Chapter 5
"Okay, what do we have so far?" Alya asked, opening her notebook at the table and pulling out her tablet. They had all convened the next afternoon in the library. Sabrina even joined them, sitting on the other side of Chloé with her tablet on the desk and her stylus poised and ready to take notes.
"The judge is a big problem," Chloé began. "I asked Daddy who was in charge of Adrien's case and he gave me a name. I passed it onto Sabrina."
She looked to the redhead. Sabrina nodded, picking up her cue to speak. "I asked my father about him." She sighed. "He visibly grimaced when he heard it. Turns out that judge is easily influenced, and not just with honeyed words and vague threats."
"Bribery?" Alya prompted, her eyes lighting up at this morsel of information.
Sabrina shrugged. "My father seems to think so. He says that Judge Malin Corrompu is a pushover."
Marinette flopped down on the table, scattering the notes in a flurry of white. She eyed them as they floated to the ground, making no move to pick them up. "Wouldn't that be good for us?" She tilted her head to Chloé. "Couldn't your father do something?"
The expression on Chloé's face – a foreign mask of regret – answered Marinette's question before the blonde even spoke. "Adrien's grandfather is a senator." She sniffed. "Or he used to be. He holds more sway with that judge than Daddy ever could."
"Oh?" Alya perked up again at the promise of a juicy story. "Anything we can use against him in our favor?"
Chloé shook her head. "Adrien's grandfather doesn't need to do anything illegal. Judge Corrompu will practically fall over himself to please anyone with a modicum of power. His grandfather's name alone will cause the judge to rule against Mr. Agreste almost immediately. I doubt that Mr. Eclat would even need to do anything other than drop his name. If Judge Corrompu is receiving bribes, it's not from Adrien's grandfather."
Nino meanwhile had gathered up the fallen notes while Alya scribbled something in her own tablet. "What is it?" he asked, catching sight of her determined expression.
Alya looked up. "Chloé should know our next step then," she said, smirking at the girl. Chloé frowned in confusion. "After all, aren't you a pro at getting the dirt on people?"
A slow smile spread over her face. "Of course," she said, "but I don't think I'll be able to get close to the judge."
Alya tapped the stacked papers with her pen. "I'll follow the paper trail. If this guy is taking bribes like Chloé is implying then I should be able to track down the money. Even if it doesn't lead to Adrien's grandfather, the scandal and fallout alone should ensure the judge is dismissed from his position."
"I could follow him," Marinette suggested in a small voice, her chin still resting on the table. She might as well offer to do something, and with her Ladybug skills she could easily slip around seeing if he met up with anyone.
Four pairs of eyes turned to her. "You?" The disdain in Chloé's voice echoed the unvoiced disbelief of the other three. Sabrina smothered a snort of laughter. Marinette frowned and lifted her head, insulted at the slight.
"Yes, me. I'm fairly adept at sneaking around," she said, resting a hand on her phone and giving Alya a meaningful look. Alya's disbelief melted away as she tilted her head in thought.
Chloé barked out a short laugh, but Alya jumped in at Marinette's defense. "Actually, that's not a bad idea. Girl, I know what you're capable of."
"This klutz? She'll trip and give everything away," Chloé insisted, waving her hands at the papers that were once scattered all over the table and floor.
"Then we're no better off than where we were before," Alya said. "Go for it, Marinette. Keep us informed, will you?"
Marinette nodded.
Nino pulled out his own notebook. "I started researching child custody laws with Alya here," he said. "It appears the courts can't take away a child unless it's proven that the parents are unfit. I don't like Mr. Agreste, but I really don't think he's an unfit parent. Strict and a bit unyielding, but definitely not unfit. Have you seen Adrien's room?" Chloé and Marinette nodded. Marinette caught herself mid-nod and hastily corrected it with a shake of her head. "The dude's room is bigger than my entire house." Marinette hid a smile, knowing that it was a fairly accurate assessment.
Alya shuffled through the pages. "How did Adrien's grandfather win temporary custody if we know Mr. Agreste isn't an unfit parent?"
"Because of his influence?" Chloé asked, tapping her own notes to show the product of Sabrina's reveal.
