The motive the French authorities felt was the correct one for the kidnapping and subsequent murders was that whoever had instigated it wanted to punish Matthieu severely for pulling out, and to recoup the bulk of their losses with the ransom. As far as the police were concerned, they considered it a business deal meant to put the money back in the pockets of the principal investor, Dmitri Aleksandr. He had powerful underworld connections, which protected him and kept him out of reach. According to informants, Matthieu and Axel were supposed to be useful pawns and nothing more. They were leverage to get the money back to Aleksandr for the failure to complete the two stores. But no one had been able to prove the theory. It was all guesswork. And the angry, disgruntled investor was a rich, successful man, who was considered untouchable.

The news of Axel’s and Matthieu’s deaths had shocked the world and crushed Theo, but the story had slowly faded from the press, with no news since. The money still hadn’t shown up, nor had the criminals who had killed her husband and son been caught. There was no justice in the story, nor any consolation for her, having lost a husband and son.

Coming back from it over the past year had been an agony beyond measure, but her CEO had finally been able to convince her to go to New York and oversee the installation of three high-end pop-up stores of her brand in the States. No one understood their business and their customers as she did. She hadn’t been seen in public or heard from for a year, and he convinced her it was time to venture into the world again. She wasn’t enthusiastic about going, but she realized that she couldn’t hide forever. Jacques said that if she wanted to keep her business, she had to take control of it again. Her first days back had been a painful flood of vivid memories.

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