As soon as she noticed that people had recognized her, she slipped away and hid herself in a nearby empty street while texting Hugo to come get her. Thankfully, the city hall was quite secluded, and it wasn’t a popur location so nobody was around except for the pyers and a few visitors. Nobody could see her from where she was. Hugo came quickly and he was about to start the engine when Cyrielle stopped him.

  “Wait, Léo is coming.”

  The road manager raised an eyebrow.

  “Léo ? Don’t tell me you came to see a man ! What if a scandal…”

  But he stopped in the middle of the sentence when a boy that looked simir to Cyrielle entered the car and sat next to her in the back seat. They weren’t identical, there were some obvious differences in the shape of the face, and the woman had rger shoulders and hips, but their noses and hands were the same, as well as the peculiar color of their hair, brown with a few blonde strands.

  Hugo suddenly remembered what Julie had said to him when she was briefing him on Cyrielle’s life, when he was still in training. Her family lived quite far away, on the other side of France, and she had a loving mother as well as a little brother, and a sister who lived abroad. With the recent events, he had also learned that her paternal family was the filth of the earth, so if she was with someone that looked like her…

  He nodded.

  “Nice to meet you. I assume you are Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s brother ? I am Hugo, her road manager, nice to meet you.”

  Léonard studied Hugo’s face for a while before shrugging.

  “You call her Mademoiselle Cyrielle ? That’s cringe.”

  His sister rolled her eyes.

  “Are you angry because I came to see you ? Can’t a sister watch her brother py ?”

  “Yeah, thanks, now everybody will know you went to see a video game tournament. What was your pn, start pying, become really good at it like you always seem to do nowadays, and win a competition ?”

  “No, I have no interest in video games, I just wanted to see you !”

  “Well, you saw me, so you could have gone back.”

  “Oh, come on, don’t sulk, it was interesting to watch your matches !”

  Hugo stayed silent while watching the siblings bicker. Léonard had his brows furrowed and an annoyed expression, but he couldn’t hide the corners of his mouth that were slightly rising. It was quite obvious how happy he was that his sister came to see him.

  The road manager smiled.

  “Where should I take you ? Unfortunately, there are still a lot of paparazzis under Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s window, so we can't take you to her pce.”

  “Is it that big of a problem if I’m seen with her ? I mean, Clémentine already appeared on TV to scream at you, it won’t be long until we are tracked down. There are probably pictures of your identity card lying around, be it at your university or when you rented your old pce, so people would surely know your full name and the address written on it, which is mom’s pce. Technically, it’s a miracle that we aren’t flooded with paparazzis yet.”

  Cyrielle sighed and leaned against the backrest.

  “It’s because my fans are really respectful. The administrator of the fan group deletes every mention of my past and keeps the information they have secret. The only people who would come to see you are the journalists and the haters, and they are too preoccupied with my mental state and my album reaching number one, they didn’t even think about trying to find my family.”

  “How long do you think that will st ? It’s already absurd how long that rumor of high society persisted, do you think…”

  Cyrielle jumped to cover his mouth, looking in the rearview mirror to see if Hugo had heard. Thankfully, the road manager was on the phone with Julie to expin the situation, he didn’t seem to have heard anything. She sighed in relief and whispered :

  “Listen, this rumor is important for my career, and it’s one of the walls protecting you and mom. As long as I am rumored to be a noble, nobody would think of searching for you all in a small medieval vilge. Got it ?”

  Léonard seemed fed up with his sister’s antics but he eventually nodded and removed her hand.

  “What’s going on anyway ? How are you so good at all these things ? I mean, I can understand singing since you were never tone deaf, and you never tried modeling before, so maybe you have a talent for it. Even sewing and crafting I can understand, maybe you learned those skills by living alone. Designing also has an expnation since you wanted to be an illustrator, so you are creative. But the instruments ? Composing ? Horse riding ? How is all of that even possible ?”

  Cyrielle kept stealing gnces at Hugo, but he was still speaking loudly on the phone, and they were whispering in the back, there was no way he could hear anything.