"Yes," Alya said, still shuffling through the papers, "but Mr. Agreste is just as influential. They must have had a halfway decent reason or Adrien's dad would have plenty of opportunity to win at the next hearing. But if what you say is true and Adrien thinks his father can't win custody back, there has to be a solid reason."
"We could always ask him," Marinette suggested.
Again, four pairs of eyes turned to her. "Dude," Nino breathed, "we need you to be our liaison. Please don't antagonize the scary powerful man. You're our only hope."
"I meant ask Adrien," she said, rolling her eyes. The others released simultaneous sighs of relief.
Chloé snorted and held up her phone. "Adrien can't talk. His grandfather took away his cell phone."
"I thought I remember reading about there being tours available?" Marinette said, holding up a flier about the estate. She pointed at the tour schedule.
"Girl!" Alya squealed. "You are a genius! We can go meet Adrien during one of the tours. When is the next one?"
"Tomorrow," Marinette said. "In the morning. We'll have to skip school."
Chloé laughed. "No way. Daddy will get us out. I'll make up a reason. History project or something." The others looked at her, mouths agape. "What?" she said. "I want Adrien as back as much as you guys do. Why would I risk getting into trouble over that?"
"I thought you were banned from the estate," Nino said.
"They can't do anything to me if I'm in a tour group," Chloé said. "I won't cause trouble this time."
Alya exchanged a dubious look with Marinette, thankfully unnoticed by the girl in question.
Chloé continued, "Meet at my hotel tomorrow morning. Adrien's a good distance outside of the city, so we should ride together. I'll have Daddy send someone to drive us out there."
"Then I'll take this opportunity to get a head start on following Judge Corrompu," Marinette said, standing up.
Nino pointed to the books. "I'll keep researching into the laws and go to the courthouse to look at Adrien's case."
"You can do that?" Marinette asked, surprised.
Nino pushed back his cap with a confident smile. "My cousin is a law student. He's interning as a clerk for a judge for experience. He knows his way around court cases and files. It's not too hard to act like a frazzled intern running around the courthouse. He can get me a temporary badge and point me in the right direction. With so many law students that rotate in and out, they won't notice a new face in the archives. There has to be something else we can use."
"And I'll get started on that money trail," Alya said.
A plan declared, they scattered to go their separate ways until the next morning.
Which is how Marinette found herself stalking the not-so-elusive judge as he went about his day. She crawled along the sides of buildings, taking the opportunity to transform into Ladybug and swing from the rooftops when she almost lost him, and tracking his progress through her yo-yo. She slipped by the Parisians unnoticed. Even Tikki didn't remark on her rather selfish use of her powers before she transformed – only offering helpful suggestions and listening as Marinette verbalized her plan with a knowing smile upon her face.
Hours later, the sun had fallen and the judge didn't seem to be conducting any shady business. Ladybug settled on the edge of another building, munching on a rolled crepe as she watched the man enter a small hotel. She yawned and considered detransforming just so she could talk to Tikki, but the last time she did that the man had come out of his meeting and she nearly lost him despite her haste to transform and pick up his trail. Still, if the man didn't head home soon, she would have to give up for the night anyway. It was getting late and her parents would wonder where she was.
A man stepped outside of the building and nonchalantly leaned against the wall. For some reason, Ladybug's senses honed in on him. The man didn't appear unusual – dressed in casual jeans, dark hoodie, fiddling with his phone.
Wait.
She took out her yo-yo and zoomed in on the man.
As she thought. The man held his phone in front of him, tapping on the screen with his thumb, but his eyes darted around the area. Like a guard, Ladybug realized. She crouched lower to the rooftop and hoped she couldn't be seen. Her bright red costume was not conducive to sneaking around at night and for the first time envied her partner's sleek black outfit that allowed him to melt into the shadows. "Why would a guard be in front of that particular hotel?" she mused aloud, shutting off the camera on her yo-yo. She scuttled along the roof. At the corner, she tossed out her weapon and swung onto the roof of the hotel, careful to avoid the watchful eyes of the sentry. She cracked open the rooftop access door and slipped inside, taking care not to let the heavy metal slam behind her.
