Or perhaps she would have continued to smile at formal dinners alongside a man who had long since left their marriage.
— Yes, she replied.
Mathieu smiled.
– And ?
Claire looked through the windows at the room where she had once thought she had lost her entire life.
— The slap was no gift.
Then she turned to her three sons.
— But the truth, yes.
When they left the hotel, photographers who had been there for the event were waiting for them outside.
Five years earlier, Claire had hidden her face against her son’s jacket.
This time, she did not lower her head.
She was laughing amongst herself, Antoine, Mathieu and Lucas.
The woman who had been slapped in that room thought her life had just collapsed.
She was unaware at the time that the 3 men walking towards her were not going to destroy her husband’s empire.
They were simply going to remind her that she still had her own life.
The day after that terrible evening, Antoine had asked her what she wanted.
For the first time in years, Claire had answered without thinking about Laurent, the company, the guests, the banks or her reputation.
She wanted a divorce.
She wanted to reclaim her name from the history she had helped to write.
She wanted to stop shrinking so that a frightened man could feel immense.
And she wanted to take back control of her future.
Five years later, under the lights of the same palace, she finally knew that she had obtained much more than the revenge that had been attributed to her.
She had regained her freedom.
