One Way or Another

A Technicality and A Press Conference

Adrien and Marinette were woken up super early the next morning by Adrien's phone ringing.

After some unhappy muttering he answered the call. "Yeah?" he asked sleepily.

"Adrien, did you hear the news yet?" Nathalie asked through the line.

"Wha... what news?"

"Turn on the TV."

A loud groan came out of his mouth as he swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"What's going on?" Marinette asked, sitting up half asleep.

"I don't know. Nathalie told me to turn on the TV." He grabbed the remote from the dresser and pressed the button on the top.

A second later the television lit up, blinding Adrien momentarily. When his eyes adjusted, he saw that Nadja Chamack was reporting a news story. And behind her on the screen was a picture of Lila Rossi. And the words on the bottom read 'Breaking News.'

He furrowed his brow as he listened to the very end of the report.

"...and will be released from prison on Wednesday."

"Released?" Marinette repeated, confused.

"We will continue to bring you more information as this story develops," Nadja finished before the station cut to a commercial.

"We just missed the report on Lila," Adrien said into the phone. "What did it say?"

"I guess her lawyers won their appeal to overturn her conviction," Nathalie explained.

"Wha... what does that mean?" he asked, confused.

"That means that she's getting out of jail."

Silence.

"Her lawyers successfully argued that the raid of her apartment to collect evidence was done illegally, so she'll be released this week," Nathalie continued.

"But that can't happen, she was sentenced to forty years," Adrien said incredulously.

"What's happening?" Marinette asked, unable to hear Nathalie's side of the conversation.

"I know, but that's the law," Nathalie said to Adrien. "Other people have managed to overturn their convictions on these types of technicalities."

His heart sinking, Adrien dropped the phone down to his side and looked at Marinette. "They're releasing Lila from jail, her lawyers overturned her conviction."

She shook her head slightly. "They... they can't do that. She's a terrorist. How is that possible?"

"I guess it's some technicality." He put the phone back to his ear. "Does Father and Mom know?"

"They're still asleep."

Adrien took a second to think. "We'll be right over."

************************************

Nathalie brought Annabelle to the dining room for breakfast while the four others met in Gabriel's study.

Well, that's not exactly true. There were actually seven of them in that room. Plagg, Tikki and Nooroo were there too.

"I can't believe that they're releasing Lila," Emilie muttered after hearing Adrien relay the news to them. "She confessed!"

"I guess it doesn't matter," he said. "Her rights were violated, so they have no choice."

"This sucks," Plagg said bluntly. "She deserves to rot in jail for what she did to you, Nooroo."

"Lila is a sad, misguided soul," Nooroo lamented. "She's so filled with hatred that she cannot see the beauty of life."