Chapter 3 - Nadia Pretended the Wedding Was Still On While She and Lucien Built a Trap—Until Their Four-Year-Old Daughter Disappeared From SchoolFor the next twelve days, Nadia became a liar.
A convincing one.
She attended a wedding fitting.
Approved flowers.
Tasted cakes.
Smiled beside Rémi at a charity dinner.
She even put the engagement ring back on.
Every second made her skin crawl.
But Rémi relaxed.
That was the point.
Lucien hated the plan.
That was almost a bonus.
“You’re enjoying this,” he said one night.
They sat inside a closed restaurant owned by the Marais family.
“Watching a mafia boss learn patience?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You smiled.”
“I’m naturally cheerful.”
Lucien stared.
Nadia laughed.
For five years she had imagined what seeing him again would feel like.
She had expected anger.
Maybe longing.
She had not expected this strange mixture of familiarity and discovery.
The man she loved still existed.
But Lucien had changed.
So had she.
They could not return to what they were.
Perhaps they could build something else.
First, they had to survive Rémi.
Thierry uncovered the financial structure.
The debts supposedly owed by the Fontaines were fraudulent.
Rémi controlled them through shell corporations.
The forged hospital manifests could be disproved through server logs.
The larger problem was Cedric’s murder.
They needed evidence linking the Deslandes family directly to it.
Nadia remembered something.
“My father kept a storage unit.”
Lucien looked up.
“Where?”
“Metairie.”
They went after midnight.
Inside were old office boxes.
Tax records.
Family photographs.
A broken lamp.
Then Nadia found a small safe.
The combination was her birthday.
Inside was a flash drive.
Cedric had recorded meetings.
One contained Rémi’s father threatening him.
Another contained something worse.
Rémi.
Younger.
Angry.
“If Fontaine talks, handle it.”
Nadia stopped the recording.
Lucien’s face became stone.
“Play it again.”
She did.
Rémi had known.
Not after.
Before.
Nadia felt nauseated.
“My father trusted him.”
Lucien reached toward her.
Stopped.
Waited.
Nadia took his hand herself.
“I’m okay.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“No.”
She appreciated that he did not force optimism on her.
The flash drive also contained evidence that the Deslandes organization had orchestrated the threat that forced Lucien away.
Rémi had wanted Nadia even then.
He knew she loved Lucien.
So he removed him.
Lucien listened to the recording alone.
When Nadia found him afterward, he stood beside the river.
“You should have told me,” she said.
“I know.”
“Five years ago.”
“I know.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I was twenty-eight, terrified and stupid.”
“You thought leaving was protection.”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t.”
“No.”
“It destroyed me.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
Nadia stepped closer.
“And it cost you four years with your daughter.”
Lucien looked toward the water.
“That is the part I don’t know how to forgive myself for.”
Nadia’s anger softened.
“You didn’t know.”
“I made certain you couldn’t tell me.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I will spend the rest of my life regretting that.”
Nadia touched his arm.
“You don’t owe Margot a lifetime of guilt.”
“What do I owe her?”
“Presence.”
Lucien looked at her.
“Tomorrow morning she has a preschool breakfast.”
“I’ll be there.”
“You have a meeting.”
“I’ll cancel it.”
“No.”
He frowned.
“Don’t turn fatherhood into dramatic sacrifices.”
“What?”
“Move the meeting.”
“To when?”
“After breakfast.”
Lucien almost smiled.
“You’re giving me scheduling instructions.”
“I’m a doctor and a mother. Scheduling is eighty percent of my personality.”
He laughed.
The next morning Lucien arrived at preschool carrying twelve boxes of pastries.
Nadia stared.
“I said breakfast.”
“There are children.”
“There are fourteen children, not the French army.”
“I panicked.”
Margot ran toward him.
“Daddy!”
Lucien froze.
It was the first time she had called him that.
Nadia watched his entire face change.
He crouched.
Margot crashed into him.
Lucien closed his eyes.
Held her.
Nadia looked away because the moment felt too private even for her.
Three hours later, everything shattered.
Nadia was examining a patient when her phone rang.
Margot’s preschool.
“Dr. Fontaine?”
“Yes?”
“Margot’s grandmother picked her up.”
Nadia frowned.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“My mother is sitting in my hospital cafeteria.”
