Claws In 🐾 (SEQUEL to Spots Off) ( A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfic)

25- Backbone

Nathalie's POV- Three Days Later

Adrien gave me great advice once and today I'm finally taking it. I'm giving Gabriel Agreste a piece of my mind. I should have done it a long time ago, but I have the courage now. I need to make things right with Emelie and to start, I need to cut Gabriel out of my life—for good. It's going to be difficult under these certain circumstances, but I have to try.

Emelie and I were great friends once and I've betrayed her. When she finds out the truth, I'm certain I'll never get her forgiveness now. Still, I need to do the right thing. For Emelie.

Gabriel Agreste sits across from me. "I haven't seen you in a while, Nathalie," He whispers into the phone. He studies my face closely. "You look great."

"Spare me the pity compliments," I snap, holding eye contact. "I bet you can't even remember our last day together."

"It has been a while," He admits, scratching his chin. "Honestly, I'm surprised to see you here. You're my right-hand woman, yet you refused to come see me until now?"

"I was your right-hand woman," I correct. "But I haven't been for a long time, no thanks to you. After all I did for you, after all I sacrificed for your family, you cast me aside like I was nothing!"

Gabriel rests his palm on the glass. "Let me make it right, Nathalie."

"How could you..." I growl, my grip tightening around the phone. "You took advantage of me! You manipulated me! At one point all we had was each other and that didn't matter. I was a pawn you wanted to control. Then I got sick using the peacock miraculous—for you."

"You made that choice on your own," He reminds me.

"Even after I was ill, you were still blinded by your madness. I would have left, but I stayed for Adrien's sake. I was afraid of what would happen to him if I left. I knew it was wrong to help you, but I did."

"Then why did you do it?"

I smack my hand against the glass and shout, "Because I was hopelessly in love with you!"

Gabriel doesn't say anything at first. He just stares at me. He closes his eyes tight and mumbles, "You were a willing partner."

"You used my feelings for you against me. Having a heart cost me almost everything! I gave up my life for you. I helped you with everything, including taking care of Adrien—your son—and trying to bring your wife back. I would have died for you, Gabriel. Loving you has almost killed me."

"Have you spoken with Adrien?"

I nod. "Yes."

"Does he talk about me?"

"No... I don't let him waste his breath."

His eyebrows furrow together as he frowns. "Next time you see my son, please tell him I love him."

I can't help but laugh. "You're not serious, are you?"

"Fine, I'll tell him myself," Gabriel answers, smirking.

"I will do everything in my power to make sure Adrien never comes near you again. You don't deserve him! Besides, even if I told him, what makes you think your son would believe a word you have to say, after everything you've done?"

"Everything I did was for him."

Shaking my head, I say, "No, it was for you! You have always been a selfish man, Gabriel Agreste."

"Selfish?" Gabriel repeats, eyes widening in anger. He punches the glass. "I spent almost the past two years of my life trying to bring Adrien's mother back! I searched the ends of the earth to find a cure for her. I never gave up, even when it was dead end after dead end. I never gave up on Emelie! If anything, Adrien did when he refused to help me."

"You have never cared about Adrien! In all these years I've worked for you, watching Adrien grow up, basically raising him as my own, it's easy to see the last thing you ever did for him was care. You can say it, but you don't mean it. You would have sacrificed your own son for Emelie if it came to it."

"Who are you to lecture me on being a parent?" Gabriel shouts.

I stand up fast and unbutton my coat, revealing my eight-month long baby bump. "Since I'm about to be one, Gabriel."

His eyes widen. "What...?"

"Now do you remember our last night together?" I ask, sitting back down. "We both had a little too much to drink. Things were said. Things got out of hand."

"Is..." He rests his palm flat on the glass. "Is it true?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Have you told anyone?"

I cock my head to the side and ask, "Why? Are you afraid your wife will find out you stepped out on her?"

He ignores my questions. "Do you... know if it's a boy or a girl?"

I rub my stomach. "A girl," I admit.

Gabriel smiles and a shiver runs down my spine. "A girl? A girl... w-we did that. We made a child together."

"Don't be fooled, Gabriel," I tell him, reeling him back in from his twisted fantasies. "I will not let you near this child. That is a promise I will never break."

"You'd keep my own child from me?!"

"You can't exactly have father-daughter time in prison, can you?"

Gabriel punches the glass once more, and this time it cracks. "For years Emelie struggled with having kids. You know this, Nathalie. That's how we wound up with Adrien. With the peacock miraculous, he was born out of an idea. He was created for Emelie—and only her. But now, with you? Our daughter... this is something I created, too, and I want to be a part of her life."

"What about Emelie?" I ask, almost hopeful.

"What about her?"

"You'd leave Emelie to be with... me?"

He almost looks disgusted by my comment. "Who said anything about leaving Emelie? I said I wanted to be in that child's life, not that I wanted to be with you, Nathalie."

Of course he wouldn't change. Gabriel Agreste will never change. As I glare at him, anger rises through me, and I swear if there wasn't this piece of glass between us, I'd body slam his pathetic ass through the wall. The chair scrapes against the ground as I stand up. "As long as I am alive, you will never see this child, Gabriel. You already failed once as a father. You don't get a second chance."

I throw the phone down and walk out, ignoring his fists pounding on the glass and his muffled harsh words. I am finally free of Gabriel Agreste, and despite the only connection to him growing inside me, I won't let him under my skin again.