Chapter 21
Nino, Alya and Kagami sat at their commune in the living room together talking to Kagami, who had dealt before with Felix at the Agreste mansion.
"Good now that you know the truth, it got a little easier," Nino pointed out.
"I'm sorry you didn't knew this earlier," Alya apologized placing her arm behind Kagami's back to cheer her up.
"It's also my fault I didn't believe you right at the start. I was so convinced at the first that this was Adrien, but he somehow had just begun to use different sweeter words to me, which he never did before. I had find it a little weird,"
"Also that one smack he gave you on the day after he showed up and told about the kidnapping" Nino pointed out. "He's no man to be doing that to you, right?"
"He does certain kind of naughty stuff, but in private you know," Kagami told a little abashed at pointing that out.
"Okay"
"Look, I've noticed something suspicious the other night at the mansion. I saw Gabriel standing with a tray in front of his mother's painting in his office and he was passing his hands all over the painting, soon he had left the tray back somewhere and ran out of the office as Nino had gotten into the house to find you" Alya explained earning a nod from Kagami.
"He came up to Adrien's bedroom"
"Could behind that portrait be like a secret passage or a safe and Adrien is stuck there or something?" Nino suggested. "You know that house is so big and has variations of things only rich jocks make. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of hideout in there,"
"Or even a safety room" Alya added, making Kagami think on the first night she spent there with Adrien and she caught Gabriel on the telephone with an unknown person.
"Wait a minute" Kagami pointed out catching the attention of the couple. "A couple of days ago, the one day I came to meet his parents I've heard Gabriel talking on the phone and say something along with the sentence how do you think she would have reacted if I told her I akumatized everyone in Paris,"
"What else did he say?" Alya asked. "Do you remember?"
"He said Adrien was never in danger, only that time I was akumatized into Riposte" The blue-haired woman responded.
"Could Adrien's old man really have been Hawk Moth in the past few years?" Nino questioned wondering what Kagami had witnessed.
"Adrien wasn't 100% sure of it, since he had seen his father akumatized once, but never saw Hawk Moth in person at that time" Kagami explained. "He believed me but at the same time he was a little insecure if he should do anything or not,"
"Okay, girls I've got a plan. Kagami goes tomorrow back into the house like she's supposed to and tries to keep Gabriel away from the office. Alya goes into the office and tries to figure out if there's a secret passage on that painting or not. I'll be on the outside watching for any emergency" Nino told the group. "Any questions?"
"Why am I the one going into the office?"
"After what I did there, there's no way the gorilla is gonna let me into the house that easy. You on the other hand, you don't have a problem" Nino told his girlfriend.
"Alright, but be very attentive" Alya warned earning a nod from Nino.
"Don't worry babe, I'll do my best" Nino answered then watched the two women continue to talk.
The next morning Gabriel walked into the office with a plate with a pile of waffles on it, then placed it down on his feet and placed his hands on the painting of his wife to search for the secret keys and pressed them as he encountered them and grabbed the plate to descend down to the repository, where on the other end of the catwalk is the cryogenic pod where Emilie Agreste had been preserved during the time she was on a comatose state. Gabriel arrived on the bottom of the repository and walked across the catwalk to the end of the room to catch Adrien lie on the ground sleeping and with his right leg attached with a chain on the railing next to the catwalk. Gabriel noticed from the eight one-liter water bottles he let there for him to drink, then picked a full bottle to open it and looked back at his son, which began to open his eyes and Gabriel slowly helped Adrien to sat up, leaning against the pole of the railing.
"Here you need to drink, Adrien" Gabriel said leaning the bottleneck on Adrien's mouth. Adrien grabbed the bottle squirting a little water at his face from his firm touch on the bottle and drank by himself. "Here I've got your breakfast,"
"Why are you doing this to me?" Adrien asked placing the bottle down.
"You know Mrs. Tsurugi was against you and Kagami since the start, why did you two get married?"
"Because we love each other" Adrien answered. "Kagami is finally free from her over-controlling mother. She was happy, that I gave her the chance to escape from her mother's hands. Why can't Mrs. Tsurugi leave Kagami in peace? She's happy here with me,"
"I know, but she doesn't want that" Gabriel answered. "And she ordered me I should split up you two or she would ruin my life,"
"Of course, you're still thinking about yourself father like always. You never cared about my happiness even now, when I was so happy I and Kagami got married not even that you want to leave it for me!"
"It's a really delicate topic, Adrien, you wouldn't understand it"
"Explain me" Adrien demanded
"It's not as easy as it sounds Adrien," Gabriel pointed out.
"Has it something to do with this room here? Or my mother's whereabouts?" Adrien asked his father. "Has it to do with you in the past? Maybe, the reason you were rarely present was not only your job but I don't know…...your other you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"My wife heard you talking on the telephone the other day and heard how you had akumatized people in order to get Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous and the only thing you regret was that I had been a victim as you had akumatized Kagami to go after me,"
"Yes it's true I was the one akumatizing all people in the city, but you had to understand my side. You mother was gone, you were so sad about it and you didn't seem to cope with all of that, I couldn't handle it either, I missed your mother just as much as you did. This is how I came to the conclusion to use the moth miraculous and hope I would manage to get the miraculouses of Cat Noir and Ladybug soon enough,"
"And why did you never told me you were doing that?"
"I wanted…..I just did never find the perfect moment for me to do that,"
"You were neglecting me all those years hurting all my friends, including our family just for giving my mother her life back? You could have killed anyone by mistake, just to bring her back, I could have died too! I've been…..,"
"And you're not happy to have your mother back?"
"Of course I am! Just I don't like to know, it was this way!"
"There was no other way!"
"You could have asked Ladybug or me!" Adrien hissed. "You know protecting Paris from all your akumatizations wasn't also a piece of cake!"
"I know…..I know….you have the right to be angry at me" Gabriel mentioned. "But what happened I cannot take it back. I will have to move on knowing all that,"
"Yeah while the rest of the family thinks the opposite"
"What are you talking about? You just said you knew it,"
"Yes, but not mother. You lied to her about it,"
"I can't just tell your mother all that" Gabriel admitted. "This would put our marriage in danger,"
"So is mine, but why should I care about yours, if you don't even care about your own son's happiness in his marriage?" Adrien asked looking serious at his father. His father just turned around, then walked away leaving Adrien behind, which observed the adult head to the elevator to head back to the surface of the building.
Adrien looked at the flower-shaped waffle pile and removed a petal of the waffle, which looked like a shaped heart, which made Adrien sigh as he began to think of Kagami, wondering if everything was alright with his wife.