She inched down the stairs of the small hotel, slow and quiet. Like a cat, she thought dryly, her thoughts immediately drifting to her partner. A smile quirked the corner of her lips. She almost missed the other man standing sentry in front of a windowless door. Her breath hitched in her throat. She flattened herself against the wall. After a moment, she risked a peek over the edge.
Definitely another guard. She had to get into that hallway. But first, she needed to distract the guard. Thinking fast, she darted back up the stairs, silent as a mouse, and slipped back onto the rooftop. She bent down and scooped up a small handful of gravel.
Ammo in hand and a plan half-formed, she crept back into the stairwell. When she got close to the guard, she picked out a couple of stones and lobbed them over her head.
They clattered faintly against the railings below.
Perfect.
She held her breath, counting to ten in her head, before risking another quick peek over the edge. The guard also had his head craned over the edge, attempting to see what caused the disturbance.
She hefted the remaining gravel in her hand. She knelt down and held her hand out over the stairwell, opening her palm and dumping the remaining bits of stone down the stairwell.
That should do it!
It certainly caught his attention. The guard jumped back and whipped out a walkie-talkie. "I got a disturbance in the stairwell. I can't leave my post. Need someone to check it out."
Uh oh.
She grimaced and scooted back up the stairs. The men would flood the stairwell in mere seconds and she needed to be gone.
But her gut told her she was so close to discovering something. She had to stay. She owed it to Adrien. Pursing her lips, she opened up the door leading to the floor above the guard and slipped inside just as she heard the bottom floor's door slam open.
The hallway was empty. She ran past the closed doors, idly wondering if she could pass as a guest in the hotel if she detransformed and was caught. It wasn't a risk she was willing to accept, however. She needed to remain hidden at all costs. Footsteps sounded ahead of her. She ran into the hallway next to her without thinking.
Except it wasn't a hallway. It was a small alcove. She was exposed. And any second now the owner of those footsteps would be passing by. She gulped. Her hand brushed against something and she looked down to spot an air duct grill, painted to blend into the decorated wall. She grinned. Without wasting another second, she knelt down, lifted the covering, and slipped inside.
The footsteps passed without stopping. Ladybug released a long breath.
Well, now that I'm in here, might as well see if I can get down to that other floor. She pulled out her yo-yo, recalling Chat mentioning he used a similar tactic, and pulled up the schematics for Chloé's hotel. She swiped away most of the architecture and highlighted the ductwork. Mapping out a decent path, she began crawling inside the smooth corridors.
How long she crawled, she had no idea, following the blueprints as they turned and dipped and wove through the hotel. She hurried as fast as she dared, for the metal had a tendency to flex and groan under her weight. Thankfully, several fans drowned out the noise of movement. Still, she didn't want to get caught, so she kept her weight off the middle and toward the edges of the ducts, discovering that when she did so, the middle didn't bow and bend nearly as much as she maneuvered through the echoing labyrinth. Finally, she heard voices ahead of her. She inched forward, finding herself staring into a room from near the top of the ceiling.
Her jaw dropped at the sight. She gazed out into a room thick with people sitting at dozens of tables. Tables covered with teal-colored felt. The sounds of dice clacking against the tables, chips clicking, and cards shuffling filtered up to her, along with a faint aroma of cigarette smoke and lingering perfume. She gulped.
Gambling isn't illegal in France, she mused, so why all the guards?
She tore her eyes away from a spinning roulette wheel as she spotted Judge Corrompu with a couple of other men in a corner near her. As if Alya lay beside her screaming in her ear, she knew she had to record this. She pulled up her yo-yo and depressed the button, stretching out flat on the cold metal duct to steady her camera.
"Here's your monthly settlement," one man said, handing over a thick yellow envelope to the judge. He cracked it open and Ladybug zoomed in on the stack of colorful euros inside. Judge Corrompu closed the envelope and stuck it in his jacket.
"Looks okay to me," he said. His eyes glanced around the room. "The hotel appears to be doing well," he remarked. "I checked your online bookings. All rooms occupied. Nicely done."
The first man snorted. "The rooms are barely a quarter occupied. We're only full on paper." He motioned to the room around him. "The fringe benefits to staying here are what keep us afloat."
