It’s a beautiful morning. Yesterday, you had an email from Louis; he’ll be there in a few hours. Louis is studying medicine. His stay in hospital triggered something in him. He’s found his vocation. Not via a conventional route, admittedly. You would have preferred a session with a careers adviser to several weeks in a coma. But this is the result: Louis has decided he wants to be a paediatrician. At the moment, he’s doing an internship at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London. He’s staying with Matthew for a few months. When those two met, it was a foregone conclusion. Matthew was annoyed with you for having kept Louis’s existence from him. Then his anger gave way to the joy of discovering this surprise child.

It’s a beautiful morning. Yesterday, Louis met up with Isadora at their place in Paris. They’ll come down together on the train. When they’re here, everyone thinks they’re your children, that they’re brother and sister. They’re not wrong. They are your children. And when they kiss and there’s an awkward silence, you burst out laughing and explain the situation. You’re not an ordinary family. You never have been and never will be. Luckily. Isadora still plays football with Louis from time to time, but, nine years ago, she took up ballet again. And, today, her profession is the one her mother and grandmother dreamt of for her. She’s following the path that’s in her D.N.A. Isa and Louis are radiant, and it is a pure delight to watch them. You are so proud of the adults they are becoming.

It’s a beautiful morning. In half an hour, the big living room will be filled with some twenty people. It’s eight years, now, since you bought this big Provençal farmhouse, which you and Edgar fell in love with, using the compensation you were awarded after your legal battle against Hégémonie. It’s a huge property, which you did up and converted into the most amazing place. This is where you decided to carry out the plan that had formed in your mind when Louis was in a coma. This is where you moved to, seven years ago, with Louis, Edgar, Isa and your mother. This is where Charlotte joined you all, a year later. She’s part of the project, too.

It’s a beautiful morning. You recall the day when you outlined your idea to your whole little gang. They were immediately up for it. They trusted you at once. They trusted the businesswoman you are. They trusted the mother you are. They trusted your intuition. Investors bought into it; they also believed in you.