Someone Like You (Cat Noir)

Chapter 39 The Best You Can Bee

As it turns out, I ended up back at work early and thus this didn't come out at quite the speed I had planned but hey, here you go.

Andre Bourgeois liked to believe he was a good man. He took his job as the mayor of Paris very seriously, and he took his job as Chloe's father just as much. It seemed like so long ago now when Andre had met his beloved wife. Audrey was fresh out of fashion school and interning for a design company. Andre had bumped into her quite literally at a company party that he was working at within his younger years. She had been so angry with him for spilling his drink on her, but he had never seen someone so beautiful. Audrey had always been a driven woman. Her dreams had always been to be a successful fashion designer, a passion her parents had criticized her for. Their lack in faith in her was what drove Audrey, and that drive eventually leads her to prove her family very wrong. Andre's father was an architect, and Andre had always believed he would simply follow in his father's footsteps but Audrey had convinced him to aim higher. He did not understand how or why, but this...force of nature of a woman wanted him in her life and he was willing to appease to anything she wanted to make sure it stayed that way. He went to business school. Designed and ran his grand hotel. Andre loved Paris and its people. When he gained more interest in politics, Audrey was more than supportive of his endeavors. Her career in fashion grew larger by the day as did his in politics and soon they were one of those most well-known power couples around. Chloe was not planned. Andre and Audrey had talked about children in the past but it was always something that was but on hold. When they found out about the pregnancy, Andre was overjoyed, but Audrey saw it as more of an inconvenience. It took a long time for his wife to see the potential in having a child, but when it hit her, it hit her hard. The first kick Chloe had given had stopped Audrey in her tracks and from that moment on it was as if his wife had become a different person. She slowed down. She was excited even.

Shortly after Chloe was born, things changed, however. For almost the whole first year of Chloe's life, Audrey had made her daughter her priority. Andre was happy with where he was in his career and how things were with his family, but it didn't last for Audrey. This life they had together wasn't enough. She went back to work. Slowly becoming more and more grossed by it till eventually Andre and Chloe hardly saw her. Then she got an opportunity to run her own magazine in New York. It wasn't much of a discussion when she brought it up to Andre. It was more Audrey telling him that she wanted to take the job and that trying to convince her not to was telling her that he didn't believe her ambitions were important. That she shouldn't have to choose between her passion and her family. He agreed of course. He loved her, how could he try and stop her from going after her goals. Andre had hoped that New York would be temporary. That, after a few weeks she would realize just how far away New York was from him and Chloe. That Audrey would miss them enough to come back. He was wrong. Audrey's visits grew shorter and less frequent as time went on and Andre had to watch his daughter's heartbreak every time her mother walked out their front door. She didn't understand why she wasn't enough, and frankly, Andre didn't either. Chloe's mother didn't have enough love to give, so Andre did the best he could to love Chloe enough for both of them. He gave her everything she ever wanted, in hopes to distract her from the one thing he couldn't.

To twist the knife in the wound a bit more, not long after being in New York, Audrey had informed Andre that a reason she would not be able to visit was due to her being restricted from flying. Restricted from flying, due to her being pregnant again. Andre at first had been less excited about this news because he already had one child who never got to see her mother, and the idea of having to bear that reality for another child made his heart hurt. He expressed his concern only to be scoffed at from the other line. The child wasn't his. Audrey had explained that her time away had made her rather lonely, and then proceeded to tell him that perhaps if he had made more effort to come to see her, rather than expecting her to always go to him, that this sort of thing would never have happened. His lack of effort had placed her in the arms of another, and it resulted in a child. She had been so calm about it, so smart and calculated that he had been the one to apologize. 'How could I have let this happen? I should have loved you harder. I'm so sorry my dear.' He asked if she was going to leave him. 'Of course not.' she told him. 'Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.' Audrey didn't give details about her pregnancy, nor about the man who caused it. Andre did not ask. And that was that. How could he let that love go, one he'd been holding onto for so long, one that felt like home? It's not easy to let go of the pieces, even though they're the reason for his pain. He gripped them so hard that his blood fell like rain. Everyone wears masks. They come in all different shapes and sizes. The only problem with trying one on - is that it fits. How easily we fall into the trap that we don't have to be who we really are. How easily we convince ourselves that we need to cover up what we were born to be. It's a tragedy - that fear keeps us from our destiny. It's hell - when the person you were created to be - is covered up by some cheap imposter. People will go through their entire lives justifying every decision...they'll fight for all the wrong things until finally, the right thing stares at them square in the face. That's when the choices start to matter. Because in the end, we are creatures of habit. So you may want to choose right, but choose wrong in the end — because you're so damn used to it. It's tragic, then again, life's tragic.