43 Lila's deal
warning: this chapter might make you sick
Lila watched, hidden behind some bushes as the rest of her class filed from the school. First it was Chloe who stormed into her limo, without Felix, and quarter of an hour later there was the rest of the group, Felix included, who wandered off in the direction of the Seine.
Therefore, Felix did not head straight back to the hotel, she waited to oh so accidentally meet him. That was just as well, perhaps even better for her plan. She was going to flip the whole class in her favour, she was going to get what she wanted one way or another, and she knew how to get there.
"Hello Mme Graham de Vanily." Lila greeted in her usual falsely sweet tone while she smiled slyly and fluttered her eyelashes. She faced the woman determined to enter her hotel room. Amelie just returned from the fencing tournament that Lila did not bother to attend.
"Oh, hello Mlle Rossi." Amelie used the surname intentionally. "I haven't noticed you on the fencing tournament. The whole class was there apparently. Felix won both duels, I'm so proud." She exclaimed. "But I'm afraid he is not here, he went to celebrate with his friends."
"That is perfectly fine, Mme Graham de Vanily, you see, I am here to see you." She smiled slyly again. There was something predatory in that smile and Amelie braced for impact. "I brought here the contract you offered me few days ago."
"Oh, have your mother signed the contract?" Amelie knew for a fact that she did and she already had her copy safely stored. But she had to know what this girl wanted and why was she here, because now the contract stated that they were finished.
"Well, I came here to negotiate the terms of my contract." The girl continued in even sweeter tone, the one that pierced eardrums because it was false. Amelie was ready to slam the door into her face, no matter how she was brought up to be elegant, gentle and understanding.
"I do not see how you wish to negotiate your contract now, the work was done, you have been paid and I have to deal with what is left of the company." The woman struggled to remain calm and composed although she never showed an ounce of distress.
"I was thinking of a new contract, with new terms, and if it is for a new brand … " Lila trailed off, but then she smiled widely. "Your brand." She put her hand on Amelie's forearm and the woman pulled away surprised.
"Weather or not it is going to be my brand is a matter of negotiations." Amelie knew better than to continue, it was supposed to be announced by someone else, major Bourgeois had substantial impact as the city of Paris got most of the shares.
"Well, I am here to negotiate then." Lila was not deterred and she sounded as if she was the city mayor and not a mere teenage girl with a diplomat mother. There was something sinister in her smile and Amelie did not find it pleasant at all.
"What makes you think you are in any position to negotiate anything? I would like to thank you for your services, the debt to you had been paid and if the future brand will ever need your services you shall be contacted." Amelie offered in her straight to business tone.
"You see, I do have access to all the files on the Agreste cloud, I know what he did and why … and I know what his late wife did … for you." She continued to speak in false sweetness but much quieter than before.
Amelie stared with her eyes open, yes that was a girl accused for collaboration with Hawk Moth, her young age supported by a diplomatic passport had freed her from a more serious punishment and of course she appeared at her door with demands. But Amelie dealt with snakes before.
Lila stepped into the hotel room like she owned the place. The living room part was full of papers just like she remembered, but this time those were different papers, Amelie was really taking over the company.
"What do you want?" Amelie asked in a gentle tone but her eyes were ready to pierce holes in the girl that stood there in the middle of the hotel room and carelessly walked around, even stepped on a few papers, possibly intentionally.
She did not ask what the girl knew, she was too scared to ask, all her fears hidden behind a confident and polite exterior that she always showed, to anyone. She definitely knew what could have been written in those notes if Gabriel was as careless as he obviously was.
"I was reading the notes and the diaries of Gabriel Agreste." The girl stated solemnly. To Amelie, that was the first news that such things existed. She should have known. "Better known, oh no, equally known as Hawk Moth." Lila grinned.
"Notes and diaries?" Amelie raised her eyebrows. She did not have to act that she was surprised, of course a business man was expected to have some notes related to the way he handled business but she knew that Lila was not referring to those, for sure, Amelie had those, they were boring.
"Yes, his private notes and diary about family and his private activities that we are all too familiar with." Lila confirmed Amelie's worst fears. "I can assure you there is all kind of evidence beside the notes and they make a really interesting reading.
"I see … " Amelie did not show just how disturbed she felt, did she have the luxury to play dumb and pretend she did not know? That was not going to help her against this girl.
