Chapter 6 - SOPHIE BEAUMONT IS DEADAdrian picked up the bracelet.
The plastic had yellowed with age.
The date printed beneath the false name was three days after the fire.
Sophie touched her wrist.
“I wore this when I woke.”
Marc examined the back of the painting.
One section of protective paper had been cut and resealed.
“Who restored the frame?” Adrian asked.
Marc searched the gallery records.
“The final work was completed by Laurent Conservation.”
Everyone looked at Vivian.
The company belonged to her late uncle.
Vivian shook her head.
“I did not handle every restoration personally.”
“But you supervised this one,” Adrian said.
“I supervised dozens.”
Sophie looked at the bracelet.
“I hid it.”
“When?” Adrian asked.
“After I left the clinic. I came to the gallery three months ago.”
“You said you only started working here two weeks ago.”
“I entered as a visitor. I saw the painting and remembered part of the fire.”
She had slipped the bracelet behind the frame because she feared the woman following her would search her coat.
“What woman?” Marc asked.
“I never saw her face.”
Vivian laughed.
“So now the evidence was hidden by the person presenting it?”
Sophie looked down.
She understood how weak the story sounded.
Memory loss.
A false name.
A hidden bracelet.
A child’s recognition.
Everything could be dismissed separately.
Vivian knew that.
She had built her defense before Sophie ever returned.
“Sophie Beaumont is dead,” Vivian said.
She removed her phone and displayed a scanned death certificate.
“Remains were recovered and identified through DNA.”
Adrian stared at the document.
He had avoided reading it for years.
The identification section named a private laboratory.
Laboratoire Delacroix.
Vivian continued.
“Adrian attended the memorial. Chloe receives benefits from Sophie’s estate. The legal system accepted her death.”
“Legal systems can accept false information,” Marc said.
Vivian ignored him.
She looked at Adrian.
“If this woman is Sophie, whose remains were found in that building?”
No one answered.
Sophie’s face became pale.
She had asked herself the same question.
Adrian moved closer.
“We can conduct a new DNA test.”
Vivian nodded.
“Yes. Immediately.”
Her agreement came too quickly.
Sophie noticed.
“So you can change it again?”
Vivian’s expression sharpened.
“I have never changed a DNA result.”
Sophie closed her eyes.
A new memory appeared.
A white clinic room.
Vivian standing beside a man in a laboratory coat.
The man removing a blood sample from a refrigerator.
Sophie whispered, “Delacroix.”
Adrian heard.
“What about it?”
“He came to the clinic.”
“Who?”
“The man from the laboratory.”
Vivian stepped toward her.
“You are reading the name from the certificate and inventing memories.”
Sophie backed away.
Chloe placed herself between them.
“Leave Mommy alone.”
Vivian looked down at the child.
“Stop calling her that.”
Chloe flinched.
Adrian’s voice became hard.
“Do not speak to Chloe that way.”
Vivian turned toward him.
“I am the only person thinking clearly.”
“No. You are the person with answers to questions no one asked you.”
Marc contacted the police and a private physician trusted by the Beaumont family.
Until identity could be established, Sophie agreed not to leave the gallery.
She did not want to be alone.
Adrian asked Vivian to remain as well.
“I am not a prisoner,” she said.
“No.”
He looked at the security guards.
“But the police may want to know why you disabled the identity alert.”
Vivian sat on a velvet bench.
Chloe climbed into Sophie’s lap.
Sophie hesitated before holding her.
The gesture came naturally.
Chloe rested her head against Sophie’s shoulder and closed her eyes.
Adrian watched.
He wanted to believe.
He feared believing.
The physician arrived with two sealed DNA kits.
One for Sophie.
One for Chloe.
As the samples were collected, Vivian looked through the glass gallery doors.
Across the street, a man in a gray coat raised his phone.
May you like
Vivian gave him a small nod.
No one saw it except Chloe.
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