Chapter 21
In the weeks that followed, Angela couldn't remember when she had been this happy. She had Miguel had been going out all that time and she was on cloud 9 the whole time. Abbey and Derek noticed that she was definitely happier now, and her father had stopped asking her to go out on drop offs.
Today, Angela and Miguel were enjoying an afternoon by the Firelight fountain with frozen yogurt. As much as Angela was enjoying her time with her new boyfriend and true love, she knew that she was going to have to tell Miguel the truth about what her Dad was doing. She just wasn't sure if she had the strength to do it. But she remembered Tikki had told her that morning when she had told her that she considering telling Miguel, but was unsure if she should.
'Just follow your instincts.' Angela thought to herself taking a deep breath. "Miguel, I need to tell you something."
"I need to tell you something too." Miguel said looking at her. "But, you go first."
"Okay, if I do, you have to promise that you won't think less of me." Angela pleaded.
"I don't think there's any way that I could." Miguel answered taking her hand stroking it.
Angela took another deep breath. "You remember the day after Ms. Roland died, and I was upset and crying? Jezebel attacked me and mentioned my Dad."
"Yeah, I asked Martin about what Jezebel was talking about. Said there was a rumor going around that he was a dealer, and not the poker kind."
"Well, that is what I wanted to tell you. The rumors are true. My dad's a dealer and the leader of the Angeles Diablos. He used to have me participate in the drop offs."
"Dios mío." Miguel sighed.
"Miguel, I need you to understand, I didn't want to, but my Dad, he changed after we lost Mom and Valentina. He started drinking and he fell apart, started doing drugs just to cope. He started cooking and dealing. He promised it was just to cope, but soon he started having me and Josh drop for him. I was ten when he started having me do it."
"Why haven't you gone to the police?" Miguel asked.
"I've wanted to, but my dad and my brother are the only family I have left. But that doesn't mean I didn't try to help them when I could. With each drop I was sent on, I would pass the information to Derek and he would give the information to the police. The police got the guys who were buying, and I was trying to buy my dad time to hopefully come to his senses. But he stopped having me do drops weeks ago. And I'll be honest, I don't think he's going to stop. At this point, he's so far in, I don't think he knows how to stop or get out." Angela felt her chest start to tighten and her eyes water. "He's my father, Miguel, I can't lose him or my brother." She cried.
"Angela, I understand. But you also have to understand, you were giving information to the police, but the longer you put off turning your dad in, the worse it looks for you when, eventually, they catch him."
Angela sobbed. "I'm scared, Miguel. I don't want to lose my family, but I can't keep living like this. I watch the news, I know what happens in big drug rings when tempers flare."
"You don't have to. I know I haven't known you for very long, Angela, but I know you well enough to know that you know what you have to do. I know you're scared, but you're also the bravest girl I have ever met. You don't have to do this alone." Miguel said taking her pulling her into a hug. "We can go to the police right now. My dad's the sheriff, we can talk to him. You'll be protected and your dad and your brother won't even know it was you."
"But what will I do after? My dad's the one who pays for me to attend college. If he goes to prison, I won't even be able to stay in my own house."
"We'll find a way, but you need to do the right thing."
Angela cried into Miguel's shoulder. "I know. I just scared of losing my family and my home. If I do, I have nowhere else to go."
"We'll make sure you do, I promise." Miguel answered rubbing her back. "I'll be with you the whole time."
Angela cried a little longer into his shoulder. After she was done, she looked at Miguel and nodded. Miguel kept his arm around her shoulder the whole way to the station. Angela felt a heavy weight lifting gradually as they made their way in. When they reached the front desk, Miguel asked to speak to his dad. They were asked to wait, and Angela could feel her heart pounding. When Sheriff Willis arrived, Miguel started with a few pleasantries, and asked if they could talk somewhere private. Sheriff Willis directed them to his office.
"What's going on?" He asked as he took his seat.
Angela started to shiver. Miguel took her hand and gently squeezed it. Angela looked at him and he nodded, as if saying he was there for her.
"I have some information for the NYPD that I think you will want to hear from me." Angela answered.
"What kind of information?" Sheriff Willis asked looking interested.
"I can give you the leader of the Angeles Diablos." Angela answered feeling a knife twist in her chest as she squeezed Miguel's hand back.
"Who is he? How do you know him?"
Angela breathed again feeling her eyes water again. "He's my father, Issac Martinez. I can give the names of everyone who works for him, including me. I did drops for him, but I was also the one who gave the drop information to your informant, Derek. I will tell you anything you want to know, but please, please understand, my dad's not a monster. Ever since my mom and little sister were killed, he changed. I was only trying to buy him time to come to his senses."