Silence.
Nadia stopped breathing.
“Who took my daughter?”
The teacher began panicking.
Nadia ran.
Lucien received the call before Nadia reached the parking garage.
His entire organization moved.
Security cameras showed a woman wearing a wig entering with forged identification.
A black SUV left six minutes later.
Thierry found it abandoned near the river.
Margot was gone.
Nadia stood beside the vehicle.
“Rémi.”
Lucien’s face was terrifying.
“Probably.”
Nadia grabbed his jacket.
“No war.”
“He took my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
Lucien looked at her.
“Our daughter,” Nadia repeated. “Which means you listen to me.”
His breathing slowed.
“Yes.”
Nadia’s phone rang.
Rémi.
She answered.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“If you touch her—”
“I would never hurt Margot.”
“You kidnapped her.”
“I removed uncertainty.”
Nadia closed her eyes.
“What do you want?”
“The wedding happens.”
Lucien listened through the speaker.
Rémi continued.
“You arrive at Saint Catherine’s Saturday. You marry me.”
“And Margot?”
“She’ll be returned afterward.”
Lucien stepped closer.
Rémi heard movement.
“Is Marais there?”
Nadia said nothing.
Rémi laughed.
“Of course.”
His voice hardened.
“Tell Lucien that if one Marais soldier approaches the church before the ceremony, the person holding Margot receives a phone call.”
Lucien’s face went blank.
Rémi ended the call.
Nadia turned toward him.
“You’re not going to do anything reckless.”
Lucien stared.
“He has my child.”
“Yes.”
“And the woman I—”
He stopped.
Nadia’s heart jumped.
Lucien looked away.
“The woman you what?”
“Not now.”
“No.”
He faced her.
Nadia stepped closer.
“The woman you what?”
Lucien’s composure finally broke.
“The woman I never stopped loving.”
Silence.
Nadia’s eyes filled.
Lucien continued.
“I loved you when I left.”
His voice roughened.
“I loved you when I changed my name.”
Another step.
“When I built something ugly enough that nobody could threaten me again.”
His eyes shone.
“When I learned you were engaged.”
Nadia cried.
“And now?”
“Now I love you enough to understand that saying it doesn’t give me the right to decide anything for you.”
That was the difference.
Five years earlier Lucien loved her and left without asking.
Now he loved her and waited.
Nadia touched his face.
“I loved you too.”
His eyes closed.
“I hated you.”
“Understandable.”
“I still love you.”
Lucien opened his eyes.
Then Nadia kissed him.
Briefly.
Desperately.
Not a reunion.
A promise they would discuss it if their daughter came home.
Thierry interrupted.
“We found something.”
The kidnappers had made a mistake.
Margot’s music box.
Lucien had modified it before giving it to her.
Not a tracker.
A safety tag connected to his phone because Margot had once joked she lost everything.
The signal appeared.
An abandoned river house outside Chalmette.
Lucien looked at Nadia.
“Your way.”
She nodded.
Police first.
Federal agents second.
Marais security only as backup.
No street war.
They reached the house before dawn.
Margot was upstairs with one guard.
Rémi was not there.
Nadia ran to her.
“Mommy!”
Margot sobbed.
Nadia held her.
Lucien stood in the doorway.
His eyes closed in relief.
Margot reached toward him.
“Daddy.”
He joined them.
Three people on a dusty floor.
Holding one another.
Later, the arrested guard revealed Rémi’s final plan.
The wedding was never simply a wedding.
Rémi intended to transfer several Fontaine properties into Deslandes control immediately after the marriage.
He also planned to frame Lucien for an attack during the reception.
Nadia looked at Thierry.
“So we cancel.”
Thierry hesitated.
Lucien understood.
“What?”
“There’s one problem.”
The guard had not acted on Rémi’s direct orders.
The order came through Rémi’s security chief.
The evidence against Rémi remained circumstantial.
If they arrested him now, he might walk.
Nadia looked at the church invitation.
Saturday.
Three days.
Then she said:
“The wedding continues.”
Lucien stared.
“Nadia.”
She looked at him.
“I’m going to the altar.”
His jaw tightened.
“And then?”
May you like
Nadia smiled coldly.
“We make Rémi confess.”
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