The judge smiled. "Whatever helps you pay rent."
"Of course," the first man returned the shark-like smile. "Your rates are much cheaper than the taxes I would have to pay."
"I also provide fringe benefits with my rates," the judge returned with another easy smile. "But you're careful enough I never have had to pull strings for you. I might consider giving you a ten percent discount in the future if you continue keeping such a low profile."
The first man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That sounds fair," he said. "We'll have to keep up the good work for you."
"See that you do. I'll be taking my leave now. You have a good night." The judge turned away and the first man nodded at his guard. The guard stepped forward and escorted the judge from the room.
Ladybug clicked off the recording, glad her hands didn't shake during it. Was this how Alya felt? The thrill of adrenaline spiking through her as she uncovered a major scoop? She secured her yo-yo around her waist and crab-walked further back into safety in the duct. She didn't need to go all the way out to the stairwell now. Any window to the outside would work as an escape route.
After a few minutes of crawling, she came to another empty hallway with a window on one side. She slid out, closing the cover gently behind her. She stood and brushed the dust from her suit, resisting the urge to sneeze as the particles fluttered around her. With a grunt, she heaved open the window, flung out her yo-yo, and vanished as the night swallowed her up without a trace.
"You would not believe what I found out!" Marinette hissed to the gathered group the next morning. They waited outside of Chloé's hotel for her father's car to arrive. Sabrina was absent, wishing to go to class instead of spending the day walking around a dusty house. Chloé said that she had a special report she needed to turn in and didn't want to miss giving a presentation in one of her classes.
Nino relaxed against the wall, one foot propped up upon the bricks as he swayed lightly to music from his headphones. Chloé tapped on her phone and pretended to ignore the others, but she too looked up at Marinette's exuberant arrival.
Alya stifled a yawn with one hand. She clutched a giant tumbler in the other. From the smell wafting from the lid, the blogger spent the majority of the night researching. "I hope it's better than the nothing I discovered," she grumbled. "I don't even know where to focus my attentions."
Marinette yanked out her phone and swiped through the screen for a moment. She had sent herself the video and also emailed herself just in case. With a look of pure glee, she turned the phone around and tapped the play button. The other three crowded around her.
"Maybe try looking into this hotel," she declared with more than a bit of smugness as the video started. She held the phone up, preferring to drink in their stunned expressions as their jaws dropped.
Alya let out a very audible gulp. "Girl," she said in a hoarse voice, almost at a whisper, "what did you do?"
"Followed the judge, snuck into the hotel, and got a video of him receiving bribes from an underground casino," Marinette declared with a proud smile.
The resulting exclamations only made her grin wider. From Nino's choked gasp to Chloé's open-mouth stare of blatant admiration to Alya's shriek of "Girl that was incredibly dangerous!" Marinette felt every inch of her Ladybug persona as she raised a lone eyebrow at Alya.
"More dangerous than sneaking after an akuma just to get a picture for the Ladyblog?" she accused in a lilting voice.
Alya flushed. "This is completely different and you know it," she insisted, clutching her tumbler so hard her knuckles turned white. "You could have been seriously injured – and Ladybug and Chat Noir would not have been able to save you. Promise me you won't do something that reckless again."
"No can do," Marinette teased in the same nonchalant tone. "I fear you've gotten the adrenaline rush junkie in me going. I know what you're talking about now." She struck a classic superhero pose. "Uncovering the corrupt, defending the innocent... I've got the itch now!" At their pale faces she dropped her antics and shot off a grin, bopping her friend's nose. "Now you know how it feels," she said.
"Girl," Alya began, rubbing one hand over her face, "you're going to be the death of me one of these days, I swear."
"That's not the only thing that's fishy about this case," Nino chimed in. "I was researching those custody laws and legal proceedings and something really didn't make sense with how a normal case usually runs with what Chloé has told us about Adrien's situation. When I headed over to city hall and asked around the courthouse, I found out a few weird things about the case. My cousin came through for me and got me an intern's pass into the court records room, and I spent all afternoon studying Adrien's case. It turns out, the whole reason Adrien's grandparents got custody in the first place was because Mr. Agreste ignored a court summons. The judge automatically ruled against him."
