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Summary
Jess, Sophie, Jess, Jess, Sophie, Nick, Jess, Concierge, Mimi, Jess, Mimi, Jess
Jess
Jess rushes out of Ben’s apartment to meet with Theo. In the courtyard, she sees the Concierge, who tells Jess that she has something important to share, beckoning Jess into her apartment. There, she warns Jess that it is too late for her to help Ben and that she should leave the building for her own safety.
Sophie
Mimi visits Sophie in the penthouse and tells her that she is afraid. Sophie thinks about her past affair with Ben. They slept together multiple times over the weeks of their tryst, growing increasingly reckless. In the present, Sophie reassures Mimi that everything will be okay. Mimi, she reveals to the reader, was adopted. Her biological mother was an illegal immigrant who passed away after giving birth to her, allowing Jacques to adopt her without going through legal processes that would have required him to disclose information about his business dealings.
Jess
Jess meets up with Theo and the two head toward their destination, an unmarked building on a quiet street with a fireworks logo like the one on the metal card. They flash the card to security and are welcomed into the building. Inside, they are given black masks and told to go downstairs.
Jess
Theo and Jess enter a dimly lit room where people wearing masks and expensive clothing sit around a stage. They take their seats and order champagne, posing as husband and wife. The curtains of the stage pull back and a nearly naked young woman begins to dance. This is followed by several similar acts by beautiful young women who are partially or entirely undressed. Theo informs her that the venue, an exclusive club named La Petite Mort, is owned by the Meunier family. Jess looks back and sees a row of curtained booths, and notices that all the patrons appear to be men. Another young woman begins to perform, and Jess is surprised to discover that she recognizes her.
Sophie
Sophie meets with Antoine, Mimi, and Nick in her penthouse apartment. She notices a cigarette burn on the carpet and thinks back to an earlier memory. Feeling reckless, she invited Ben into the penthouse to have sex despite the risk of being caught by Jacques. When Ben asked about Jacques’ business dealings, however, Sophie felt as if she had woken up from a dream and told Ben to leave. In the present, she tells the others that it is time for their meeting to begin.
Nick
In the penthouse, Nick looks at the others. Antoine has already begun to drink, and Mimi appears nervous. The topic of their meeting is Jess, who has been spotted at La Petite Mort. Antoine drunkenly insults the others, blaming Nick for Jess’ presence in the building, and insinuating that Mimi, who was adopted, is not truly a member of their family. Further, he implies that Sophie was a prostitute prior to her marriage to Jacques, which provokes Sophie into slapping him. Nick attempts to get the others to focus, and Mimi points out that she saw Jess entering the Concierge’s apartment earlier. They wonder what the Concierge said to Jess.
Jess
Jess recognizes the dancer as the young woman who followed her after her first meeting with Theo, and the woman seems to recognize Jess as well. As the show ends and the crowd shuffles out, Jess and Theo push into the building hoping to investigate further, but they are caught by a security guard and are forced to leave. On the street, Jess is approached by the young female dancer who previously followed her.
The Concierge
The Concierge cleans the hallway of the top floor as a pretense to eavesdrop on the conversation taking place in the penthouse. She hears them talking about Jess and feels protective of the young woman, who reminds her a bit of her own daughter. She reflects upon a memory from the past. Feeling lonely, she invited Nick into her small apartment for tea. He asks her questions about her life and her daughter, Elira. The Concierge tells him that she is originally from Albania but immigrated to Paris after a concerning phone call from her daughter. Elira told her that she was working in a “bad place” and that she was pregnant. After saving up money, the Concierge reached Paris and found Elira’s place of work, only to learn that her daughter died in childbirth. Nick asks her about the whereabouts of the baby and the Concierge tells him that she only started working in the building to be close to her granddaughter. In the present, she hears someone inside the Penthouse say “Concierge,” and she hurries back to her apartment.
Mimi
Mimi returns to her apartment where she bumps into Camille, who asks her why she has been behaving so strangely. Overwhelmed with anxiety, Mimi tells Camille that she is sick of her presence and insults her cruelly. Camille fetches her belongings and moves out of the apartment, but before she leaves, she notes that she is now dating Dominique, Antoine’s ex-wife. Dominique and Camille flirted with Ben, she explains, as a decoy, to hide their own relationship. Alone, Mimi reflects upon the recent past. Earlier, she stole the keys to Ben’s apartment from the Concierge’s office. Wearing the lingerie that she purchased with Camille, she waited for him to return, hoping to seduce him. While waiting, she looked through his notebook and was surprised to find her own name followed by a question mark: “Mimi?” After correctly guessing the password to his laptop, she finds the notes and drafts from the story he had been working on, and she is horrified by what she reads.
