In response to your last letter, yes, we are fine. The coast is wonderful. The people here treat us as if we were just any couple. We are delighted. I am sorry, I cannot reveal the exact location where I am. Tonia does not want to take unnecessary risks. We hardly watch the news since we have been here. We have not looked at a single gossip magazine. We live oblivious to everything that happens around our past lives, and, chouchou, I cannot conceive of a better way to grow old.
As for your doubts, do not worry. The husband knows nothing. Tonia says that, in any case, it is the son who mustbe watched. Please keep an eye on the family and let us know if anything important happens.
I don’t regret choosing her, Yara. Tim could never have given me something like that. I always knew I would choose Tonia in the end.
Oh, little sister, you don’t know what wonderful parties, what divine cotillions there are here! We’ve made friends with a couple who have dinners and ballroom dancing every Friday. Then, on Saturdays, we go for custard tarts and milk tea. Sundays are beach days.
I could get used to this.
How about you, Yara? Have the kids started their summer vacation yet?
Send me a photo of them in your next letter.
Kisses,
I.
***
From: IB
To: Yara Britwistle
Date: November 5
Dear Yara,
Thank you very much for the information. And sorry for the handwriting, my hands are shaking. I expected your next letter to be the same as the last one, heavy, an envelope full of photographs and messages from all the family. I knewsomething was up as soon as I saw it. Oh, mon dieu…
Tonia has already found out. I don’t know what we’ll do now. I’m afraid of what might happen if we go back. The whole family is going to end up behind bars. Oh, Yara! I’m sorry if my tears blur these words. Tonia says that no matter what happens, she’ll protect me. I know she also wants Eloïse to be away from allthe fuss. She’s worse off than me, I’m worried. Yesterday she spent the day talking to her son on the phone. I’m not lying when I say that I’ve never, in my years with the family, heard Tonia talk to her son for more than ten minutes at a time. At least they spent two hours on the phone. Afterwards… I think she spoke to a lawyer. A lawyer, Yara!
If Tonia goes back to France or the UK, I’ll probably stay here. That’s what she says, you know? That’s what the lawyer told her, I think. Until things calm down a bit.
I knew this utopia couldn’t last long…
I hope you read this letter before something bad happens. Give the children a kiss from me.
Bissous,
I.
DECEMBER, Diciembre, Décembre
Chapter 43
André shoves a file in front of my nose. It’s a brown folder, tied with a red rubber band, and it has a single name written on it, just above the Saidi logo:
Antonia Hawtrey-Moore.
“What’s this?”
He glances at me, lips tugging into a half-smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. It’s been a month since I last saw him, but he looks like he’s aged decades. His eyes are dull, shadows clinging beneath them like bruises. His skin has taken on this unsettling, ashen hue—grey and hollow,more than I remember. And the beard, if you can even call it that, clings to his chin like a patch of weeds struggling to grow.
“Saidi’s new case,” he tells me, as if it were obvious. “Take a look at it.”
It is. What I don’t understand is why he bothered to come to my house just to have me read it.
The file contains everything related to Antonia’s case. Thanks to her being alive (duh), Larousse has been proven innocent and has filed for divorce. I know Bastian is taking care of that. On the other hand, Antonia is going to spend a good amount of time between courts. Not only as a client of the Counterfeiter, but also because, apparently, you can’t fake your death and flee the country (duh!). André is the one negotiating the best kind of deal for her.
