Chapter 14: The File

"Say it again," Margaux said, "and say it to the cameras."

Thibault's mouth opened, and nothing came out.

Four hundred guests were watching him, with their phones up.

"A man who needs a forged paper to keep a woman," Margaux said, "should not call another woman a failure."

She pulled her wrist out of his grip.

Julien was at the foot of the steps before she took her next breath.

He did not touch Thibault.

He only stood between them, and Thibault looked at his face and stepped back.

They walked out together, past the board and the flashing lights.

Nobody stopped them.

In the car, Margaux put her head back against the seat and shook until the shaking ran out.

"You were magnificent," Julien said quietly.

"I was sick on the way up the steps."

"No one saw."

"Your grandmother would have seen," she said, and laughed, and found that she was crying.

He did not say anything.

He handed her a folded handkerchief and looked out of his own window.

At the Aubrac house the housekeeper had left a lamp on in the hall and a tray of tea.

Julien walked her to the foot of the stairs.

"Sleep," he said. "Tomorrow the newspapers can have their say. Tonight you have done enough."

"Goodnight, Julien."

"Goodnight, Margaux."

She lay awake for two hours, with one hand on her stomach.

The baby kicked once, a small flutter low down, and she stopped breathing to feel it.

At two o'clock she gave up on sleep.

She remembered that his grandmother's chart was in the study, and the old woman's night dose needed checking before morning.

The study door stood open.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband Called Me Barren, Now a Billionaire Begs for Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.