The woman gathered her composure, this girl had more information, probably knew what happened to her sister, or at least had information from which more expert eyes were going to discern what actually happened and might be able to help.
"I have noticed how much Felix looks like Adrien. Everyone did. He even fooled me on his first day of school." She smirked. "But according to the notes from Gabriel, that is to be expected, because Felix was created on Adrien's image, wasn't he?" She grinned.
Amelie watched the girl and did not change expression the slightest from mild interest, her eyes nor mouth did not twitch, she was used to tough business talks and negotiations, not on everyday basis, but she had more than a few in her life, and she never lost her nerve.
It was useless to either confirm or deny the claim, she kept quiet and listened to what the girl knew, thought she knew and what she expected to get. Any reaction would only encourage further claims. Amelie steeled herself for whatever was going to come out from the girl's mouth.
"Adrien stated it rather clearly that he never intended to model again." Lila knew that was a lie and Amelie saw through it, the boy did not want to promote his father, but after she took over and transformed the company, the boy had time to change his mind.
In fact, Amelie understood perfectily Adrien's reasons, she was not going to force him to be a model, it would have been useful, a boy who fought and defeated a supervillain that turned out was his father was definitely instant fame and a rebel all in one. It was bound to sell.
"However, Felix looks so much like him, he could easily take over his spot." The girl continued to elaborate her plan. Amelie knew where this was going, and she knew that that plan was bound to fail every step of the way.
Felix loved to pretend to be Adrien on his own terms, yes he was able to do it and did it perfectly a few times, but he did it out of his own free will ad his own pace and pleasure, he was bad at assuming a pose at command, to smile at command, to pretend to like someone he did not.
"Therefore, I propose to replace Adrien with Felix as the male face of the brand and keep me as a women's face of the brand. That would definitely help the brand keep its … " She spoke with so much self confidence and then stopped because the woman was … laughing?
Amelie flipped from being panicked and concerned and worried and scared to a nervous, frantic, perhaps even hysterical laugh within a minute. This girl had information that could crush her and her son, but at the same time she was so stupid and naive, without the ability to see a big picture.
"Oh, dear girl." Amelie laughed. "Felix would never accept your plan, he would simply hate it, there is no way in the world to make him model something the way Adrien did. They might look alike, but they are completely different persons."
Actually, he would make an excellent model, if one wanted serious, distant, mocking or strict, and the boy would not accept just any clothing item thrown his way, he actually loved suits and ties so it wasn't a big deal, but she would need someone else for the casual line.
Amelie just did not thing that having the rest of the team, like designers and stylists and make up and everyone to walk on his tiptoes and satisfy every boy's whim just to be on his good side and maybe get a useful photo …
"And you." The woman laughed harder. "To be a face of the brand that aims to distance itself from Gabriel Agreste and whatever he did as Hawk Moth? I haven't heard at a more ridiculous proposal for a long time and I just spent a week with Audrey Bourgeois."
Lila fumed, she did expect to be objected, but not laughed at, and so airily, so naturally so … not forced, not acted? She was really laughed at. At first it sounded strange but it was a laugh, and even if Amelie was only acting, Lila was still baffled by the reaction.
"I'm really sorry, Mlle Rossi." Amelie did what she could to stop laughing so hard. "But your face screams liaison with Hawk Moth and that is exactly what we do not want to have. Yes we all believe you can grow up to be a nice person, but the face of a new brand? No!"
Lila scowled, she was ready to scream, to fume, to continue with her threat but she was cut off. She had more things to say, more intimidating and scary secrets to share.
"I think I know what my brother in law promised you, it wasn't just money, it was Adrien, wasn't it? And now you want Felix just because he looks like him, well Felix is not Adrien, they are hardly similar once you learn to know them and I doubt you really know any of them." Amelie stated.
The girl got baffled, yeah she did not know Adrien, no she did not even care to know him, she cared to own him, to be seen by his side, to be in a commercial or in an add or in a photo shoot with him so she had photos that she was able to shove in Marinette's face and be adored by Adrien's fans.
"They are not a prize to be won, neither Adrien nor Felix. You don't have a face that would sell much but yourself, and only temporarily. The new brand needs someone new and genuine, someone who is not there for their fifteen minutes of fame." She explained it to the girl like a teacher.
