Chapter 12 - The Fall of the House of De Winter
Two months later, federal justice was officially delivered in the High Court of Paris.
Henri De Winter was sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole at the maximum-security penitentiary in Clairvaux.
Camille De Winter was sentenced to thirty-two years at the federal correctional facility in Rennes, stripped of all aristocratic titles, luxury estates, and personal wealth.
Her designer gowns were replaced by coarse prison denim, her diamond jewelry replaced by steel handcuffs, and her days spent working in the prison laundry—the very labor she had mocked when she ordered Tonio Rossi into the storm.
On the day the sentencing was broadcast across national television, the island of Corsica celebrated with festivals in every village square from Bastia to Bonifacio.
The corrupt tyrants who had exploited the land and its people for three decades were behind concrete walls forever.
At the Moreau fortress on the cliffs of Cape Corse, the heavy iron gates stood wide open to the Mediterranean breeze.
The old atmosphere of dark suspicion and cold syndicate paranoia had completely dissolved, replaced by the warm laughter of friends, the aroma of hearty home-cooked meals, and the joyous energy of a family reborn.
Clara had moved into the estate’s sunny south wing, her health fully restored. She spent her afternoons riding horses along the coastal meadows and painting watercolors of the sea, her cheeks flushed with vibrant, radiant life.
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And every morning, Tonio Rossi walked up the stone steps of the loggia, carrying a small woven basket of fresh citrus, welcomed with open arms by every member of the household.
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