PART 1
The pregnant mistress of her husband slapped Claire Delmas in front of 180 guests, and the man with whom she had shared her life for 11 years immediately took a step towards the other woman to protect her.
The gesture took place under the chandeliers of a Parisian palace, during a party organized for their 11th wedding anniversary. Around them were developers, bankers, local elected officials, architects and almost all the executives of Delmas Développement, the real estate group that Laurent liked to present as “the work of his life”.
Claire slowly brought her fingers to her cheek.
Facing her, Inès Vautrin, 31, the group’s business development director, placed a hand on her stomach.
— Laurent was going to tell you eventually. This child is his son.
Claire didn’t even look at Inès.
She stared at Laurent.
– It’s true ?
He lowered his eyes.
— Claire… this isn’t the place.
That sentence hurt him more than the slap.
For 11 years, she had let this man tell the story of how he had built his empire single-handedly. She had never mentioned that Delmas Développement had initially been a small business on the verge of bankruptcy. Nor had she mentioned that €3,500,000 from the sale of the medical software company she had founded with her first husband had saved the business.
His three sons knew it.
Antoine, 37, ran a cybersecurity company. Mathieu, 34, owned an audiovisual production group. Lucas, 32, headed an engineering firm.
All three considered Laurent to be a member of their family.
Until Inès smiled.
— At least now Laurent will have a real son. Not three adults waiting to benefit from his inheritance.
The silence became icy.
Lucas advances.
Antoine blocked his path.
Then he simply asked:
— Laurent, did you really talk to him about us like that?
– None of your business.
Claire removed her wedding ring.
She placed it next to the undamaged cake.
— You’re right. From tonight onwards, it no longer concerns us.
Laurent turned pale.
Antoine put his jacket over his mother’s shoulders.
Before leaving, he turned around.
— Call your lawyers.
48 hours later, he placed a thick file in front of Claire.
— Mom… the baby might not even be her worst secret.
PART 2
Claire immediately filed for divorce.
However, she refused to allow her sons to use their influence to crush Laurent.
— No revenge. Only the facts.
The events were more violent than anything they could have imagined.
Her lawyer, Maître Élodie Marchal, found an old shareholders’ agreement: Claire’s asset holding company still held preferred shares and a veto right over several major decisions of Delmas Développement.
Laurent had assured him that these clauses no longer existed.
He had lied.
Then the accountants discovered three consulting firms that had received nearly €5,800,000 in 20 months. One of them was paying for an apartment near Parc Monceau. Inès stayed there regularly.
Another woman was financing her car.
The third woman had transferred money to an account to which Laurent had access.
But that same evening, Mathieu arrived with a video.
The images were taken from the hotel parking lot, 2 hours before the slap.
Inès was getting out of a car.
A man was waiting for him.
She threw herself into his arms and kissed him for a long time.
Claire felt her stomach clench.
– Who is it ?
Mathieu replied:
— Thomas Rey. Her ex-fiancé.
Antoine added, very calmly:
— And from what we’ve just learned… they never really separated.
PART 3
Claire watched the sequence 3 times without speaking.
On screen, Inès looked nothing like the triumphant woman who, a few hours later, had announced in front of an entire room that she was carrying Laurent’s “heir”.
She seemed nervous.
She checked her surroundings before kissing Thomas.
Then she would stay close to him, her forehead resting on his shoulder, like someone seeking comfort.
Antoine closed the computer.
— None of this proves who the father is.
– I know.
— So nobody says anything.
Lucas gave a joyless laugh.
— She slapped my mother in front of 180 people and we have to protect her reputation?
Claire turned towards him.
— No. We’re protecting our own.
This sentence established the rule for the following weeks.
They wouldn’t invent anything.
They wouldn’t be exaggerating.
They would simply let the documents speak for themselves.
The problem was that the documents were speaking louder and louder.
The video of the slap, filmed by a guest, ended up on social media the following Monday. Claire refused all interviews. Laurent published a statement demanding “respect for the privacy of the families involved.”
Inès, for her part, posted a photo of her hand on her stomach with a phrase about “the courage to love despite the hate”.
Mathieu called his mother.
— She’s turning it into a public war.
— Then let her do it alone.
He ran several digital media outlets, but Claire made him promise never to use his newsrooms against Laurent or Inès.
Mathieu kept his word.
Other journalists, however, began to search.
They discovered that Laurent had personally promoted Inès 8 months after she joined the company.
They found photos from a business trip to Cannes where their close relationship already seemed obvious.
Then the question of consulting firms arose.
At that point, the marital issue became a governance problem.
The supervisory board convened an extraordinary meeting at La Défense.
Claire hadn’t set foot in that room for almost 6 years.
When she entered, Laurent half stood up.
— What are you doing here?
She placed her file in front of her.
— I exercise the voting rights of Delcourt Patrimoine.
Delcourt was his birth name.
The name she had almost stopped using.
The name under which she had made the investment that had prevented Laurent’s company from collapsing 12 years earlier.
He clenched his jaw.
— You haven’t had anything to do with this company for years.
