by Pieter Aspe
“And did Degroof ever find out?”
She shook her head.
“He was never able to have her. Nathalie had Aquilin’s character. She was strong and defiant. She ran away from home, but ended up in the wrong circles. Now she’s …”
“Now she’s heavily addicted to drugs,” Van In blurted, but she paid no attention.
“Aquilin didn’t want me to give her money.”
She looked Van In in the eye.
“Our first daughter is in an institution. Her son is suffering from a deadly condition. Was I wrong not to begrudge Nathalie her drug-induced elation?”
“Daniel suffers from Marfan syndrome, doesn’t he?”
She was surprised that Van In knew. “We found out five years ago,” she said. “The eye problem was treatable, but then the doctors discovered that Daniel’s condition had created a thinning of the aorta wall and that it was inoperable. It is a death sentence.”
“And that was the last straw,” said Van In. “The plan to give everyone their just rewards was hatched just five years ago.”
She nodded.
“Aquilin worked everything out to the tiniest detail. He wanted the beast to know who was punishing him. He wanted to make the beast and his brood pay for what they had done to his daughters and his grandson. The beast had to die, and Ghislain, Charlotte, and Benedicta had to suffer for their silence.”
“You knew that the authorities wouldn’t cooperate if Degroof had been faced with a cheap gossip campaign, so Aquilin arranged so much media interest that no one could overlook the facts, at least if they were made known at the appropriate moment.”
“Nathalie passed on all the details to the press on Monday evening,” she said.
I was right, Hannelore thought. She was part of the plot after all. That was why she got so angry when I threatened to have her locked up.
“Aquilin wasn’t afraid of the consequences. Even if the plan backfired and the police arrested him, Daniel had nothing to fear. In his condition, there wasn’t a jury in the world that would convict him. And my sweet Aquilin: he knew his life was coming to an end. His only ambition was to allow his grandson to witness and enjoy his act of revenge as a privileged observer.”
The baroness spoke with vigor and conviction.
“And I regret nothing. The beast’s children chose him over their mother and made my life a hell.”
Silence filled the room. Time passed. Hannelore fidgeted awkwardly with her rings. Van In stared through the green stained-glass windows.
Sator rotas opera tenet.
But only he and Charlotte knew the truth. When the doctors diagnosed Marfan syndrome, they didn’t say that it was a hereditary condition that often was passed on as a result of incest.
There was something Sophoclean about it all.
Elisa and Aquilin had only one child together: Nathalie.
Aurelie was really the daughter of the beast.
Van In looked at Hannelore and at the old baroness. He had no intention of telling them.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 Pieter Aspe
Translation © 2013 Brian Doyle
Cover design by Angela Wilcox
978-1-4532-3974-2
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media
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