While journalists stalked the Gauthiers, Leone was referred to as baby A in both Swedish and France press.

The reporters were careful not to reveal his identity.

Jonas had no trouble obtaining the name change for Leone due to the circumstances.

The Potsmann avoided going out and lived almost in confinement until the noise died down; this took about a month.

"What do you think will happen concerning the charges against Sierra?" Jonas asked when Dirk visited.

"Well, considering the charges weighing on the Gauthiers. We can assume the ones against Sierra will be dropped and dismissed. If the judge indicts the Gauthiers, it's over. There's no way out for Bertrand. The more the police dig, the more they find; it's crazy. The French police are even looking into a cold case that occurred when he was in boarding school. Colette's book is a true shocker. Can you believe Bertrand would describe his crimes while in bed?"

For Sierra, the most significant blow was to think Colette spent years with a man she knew was a narcissistic psychopath, rapist, and murderer.

None knew her motives. Even though Cecile contacted her, nothing explained why Colette agreed to help nor why she went to such lengths to aid Jonas.

Sierra and Jonas had to wait for the last DNA tests and another confession that left them all dumbfounded.

The source was an outsider, the nurse who delivered Cecile at birth. Though old, her memory was sharp. 

"They were two, but the first one didn't cough or breath. All thought the child was stillborn. I managed to get the baby's heart to start beating with a massage. ㅡWhen I presented her to the mother, she refused the child. She called the baby defective and kept her sister. Ms. Gauthier said the firstborn was of satan's making, whatever that meant. I had no choice. ㅡI took her and gave her to my sister who was without a child as she was barren."

Ms. Gauthier later confirmed. Even her husband was unaware she had given away Cecile's twin. 

Colette's motive was evident from the moment the facts dropped. She wished to destroy the Gauthiers from within. One could suppose she felt she owed to her sister and herself. But there was Leone. One could also assume she wanted to keep the boy away from their evil clutches. Colette came off crazy, but how could one be in a family where consanguinity was tradition.

"Jonas, are you alright?" Sierra asked as she watched the man pacing in front of their bedroom window.

"I'm just unable to seize the immensity of the scandal. I can't accept that I was involved with these people. You can't believe how much I regret, even today, having spent a weekend in that villa where Cecile suffered so much trauma."

The man didn't know what to think. Never since he met Sierra had Cecile haunted his thoughts like then. He remembered how they met when she climbed into his campus bedroom window. How she instantly drew him. He sought a missing piece, and the man convinced himself he had found her at the time.

How many chances were they for two people with the same stigma to meet?

Like him, Cecile had a twin, but hers lived.

 Colette refused to accept the resemblance was a coincidence when she met Cecile. On the other hand, her sister found the idea of having a doppelganger amusing. Colette did a lot of research and confronted her adoptive mother. She even managed to gather a few strands of Cecile's hair, which revealed the truth. According to the nurse's confession, Cecile died unaware of their actual ties. 

"Jonas, you didn't know. No one could suspect this."

The man dropped on his bed, "I sat down and ate at their table. It disgusts me."

Sierra wished she could get up to grasp him in her arms. Jonas didn't sleep; he followed every new insight on the affair meticulously, and finally, he made a decision.

"I want to go there."

Sierra frowned, "where?"

"I want to assist in their trial."

"No, Jonas."

"Dirk says I should be a witness."

"No, Jonas," Sierra repeated, "your name will be all over the papers."

Jonas came, knelt in front of her, and grasped her hands, "Sierra, I know you're afraid of these people. You've always have been."

The woman who foresaw the question shook her head, "Jonas, no."

Jonas lightly squeezed her hand, "Sierra, I understandㅡ." He lifted a hand and stroked her cheek, "I know, but if we want peace, we have to make sure they never see the light from anywhere else than when they walk in a prison yard."

"There's enough evidence."

Jonas shook his head, "you, Leone, and I are victims too. I can speak about what they did, but you were in the front lines, Sierra. No, one knows these monsters like you. I won't force you, but I'm not going to lie. I want you to do this for Cecile and us."

Cecile.

The woman was their beginning, but it seemed she would also mark the end of a cycle of suffering.

Why did she choose Sierra of all the people she knew and trusted?

