Chapter 15 - The Dead Brother
Charles Delacroix had died in a plane crash over the Adriatic.
At least officially.
No body had been recovered.
The aircraft sank into deep water.
Investigators found wreckage.
The family held a funeral.
Étienne inherited Charles’s shares in Delacroix Hospitality.
Victoire remembered crying beside an empty coffin.
Now financial records suggested Charles had been alive all along.
Étienne stared at Julian’s screen.
“No.”
Camille said nothing.
“My brother is dead.”
Morel placed another document beside him.
A passport renewal under an alias.
Biometric similarity.
Ninety-eight percent.
Étienne sat down.
“Why?”
Camille had already formed the likely answer.
“Because death freed him.”
“From what?”
“Taxes.
Debts.
Family scrutiny.
Criminal exposure.”
Julian opened historical corporate records.
Charles had served on a Vesper advisory board through intermediaries before his supposed death.
Morel added.
“Your wife Élise may have discovered it.”
Étienne looked at him.
“What are you saying?”
“Her accident occurred nine months after Charles disappeared.”
The room went silent.
Victoire stood.
“My mother died in a car accident.”
Morel’s expression was careful.
“That is the official record.”
Victoire looked at her father.
Étienne seemed physically ill.
Camille remembered Victoire’s mother helping hide the registry.
If Élise knew Charles was connected to Vesper, she may have become a threat.
Victoire sat down.
Her arrogance from the party seemed like a person from another life.
“Was my mother murdered?”
Camille refused to answer without evidence.
“We don’t know.”
Morel nodded.
“Yet.”
They reopened Élise’s accident file.
Brake failure.
Mountain road.
No other vehicle.
Closed quickly.
Then Julian found a payment.
Three days before the accident.
From a Vesper subsidiary to the garage that serviced Élise’s car.
Victoire left the room.
Camille found her outside on the balcony.
She was crying quietly.
Camille did not speak at first.
Victoire wiped her face.
“I spent years blaming my father for everything.”
Camille leaned against the railing.
“Families are complicated.”
“That is a very polite way to describe ours.”
Camille almost smiled.
Victoire looked at her.
“My mother wrote that power reveals people.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that the last thing you saw me do before reading it was prove her right.”
Camille looked toward the city.
“You can’t change the pool.”
“I know.”
“You can change what happens next.”
Victoire nodded.
For the first time, Camille believed she meant it.
The next move came from Charles.
A video appeared online that afternoon.
He was alive.
Older.
Thin.
But unmistakably Delacroix.
He sat against a dark background.
“My name is Charles Delacroix.”
Markets reacted instantly.
Delacroix Hospitality shares fell.
Étienne watched in silence.
Charles continued.
“I survived the 2017 crash.”
He claimed he had disappeared because Étienne tried to kill him.
Victoire whispered.
“No.”
Charles produced documents alleging Étienne had embezzled company funds.
The twelve-million-euro transfer.
He claimed Camille Laurent was helping conceal it.
He called the Geneva files fabricated.
Then made his real move.
“As the senior Delacroix shareholder, I intend to reclaim control of the company.”
Étienne laughed bitterly.
“There.”
Camille understood.
Charles did not merely want E-17.
He wanted legal control of Delacroix Hospitality.
A dead shareholder returning could trigger years of litigation.
Unless he had original ownership certificates.
Julian searched the registry.
Then froze.
“He does.”
Charles’s shares had never legally transferred.
The succession paperwork used after his disappearance contained a conditional clause.
If Charles returned alive, ownership could revert.
Étienne stared.
“He planned his own death.”
“Yes,” Camille said.
“For this?”
“For freedom first.
Control later.”
Morel’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked at Camille.
“Charles wants a meeting.”
“Where?”
“Monaco.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
Étienne stood.
“I’m coming.”
Camille shook her head.
“No.”
“He is my brother.”
“He wants you emotional.”
“I am emotional.”
“Exactly.”
Victoire entered.
“I’ll go.”
Both Camille and Étienne looked at her.
Charles had underestimated Victoire before.
Almost everyone had.
Maybe that was useful again.
The following evening, Camille and Victoire entered a private suite overlooking Monaco harbor.
Charles Delacroix stood by the window.
Alive.
He smiled at his niece.
“Victoire.”
She stared at him.
“You let us bury you.”
His smile faded slightly.
“I did what was necessary.”
“My mother died.”
Silence.
Victoire stepped closer.
“Did you kill her?”
Charles looked at Camille instead.
“Straight to melodrama.”
Camille watched him.
Not a denial.
Victoire noticed too.
Charles poured himself a drink.
“Elise became involved in matters she did not understand.”
Victoire’s face changed.
Camille felt the room become dangerous.
“What matters?” Camille asked.
Charles looked at her.
“The same ones that killed your father.”
There it was.
Another confession disguised as arrogance.
Camille’s hidden recorder captured every word.
Charles continued.
“You both inherited people who mistook morality for strategy.”
He raised his glass.
“I intend not to repeat that mistake.”
Then he placed a contract on the table.
Transfer Azure Crown approval to him.
Withdraw criminal cooperation.
Surrender the Geneva registry.
In exchange.
Étienne keeps half the company.
Victoire retains her inheritance.
Camille keeps the Laurent trust.
“No prison.
No scandal.
No more funerals.”
Camille looked at the contract.
Then at Charles.
“You forgot one thing.”
“What?”
Camille smiled.
“You’re not negotiating with our fathers.”
Charles’s smile disappeared.
May you like
Victoire stepped beside her.
“And we don’t scare as easily.”
