"I heard there was a new student in your class." Gabriel stated to his son over breakfast.
He knew of her the instant she was assigned to his Adrien's class. All his classmate's and their parent's backgrounds had been checked by him. Their social media accounts, he monitored personally. Gabriel knew them all by name, face and address, but he wouldn't tell his son that— Adrien didn't like it when he came off as overprotective.
"Her name is Lila. Her mother works at the embassy." Adrien answered.
"I believe I've seen her do an interview on another one of your classmate's blog. If you have yet to see it, she said she was a close friend to Paris's resident hero Ladybug. That must be interesting."
That was the real reason he was bringing her up.
Alya, the girl who ran the blog, was perhaps stupidly dedicated. Chasing after akumas and putting herself in the line of constant danger— all in service of getting what was happening out there— of course the Ladybug miraculous always fixed any injuries she might receive in her endeavors, but one day when he won she would be stuck with whatever injuries occurred, if any. Gabriel remembered her akuma had been obsessed with finding and showing everyone the truth about Ladybug. Her emotions had been quite needlepoint and she needed little guidance.
So when Lila Rossi appeared on her blog saying she knew Ladybug personally, and that they hung out often, Gabriel Agreste believed it. He estimated Ladybug was near her age. It wasn't out of the question for her to be a little bit irresponsible with her identity and seek to spend time with children her age. Even his Adrien sought the company of others his age.
If he kidnapped her, he wouldn't use her as bait— he would make her talk. Asking nicely for her identity the first time, of course. After that, he can't say he didn't try to be kind.
In the case that this Lila didn't know her identity and therefore couldn't tell him, he had a different avenue to exploit. Since his son was in her class, If he became close friends with her that could give him access to Ladybug, seeing how Ladybug had a crush on his Adrien— he had realized that in time he gambled and sent an akumatized villain after his civilian self— it likely wouldn't take too much to get him in on their hangouts.
"Oh yeah— um, she lied about that actually. I was sitting with her on a park bench and Ladybug herself came over and told her she didn't like people lying about her."
Then said plan was quickly destroyed. He lightly tapped his index finger on the table.
"I see."
Perhaps he greatly overestimated Ayla then.
"I tried telling her it was dangerous to lie about things like that, but I don't really think she… understood."
She now wasn't in danger because of a series of happenstances. Lila Rossi happened to be in the class Hawk Moth's child went to. Ladybug happened to tell Lila not to lie about her while next to his son. He happened to ask about her for more information instead of immediately jumping the gun.
Adrien was blissfully unaware of the danger he had mentioned was sitting across the table from him.
Gabriel looked at him for a moment before looking down at his tablet, the frozen image of Lila looking back at him. Thoughts of kidnapping seconds ago had been brewing in the back of his head.
"Indeed it is." He responded, and closed the page.