"Alright, Ms. Martinez,"
"Please, call me Angela."
"Alright, Angela, I need you to give a statement and everything you know to our investigators on the case." Sheriff Willis said getting up.
"Dad,"
"Son, I know she's your girlfriend, but now she's a person of interest in a massive drug investigation."
"All I was going to ask, Dad, was that I be with her. This is a really, really, really hard time for her." Miguel said stroking her hand.
"Of course, I understand." Sheriff Willis said gesturing for a cop to come in. "Officer Dellington will take your statement, and you will be placed in protective custody."
Angela could only nod as Miguel led her to follow Officer Dellington. As relieved as she was to have finally told the police about her father, she also felt like she was betraying her family in doing so. All the time she was giving her statement and protection detail was set up, Angela could feel the knife twisting harder and deeper into her chest. The only thing that helped get through it was the fact that Miguel was there with her. By the end of the day, police were on their way to her house to arrest her family and her father's workers, of all of them, the one Angela hoped would understand was Brock. She didn't want to do it, but she knew it was what had to be done.
What snapped her out of her haze was hearing Miguel get off his phone. "So, my Dad has arranged for you to stay with an undercover officer for the time being. You will still be able to attend classes like usual, so police protection shouldn't interfere with your day to day life. It just looks like we'll have put up with being followed for a while until this thing is brought to a close."
"Thanks for helping me through all of this." Angela said as she hugged him. "I could never have asked for a better boyfriend." She finished kissing him.
"And I don't think I would ever finder a braver girlfriend." Miguel answered kissing her back.
At last the protection arrived and Angela was brought to the safe house. When Angela was settled, she sat down on the bed and started to cry again.
"Everything's going to be okay, Angela." Tikki said flying out of her purse. "You know you did the right thing."
"I know. But it still hurts so much. What's my father going to think when he finds out that I'm the one that turned him over to the cops?"
"Angela, he's your father, if he really loves you, he'll understand." Tikki said trying to help Angela calm down.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore Tikki." Angela said laying down. "But thanks for everything, Tikki. You know you're more than just my kwami, right? You're one of the best friends I've ever had."
"I know." Tikki said rubbing her cheek.
The next morning, Angela woke thinking that everything that happened the day before was just a dream, until she saw where she was and realized that it was all too real. She felt the same stab of pain from the day before, but she had to believe that she did the right thing and that it was for the best. When she was showered and ready for the day, she went down stairs and had a bowl of cereal before catching the bus to class. When she arrived, she was so happy to see Derek, Abbey, and Miguel waiting for her.
"Glad to see you made it today." Abbey said hugging her best friend.
"Yeah bra, when Miguel told us that you had finally gone to the cops about your old man, we thought that you'd be too upset to make it today." Derek said putting his hand on Angela's shoulder.
"I can't let my family's mistakes affect my life forever." Angela said hugging her friends.
"Now that sounds like the Angela I know." Miguel said giving Angela a kiss on the forehead. "Venga, we're going to be late for class if we don't hurry." Miguel said leading the group to class.
Angela heaved a sigh of relief. "Today is a new day." She whispered to herself.
Angela sat down in her usual place, with Miguel sitting just across from her, and with Jezebel still sending her that jealous death glare behind her. Angela still wasn't sure why Miguel had chosen her, but at the moment, she didn't really care. The man she loved liked her back, and she had to admit that he was even better at being a boyfriend than a friend. Angela liked to think that if her mother and Ms. Roland were still alive they would have said to her something like, 'You picked a good one,'.
After classes were over, Angela and Miguel returned to the safe house where the officers in charge of protecting Angela were waiting for Angela to offer more information. Angela sat down with Miguel next to her and told them about the security detail regarding her family's house, and who was who. She made a point of telling them about Brock and how he was more likely to cooperate with the authorities once confronted. Once the officers let her go, she and Miguel got started on their homework.
Once they finished, Miguel told Angela good night and left her alone with her protection detail. Angela went up to her new room and turned on the tv to the news. She had to be sure that this evening would let her have a moments peace after all the stress she had been under the passed couple of days. Unfortunately, she had no such luck.
"We are taking you to a live view of the sheer chaos that has erupted down town," the reporters called out above the noise of the city. "Creatures, machines, storms everything has seemed to come out of nowhere and the danger just keeps on coming with the appearance of a new villain that seems to be bringing to life the fears of every citizen in New York. The only questions this reporter can ask is, where are Ladybug and Cat Negro, and what will become of our beloved city?"
