Things changed after that night. Adrien and Marinette still spent time with each other like they always did but every night after dinner Adrien would ask Marinette.

"Marinette do you love me? Will you marry me?"

And she would always answer.

"No Adrien."

It always made Adrien so sad when she said no and it would always make her so guilty. She was so confused about her feelings for him. She was convinced that she saw him only as a friend but it still upset her greatly when she saw how sad he was after she said she didn't love him and she refused to marry him. One night just before bed she heard the howling noise again. She followed it and found Adrien clawing his face.

"Stop!" She cried forcing him to put his arms down. "Stop it! Please stop! What are you doing?"

"Forgive me." He howled in shame. "Forgive me."

"For what?"

"For being a beast. A horrible beast!"

"Please don't. Stop." She pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face. "Please don't hurt yourself and please don't say such things. You may look like a beast but you are gentle and kind and good. You do not deserve pain."

"How can you show kindness to me when I am such a wretched creature?"

"You are not wretched, you are my friend and I will not my friend suffer."

She cleaned him up and then helped him into bed. Later that night she had another dream about the prince, in this one they were dancing together in the ball room. She was wearing rosy, blush pink, french lace gown and dainty slippers. Around her neck were the pink pearls Adrien gave her and her hair was down in waves with a pink rose comb in it. She enjoyed the dance but noticed how sad the prince looked.

"What's wrong?" She asked him. "You look sad."

"Please ignore my sadness."

"But I don't like it when you're sad. I want you to be happy."

"I'll never be happy until..."

"Until what?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"I just can't. All I can say is, I love you dearly Marinette and all I want is your happiness."

Everything around her faded into darkness and she began to her father calling out her name weakly.

"Marinette...Marinette...Marinette..."

"Father!" She gasped waking up. It was then she understood that it had been weeks since she had thought of her father. She couldn't believe how much she had forgotten him. She had forgotten her father, her stepsisters, Nathaniel, everything from her old life. Had she really forgotten it all?

Pollen arrived later to draw her bath while Tikki brought her a new gown, slippers, and comb. They were the same gown, comb, and slippers from her dream. She did her hair the same way it was in the dream and put on the pearls Adrien gave her. He wasn't at breakfast this morning which made her worry but Trixx assured her that he was okay. After eating breakfast she walked down a hallway until she stopped at very tall but beautiful mirror.

"Oh Father I wish I could see you." She sighed. The mirror glowed and her reflection changed into an image of her father. He was bed, deathly ill. Coughing and hacking. "Father? Father!"

But he didn't respond and the image faded. She fell to her knees, buried her face in her hands, and started to cry. Her father looked so weak and so sick, he looked like he wouldn't last long. She looked up at the sound of footsteps, looking into the mirror she thought she saw the prince from her dreams standing behind her looking greatly concerned. But she led herself to believe that it was her imagination when she turned around to see Adrien instead.

"Marinette are you alright?" He asked her.

"Adrien my father is sick, he maybe dying. I have to go back. Oh please let me go back. I don't if I could ever live with my self if he were to die."

She tearfully begged him to let her go. At first Adrien was going to say no but she looked so sad and so afraid. He knew that look, he knew that feeling, he had both when his mother was ill. He couldn't remember how many times he wished his father would have let him go to her as she lay dying in bed. He couldn't bring himself to put Marinette through that but he couldn't stand if she were to leave him forever. He couldn't bear to be all alone in the dark again. He knew that if Marinette were to abandon him he would surely die of a broken heart.

"I don't want you to go." He said. "But I love you dearly and I cannot bear to see you suffer. I will let you leave."

"You will?"

"Yes, I'm sure if your father sees your smiling face again he will be well again but I need you much more than he does."

"What do you mean?"

"I have been alone for so long and during that time I learned to live with it but things are different now. I love you Marinette with all my heart and I couldn't bear it if you were to leave me and never come back. So you must promise me that you will only stay for one week and that you will return to me when the week is over."

"Oh promise! Oh yes I promise!" She cried joyfully.

