Chapter 14 - The Price of Silence
Bernard was arrested before sunrise.
Not for everything.
Not yet.
But enough to keep him from walking back into Beaumont headquarters and erasing the rest.
Charlotte sat in a police interview room with an attorney.
Étienne's medical estate was placed under guard.
Antoine returned to Paris with Amina.
Neither spoke for most of the drive.
At 8:10 a.m., the Beaumont board assembled.
Twelve directors.
Three lawyers.
Two auditors.
And one empty chair where Bernard normally sat.
Antoine stood at the head of the table.
"I am suspending myself as group president pending the audit."
Several directors started talking at once.
Amina raised a hand.
Silence returned.
"Before anyone discusses succession," she said, "you need to see this."
Jules projected the green-book entries.
The pension diversions alone were enough to trigger panic.
Then he displayed the forged Mariam Diallo equity release.
A director named Philippe Garnier leaned forward.
"What exactly are you claiming?"
Amina answered carefully.
"That my mother retained a legally protected economic interest that may never have been extinguished."
"How large?"
"Thirty-five percent of the original entity, subject to tracing through reorganizations."
Nobody breathed normally after that.
One director pushed his chair back.
Another called counsel.
Then Marc entered without knocking.
He carried a laptop.
"We found the current pension account."
Amina looked at him.
"How bad?"
"Worse."
He turned the screen.
The reserve was not merely underfunded.
It had been pledged as collateral three months earlier.
The beneficiary of the pledge was Saint-Laurent Heritage.
Antoine stared at the signature page.
His name was there.
So was another.
May you like
Amina read it aloud.
"Charlotte Beaumont.
