.
"What kind of accident?"
"A fire."
Sofia's voice broke.
"An old storage building burned. Everyone was told Marie had died inside."
"But she didn't."
"No."
"Who helped her escape?"
"Your father."
Elodie sank into a chair.
Sofia continued.
"He took her away. Changed their names. They lived quietly for years."
"Then why did she disappear when I was six?"
Sofia hesitated.
"Because Catherine found them."
A knock sounded at the door.
Both women froze.
"Breakfast service complete?" a guard called.
"Yes," Sofia answered.
She picked up the empty silver cover.
As she passed Elodie, she slipped something beneath the napkin.
A folded piece of paper.
"Trust no one who tells you the dead cannot speak," she whispered.
Then she left.
Elodie unfolded the paper.
There was an address.
SAINT-AURÈLE MEDICAL RESIDENCE
Beneath it, one sentence:
Ask for patient 214.
Elodie stared at the words.
Saint-Aurèle.
The same place Henri had mentioned.
She rushed to the door and knocked.
No answer.
She knocked harder.
"Open this door!"
A guard appeared.
"Mrs. de Valmont has requested that you rest."
"I'm not Mrs. de Valmont."
"Not yet."
The guard closed the door.
Elodie backed away.
Then she noticed something strange.
A faint clicking sound came from the wardrobe.
She opened it.
A narrow wooden panel had shifted.
Behind it was a small service passage.
Someone had opened it from the other side.
Alexandre stood in the darkness.
His lip was split.
A bruise darkened his cheek.
May you like
But he was smiling.
"Ready to meet your mother?"
