Warning: Affairs. Mysterious, possibly suspicious death. Unlikable character…
Update: Just realised I’m stupid and forgot that her last name is Bouvier since she’s on the paternal side of the family, I have fixed that now lol 
Janelle Brigitte Bouvier (54) is the sister-in-law of Sophie. She liked being a warm and happy spirit but it was often to get what she wants. Sophie’s own sister didn’t trust Janelle. Janelle’s worked closely with Armand and Labossiere Perfumes and is in love with him but he doesn’t return her feelings. He doesn’t want her as a mistress because she is “too old” for him and he hates that she’s older than his younger daughter Amelie. Truth is, she doesn’t want to be his mistress: she wants to marry him and has literally wanted to marry him ever since his wife died! Armand has always ignored her pleas for him to marry her but she’s still in his life for one reason: she said she’d give him a kidney if he’d marry her. Armand has considered that, seeing as she is the first eligible person to outwardly say they’d donate, but hasn’t agreed - in fact if anyone else with a match agrees to donate, Armand would likely cut Janelle out of his life as she’s “not needed” and he didn’t want a new wife. Janelle is determined however and some find her crazy.
Even though Armand isn’t in love with her, they have slept together, for one night only when she was 25 and he was 60. This may have produced a son but whether Armand or Janelle’s literal husband was the father was never known and Janelle refused to let either take a paternity test. Her son Laurent Michel Bouvier (12 September 1992 - 2 September 2017, aged 24, pictured behind her) lived his life trying to not make either suspected father mad at him. Laurent and Janelle’s ex-husband hardly knew each other as the latter fled to Corsica and refused to come back and care for Laurent unless Janelle proved Laurent was his own son. Laurent secretly hoped Janelle’s ex-husband was his true father despite him leaving and felt a bad feeling about Armand. Audrey and Dominic (then known as Dominique) got along with Laurent but their father, Sophie’s husband and Janelle’s brother, hated him. He hated that Laurent was rebellious and wouldn’t “respect his elders” without reason. He also blamed Laurent for possibly being a child out of wedlock despite Laurent having no choice in the decision and nobody knowing who his father really was. Because Laurent was an adult and Audrey & Dominic were juveniles at the time, he even went as far as accusing Laurent of being a “predatory man”. “What are you talking about? I’m not trying to harm them; I’m their cousin!” Laurent said but it didn’t convince him, after all Laurent was “a thorn in his precious conservative rosebush”. Janelle had always apologised to her brother on Laurent’s behalf about his “horribly defiant behavior” and said she’d “do something about him.” Although Laurent wasn’t unprofessional, he worked as a news reporter, his uncle still hated him as he felt the station he worked for was “too liberal” (it wasn’t) and always questioned who would hire him with his “long ugly hippie hair”.
Armand had a dinner party at the dining room of his mansion; where Janelle, Sophie and her husband, Laurent, and other mistresses attended. Janelle had no idea Laurent was invited to this party and pleaded with him not to ruin her potential chance at marrying Armand. However Janelle was somewhat glad Laurent was there because he was single and closer to the mistresses’ ages and felt he could distract them away from them flirting with Armand. Laurent was invited because Armand figured he could make a news story about his perfume but deep down Laurent wasn’t there to make a perfume news story — he didn’t find it newsworthy, and wasn’t there to hurt or help Janelle’s wishes to marry Armand — he didn’t think Armand would marry her anyway. He was there for an odd but important reason; he wanted to know if Armand was his father and brought a paternity test to prove or disprove it. He thought of sneaky ways to try to collect Armand’s saliva for it but decided this wouldn’t work and had a better idea - he’d tell Armand that there was a virus spreading and he needs to be tested since he works for a big company environment. Of course there were no huge pandemics in 2017 and if Laurent wasn’t a news reporter, then Armand might have assumed Laurent was trying to test him for STDs for all those affairs which would still look suspicious. But Armand was always busy and never available to be tested. One minute he was eating dinner, the next minute he was drinking wine, then he’d be avoiding Janelle’s flirts, then he’d be dancing, then he’d be collecting money. Most of the guests, including Sophie but not her husband, had left after dinner so Laurent felt it was his time to make a move to test Armand. He went up the master staircase to find Armand but then walked away from the rooms when he realised Armand was busy having another affair with a mistress. He decided to get away from that but to the horror an hour later, he was found dead at the bottom of the master staircase with a number of head injuries, fractures, and bruises he sustained on the way down. Even Armand had shock for Laurent and genuinely wondered how no one else heard him fall and no one else noticed he had been laying there for an hour. At that point, nobody else was at the party and they had all gone home, with Armand having no knowledge whether they came home before or after the death. No drugs or alcohol were in Laurent’s system at the time of his death. Police had investigated Armand and the mistress but had confirmed they were in bed at the time of Laurent’s death and were not behind it, ruling his death an accident. Still, some found it suspicious that it was just a simple dinner party but Laurent never made it out of the party alive. He was 24, 10 days before turning 25. Janelle talked about how she missed Laurent and she attended his funeral alongside Sophie and her husband, Sophie’s twins, and fellow family and friends, alongside both Armand and Janelle’s ex-husband despite no one knowing who was actually Laurent’s father. The Boisclairs also attended and while Henri didn’t go to the funeral, before the funeral he said, “Laurent’s death isn’t tragic. He just fell recklessly because he’s inept and caused his own death,“ not realising he’d end up dying 4 months later on his own 75th birthday. What caught some people’s eyes was that Laurent‘s hair was cut short when he was laying in the casket even though Armand had said it was long when he died.
While Janelle and Sophie bonded in the past, they’re now farther apart. Janelle has comforted Sophie from her past abuse and Sophie comforted Janelle over her son’s sudden death. However Sophie couldn’t get past Janelle’s grieving of her brother, even though Janelle was her sister-in-law. Sophie’s late husband was a scoundrel and only brought up bad memories of him and also of her father. She thought Janelle’s brother was a horrible person and despised that Janelle grieved him more than she ever grieved Laurent. Sophie never tells this to Janelle nor does she discuss her other belief - she thinks Laurent’s death wasn’t an accident. In fact, Sophie thinks her late husband killed his nephew. She claims it’s suspicious that his body was left there for an hour and it’s obvious he cut Laurent’s hair at the funeral because he hated it long and wanted to do him one last disservice. He hated everything about Laurent, was hurtful and cruel, and knew Laurent was very factual and could use his intelligence to thwart and expose him. He may have had a sick idea to kill him off so his twins wouldn’t contact him, his sister would stay conservative for him, and he would finally be able to use his wrath on someone without directly looking like it was a murder. Sophie also has an alternate theory and is afraid to look into it: she thinks Janelle could have been the one to murder her own son. Janelle may have not wanted Laurent to find out the truth of his paternity because she didn’t want to ruin her idea to marry Armand and she also hated that her brother was resenting her because of her son, so she killed him to make her brother happy. Both of them have been rumoured to have murdered Laurent but the two always defended each other and said they left the party before Laurent died and insist it was an accident. Sophie says if her late husband pushed his nephew down the stairs, it would be better that he was dead since he took a life. If it was Janelle who killed her son, it would be harder to swallow but it would at least mean there was an opportunity to punish her. Even after her brother died, Janelle still defends him and herself. Even some of the other families on the street have pleaded with the Paris police to reopen the case.