"That sounds like Mr. Agreste," Alya said with a snort.
Chloé shook her head. "No, it doesn't," she retorted. "Mr. Agreste would have replied to the summons, even in absentia. He would have sent Nathalie as his legal representative. He would never have just ignored a summons. His lawyers would have made sure of that."
Nino nodded. "That's what I thought, too," he said, and Alya glared at him. He avoided her gaze and continued explaining. "So I got to digging further into the public court records. My cousin really knows how to navigate those legal briefs. Did you know that you need proof on file of a summons being delivered in order to rule against them? I looked for the proof. It's either a photograph or a signature. There was none on file."
The four were silent for a moment, letting that sink in.
"What does that mean?" Marinette asked at last.
Alya sighed, but there was a devious twinkle in her eyes. She smelled a story. "It means that Mr. Agreste never actually received a summons. The judge probably just ruled against him without following due process."
Marinette thought on that for a moment. "So does that mean that Adrien should never have gone with his grandparents in the first place?"
"Bingo," Alya replied, tapping Marinette on the nose in a mimicry of her own actions minutes earlier. She rolled her eyes and swatted Alya's hand away.
"Why didn't Mr. Agreste's lawyers discover this? It would have been the perfect excuse to get Adrien back," Marinette asked.
It was Chloé who chimed in with a sobering answer. "Maybe he gave up on Adrien before they could get that far."
They all pondered that possibility for a long while before Marinette spoke up again.
"Do you think Adrien's grandfather bribed the judge?"
That jerked them all out of their somber moods. Alya held up her copies of notes. "I don't believe so. The money trail doesn't show any record of payment like that to the judge. Judge Corrompu probably didn't want to risk angering Adrien's grandfather so he glossed over any legalities that would have delayed the case."
"So there's nothing on Adrien's grandfather we can use?" Marinette asked.
"Aside from the fact that people jump over themselves to please a powerful man? Nope. He's shockingly clean."
"Darn," came the dejected sigh from Chloé.
"We have to tell Mr. Agreste," Marinette insisted.
"We will. Once we finalize our arguments. We can't go in half-planned or he'll just dismiss any good points we have before we even get to tell him everything," Alya said.
"Shh, here comes my driver," Chloé interjected, and the talk died as they climbed into the car.
On the way to the estate, the four of them kept their conversation to relatively safe topics. Alya rattled off some facts she had researched for the Ladyblog, with Chloé surprisingly jumping in to collaborate her stories. The two fans chatted about Paris' heroes the entire trip, and Marinette could only watch with a knowing smirk as the two debated various topics like if Ladybug actually wore a wig, if Ladybug and Chat Noir were an item, and if the two heroes would ever consider talking at different schools to build awareness for various issues (the last one courtesy of Alya).
So it was quite a relief when Nino finally pointed out the approaching estate. Marinette sighed with him, having been squeezed in the middle from an unanimous decision because she was the smallest. Chloé got the front seat, naturally.
Her relief ended up being short-lived as they went on the tour. Marinette, although suitably impressed with the interior, found herself stifling a yawn as they navigated the corridors. It was only their group plus a small group of elderly people on the tour. As the guide left the ballroom, Marinette lagged behind, fixated on a particular piece of furniture.
"Marinette," Alya called from the doorway, motioning for her to catch up with their group.
Startled, Marinette stumbled and tripped over the edge of a rug. With a small cry, she flung out her arms to steady herself and crashed into the fireplace mantle. Something clicked and a second later, she heard a low rumble and creak. Before she could react, the fireplace swiveled around, swallowing her inside.
"Eep!" Marinette let out a squeak as she stumbled through the hole and slammed into the ground. The opening rumbled shut behind her, leaving her in pitch blackness.
"Marinette!"
Faint pounding sounded on the outside of the fireplace. Marinette coughed a few times in the musty air, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She pulled out her phone and flicked on the flashlight app, shining it around the small space.
"Marinette!" The cry grew increasingly distressed. "Are you okay? Answer me, Marinette!"
"I'm okay," she yelled, and Alya's panicked shouting stopped.