For Cecile, there was no greater shield for Leone than Sierra. If someone had the weapons to wash, rinse and dry the Gauthiers until they shriveled up like rotten tomatoes in a summer heatwave, it was her.

"Your testimony, Sierra, can nail them," Jonas said.

The tears gushed out like torrents; the man saw right. Sierra feared the Gauthier's aura even then; as her husband spoke, her body reacted. Images of youth rewindedㅡthe bullying but also Bertrand.

Sierra had always left out the part where Bertrand cornered her, pulled her against him back into one of Dijon's alleys, and placed a knife under her throat, "do you know what happens to black sheep who arouse the troops. We slit their throats, you speak, and I'll kill you. No, I'll kill your father. After, I'll get your brother. Remember you live because we let you."

Sierra touched the scar that ran under her chin. Age saw the cut thin itself out, but Sierra knew it was there. The woman told no one, nor father, brother, or even Cecile. Even Jonas didn't know until Sierra took the stand two months later.

The couple traveled to France. Dirk had asked for a private audience for Sierra's testimony.

There Jonas discovered what his wife went through as a teen and how Bertrand made sure she told no one. Sierra detailed everything from her encounter with Cecile, the letters, and how she advised her friend to tell the police and her parents.

Sierra avoided Bertrand's stare. Instead, she locked her eyes on her husband, who unveiled the last mystery behind his wife's collected nature. The woman lived taking in little gaps of air, making noise but not too much, appreciating life but not too much, never stepping over the line drawn by her oppressor, for he followed everything she did.

Apnea, that's how Sierra survived. A part of her wished to forget so bad that she edited the most painful aspects of her life.

Jonas thought Sierra was paranoid when she described the Gauthiers. Now he was blown away by his wife's words.

"I don't have their money or influence. I speak here, but afraid. I fear what the Gauthiers can do to my family and me. When I think of them, I see an octopus with so many tentacles. Theyㅡ."

"Boo woo, poor little Sierra," Bertrand clapped.

"It's scandalous, tentacles, what nonsense," Mr. Gauthier yelled.

"Your honor."

"Maitre Horace, tell the defendants to keep quiet or else."

The lawyer leaned over to Bertrand, who shook his head and leaned towards his uncle, who shrugged.

Sierra closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them. Her stare met Jonas,' who nodded for her to continue.

"I know it might sound weird, you might be wondering why I didn't say anything during all this time, but I was scared."

It was the Gauthiers avocet's turn, "you know the laws, Ms. Potsmann. You knew stuff, right. You were the thoughts behind Cecile's actions, always encouraging Cecile to do things."

"No, Cecile made her decisions by herself."

"Did Cecile decide to leave her home alone, or did you not prompt her to leave, Ms. Potsmann?"

"She was in danger."

"Is that so?" Bertrand's lawyer approached the stand, "if you wanted to protect her, why didn't you say nothing for fourteen years?"

"I wasㅡ."

"Yes, you were afraid," the lawyer yelled, turning away from the box, "but you weren't scared when you went to Cecile's funeral."

"I knew they wouldn't attempt anything in public," Sierra answered.

"Oh, and Bertrand could have been there, ㅡyou know, evil Bertrand who almost slit your throat. By the way, please note there is no record of Ms. Potsmann cut-throat in her medical file."

"I didn't go to the hospital; I wasㅡ."

"Yes, we know. You said it enough already."

"Objection, Ms. Potsmann isn't on trial here," the prosecutor said.

"But she's a witness," pursued Maître Horace, "and we must establish her personality. I mean, we have a woman who said she was terrified by these so-called monsters. Tell me, Ms. Potsmann, who announced Cecile's death to you?

"Ms. Gauthier."

"Oh, I see. Can someone explain why these monsters would call Ms. Potsmann to tell her about their daughter's passing unless they thought she was important enough to know? Isn't that a mark of consideration coming from, I quote, racist and xenophobic monsters?"

Maître Horace was a shark. Sierra stepped down, feeling her testimony served the Gauthier's cause. Bertrand's lawyer made her sound like James Stewart's character L.B Jeffries in Hitchcock's Rear Window.

"I told you it was a mistake," Sierra told Jonas.

"No, Sierra, trust me, it wasn't," Jonas said, squeezing his wife's trembling hand while praying the heavens wouldn't make his statement a lie.