claudia Laurent
Claudia was born a tyrant. From the moment she entered this world, she was an unhappy tyrant. Nothing could please her. She cried because she was too cold. She cried because she was too hot. Breakfast was never to her liking. Her bed was lumpy. Her shoes didn’t fit. Life was a disaster.
She was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France, to Andre and Anna Fournier. Andre was a wealthy restaurateur. Claudia was an only child. She was so difficult to raise that her parents decided another child would be too much. They were probably right.
At age six, the nanny scolded Claudia for striking a cousin at a birthday party. The next week, Claudia made up a story about her nanny drinking on the job. It was a lie, of course. No matter. The nanny was fired. The next nanny didn’t fare well either. Claudia asked to stay up past her curfew. The nanny denied her. Claudia complained to her mother that the nanny spent more time on her phone than attending to her. That was the nanny’s last day. In all, Claudia went through five nannies in seven years.
At age ten, she was caught stealing money from her mother’s purse. She was not punished, only warned not to do it again. At age 13, she was caught smoking cigarettes in the girls’ restroom at school. The school suspended her for three days. Her parents warned her not to do it again. At age 17, she became pregnant. Her parents flew her to Amsterdam to terminate the pregnancy. They pleaded with her not to do it again. Thankfully, she never did.
Claudia was eleven when her mother first shared a secret with her. Claudia’s father owned a 600-year-old diary of a famous knight. Apparently, this knight was an important man because her mother told her the diary was invaluable. She didn’t tell her why; she just said it would help make them rich. They were already rich, but with some people, rich is never enough. She had to have more. The whole thing was quite mysterious. Her father actually showed her the heirloom once. She was allowed to open it and peek inside. It was written in French, but not in a form she was accustomed to. She never saw the diary again but never forgot her mother's promise that one day it would be hers. And when it was hers, she was to turn it over to the world…for a price.
Claudia managed to graduate from high school with average grades. Her parents enrolled her in the Culinary Arts Academy located on the shores of Lake Geneva in Le Bouveret, Switzerland. Her father chose the Academy because it was considered the finest culinary school in Europe and his alma mater. He had plans for her to join his company. Again, she made average grades in college but managed to squeak by. Upon graduation, she joined her father’s firm and assumed the role of Vice-President of Sales. She had absolutely no experience in sales, but she was Daddy’s little girl. From day one, she ruffled the feathers of almost every employee in the company, which was fine with her. She thought them all a little snooty. Of course, she was the very definition of snooty, but she also bore the last name of the owner.
At twenty-three, she married her first husband, a handsome man who served as VP of Services in her father’s firm. He was a kind man, gentle in nature, taciturn in demeanor. Claudia chewed him up and spit him out in three years. Irreconcilable differences. Her second marriage lasted a bit longer. He was a college sweetheart. A man with a good head for business but totally devoid of morals. He was cheating on her not long after the honeymoon. As payback, she began cheating on him as well. What she needed was a divorce. Her husband agreed but wanted to pay her a measly sum. She needed someone to help prove her husband was a philanderer. Through a mutual friend, she made the acquaintance of a man in Germany named Mr. Wolf. He had a reputation as a fixer. She contacted him and told him what she needed. A month later, she received the photos in the mail. The photos caught her husband quite literally with his pants down. She used it as evidence in court and received a princely sum as a settlement.
She remained single for eight years until she met her shining knight. A man from Bruges, Belgium named Marc Laurent. He too was in the restaurant business. For several years they got along well, but Marc was born with a wandering eye. In the fifth year of their marriage, Marc broke the news to Claudia that his mistress was pregnant with his child. The mistress, however, had no intention of being a mother and planned on terminating the pregnancy. As a staunch Catholic, Marc wouldn’t hear of it. He decided instead to adopt the child and raise him as his own. The child’s name was Henri. He and Claudia decided to keep the secret of his birth from the child. As far as he knew, Claudia was his mother. He grew up adoring her, despite her complete lack of maternal instincts.
A few years later, subsisting on a steady diet of brandy and cigarettes, Claudia began showing her age. She had acne as a teen, and the scars were still visible. She tried to cover them with excessive rounds of makeup, which soon made her look like an angry harlequin. Twice she had cosmetic surgery, which helped to lift her eyes and erase a few wrinkles, but couldn’t make her smile any less sinister. Marc divorced Claudia, and she found herself on her own, which was fine. After three marriages and divorce settlements, she had plenty of money. The one thing she didn’t have was the diary. Her mother passed away years earlier from cancer, but her father seemed to grow younger each year rather than older. It was driving her insane. When he was in his late 90s and seemingly healthier than ever, she contacted Mr. Wolf. Her request was simple. She explained that her father had outlived his usefulness, and she needed help. Mr. Wolf understood completely. One month later, Andre Fournier died unexpectedly of a heart attack.
Before she could sell the diary, however, it was stolen by Henri’s girlfriend, a harlot named Lisette Bellamy. Again, Claudia called on Mr. Wolf to solve her problem. He was only too happy to oblige.