Was this true love or was this woman just after her wealthy partner’s money?
Was she with him for the money, or was it true love?
It’s everyone’s dream: millions in the bank. You don’t have to worry about debt or loans and can spend your time enjoying all your money can buy. Many millionaires are very attached to the value of their worth, but Marcel Amphoux was different. His search to find love was more important to him than fame and fortune. He managed to find a nice woman. He was madly in love with her… but looks can be deceiving. The woman was hiding something. In his lifetime, Marcel never found out what it was…
Read more on the next page, her secret will be revealed.
Modesty adorns the man
Most millionaires want to show off how wealthy they are, but there are exceptions. Some are, in fact, quite modest. They’ve changed enough about themselves to make it seem as if they’re not rich at all. They want to show that you don’t need much to be happy. It’s hard to believe, but sometimes they want to pass off their fortune to others. Marcel was one of those people.
Marcel lived most of his life in the French Alps in a modest log cabin. All he had was tap water and electricity, can you imagine? Nowadays nobody would want to live this way. But it allowed him to save lots of money and become very wealthy. It was hard to believe that he had lots of money: he wore tattered clothing, had gross hair, and almost all his teeth were missing.
Financial knowledge
Marcel was a perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. He had a modest appearance but owned large plots of land in the Alps. The area where he lived was heaven on earth for tourists, investors were all over and the land was expensive. Marcel built numerous houses and rented them out. He made lots of money doing so. In fact, he made so much money that he could (more than comfortably) live off it.
Marcel got richer by the day, but his lifestyle didn’t change. He was getting older and still looked just as poor. He had a lot of contact with those around him. The richer he got; the more people wanted a piece of his fortune. But Marcel didn’t want to sell anything: he was already rich and wanted to stay true to himself and what he stood for. There was lots of money to be made, but he stood his ground.
Loyal and friendly, but also lonely
What set Marcel apart from others, was his generosity. He had small homes built on his private estate and let his family live there for free. This led the other villagers to come to think of him as a very friendly man as well. He could ask anyone around him for advice and support whether they were family members or not. Everything seemed nice and dandy, but it was actually just the calm before the storm…
Marcel did in fact have lots of money, but he was anything but handsome. He also lived in a way that wasn’t attractive to women. What woman wants to live with a poor slob? But anyway, Marcel didn’t want to get rid of his small home. His friends became more and more worried about him. What finally happened in his love life was something that nobody had seen coming.
Marcel found love
A woman had wandered her way into Marcel’s life. Her name was Sandrine Devillard and was immediately introduced to Marcel’s friends. They met when Sandrine was looking to buy a piece of land from Marcel. This wasn’t the only reason: Sandrine saw something in him. Marcel was flattered and invited her to dinner. He felt great around her and it appeared something was blossoming.
Sandrine was the woman Marcel had always dreamed of. She changed her plans to meet his wish of living in the small old house. And she wasn’t put off by his old-fashioned way of living. She accepted Marcel as he was which was his proof that she truly loved him. Marcel was extremely happy with her. The differences between the humble Marcel and the outspoken Sandrine led to doubts amongst the other villagers.
Opposites attract, right?
The villagers and Marcel’s family knew him through and through and began to worry. They questioned Sandrine’s intentions, also because they didn’t know her. The relationship happened very quickly and the two had completely different lifestyles… the villagers were as confused as could be. It all seemed too good to be true, weren’t they too different?
Sandrine didn’t look like the other women in the village at all. She flaunted her relationship with Marcel, as if she had conquered him… His family members didn’t trust it. They knew the stories: a woman pretends to be in love with a wealthy man just to get his fortune after he dies. They mostly wanted Marcel to be happy. And he seemed to be happy with Sandrine, but still…
Rose-tinted glasses
Sandrine was the woman of Marcel’s dreams. The village didn’t support him, but he wanted to stay with her. They decided to stay together as a couple and things were going well. Nobody could force them to break up, right? Marcel felt that something wasn’t right but his love for her overcame his worries and the opinions of the villagers.
The villagers all thought that Marcel would see it himself at some point. That never happened. He was looking through rose-tinted glasses. And on top of that: it was all going well, right? Sandrine and Marcel spent lots of time together and he got more and more attached to her. He was deeply in love and knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sandrine.
Enamored, engaged…
To everyone’s surprise, Marcel asked Sandrine to marry him. Unbelievable, such a responsible man marrying such a weird woman! His family members tried to get his attention so he would wake up to Sandrine’s true intentions. It was getting hard though, because she was suddenly his fiancée… They seemed to want to do everything together and pushed everyone else away.
Marcel’s family members’ prayers went unheard. He decided to let everyone know that they were going to get married. They were all displeased but Marcel was prepared for everything. He had suddenly asked Sandrine to marry him, so was there anything to be worried about? The only the thing that could happen was a confession about Sandrine during the wedding. But surely that wouldn’t happen?