"Duty calls." Angela breathed.
"Just say the words." Tikki grinned.
"Tikki, Spots On!" Angela summoned.
Once she changed into Ladybug, she began her trip for downtown. Once there, she saw that the reporters were not exaggerating, she saw things happening in the city that shouldn't have even been in the city to begin with and everything was falling apart.
"I know this city has a way of bringing out people's secrets, but this is ridiculous." She heard from behind her.
"Not just their secrets, their deepest fears." Ladybug answered. "The only way this will stop is if we find the akuma and stop him."
"Like finding a needle in a haystack." Cat Negro commented as they looked at all the people and creatures that were running through the streets and buildings all around them.
"Ladybug, Cat Negro, let's see what fears lie behind those masks!" they heard from behind them.
They barely managed to dodge a large pillow that came close to slamming into both of them. After recomposing themselves, they finally saw who had tried to hit them, and they were stunned to see that the villain they had to stop was just a kid.
"Lucky dodge, but your luck will run out soon." The kid yelled from on top of his flying pillow. "I am Sandrew, and I won't stop until everyone has to face their fears."
"I was afraid of that." Ladybug said as she readied for what was sure to be a long night.
"I'm betting the akuma's in his pillow." Cat Negro said as they dodged pillow after pillow that seemed to be shot from the end of Sandrew's.
"That's a wager I'm pretty sure you'd win." Ladybug answered.
Too little too late, Ladybug tried to dodge a shot from behind, but was struck by a pillow. As she was hit, the pillow burst into a lavender colored dust. She did her best not to breathe it in, but apparently, breathing it in wasn't how the dust affected her. All it had to do was touch her and it could affect her. She tried to grapple her yo-yo around Sandrew, but she missed and instead managed to pull a brick chimney stack loose which then began to fall toward the people below.
"No!" Ladybug cried as she ran to get them out of the way.
Barely, just barely, she got them to safety in the nick of time. Cat Negro joined on the ground as she was trying to catch her breath.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine." Ladybug answered feeling her heart race after what she had almost done. "That's what I've always been afraid of, that even when I'm trying to do good, that all I'll do is end up hurting innocent people."
"But you didn't, you have saved more lives than anyone can imagine, and no matter what happens, you always find a way to make things right." Cat Negro answered rubbing her back.
"But how am I going to fix this if I can't touch him?" she asked.
"Maybe what we need is to get lucky." Cat Negro said winking at her.
"Lo tengo." Ladybug smiled. "Lucky Charm." She summoned. What appeared was a quart of milk. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
Looking around, she saw a cup from a street vendor, and a heating unit from a hot dog cart.
"I got it." She said. "Think you can keep the kid occupied?"
"Are you kidding, kids love me." Cat Negro winked going after Sandrew.
Ladybug grabbed the cup, poured the milk and stuck the cup in the heating unit. After a couple of minutes, poured the milk in the quart and caught up with Cat Negro as he was facing an evil version of her, listening to all the horrible things she was saying to him. Not far off, she caught sight of Sandrew and knew what she had to do. She grabbed Cat Negro and pulled him up on the light post to meet her.
"I need you told Sandrew still so he can drink this." She said once he was free from her yo-yo.
"How's that going to help?"
"Warm milk, a lot of kids fall back to sleep after they have warm milk."
"Lo tengo." Cat Negro answered. "You distract him, I'll grab him."
Ladybug caught up with Sandrew and did her best to keep his eyes on her. Thankfully, it worked long enough for Cat Negro to get close enough to get his arms around the little kid.
"Don't worry, this'll help you sleep." She said gently as she got close enough to feed the warm milk to the kid.
After Sandrew swallowed the last bit, he began to yawn and slowly fell asleep. Ladybug was then able to take his pillow and tear in two as the akuma fluttered out.
"No more terrorizing for you moth." She said readying her yo-yo for the capture. "Time to be purified." With the akuma captured, she released the butterfly. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she called tossed the carton and everything was returned to normal.
Sandrew was reverted back to his normal form and his mother came running forward for him. And Ladybug made a quick and sweet goodbye to Cat Negro before swinging off before she changed back to Angela two minutes later. Thankfully, the safe house wasn't far from where she changed back and it wasn't hard to explain to her protection detail where she hadn't been in the house. By the time she got to her room, she was ready to fall asleep herself.
"Maybe we'll get some peace and quiet tomorrow." She laughed while yawning.
"We can only hope." Tikki laughed.
