She Lost Her Name, She Took Back Her Place novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Old Man's Bride
The old banker did not wait for the scandal to cool.
He sent Henri a letter on Monday morning, in a lawyer's envelope.
Henri read it aloud at breakfast in a flat voice.
Bianca would marry him on Friday, in the chapel of his château, by her own wish.
The letters she had written him were attached.
"She asked for it," Margaux said, and set down her cup. "In her own hand. Four weeks ago."
"Yes," said Henri.
"Then we cannot stop it."
"No. We can only decline to attend."
Nobody argued.
On Wednesday, the bank called its board together on the top floor of Rochefort & Fils.
Twenty-two men and women sat around the long table under the portraits of three generations of Rochefort fathers.
My father stood at the head of it with one sheet of paper.
I sat at his right hand in a gray suit, with my hair pinned up, and Bastien sat at his left.
"I have been in this chair for twenty-six years," Henri said. "I will leave it at the new year."
He looked down the table.
"My successor has been chosen. I wish to say her name before you all, so that no one can say I did it in private."
He turned to me.
"Élise Rochefort."
A stir went around the table. A few of them looked at each other.
Bastien rose from his seat.
"I second it," he said. His voice was steady. "And I should say to the board that I voted for another candidate once. I was wrong. I am sorry for it, and I would be proud to work under my sister."
He sat down and did not look at me.
Under the table, his hand found mine and pressed it.
The board voted. It took four minutes.
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