Lila composed herself back, she did not care if this woman liked her, she did not care if she wanted her, appreciated, valued or acknowledged her idea, because she had an ace up on her sleeve that was going to make that woman accept it and play her game the way Lila wanted.
"I know why Felix is so much like Adrien." She spoke slyly and confidently. "I know he is a sentimonster created by your sister." She did not actually spit the words out the way she wanted, but she waited and observed the reaction, she got Amelie's attention just like she wanted.
"And I have documents Gabriel collected that prove that." Well, in fact those were not really documents, just some stuff he noted in his files, but Lila saw them as proof and right now, even that was sufficient for Amelie to listen very carefully.
"You are going to make Felix and me the power couple of the new company, you are going to make us the new faces of the brand, we are going to appear together on a cover of each journal and on every billboard in the city." Her olive green eyes glowed as she elaborated her plan.
Amelie shook her head, suddenly Chloe's proposal to be the new face of the brand seemed entirely sane and logical move, the idea of Audrey to make Marinette Dupain Cheng, a fourteen year old girl a lead designer of the new brand began to sound reasonable.
Amelie did not dismiss both ideas as crazy, just highly inconvenient, Chloe was a brat and unsuitable for a job of a model who had to obey orders from others all the time, in that sense, she would make even more trouble than Felix.
And Marinette was definitely talented designer who started to make herself known, but she was just a fourteen year old girl and despite being exactly what the brand needed, a girl who defeated Hawk Moth, she was just a girl and needed her childhood.
The plans to include both her nephew and his girlfriend in the making of the new brand were based on the fact that Amelie considered them children, too young to take on too many obligations and expected them to enjoy it as if it was some sort of a game, the way she treated Felix.
"Because, if you don't, I will release that information to the public and then the whole world will know that your sister used a miraculous to create monsters and one of those monsters is Felix that you pretend to be your son." Lila smiled wickedly.
Amelie negotiated many business deals, her heart never missed a beat, her breathing was never loud, heavy or erratic, but in each of those deals, she could loose only money and some other material possessions, here, this girl was threatening with Felix, her son, and her sister.
That was a low blow, so low that she never expected it, and she had Gabriel Agreste for a brother in law, she was related to Hawk Moth and she was unable to foresee this blow coming. It was so low and so strong that she felt as if the floor under her feet was slipping.
And she was alone in this, if she admitted to anyone how Lila, a teenage girl had threatened her, they would have laughed at her, and if she admitted how, then Ladybug and Chat Noir would have destroyed Felix, and she was not going to lose him too.
She was not able to call the police nor the heroes, she was not able to tell anyone of what kind of evil had pushed her against the wall. Even if she accepted to lose Felix only to get her sister back, Emilie's name was about to be ruined.
She had to accept this deal, for now, and she had to find a way out of it. She had ways out of it, she wanted to pull out, she negotiated with Audrey and Andre Bourgeois about the terms with which the company was going to do business, and now she had this …
"Don't think you can just pull out your investment and push the company into bankruptcy, I will also release the information if you do that." She continued. "And I know that sentimonsters can be controlled so I trust you will control Felix and make him be just the way I want him."
Amelie stared at the girl. She always believed there was some good in people, she believed that Gabriel Agreste had good sides, she had to for her sister, she accepted his flaws and the man as a member of her family, but she was not sure what this girl was.
"I don't know what happened to you in your life to treat other people this way but you really need help and what you're getting might be insufficient." Amelie spoke calmly and quietly, she held her hands in front of her and she wasn't shaking.
"The new brand is only being negotiated and I am not the only factor that decides about it, but you can count on me to carry your proposal once the situation calls for it. It is too early right now to set up such an agreement, I hope you can exercise patience and wait a little." The woman waited.
"I will wait, but if this is some scheme to trick me, be aware of the information I have." Lila narrowed her eyes. "And I expect you to support me socializing with Felix on any occasion I see fit in the meantime."
"Of course." Amelie smirked. Felix was well known for being an obnoxious prankster and she intended to let him have his way if this girl insisted on having him.
Lila had one more ace up her sleeve. She knew that a wedding ring was used to store the amok. She also looked and Amelie's hands and did not see any. But she remembered rather clearly that Gabriel had a wedding ring on his pictures.
She assembled a mail and send it, she promised help for Gabriel if he sent her the ring.