  “I don’t know, I just tried and it worked.”

  “Stop bullshitting.”

  “It’s true ! I never did those things before but when I tried it worked. You should also see if you have a talent for something, I don’t know, you might be like me !”

  After her discussion with Coline the previous day, Cyrielle felt really bad about her abilities. Those were happy things for her, of course, but she started to realize that her friends and family were feeling inferior to her. There was always jealousy when someone was more talented than you, and her dominating several domains was even harder for the others. They couldn’t even say ‘she is talented in this field, so it’s normal that she is better, I have my own field where I am better than her so it’s alright’, because she could possibly become a master in what they liked. It was like when she promised Coline that she wouldn’t touch ballet, the truth was that Cyrielle’s ‘dance’ ability also allowed her to do ballet. She could very well create another goal with that in mind and become the best in her field, but she had a feeling that if she did it, Coline would be broken. It was the same with Léonard. Maybe one day she would acquire a video game ability, and when that time came, would she win a tournament ? If yes, how would Léonard react, when he had been pying all his life and never won ?

  [It’s not your fault, you being talented doesn’t mean the others are bad.]

  ‘I know, but what can I do ? Even telling them to find their own path feels wrong, because I could very well gain an ability that would make me better than them ! It feels so wrong, I don’t know what to do !’

  [It’s not for you to worry about. People need to learn how to deal with their own jealousy.]

  ‘I don’t know, I don’t feel good about this.’

  Cyrielle anxiously looked at her brother who shrugged.

  “You’re right, I should try new things. Maybe it’s in the genes and I’ll become as famous as you ? No, I’ll even beat you, and ugh at you during every award ceremony !”

  Thankfully, he seemed to be alright. Cyrielle sighed in relief. At this moment, Hugo turned to them.

  “I spoke with the boss, she says that you should remain unseen for now, she needs more time to prepare security measures to protect Mademoiselle Cyrielle’s family.”

  Léonard nodded.

  “Okay, bring me back to my hotel then, here is the address.”

  They took off in the van, speeding on the highway, with Cyrielle and Léonard chatting.

  “By the way, I’m spending the holidays with dad this year.”

  Cyrielle froze.

  “You’re still seeing him ?”

  “Yeah, he’s my dad. Family is important.”

  “But…”

  Léonard stopped her.

  “They haven't hit me yet. Mom said she would go to trial if they tried, so they don’t y a hand on me.”

  Now that he wasn’t on the phone, Hugo was listening to them, stealing gnces in the rearview mirror with a face red with rage. Cyrielle wasn’t paying attention, biting her lips from the frustration.

  “Even if they don’t hit you, they aren’t exactly nice, right ?”

  Léonard shrugged.

  “They used to insult me at dinner and make fun of me because I pyed video games, but since st year they are always too busy talking about you and fighting each other. Especially Géraldine, she jumps on dad at every occasion but she ends up receiving the blows, so she has bruises everywhere.”

  Cyrielle couldn’t even feel bad for her stepmother. It had always been like this, she was the one to get beat, but on the other end she was the one to start the fight. Sometimes, their father didn’t even try to hit her, he was only defending himself, but she ended up being the one with contusions. Both were bad people for each other.

  “You know how Christmas is with them, do you really think you should go to their pce ?”

  Léonard patted the head of his big sister. He was three years younger, but he was half a head taller.

  “I know how traumatized you are, and that you hate the festive period because of them, but I want to try. Maybe it will get better some day, I don’t want to lose contact with our dad. He used to be cool when we were young.”

  “It was before he married Géraldine… I don’t know if he is able to return back to how he was. You will only end up getting hurt.”

  Her brother shrugged.

  “Well, if it happens, it happens. You will help me, right ?”

  “Yeah. If one day you are in danger, call me. And if I don’t answer, call my agency. I’ve got an army of rabid dogs ready to protect my family.”

  Hugo nodded energetically. Officially he was Cyrielle’s road manager, but if a boy was in danger, he would have no problem traveling through the country to beat up a guy or two.