The wedding approaches
The villagers quickly received interesting letters. The thing they were afraid of was right in front of them: Marcel and Sandrine were really getting married. Nearly everyone in the village was invited to attend the wedding in the village chapel. Marcel’s actions were normally pleasing to the villagers and they liked his humble way of living. But this news didn’t sit right with them. They never expected them to actually go through with the wedding.
The weeks leading up to the wedding flew by as everything was carefully prepared. Marcel was happy, it was going to be a beautiful day. Even the villagers who didn’t support the relationship wanted to be at the ceremony. Everyone wanted to see what kind of big party it would be. When the big day came, they all went to the chapel. They were looking forward to it but were also afraid. Their fears were coming true: Marcel and Sandrine’s marriage.
Your own happiness comes first
The villagers had done what they could, but the wedding was still on. Some started taunting the two as they left. Others stayed angry and yelled nasty comments towards Marcel and Sandrine. Marcel paid no attention to them. He deserved a happy marriage with Sandrine. Hadn’t he chosen a woman that made him happy? That’s what counted.
Sandrine was shocked by the reactions. Makes sense: every woman wants to be surrounded by love on her wedding day, not heckled. The villagers had gone too far and shown that Marcel was their enemy. They wanted nothing to do with her or the wedding. But it was the most important day of their lives! Marcel decided against saying anything to the villagers. He had the woman of his dreams and was happy with her.
Never-ending critique
After the wedding, the disapproving comments from the villagers never stopped. They continued to be annoyed by Sandrine and didn’t try to hide it. It was hard for her, but Marcel’s support helped her ignore the bullying. They both got goosebumps from the dirty looks they got everywhere they went, but what could they do about it? They weren’t going to separate, that was clear. Even if that’s what everyone else wanted.
Sandrine often tried to come up with ways to solve the issue. What did she need to do? She took lots of pictures of herself with Marcel to show how happy he was. He was smiling from ear to ear. He could hardly believe it himself: rejected time and time again, but now married to a beautiful woman. The villagers found it strange, but for outsiders they were a beautiful couple. Despite their differences.
Separating after all
Lots of pressure was put on their marriage, due in part to the villagers’ bullying. Sandrine was fed up: Marcel had already had to deal with too much. She needed to find a solution. The villagers did everything in their power to make them unhappy while they tried their hardest to ignore their bullying. But something had to change. What should they do? After lots of thought, they had their answer: they needed to live separately.
The couple separated, but not in the way everyone had expected. Sandrine went back to Paris where she had lived her whole life. The villagers were shocked: what was going to happen now? Did what they expected to happen actually happen? Sandrine and Marcel told everyone that this was their best option because Sandrine had a business to run in Paris and Marcel didn’t want to the leave the village. They fooled everyone…
Live your own life
The villagers found it odd that Sandrine left right after the wedding. Had she planned this? There were several rumors floating around and Sandrine found out about them. She told everyone that she went back to Paris for her job. She would always be there for Marcel, even from a distance. Nothing stood in the way of their love. Even though that’s exactly what the villagers wanted.
Yeah, the age gap between Marcel and Sandrine was big. But they were both adults and knew what they were doing. Everyone is free to live however they want, right? Several people thought Sandrine only wanted to be there for the marriage. But aren’t there lots of people with long distance relationships? Especially now that everyone has a good internet connection, it’s easy to make it work.
A fateful turn
At a certain point, the villagers were convinced that Sandrine couldn’t stand Marcel’s lifestyle. That’s why she left: she couldn’t stand being married to someone like that. She was used to luxury, city-life in Paris, expensive clothes, chic restaurants… They didn’t have all that in the village.
A year after the wedding, Sandrine and Marcel went on vacation with a few of Sandrine’s friends. The idea was to discover the region. It all seemed to be running smoothly until the bus driver lost control of the wheel. This resulted in a bad accident. Marcel did not survive… it was terrible. Sandrine was suddenly a widow. The news made it back to Marcel’s family who mourned his death deeply.
Accusations during the goodbyes
Time went on, but Marcel’s neighbors and family didn’t get over their sorrow. Research was done over the conditions in which Marcel passed away. The villagers wanted to know if Sandrine had anything to do with his death and waited impatiently. But first, they gave Marcel the sendoff he deserved. The ceremony took place in the same chapel where Sandrine and Marcel were married…
The pastor had known Marcel for a long time and knew how much of an impact he had on others. He was shocked by Marcel’s death which he mentioned during the funeral. He stated that some people were only kind to Marcel because of his money and not because of who he was as a person. Some people felt as if they were being spoken to directly during the speech because they had abused Marcel’s financial situation for personal gain. Their feelings were well-deserved.