"Marinette, can you get back out?" Nino asked.
She aimed the beam around in the darkness. "I can't see anything in here." Her hands ran up against the relatively smooth wall. "I can't see a switch, either."
Tikki popped out of her purse, oddly illuminated in the light of her cell phone. "I won't be able to phase through the wall if everyone is there. We have to find another way out," she said.
Marinette nodded, then cupped a hand around her mouth. "I'm going to follow this hallway. There has to be a way out on the other side."
"I'll go get the guide," Alya said.
"Wait, no!" Marinette cried. "They'll kick us out before we can find Adrien."
A long pause. She was afraid the group wouldn't leave her. "I can text you when I get out," she added, pulling up her phone to check her signal strength. A couple of bars. Not the best, but enough to send a message. She tapped one out fast. "See?" she cried as it went through.
"Fine," Alya's reluctance was clear even through the thick wall. "Be careful."
"I will!"
Leave it to her to literally trip into a secret passage. She wondered if Adrien's family was familiar with this passageway. From the amount of accumulated dust and dirt she brushed off her elbows, she assumed not. Oh well, nothing to do now but follow it to the end and hope Tikki could unlock it from that side. She slowly made her way through the corridor, trailing one hand along the wall to keep her balance and sweeping the light around so she didn't stumble.
The air was stifling and heavy – Marinette wondered when the last time was that someone wandered these halls. The rough stone scraped against her fingertips but she dare not remove her hand. The sensation grounded her.
After a couple of minutes, the beam of light from her phone shone on a wall looming ahead. "I think this is it, Tikki," she said, hurrying over to it. She pressed one hand along the wall, feeling for a lever or switch or button. Nothing. With a sigh, she pressed one ear against the wall and listened for a long moment. "I don't hear anything," she announced after a moment. She turned to her kwami. "Do you think it's safe to go out and try to unlock it for me?"
"Unlock what, Marinette?" Tikki replied. "That's a wall, not a door. I can phase through and see if there's anyone there, but if I'm seen that will be bad news."
Marinette tucked her shoulder into the wall and pushed. She grunted and strained, trying to summon all of her Ladybug strength. To no avail. Her shoes slid and scraped against the floor. She refused to give up. Gritting her teeth, she planted her feet once more and heaved. Her foot slid out from underneath her and she heard a soft click. Suddenly, the wall swung outward and she tumbled into bright sunlight.
And into something hard, yet warm. Soft hands steadied her. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the change in light and looked up. Gorgeous green eyes stared into hers with shocked confusion.
"Marinette?"
"Eep! Adrien!" she cried, launching herself backwards out of his arms. Dust floated everywhere and Marinette burned with shame at facing her crush covered in dirt and muck.
"Where did you come from?" he asked.
"Uh..." she glanced behind her at the open door. "In there?" she said, pointing with a giggle. "I accidentally fell into it."
His eyes lit up. "Wow cool, a secret passage! This is just like in the movies!" He bounded over to the wall and peered in. "I can't see anything."
"There's nothing much to see," Marinette said, furiously swiping at the dirt smears on her jacket once his back was turned. She stopped once he turned back to her. "It's just a passageway going from here to... well a room with a fireplace. There must have been a switch on the mantle or something. I tripped and the wall opened. I couldn't find a way out back there so I decided to follow the tunnel and see where it led."
Adrien grinned. He bent and picked up her phone which had fallen from her hands once the wall gave way under her. "That's amazing!" he exclaimed again. He handed it to her and she switched off the flashlight, releasing a sigh of relief as she examined the phone and discovered it was undamaged. "How did you get out?"
She thought on that and frowned. "I think there's a button in one of the floor panels," she said, turning and pointing to the stone she thought she activated. He knelt down and poked at it in delighted curiosity. "My foot slipped and I heard a click and then the wall moved."
"What are you doing here?" he asked, tearing himself away from the tunnel to face her again. He stood back up and brushed his hands together to get rid of the grime.
Recalling the real reason for her visit, she explained that their class missed him and so she and a few others decided to sneak out and see him. "Oh, I should probably text them that I'm okay. Where are we anyway?" She glanced around the room, noticing for the first time a bunch of books and notebooks scattered around a small table.
