Chloé had wanted to swear and hit something when she'd noticed that all of her well earned money were gone from her account. She had called her bank to ask them about it, and they had told her what she'd been suspecting. Her mother had told her lawyers some lies and gotten Chloé's bank account emptied in a matter of seconds. There wasn't anything Chloé could do about it, though, and that made her angrier than she'd been in years.

She almost felt like canceling her lunch with her father. But she had to go there and talk to him. She didn't want to ruin the mood by telling him about her mother's doing, but she had to. He had to know why she needed money and what for.

She made herself ready for lunch and decided to bring her purse and jacket with her this time. She was planing on going out after the lunch and didn't feel like walking back up to her room to get all her things.

She left her room and took the elevator down to the first floor. She walked toward the dining area, but instead of walking into it like she'd done during breakfast, she took the door that led into the kitchen and walked toward the red door on the other side of the kitchen that led to the secluded dining room where she and her father's lunch would take place.

Her father were already sitting by the table when she got there, but he wasn't alone. Next tom him sat his wife, Louise, who shined up the moment her gaze fell on Chloé.

Her stepmother stood up and waited for Chloé to come closer before she hugged her. As Louise let go of Chloé, she placed both of her hands on each of Chloé's shoulders and looked at her with a big smile.

"I'm so happy that you are back with us, Chloé. It's been quite lonely without you here." Louise said as she let go of Chloé and sat back down on her seat.

"It's nice to be back home." Chloé explained before she herself sat down by the table on the opposite side of where her father and stepmother were seated.

Her father greeted her and told her about each dish that stood on the table and Chloé made sure to taste a little of each. It didn't feel different from every other time she had eaten together with her father, even if her stepmothere were there. It almost felt better having more than only two people by the table.

None of them said anything about New York or her mother. Chloé didn't want to speak about any of that either and ruin their lunch. But she had to say something and let them know why she needed money. She didn't want to turn back into the spoilt kid she'd used to be when she was younger and expect everything on a silver spoon.

She chewed her food and swallowed before she broke the silence.

"I need some money for a new phone and a pair of shoes." she said and made a effort to not sound as demanding as she felt those words sounded like.

"Don't you already have a phone?" Louise asked her and eyed her a bit suspicious. "And shoes?"

"I only got one pair of shoes with me, and I don't have any left here and my phone looks like this." she explained and took up her phone from her bag to show it to Louise who made a face at the cracked screen. "It barely works."

She placed her phone on the table and looked from Louise to her father who seemed to be deep in thoughts. Maybe it was wrong of her to ask about money? As far as she knew she would live at the hotel for free until she got her own place, unless her father had other thoughts. But he hadn't said anything about it.

"Don't you have your own money?" Louise asked when her husband didn't say a word.

"Not anymore. My mother called her lawyers and they emptied my bank account. I would never ask for money unless I really needed it. I'm going to get a job, but right know I'm totally broke and unemployed." she explained and turned to her father. "You don't have to give me anything. You have done enough for me as it is. I can use my phone, and there's nothing wrong with my shoes either."

Her father turned to Louise who nodded at him before he turned to Chloé.

"I will give you some money for a new phone and a new pair of shoes and let my lawyers know about your mother's doing and see if they can do anything about it. We don't have to talk more about that for now. Have you talked to you sister?" her father asked and gave his wife a short nod before he turned back to eating his lunch.

"We are eating lunch tomorrow and then she's going to show me her apartment." Chloé explained.

"That sounds nice. Let me know if there's anything I can do for Zoé. I do know a lot of good doctors here in Paris and I'm sure all of them would be willing to help her."

"I will let her know that." Chloé said and smiled at her father who smiled back.

Their lunch ended a couple of minutes later and her father left almost instantly for a meeting that he was going to have. That left Chloé alone with her stepmother.

"I hope you didn't mind me asking those questions." Louise said.

"Not at all."

Chloé didn't think much about it. Sure, she thought it had been a little weird that her father had stayed quiet when she'd asked for money, but that wasn't uncommon for him.

"It's just that, André has told me about how Audrey used to ask him for money all the time and he never knew where they went. You can't blame me for wanting to question you about it, right?"

It sounded like something her mother would do and something her father wouldn't think twice about. But Chloé was his daughter and sure, she'd wanted to be just like her mom in the past, but not anymore. She wanted to be better, and it saddened her that her father would think she'd do the same thing as her mother.

"I'm not like her." Chloé said and didn't hide the anger she felt from hearing Louise's explanation.

"I'm just looking after my husband. I know you're not like Audrey."

"Do you?" Chloé questioned.

