49 Amelie talks to Felix
Lila had made her threats and blackmailed her way into the world of high fashion and fame and then walked away, but Amelie did not pay attention to how much time had passed, she remained seated in her chair and observed the empty space before.
Long time ago she swore to herself that she will never use her own son to advance her business, whenever she saw Adrien not allowed to make pranks, she encouraged Felix to make one, they even did a few together.
When Emilie and Gabriel decided to have Adrien homeschooled, she encouraged Felix to go to school. And then the boy did not want to go. She was baffled, she was hurt by his arguments against going to school with commoners. It was hard, but she made it. Felix was going to school.
It was strange, when she thought about it now, how Felix was naturally inclined to become a person that Adrien was so meticulously brought up to be (and mostly failed). How they wanted Adrien sheltered and posh and how Felix was inclined to be sheltered and posh.
Amelie sighed as she watched a photograph of her brother in law, Felix did not want to be sheltered, he actually enjoyed being among people, she knew that, but it was often spiced up by his attitude and the way he always found faults with everyone and anything.
The two boys were painfully alike physically, so much so that it reminded Amelie each time that it wasn't her who had given birth to the boy. There were late nights or strange times when Amelie even imagined that Felix was in fact Adrien's twin.
She laughed at herself, that would have been much better situation what she had now, but the idea was driving her crazy. She did not remember the details, only the hospital, her sister changing and talking and doing something and when she left, there was a baby boy by her side.
It was far easier, in her narcotic induced state to tell herself that her sister had given birth to twins and decided to give one baby to her. That was in fact the story they told, so she decided to believe it, except, deep down inside, she knew there was more to it.
And then, a few years later, after a glass or a bouteille of the finest red wine, after Emilie had an argument with Gabriel and decided to spend an evening with her sister, where the two talked about the old days and their sons (and not their husbands).
That was the evening when Emilie told her everything, not just told her, her own sister demonstrated the powers she had! And then she told her about Felix and how he was made, the two of them barely conscious on a sofa in the living room.
The next morning was hard. The headache did not allow Amelie to talk to her sister again, to verify the informations she heard last night were correct. But the true reason was that Amelie did not want to know, she chose to remain ignorant and not to ask questions.
She wasn't sure how the whole thing worked. Felix passed the few medical exams that the school required. He was seldom ill and even then it seemed to go away on its own, weather or not she intervened with any medications, Felix was a healthy boy.
Unfortunately, Amelie wasn't the only one who knew the secret. Her husband must have known, but accepted the solution because it had drawn his beloved wife from that distant and dark mental place where she disappeared and locked herself into after she lost her child.
Gabriel obviously knew it too. Emilie surely told him. It was beyond doubt he knew. And he used it against her, subtly, each time they met. She put up with it with endless patience and gratitude towards them both, because she was given a son.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a son, it was a sentimonster, and Gabriel did not keep his mouth shut, or maybe he did not tell, but he definitely chose to reveal that fact to this awful girl who had just blackmailed her into making that girl the face of the new brand.
Amelie did not really have a choice, not if she wanted her sister and her son, then again she thought there was more to what Adrien and Marinette had told her, she suspected they knew more than they let on so she did her research.
And there it was, a mere insinuation, a gossip section, a social media dead end post of a student who visited the temple, discarded by everyone else as empty babble of a deranged villain who explicitly said that his wife made a sentimonster to replace the dead child of her sister.
That tiny piece of information never trended, it was dismissed and ignored by the media, it was taken as a mere excuse at best in those few comments that it received, the general information stated that Emilie fell ill and was in a coma, the reasons are being investigated.
But Amelie knew that Marinette and Adrien were there, and she was certain that the two teenagers heard and understood those words, they never told her, they never asked if it was true, what if they believed that, what if they told Ladybug and Chat Noir?
Besides, it was only a question of time before the police investigation stumbled upon that piece of information and it is rather questionable how well they covered all the traces behind them when they did it in the first place. If Lila read those files, anyone could.
