♛ “Oui, many of her admirers would praise her beauty, and, noting our similar coloring and personalities, would assume she was my own biological daughter. On closer inspection, her hair had more of a natural curl than mine, and the color was just a touch darker, like honey, and her eyes were also a touch more sapphire. But such minor differences do happen with children.” *sigh*

[^X] “What we told these people was that she was in fact my niece, and that Louis was her biological father; tragically widowed when his wife

Mireille

(my younger sister) died in childbirth. It was a narrative that threaded the three of us together naturally; in being a part of their lives, I was also honoring my ‘sister.’”

“We believed in this ardently, Claudia would tell it herself, adding her own embellishments.“