Chapter 13 - Samuel Reed’s Bookshop
Samuel lowered the pistol but did not put it away.
He locked the shop door behind them and closed the blinds.
“No one followed you?”
“We do not know,” Antoine said.
“That means someone did.”
Samuel looked at him.
“You are Julien’s older boy.”
Antoine stiffened.
“You knew my father?”
“I helped him disappear twice.”
Samuel led them into a back room crowded with maps, filing cabinets, and antique books.
On one wall hung photographs connected by handwritten notes.
Julien.
Étienne.
Philippe.
Hélène.
David Bennett.
Isabelle Moreau.
Margaret.
Claire stared at the photograph of Isabelle.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Not identical, but strong enough to make denial impossible.
Same eyes.
Same shape of chin.
Same small curve in the upper lip.
Margaret looked at Claire and then at the photograph.
Grief and love battled across her face.
Samuel poured coffee no one wanted.
“Julien told me someone would come after his death,” he said. “I expected Margaret. I did not expect all of you.”
“Where is David?” Margaret asked.
Samuel’s expression became guarded.
“Safe.”
“Is he alive?”
“For now.”
Claire stepped forward.
“He is my father?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly to doubt.
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Then why did he raise the threat around Claire?”
“Because he loved Margaret.”
Samuel explained that David learned the baby Margaret delivered in 1997 had not survived.
A doctor presented him with a choice.
Tell Margaret the truth while she was physically and emotionally fragile, or accept another infant whose mother had disappeared.
The infant was Claire.
David agreed only after being told the child would otherwise be killed.
Margaret’s knees weakened.
“You both knew.”
“David knew. Your mother knew part of it.”
“My mother?”
“She believed the adoption was legal.”
“It was not an adoption.”
“No.”
Margaret turned toward Claire.
“I did not know.”
Claire nodded, but tears continued down her face.
Samuel pointed to Isabelle’s photograph.
“She was Claire’s mother.”
“Is she dead?” Claire asked.
Samuel hesitated.
“I do not know.”
Élodie struck the floor with her cane.
“You told Julien she was dead.”
“I told Julien what protected her.”
“Protected her from whom?”
“From him.”
The room changed.
Antoine stared at Samuel.
“From my father?”
Samuel nodded.
“Julien was not the man you believe he was.”
Margaret felt the old image crack again.
Samuel described a final phase of Julien’s investigation.
After years of being hunted, threatened, imprisoned, and betrayed, Julien stopped caring about legal exposure.
He wanted revenge.
He began collecting evidence not only to destroy Étienne, but to take control of the Delacroix assets.
Isabelle discovered his plan.
She threatened to expose him.
Julien hid her in Canada, claiming it was for her safety.
When she tried to leave, his associates watched her.
“Julien imprisoned his own sister?” Claire asked.
“Not with locks,” Samuel said. “With fear.”
Isabelle became pregnant by a Canadian journalist investigating the same financial network.
The journalist disappeared before Claire was born.
“Who was he?”
Samuel looked at Claire.
“Thomas Vale.”
Margaret recognized the name.
Dr. Vale.
The physician who treated her.
“His brother was my doctor.”
“Yes.”
“Was he involved?”
“He delivered Claire and moved her into your care.”
Claire sat down.
Every adult in her life seemed connected by deception.
“Why me?” Margaret asked.
“Because Julien trusted that you would love the child.”
Margaret laughed bitterly.
“He trusted me enough to use me.”
Samuel did not argue.
Luca looked around the wall.
“Where is the Geneva vault in all this?”
Samuel pointed to a map.
“The vault does not contain only records. It contains the original ownership instruments for the Delacroix trust and a ledger identifying everyone who participated in the property fraud.”
“Then why has no one opened it?”
“Because the biometric requirement is not Luca’s blood alone.”
Antoine frowned.
“The trust says beneficiary verification.”
“There are two beneficiaries.”
Philippe had known only half the structure.
Étienne created twin control lines.
One through Gabriel, now Luca.
The other through Isabelle’s child.
Claire.
The vault required blood verification from both.
Claire stared at the brass key.
“So Luca and I have to open it together.”
“Yes.”
“And when we do?”
Samuel looked toward the darkened window.
“The trust will transfer.”
“To whom?”
“That depends on which version of the documents is inside.”
Antoine stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
“Julien altered the trust before he died.”
“How?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I never saw the final amendment.”
A car door slammed outside.
Samuel extinguished the back-room light.
Everyone fell silent.
Footsteps approached the shop.
Three measured knocks struck the front door.
Then a familiar voice called through the glass.
“Margaret, I know you are inside.”
May you like
Margaret went pale.
It was David Bennett.