The idea of telling Felix how he came to be was dismissed instantly. There was no way for her to tell him that. She was going to hide it, to deny it to everyone else as an obscure statement of a deranged lunatic who terrorized the city of Paris to resurrect his wife.
Except she wanted her sister back too. She was grateful beyond words to see that those monks were trying to bing her back, that Ladybug and Chat Noir were willing to take her there, even after everything her brother in law has done.
Felix arrived back to the hotel room just in time for dinner. He was still under impression from all of the events of the day as well as his strange reactions to the girls around him. He saw his exchange with Chloe as simple teasing, a way to annoy each other, nothing else.
But there was Kagami, a girl he did not read yet, she was on friendly terms with a few people and closed up to practically anyone else, well there was a whole class and she did not got to the same class as them, perhaps that was the reason?
The boy was so deep in thought about the girls who seemed to be after him, or maybe he wanted them to be after him, he even remembered what Lila did, that he failed to notice his mother's distressed state nor the way she paced nervously around the room.
"I have decided to order room service." Amelie mentioned offhandedly. Felix did not produce a coherent reaction, just a hand motion that amelie chose to interpret as 'as you wish'. The boy chose to store his school things and check the fencing aquipment.
"I had a visitor today and we have to discuss a few matters." She observed her son as she expected a reaction if she went far in her explanation and did not want to do that in the restaurant that was rather full on a Saturday evening.
Felix smiled obligingly and composed himself. He was about to have a conversation with his mother and he did not want to be a blushing mess and to be asked if he met any cute or interesting girls yet. He approached the small table that was full of papers.
"Very well, mother, care to tell me what this is about?" The boy bent over to remove papers from one seat in order to take it. He wasn't in the mood to tidy the table nor the space around, his mother had her system, she knew where each paper was and why it was there.
"Not now, let's wait for dinner first and you can take a shower in the meantime." She winked. Her hands instantly became busy, with a knowing look she fetched each document in the order she intended to store it and set them all on one single neat pile.
"Mind if I get a short shower first?" The boy asked offhandedly. He needed more time, he wanted a few more minutes just to compose himself and get those girls out from his head. He was going to have dinner with his mother, it was time to listen to her and how her day was.
"Care to tell me who visited?" Felix inquired while he collected a few things before going to the bathroom. It was just a casual thing, a simple question to demonstrate how he was paying attention to what she said, that he wasn't a scatterbrained teenager.
"It was your classmate, Lila Rossi." Amelie sounded very disappointed when she pronounced the name. She did not bother to act, she wasn't going to pretend in front her own son for that girl, oh no, she was going to be as honest as she could afford.
"Her?" What was she doing here?" The boy almost snarled. He made it quite clear with his reaction that his opinion on the girl wasn't flattering and he did not appreciate her company, but the same was true for many other people Felix ever met.
"She was here a few days ago too, as I mentioned, but this time … this time she showed her cards." The woman sounded defeated.
"What does she want?" The boy demanded quietly. He stood tall and crossed his arms. This was different than usual demeaning attitude, Amelie noticed, because her son usually simply dismissed other people as boring, pitiful or annoying.
"She wants to be the face of the new brand," Amelie replied quietly while looking at the floor, then she raised her face towards her son "alongside you." She whispered. That was the conversation she intended to have over dinner, more relaxed and less scared.
"And what did you say to that?" Felix put his hands on his hips and faced his mother fully. Because it did not look good, he did see his mother defeated before, even worse than this, once it was her sister, his aunt Emilie who went missing, the second time it was his father who died.
"I had to say yes, for now, but I will stall the deal, I will do anything so it doesn't happen." The woman promised and looked him straight into his eyes. She had no idea how she was going to get both of them out of this situation, but she was determined to find a way.
"Why?" The boy tilted his head lightly and observed his mother. He wanted to know, he demanded to know why his mother, this strong and caring woman, would bend to demands of a simple classmate of his. But his mother misunderstood the question.
"Because … I thought you don't like modelling, you don't want to do it and she is a bad choice after her reputation and collaboration with Gabriel and I really have a bad feeling about that girl and … " She trailed off in her explanation.
