Read Chapter 24: Sentences

Summer brought legal decisions before sporting ones.

Serge Kovač was charged with extortion, fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to manipulate sporting events. Two associates were charged. Meridian denied institutional knowledge and announced an internal review.

Gérard Maret faced separate financial charges related to undeclared lending and tax offenses. Investigators found no evidence that he personally ordered specific match manipulation, though prosecutors alleged companies under his control had created the debt structures Kovač exploited.

Mayor Vautrin was referred to an administrative inquiry over conflicts of interest in the Orbe Avenir development. He was not charged criminally.

Saint-Aurèle hated the lack of simplicity.

Some wanted Maret to be the mastermind. Others wanted Vautrin arrested. Some wanted Lucas declared purely a victim. Courts were less interested in satisfying narratives.

Lucas pleaded guilty to participation in sporting fraud in four matches and received a suspended custodial sentence, community service, a financial penalty, and a multi-year ban from licensed competition, reduced because of cooperation and coercion evidence.

Rémi received a shorter sporting ban and entered a drug-treatment and counseling program as part of his case.

After court, Lucas sat with Marc on the steps beneath Toulouse heat.

“I thought I'd feel finished,” he said.

“You're disappointed?”

“No. I feel… assigned.”

“To what?”

“Years.”

Marc understood.

Consequences were often less dramatic than fear. That did not make them smaller.

“What about the workshop?”

“Restructuring. Élodie's taking over finance because apparently I am banned from money as a concept.”

“Wise woman.”

“She still hates you some days.”

“I've had worse reviews.”

Lucas looked at him.

“Béziers job?”

Marc blinked. “How do you know?”

“Small town.”

“Of course.”

“You taking it?”

“I don't know.”

Lucas laughed. “You do know. You're just waiting to feel innocent about choosing.”

Marc turned to him.

“When did you become insightful?”

“Suspension. Lots of free time.”

The federation ruled on Rugby Club Aurélois in July.

The club was fined for integrity and governance failures but allowed to retain promotion. The decision cited its self-reporting, cooperation, removal of compromised participants, and reforms. Two results from the prior season were formally noted as tainted but not retrospectively forfeited due to insufficient evidence about competitive impact.

Nobody was entirely happy.

Marc considered that a sign of adulthood.

He met Yannis at the stadium the next day.

The young fly-half had completed his Béziers trial.

“They offered academy-development contract,” he said, trying and failing to look casual.

Marc grinned.

“Congratulations.”

Yannis stared at the posts.

“I leave in August.”

“Yes.”

“Feels bad.”

“Good.”

Yannis frowned.

“If leaving feels easy, you didn't belong.”

They stood together in the empty ground.

“Will you be here next season?” Yannis asked.

Marc looked at the grass.

“I think so.”

“Think?”

Marc smiled.

“Don't push your coach.”

“Former coach soon.”

“Then definitely don't.”

Yannis placed a ball on the left touchline.

“One kick?”

“Plant foot.”

“I know.”

He kicked.

Straight through.

Jean's resignation became official at the club assembly in July.

He expected applause and received a standing ovation so long that he became visibly angry.

“Sit down,” he shouted. “You'll make me sentimental.”

They did not sit.

Jean had prepared a speech. He abandoned it.

“I thought loving this club entitled me to decide what risks it should take,” he said. “That was my mistake. Love does not make ownership. It makes obligation.”

Marc looked at Claire. She wrote the sentence down.

Jean continued. “I hid things because I thought transparency was a luxury for rich organizations. Turns out poor organizations need it more, because they cannot afford expensive secrets.”

Afterward, members elected a new board with term limits, two supporter representatives, a youth representative, and an independent finance chair. Jean remained a non-voting advisor for one year.

He complained about that too.

“You've institutionalized my irrelevance.”

“Congratulations,” Marc said.

Outside the hall, former mayor Vautrin waited near the steps.

He had lost weight since the election.

“Good speech,” he told Jean.

Jean replied, “You should try resignation. Improves the prose.”

Vautrin almost smiled.

He turned to Marc.

“The mill project is dead.”

“I heard.”

“You happy?”

“No.”

That surprised him.

Vautrin looked toward the shuttered factory visible beyond the roofs.

“People think because some financing was compromised, the need disappeared. It didn't.”

“I know.”

“Forty jobs were real.”

“So were the conflicts.”

“Yes.”

For once, neither man needed the other to be entirely wrong.

Vautrin held out a hand.

Marc shook it.

“I still think you were reckless,” Vautrin said.

“I think you were too comfortable with necessary evils.”

“Also true.”

He walked away.

Claire joined Marc.

“You two becoming friends?”

“No.”

“Good. I'd lose material.”

Marc watched Vautrin cross the square alone.

Accountability had not purified Saint-Aurèle. It had merely made some stories harder to tell cheaply.

That was enough for one summer.