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Chapter 3 — The Flood

The letter in the ledger

The river had risen in the night, and by morning the quays were no more than a memory under the brown water. Élise set the ledger down on the kitchen table, the only room still dry, and opened it with the care one keeps for the wounded.

The pages stuck together. At the fortieth, something resisted. A sheet folded in four, slipped into the binding, whose paper had the colour of cold tea.

“If the water comes back, look under the third step. Tell Father nothing.”

The signature was a single first name: Jeanne. Élise read the sentence three times, then a fourth aloud, as if the sound could change its meaning. Outside, an engine coughed: Théo, already on the Quai de Jemmapes, was heading up towards the lock.