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AS THE MILLIONAIRE VIEWED THE NEW HOUSEKEEPER’S EARRINGS, THE MILLIONAIRE THOUGHT OF HIS... The Moreaus’ vast home, set in the peaceful vineyards of Bordeaux, seemed frozen in time. The thick stone walls held an almost oppressive silence, punctuated only by the occasional creak of the parquet floors under the servants’ hesitant footsteps. Each room, though richly furnished, exuded a palpable melancholy, and at the center of this frozen world was Étienne Moreau. Sitting in his favorite armchair by the fireplace in the grand drawing room, Étienne held an old photograph in his trembling fingers. It was Sophie, his only daughter, smiling and carefree, captured in a moment that time could not erase. Since her abduction twenty-five years earlier, this image had become his only consolation, but also his greatest torment. Every morning, Étienne followed the same ritual: he walked the halls of the house, greeting the family portraits as if they could answer him. The employees of the house, although accustomed to this routine, often exchanged looks filled with pity. No one dared to interrupt the silence that enveloped their employer, a man once vibrant with life reduced to a ghost haunting his own past.