"Alright then here." He placed the ring he proposed to her with in her hand. "Twist this on your finger three times and you will be home and when you are ready to come back twist three times again."

"Thank you, thank you so much. Oh how can I ever repay you?"

"By not abandoning me, I was abandoned once before and I could hardly survive. If you leave me forever I know I will die."

"Die?"

"I love you too much to live without you Marinette. I couldn't possibly bring my self to continue living if I could never again see your beautiful face, hear your sweet voice, and feel your kind touch. So please come back to me when the week is over or I will die of grief and loneliness."

"I promise. I'll come back in one week."

He brought her hand up to kiss again then reluctantly let it go.

"Goodbye my Princess Marinette."

Once she was alone she put the ring on her finger, closed her eyes, and twisted the ring three times. When she opened her eyes she was back home in her old bedroom. Behind her was a trunk which was filled with all her gowns, jewels, and other things that Adrien had given her. Though they didn't matter to her right now, she left her bedroom and went upstairs to her father's room.

"Father?" She said entering his room.

"Marinette." He said weakly. "Am I dreaming?"

"No Father I'm here. I've come home."

"Oh Marinette."

The two shared a warm and long awaited embrace.

"I thought I'd never see you again." He said. "How did you escape?"

"I didn't he let me go."

"Tell me the creature, did he hurt you?"

"No father he treated me well but we can talk about that later. Here let me get you something to eat."

She went downstairs to the kitchen where Chloe and Sabrina were fighting over the last roll only to look at her in horror when they saw Marinette.

"Chloe, Sabrina, so good to see you." She said.

"Marinette?" Sabrina said.

"My God are you not dead?" Chloe asked.

"Oh no I'm very much alive."

The two girls were very surprised. For these past few months they had hoped that Marinette had been torn to shreds by the beast or that she had been forced to horrible labor that left her looking like some dirty hag. So when they saw her radiant and looking like a princess they became very angry and jealous.

"My, my what a lovely dress and jewels." Sabrina said.

"Yes you're dressing up like a little princess while we're here living in poverty." Chloe said.

"Well clothes or not I'm still same the person." Marinette replied. "Now if you'll excuse me I would like to cook dinner for my father."

She went back to her room and changed out of her gown and jewels replacing them with her regular apron and work clothes. Then she began cooking some hot soup for her father. Within two days Tom was nursed back to health and he was overjoyed to have his daughter back. Word soon spread through the twon of her return and when Nathaniel heard that Marinette had come back more beautiful than ever he rushed over to her house. There she sat next to her father, sipping tea, wearing the slik red gown, red rose comb, and ruby earrings Adrien had given her.

"Hello Nathaniel." She greeted. "Would you like some tea?"

"I haven't seen you in months and the first thing you do is ask to serve me?" He chuckled. "Marinette I'm glad you're back and I see you've become ten times more beautiful."

"She's not that pretty!" Chloe snapped.

"So I'm curious Marinette what was it like living with that monster?" Nathaniel asked.

"Yes did he mistreat you in any way?" Tom asked.

"No. Father when I was with Adrien-"

"Adrien?"

"That's his name."

"It has a name?" Nathaniel said surprised. "I didn't know monsters had names."

"He is not a monster!" She defend angrily. "Anyway I was well taken care of with Adrien. He gave an elegant bedroom filled with beautiful gowns, jewels, perfumes, everyday a new gown was made for me and a warm bath was prepared. He made these exciting and magnificent rooms to entertain me. He had these sweet little creatures called kwamis serve me."

"Quite unusual treatment for a slave." Nathaniel said.

"I wasn't his slave Nathaniel. I was his princess. He said that I was the princess of his castle and that he would give anything I wanted."

As Marinette spoke of him she couldn't help but wonder how Adrien was doing while she was gone. She hoped that he was alright and that he wasn't scratching and mauling himself. She'll never forget the hurt look in his eyes when she saw him hurting himself that night. He looked as if he hated himself for being alive.