Chapter 8 - The Ruin of the Bastien Dynasty
Six months after the divorce, the Bastien empire in Paris was collapsing like a house of cards built on quicksand.
The scandal surrounding the high-profile divorce, the false pregnancy, and Antoine’s erratic behavior had leaked to the French business press. Investors who had once trusted the Bastien firm were pulling their capital out in droves. Nobody wanted to do business with a man who had publicly abandoned his family for a mistress who duped him with another man's child.
In the grand mansion in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Éléonore sat alone in her dark living room. The grand dinner parties were over. Her elite socialite friends had stopped inviting her to their galas, whispering behind her back about "the pathetic Bastien family tragedy."
Henri had suffered a mild stroke brought on by stress and high blood pressure, leaving him confined to a wheelchair, unable to manage the firm.
And Antoine? Antoine had become a ghost in his own company.
He spent his nights in a small, empty apartment he had rented near the Seine, drinking heavily, staring at old photographs of Maya and Lily. He had tried hiring three different international law firms to challenge the custody agreement, but every single lawyer gave him the exact same answer:
"You signed a legal waiver of parental rights. You voluntarily abandoned your children. No judge in Canada or France will overturn this decree. You gave up your rights, Mr. Bastien."
One rainy Thursday evening, Antoine sat in a local bistro, his eyes red-threaded, holding a glass of cheap whiskey. He pulled out his phone and opened Instagram—a fake account he had created under a pseudonym just to search for my business page.
He typed in: @LaurentDesign_Montreal.
The page opened. A fresh photo had been posted two hours ago.
It showed a sunlit interior of an elegant modern farmhouse. In the center of the photo stood Maya and Lily, dressed in lovely autumn dresses, holding a large sign that read: HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY MAYA!
Standing behind them, with his arms wrapped lovingly around my waist, was a tall, handsome man with warm blue eyes and a gentle smile—Gabriel Roy, a prominent Canadian architect who had become my business partner six months ago, and the man who had slowly, quietly earned my heart and the trust of my daughters.
The caption under the photo read:
Family isn't about blood or biology. It's about who shows up every single day to love you, protect you, and celebrate who you are. Happy Birthday, my sweet Maya! Thank you @GabrielRoy for making this the best year of our lives.
Antoine stared at the screen. He zoomed in on the photo.
Gabriel was holding Maya’s hand. Maya was looking up at Gabriel with pure, radiant affection—the exact same look she used to give Antoine five years ago before he decided she wasn't worth his time.
A tear slipped from Antoine’s eye, dropping onto the glowing phone screen, blurring the face of the happy family he had thrown away.
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He reached for his whiskey, swallowed it in one painful gulp, and realized the ultimate, devastating truth:
He had wanted an heir to carry his name. But in his greed and arrogance, he had erased his own legacy entirely.
