Chapter 19 - THE TRIAL OF THE MOREAUS
The trials began nine months later.
Camilla pleaded guilty to attempted murder, conspiracy and financial fraud.
Her attorneys emphasized that she saved Victor at the shipyard.
The prosecutor emphasized the steel weight beneath the wheelchair.
The court considered both.
Camilla received a long prison sentence.
Before sentencing, she asked permission to address Victor.
He attended from the front row.
By then, he could stand briefly using braces and parallel supports.
He still used his wheelchair for most movement.
Camilla looked at him.
“I spent years convincing myself you controlled everyone around you.”
“I told myself pushing you into the water was freedom.”
“It was not.”
“It was greed.”
“It was fear.”
“And it was my choice.”
She did not ask him to respond.
Victor did not.
Laurent received additional charges for the helicopter sabotage, offshore theft and conspiracy.
He testified against Gabriel to reduce his sentence.
Dr. Armand lost his medical license and was convicted of poisoning, falsifying records and facilitating attempted murder.
Celia admitted providing access codes and failing to warn Victor.
The court gave her a reduced sentence because of the threats against her children.
Victor did not restore her board position.
He allowed her sons to remain connected to the family.
Children did not inherit punishment.
Gabriel faced the largest case.
The recovered files connected him to disappearances, illegal shipping, political bribery and multiple deaths disguised as accidents.
Roman testified against him.
He accepted responsibility for his own violence.
He refused Gabriel’s attempts to describe them as partners.
“I was your son only when you needed someone else to hold the weapon,” Roman told the court.
Isabelle was charged with conspiracy, financial crimes and obstruction.
Prosecutors could not prove she ordered Victor’s murder.
They proved she knew of the plan and deliberately failed to stop it.
During testimony, she looked toward Victor.
“I believed the company’s survival protected our family.”
Victor answered from the witness stand.
“You protected the company from the truth.”
Marcel admitted building the original smuggling network.
He also admitted disappearing to avoid accountability.
His later cooperation reduced his sentence but did not erase it.
Moreau Maritime entered restructuring.
Employees received shares in the reorganized company.
Independent directors replaced family control.
Victor surrendered the majority voting power his father had given him.
He remained only as interim chief executive until the investigations ended.
Reporters asked why he would give away an empire he nearly died to keep.
Victor answered simply.
“I did not survive to rebuild the same machine.”
One evening, after leaving physical therapy, Victor returned to the villa.
The mansion felt empty without Camilla.
Her dresses were gone.
The perfume had faded from the rooms.
He entered the bedroom they once shared.
A sealed evidence box rested on the table.
Detective Fournier had sent it after the trials.
Inside was Camilla’s secure phone.
Forensic analysts recovered one deleted video.
It had been recorded the night before the pier.
Camilla sat alone inside her car.
She was crying.
“I cannot do this,” she whispered.
Then another person entered the passenger seat.
Only one hand appeared on the video.
The hand wore the gold shipyard emblem.
A voice said,
“You will push him tomorrow.”
“Or Sophie dies.”
Victor stopped the recording.
He did not know any Sophie.
The trials had ended.
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The conspiracy had supposedly been exposed.
Yet Camilla had been threatened with the life of a person Victor had never heard about.