Jess
Nervously, the dancer from the club, Irina, takes them to a diner where she demands money in exchange for information about La Petite Mort. She then explains that Ben had previously asked her questions about the club. La Petite Mort, she tells them, is not just a club. Wealthy and powerful men pay for sexual services from the dancers. Rather than paying the girls directly, the men circumvent the law by technically paying not for sex but for vastly overpriced bottles of wine. After demanding more money, Irina gives Jess a memory card which she claims has pictures of a powerful police official enjoying the illegal services offered at the club. Further, she claims that Sophie Meunier was once a dancer at the club before marrying Jacques. Before leaving, she notes that not all employees are as lucky as Sophie. In fact, one dancer died after giving birth in the club. Tearfully, Irina tells Jess and Theo that Ben offered to help her start a new life before his disappearance.
Mimi
Mimi looks through her window at Ben’s dark apartment and thinks about the events that occurred three nights earlier. Reading the notes on Ben’s laptop, she was shocked to discover that she was adopted. She was also disgusted to learn that the source of her family’s income is prostitution. She heard Ben entering the apartment and hid in the closet. When he began to shower, she attempted to exit the apartment, but then the front door opened yet again, forcing her to hide. To her horror, she watched as Sophie made her way through the apartment, embracing Ben intimately. Overwhelmed, she ran out of the apartment.
Jess
Irina grows nervous and says that it is time for her to go. As she and Theo walk back through town, Jess is disgusted by Theo’s excitement about reporting a major news story, and she runs away from him. She accidentally heads straight into a riot, struggling to catch her breath due to smoke from the rioters and the tear gas released by the police. Theo finds her and helps her to her feet, and the two make their way to a nearby bar, where they wash their eyes in the bathroom. Theo apologizes and promises that he does want to help her. They kiss.
Analysis
In this section of the novel, several important secrets are brought to light regarding the Meunier family. Jess learns that Ben moved to Paris to investigate the family’s involvement in criminal activity, and more specifically, in prostitution. Their luxurious lifestyles are funded by the exploitation of women, particularly women who are economically and legally vulnerable due to their status as illegal immigrants. This discovery casts a dark shadow over the wealthy family, connecting their privilege to the manipulation and abuse of others. Sophie herself previously worked as a dancer at the club before marrying Jacques. Her carefully controlled appearance and behavior are part of the persona she has assumed: that of a wealthy French woman from an upper-class background. She would rather forget about her past, but in The Paris Apartment, it is often difficult to shake off, and a blackmailer can exploit her feelings of shame about her own personal history.
Ultimately, Sophie was one of the “lucky” girls from the club who was able to secure a stable, privileged lifestyle, even if she finds little security or satisfaction in her marriage to Jacques. Irina notes that some more fortunate girls date or marry their clients, but others have far worse outcomes, including a young woman who gave birth in the club and died. This tragic fate, the novel suggests, could have been avoided if not for the precarity experienced by illegal immigrants. The young woman received inadequate medical care because of her fear of going to hospital and being forced to disclose her identity. After her death, her body was silently removed from the premises to avoid the attention of the authorities. Though the novel does not explicitly state this, it is heavily suggested that the young woman who met an untimely end was Elira, the daughter of the Concierge. Further, there are several hints that the baby born on that tragic evening was Mimi, who was adopted by Jacques under shadowy circumstances. This revelation has important implications for the Concierge, who has remained at her miserable job to stay close to Mimi, her granddaughter. The Concierge’s story about her daughter Elira underscores the hardships and dangers faced by immigrants from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
As Jess investigates the club, the city of Paris itself begins to play a more important role in these chapters. She visits different neighborhoods with very different atmospheres throughout her investigations, from the expensive, quiet neighborhood where the Meuniers live to the bustling immigrant neighborhood where Irina lives. The novel suggests there are very different versions of Paris as experienced by its rich and poor inhabitants, underscoring the crucial role that class plays in it. Though Jess continues to feel like a fish out of water in the swanky bars and upscale businesses frequented by Ben and the Meuniers, she demonstrates an increasing ability to think on her feet and adapt when necessary. Though she believes she does not have the adaptability of her older half-brother, Jess can infiltrate La Petite Mort, donning a disguise, assuming a false persona, and blending in with its wealthy patrons. Though she has enjoyed few of the privileges taken for granted by the Meuniers, her difficult life has taught her by necessity to be resourceful and observant.
