An Impossible Return by Caroline Laurent

Author:Caroline Laurent [Laurent, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Crossing
Published: 2022-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

They knew, and they didn’t speak up.

They could have helped, and they didn’t.

They bled bodies and minds dry. Their indifference was a crime.

They’re powerful, Mama, these ghostly shadows that haunt the palace. Men who sleep on two pillows at night. Servants of the state. Crowned heads.

The only crowns we had were those of our dead.

November 1973

A ring, two rings. Like a coin tossed into the air, your future engraved on one side: heads you win, tails you lose.

“Hello?” A woman’s voice. Heads.

It wasn’t Évelyne.

Sitting by the side table, Gabriel gripped the receiver. The woman on the line was named Georgette. The live-in nurse, clearly. He collected himself.

“I’d like to speak to Miss Évelyne, please.”

“Miss?” The woman seemed taken aback. “Oh, you must mean Mrs.—Mrs. Miranville?”

“I . . . I had no idea. Might you have an address or a number I could dial?”

The nurse hesitated.

“Let me reassure you, I’m her brother.”

“Oh, Mister Benoît? Ah! Your father will be so happy when I tell him you’re back.”

Gabriel nearly choked but managed to get down the numbers that Georgette was reading off laboriously, and then he hung up. He didn’t wait another minute before picking up the receiver again and dialing the number.

The ringing seemed even shriller now.

“Hello?”

This time, all the uncertainty vanished in a flash. He took a deep breath. “Lizard?”

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