Chapter 2 - FIVE YEARS TOO LATE
The man stood near a coffee shop, wearing a navy jacket and holding his phone at chest level.
When Gabriel looked directly at him, he turned away.
“Sir, are you coming?” the paramedic asked.
Gabriel tightened his grip on Léa’s hand.
“Yes.”
Inside the ambulance, she sat so close her shoulder pressed against his arm.
“Is Mommy going to die?”
He had negotiated contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He had faced men who enjoyed watching other people lose.
Nothing had ever made him feel as helpless as that question.
“The doctors are going to help her.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He looked at her.
“No,” he said softly. “It isn’t.”
At the hospital, nurses took Claire through a set of swinging doors. Léa tried to follow.
“Mommy!”
Gabriel caught up and crouched in front of her.
“They need room to work.”
“She told me not to let anyone take me.”
“Nobody is taking you.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
A social worker named Nina arrived twenty minutes later. She spoke gently and explained that they needed to contact a parent or legal guardian.
Gabriel gave her his identification.
“What’s your relationship to the child?”
He glanced at Léa, who was lining sugar packets along the arm of a chair.
“I knew her mother.”
Nina waited.
“A long time ago.”
His phone rang again.
Vivienne Valmont.
This time, he answered.
“How did you know I was with Claire?”
“Gabriel, listen carefully.”
“How?”
“Security informed my office that you abandoned your luggage. I called the airline.”
“That doesn’t explain your message.”
A pause.
“Claire has a history of creating scenes when she wants something.”
His jaw tightened.
“She’s unconscious.”
“And you’re understandably upset.”
“You knew she was here.”
“Come home. Our attorneys can handle whatever she’s asking for.”
He stepped away from Léa.
“What is she asking for?”
“I assume money.”
“You assume?”
“Don’t be naive.”
Through the glass, he saw a doctor approaching Nina.
“I’ll call you back.”
“Gabriel—”
He ended the call.
The doctor introduced herself as Dr. Patel.
“Ms. Moreau is stable. We’re treating severe dehydration and an abnormal heart rhythm. We’re also reviewing her medication.”
“Can I see her?”
“When she wakes up, briefly.”
Léa climbed out of her chair.
“She’s waking up?”
Dr. Patel smiled. “We hope so.”
Gabriel looked at the photograph still clenched in the child’s hand.
“Léa, where were you and your mom going?”
“To Aunt June’s.”
“In Geneva?”
She shook her head.
“We weren’t flying anywhere.”
His skin went cold.
May you like
“Then why were you at the airport?”
“Mommy said it was the only place she knew you’d be.”
