The drive to her penthouse overlooking the Seine passed in uneasy quiet. The city lights reflected in the car windows, flickering across their faces like ghosts of the past. The younger boy — she learned his name was Noel — clutched a sandwich the chauffeur had offered, nibbling as though afraid it might disappear.
When they arrived, the marble lobby seemed to swallow their small figures. “You’ll stay here tonight,” Victoria said gently. “You’re safe now.”
Mathieu said nothing. In the kitchen, she prepared soup herself, though she hadn’t cooked in years. Noel watched with wide eyes as she moved clumsily with the ladle. When they finally ate, Victoria sat across from them, watching every motion — the way Mathieu’s hands trembled, the way his eyes darted toward the door.
After dinner, she laid out clean clothes and blankets. “You can have the guest room,” she said. “Tomorrow, we’ll talk about everything.”
But she didn’t sleep that night. From the hallway, she watched through the crack in the door as Mathieu tossed restlessly, holding Noel close as though afraid the world might take him again.
At dawn, his voice came quietly. “Why didn’t you find me?”
The words pierced her. “I tried,” she whispered. “They said there were no survivors. I searched hospitals, orphanages, ports… But you were gone.”
His jaw tightened. “We waited for years.”
She felt her throat close. “I can’t undo it, my love. But I can make things right now. Please, let me try.”
Days turned into weeks. The boys began to laugh again, little by little. Victoria found herself cooking breakfasts, walking them to the park, relearning what it meant to care for something fragile. Noel began lessons with a tutor; Mathieu painted quietly in the afternoons, his drawings full of light and shadow.
Then one evening, as Victoria returned home, she found reporters waiting outside — cameras flashing, headlines already forming about the “Heiress Who Found Her Lost Son Among the Homeless.”
The moment Mathieu saw the lights, panic seized him. He grabbed Noel’s hand. “We have to go!”
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