"No, I mean why would you do what she wants?" Felix clarified. "I don't like that girl, she forced herself on me and kissed me on my first day of school when she thought I was Adrien and now she's after me." Amelie quirk an eyebrow at that but did not comment, she was on a mission.
"This family has secrets, Felix, and she knows them all, she somehow got her hands into the files of your stupid uncle who kept everything on a computer and a cloud and ugh … he let that girl to have the access to them." She looked to the side.
"So what? Those are secrets of uncle Gabriel, not ours!" Felix protested. This made no sense to the boy. He wasn't going to make any favours to anyone for the sake of his uncle, and it was an unpleasant surprise for him that his mother would do so.
Although she stood in the middle of the room and her son stood by the wall, Amelie felt like it was her who was pushed against a wall. Of course, she had to justify to Felix why the two of them were to keep it a secret without telling him what those secrets were.
"Room service." There was a knock at the door.
"I will tell you later, go take a shower!" Amelie whispered and waited for her son to enter the bathroom before she called the room service to enter.
Five minutes later refreshed Felix sat on a cleared up chair while dinner was served on a cleared up table and his mother sat on another cleared up chair, the papers were neatly collected on a pile on a desk by the window.
Felix took a seat and observed the dinner without telling a word to his mother, he waited for her to start talking about whatever family secret that was that she wanted to protect so much so that she agreed to Lila's terms.
"My sister had this nice brooch, in the shape of a peacock, I think I should have it now." Amelie smiled at Felix, but it was forced, it was strained, she struggled to say only as much as was absolutely necessary and hoped her son would get it.
"Isn't that the peacock miraculous, mother?" Felix inquired. It started to make sense, it was a secret about his aunt, his mother's sister, of course she wanted to protect her sister. But that was bothering him. Why would she give him to Lila just to protect that secret?
"You are such a smart boy." Amelie smiled gently. "So I think you already know who might have the peacock brooch and the pin." She suggested. Emilie was able to control sentimonsters with the brooch, and she needed the pin because then she might control Lila.
"You mean those two who took them?" He replied rather flatly. "I am aware they said they returned them to Ladybug and Chat Noir … " Felix folded his hands and observed his mother. There was something odd, something was not adding up, she was hiding something from him.
"But they might have been allowed to hold on to them as a reward as a some sort of souvenirs?" She smiled knowingly. It was a far cry, but she had to start somewhere. She needed the brooch if she wanted to control Felix and make him do what she needed him to do.
"It is either that or the two of them are Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves." He replied. Nah, the two of them were definitely not the heroes in his eyes, too pathetic for that. Although, Ladybug knew Adrien well enough to distinguish him from Felix during his last visit.
But he liked theories. Especially conspiracy theories, the crazier the better, not that he believed in any of them, he was above that, he merely enjoyed to see how far human stupidity would go, for the sake of entertainment of course, and a prank or two.
"But in the interview we saw … " She noted, but then she saw the teasing glint in Felix's eyes and she knew he was teasing her, she smiled back, he was such a dork, he often sold such stories and then laughed at people who believed him, it was his kind of prank.
"It could have been an illusion or some other kind of magic." He realized a way to continue his wild theory, he was ready to develop it further, but then he changed his mind. "But I doubt Adrien and Marinette are able to do anything like that." They were too dull for him.
"We have to find the pin and the brooch." She looked through the window. "Then we can learn what happened with Emilie and if there is any way to help her." Suddenly she felt like she was drowning, because her plan might also lead Felix to the truth she wanted to hide.
Felix got quiet and his mother walked away.
"I know you, mother, but you're wrong. I just spent a week with my boring cousin and his pathetic girlfriend and I'm sure they don't have a clue." Felix whispered and took out his phone, then he sighed before he typed a message to Lila.
"You still consider me a child mother, but if Lila knows anything, I'm going to get that from her and then I'm going to make her fell sorry she ever tried to force you and me into anything." Then his face assumed a cold and cruel expression while he typed away.