"The study," Adrien replied. "My tutor's at lunch so I was doing schoolwork and decided I needed to stretch. I didn't expect the wall to explode on me and dump a girl straight into my arms, though." He grinned. "Talk about a nice surprise."
She flushed and ducked her head, busying herself with tapping on her phone. "We were just worried about you." She paused from her texting and looked at him, for once meeting his eyes without a stammer in her voice. "Chloé said that you're not happy."
This time it was Adrien who averted his eyes and flushed. "Chloé said that?" he mumbled, fixing his sight on some invisible spot on the floor.
She nodded. "She said that you told her you missed your father and going to school." She waited a moment before attempting to capture his gaze again. "Adrien, is that true? Do you miss your father? Really?"
Adrien was silent for a long moment. "Yeah," he said at last in a tiny voice. "I do."
"We need to ask you a very important question," Marinette continued. She took a deep breath. "Why do you think your grandfather is going to win the hearing?"
Adrien blinked. "Uh... huh?"
"Chloé said that you believed that your father wouldn't win against your grandfather. I know your grandfather has influence in the courts, but your father is just as influential. Why do you think he's not going to win?"
Her friend walked over to one of the chairs and sat back down in it, slumping his back. "If my father could win, he would have already." He looked back at her. "You should have seen him, Marinette," he said, "he looked awful. It's been so long since I've seen my father looking like that. If he could have gotten me back by now, he would have. I..." his voice cracked slightly and he cleared his throat. "I just think that my grandfather came into this too well prepared."
Marinette planted her fists upon her hips and shot Adrien the most triumphant smile. "Don't worry about that," she said. "We have a plan to help you. We just need to give your father a boost of confidence."
"How can you do that?" Adrien asked. "I think my grandfather knows the judge."
Her grin turned feral. "I was hoping that would be the case. I can't tell you much right now, it's too dangerous." Adrien blinked and looked to be holding back a smile. "I'm serious, Adrien. I can't tell you. But I can tell you to have faith. We have a few tricks up our sleeves."
She peeked out of the door. "I gotta go now, but stay in good spirits, okay? We're going to get you back with us." With a reassuring grin at him, she turned to slip away, but was stopped by his voice.
"Wait, Marinette."
She turned back.
He stepped up close to her and placed both hands upon her shoulders. "Thank you," he said, the sincerity shining through in his joyous expression. "I-I mean-" he stuttered, "thank you for caring enough about me to sneak out here and visit. I don't know exactly what it is you're doing to help my father, and I'm pretty sure it's probably as dangerous as you're claiming, but... thank you."
She flushed, squeaked, and stammered something incomprehensible before turning away and ducking out of the room to rejoin their friends, leaving him grinning with happiness as she disappeared.
Author's note: Thanks again for all of your support! I'm so happy to see so many people enjoying this :)
The part where Marinette sneaks into the hotel was one of my favorite scenes to write in this story.
This next explanation is a bit of an author's insight as to something; a bit of rambling background trivia. I get asked occasionally why I wait until my story is complete before I post the first chapter of a story, instead of posting chapters as I go. Aside from the fact that I may lose interest halfway through a story and stop posting (which isn't fair to the readers), I also go back and add things to chapters in the editing phase (again, which isn't fair to you readers to change things up like that if it's already posted).
This chapter is the perfect example of what I'm referencing. In this chapter, I had Marinette literally stumble into a secret passage attached to the grandparents' estate. In my vague, initial idea and outline of this scene, I was going to have Marinette and the others all meet up with Adrien during the tour. While writing the rough draft for the chapter, I decided to add in the secret passage and turn it into a one-on-one meeting between Adrien and Marinette instead.
Which brings me to the point of this rambling. When I was editing an earlier chapter for posting, I decided to drop a slight hint/foreshadowing that this secret passage actually exists. Can anyone find it? (I'll post the answer next week for those that don't talk to me via PM – hint: it's in chapter 3). I enjoy details that make an appearance later in stories, and I love continuity (no matter how small). So the little nod to this chapter's secret passage made me smirk as I added it into my edits, even if no one else would have picked up on it if I hadn't said anything :D