She did.
Alaric stood beside the window.
On his desk lay the original application.
Célestine looked at it.
Her stomach dropped.
“Are you married?” he asked.
She stared at the paper.
“No.”
“Are you Léonie’s mother?”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
“Then why did you tell us you were?”
She swallowed.
“My mother was ill. I needed the job. The position required…”
“I know what the position required.”
She lowered her eyes.
Alaric walked around the desk.
“Do you understand that I defended your hiring?”
Célestine looked up.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“No. You simply allowed me to do it without knowing the truth.”
She flinched slightly.
He noticed.
His voice softened.
“I’m not asking why you needed money. I’m asking why you kept lying after you knew the consequences.”
Célestine’s eyes filled, though no tears fell.
“Because every day I waited, it became harder to tell you.”
Alaric was silent.
Then he said, “And in Menton?”
She looked at him.
“What about Menton?”
“Was that real?”
Her expression changed.
“Yes.”
He looked away.
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Alaric returned to his desk.
“The matter has to go through an independent review. I can’t make this disappear.”
“I know.”
She nodded.
“I’ll cooperate.”
He looked at her.
For the first time since meeting him, she could see how deeply disappointed he was.
And that was worse than anger.
Célestine was suspended pending the investigation.
Maison Vesper’s policy was clear.
The position had been reserved for eligible caregivers.
Her application contained false information.
She could not simply be transferred into another role without a proper process.
Célestine accepted the findings.
She repaid the relocation allowance she had received under the pilot program through an agreed instalment plan.
Then she resigned before the end of her probationary review.
Alaric did not intervene.
It hurt her that he didn’t.
Later, she understood that it would have been wrong if he had.
For several weeks, she returned to helping her mother in Rouen.
Odette was walking again with a cane.
She noticed her daughter’s silence.
One afternoon, while they folded laundry, she asked, “Did you love the job?”
Célestine considered.
“Yes.”
“Then find another one.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Most things aren’t.”
Odette placed a folded towel in the basket.
“What happened?”
Célestine told her.
Everything.
The application.
Léonie.
Bastien.
Alaric.
The lie.
When she finished, Odette was quiet.
Then she said, “You should have told me you were struggling.”
“I didn’t want you to worry.”
“I’m your mother. Worrying is part of the arrangement.”
Célestine laughed despite herself.
Odette took her hand.
“You did something foolish because you were frightened. That doesn’t mean you’re foolish. But you must take responsibility for it.”
“I know.”
“And the man?”
Célestine looked away.
“What man?”
Odette smiled.
“The one you’ve been avoiding mentioning for ten minutes.”
Célestine sighed.
“He’s very difficult.”
“That sounds promising.”
“Maman.”
“Does he make you happy?”
Célestine considered the question.
Then whispered, “He did.”
Back in Paris, Alaric found himself increasingly troubled by the circumstances surrounding the family division.
Célestine’s deception had been real.
But so were the problems she’d identified.
The department’s selection policy excluded experienced childcare professionals who weren’t parents, even when their qualifications were excellent.
Its budget was being manipulated.
And senior management had been approving contracts with outside suppliers at suspiciously inflated prices.
The more Alaric investigated, the more uncomfortable the situation became.