Louise didn't say anything and Chloé didn't want to talk anymore. She took her purse and her phone and left the dining room. She walked through the corridor and left the hotel at the exit by the lobby. She thought about calling a taxi, but decided not to. She'd rather walk and clear her mind.

She reached the mall half an hour later and walked straight toward her favourite store. She didn't check if her dad had given her any money, but she assumed he'd done that by now.

"Hello and welcome, let me know if you need any help!" a young woman said as Chloé entered the store.

"Yes, I will keep that in mind." Chloé muttered as she walked past the woman and walked toward the shoe section.

She took a look at each of the shoes that were standing there and tried to figure out which one she wanted. In New York she'd worn mostly high heeled shoes both to work and whenever she went out, but she didn't want to buy that kind if she only could afford one set of shoes until she got a job and earned her own money.

After some moments of thoughts, she decided to choose a pair of black boots that were similar to the ones she already had. The only difference where that they had no high heel and were suited for a warmer climate.

She took the pair to the checkout and, to her own delight, succeded to pay for them without any trouble. At least something good had happened this day and hopefully everything would get even better.

As she left the store, she decided to go and look for a new phone. She didn't know exactly what kind of phone she wanted. Did she want a similar to what she already had or something newer and fancier?

As she walked toward the phone store, she looked straight ahead and caught a glimpse of red hair a few meters in front of her. She slowed down and the moment she realised who it was that was walking toward her, Chloé turned around and went into the first store that were closest so that she could hide from her former best friend.

She walked farther into the store and noticed that she had entered a music store. She did like music, but as far as she could remember she'd never been into a music store before. When she was sure that Sabrina had walked past the music store, Chloé decided to stay and look around.

Guitars were hanging on the walls, a few keyboards stood on a row and a grand piano was placed in the middle of the room. There were a lot of other instruments in the store too, but she didn't know what any of them were called. It was quite a big room for being a music store, at least that what she assumed.

She walked up to one of the keyboards and pressed down a few keys which sounded awful. But that didn't stop her from doing it even more and when it started to sound somewhat good she noticed that someone were standing not far away from her.

She turned around and was about to say something about being lost or some other thing that would make her look like a utter fool. But no words came out from her mouth as her gaze fell on the guy that were standing in front of her.

He had a curious look on his face and had the most beautiful blue eyes Chloé had ever seen before. A shy smile spread on his lips when neither of them said a word. But the smile fell when the guy realised who she was, and it didn't take Chloé any longer to realise who he was either.

"Can I help you with anything?" he asked through gritted teeth.

She backed away and shook her head.

"I didn't know you worked here." she said.

"I own this store." Luka told her.

She nodded and looked around.

"It's nice." she commented.

The only thing Luka did was to nod and give her a strange glance. Neither of them said a thing and when a customer entered the store Luka left her and went to help them instead.

She looked at him for a few seconds before she decided to leave the store. If she had known it was his store, she'd never gone into it to begin with. She'd rather meet Sabrina and face her fury or just get ignored by her. Either way would be so much better than meeting Luka and that was exactly what she'd done.

She walked toward the phone store and didn't bother looking at any of the people that was walking in front of her. She didn't want to meet any more old classmates or their brothers. But with her luck lately she might end up meeting all of them before the end of the day.

She got into the phone store and walked directly toward the phones she usually got. No one greeted her as she walked through the store, but that didn't bother her at all. She picked up two phones, one that was just like the one she already had and another that was a newer model. She decided to place the newer model back on the shelf when she noticed the price and took the other one to the checkout.

She bought it with no trouble and when she was done she left the store and walked the opposite way so that she didn't have to walk past the music store again.

As she exited the mall and started walking back to her father's hotel she slowed down and walked slower than she usually did. She was in no hurry to get back, mostly because she didn't have anything to do. She didn't have any friends, and she wasn't going to meet her sister until tomorrow.

Her life in New York had been exiting. She had been on parties and gone on some dates. She had worked and meet a lot of different people, but she had not gotten one single friend during those four months. Now she was back in Paris, and nothing had changed during these four months.

Everyone still hated her even if she hadn't done anything toward them for years. She could understand why Luka hated her and Sabrina too. She had not been a good friend to either of them. In fact, she had been horrible, and looking back at her own behaviour made her realise that they had all right to hate her.

She had ruined everything without even caring and now she was all alone in her hometown. She didn't even have Pollen anymore and would probably never get her Miraculous back. If Ladybug were smart, as Chloé knew she was, she'd never entrust Chloé with the Bee miraculous again. There must be someone out there that was more worthy of it because everyone knew Chloe Bourgeois wasn't.