Seeing Red

Part 13

Aurelie wiped a couple of tears off her cheeks after she eventually let go. Then something popped up in her mind and she looked at Nathalie again.

"By the way, dear, I've met your 'step-mum' a couple of times over the last months. Seeing her and seeing how very much she looks like you, scared me a bit. Did your father..." She paused and looked at the teenagers, not sure if she should start this conversation here and now. "Did he ever..."

Nathalie didn't let her finish.

"He did not. But Gabriel had the same idea, when I told him and maybe there is a little truth in that. Maybe my mum knew and instead of taking me and getting as far away as possible, she tried to make me as unattractive as she could with the things she ordered me to wear. Maybe she cared for me after all."

Aurelie sneered.

"Even if that was the truth, why would she try to bring you back when you lived with us?"

Nathalie shrugged, she had no idea. But Gabriel answered instead.

"Maybe he threatened her with something. Maybe he told her he would do, what he hadn't done until then, if Nath didn't come back!"

"Let's not even think about those things. You're here and you didn't have to make this experience luckily and that's the only thing important. Your little siblings are incredibly sweet though. The girl, I mean, the young woman raised them without much of his influence. Though they were married when he died, they only did that to make sure they were taken care of. She started to work at the convenience store too a few months ago and the children sometimes visit her in her break on their way home from school."

"Oh, uhm, I..." Nathalie had no idea what to say. Gabriel gave his mother an annoyed look and shook his head barely noticeably.

"Please, mum, let's not talk about that today. I don't want to get Nath all worked up for her father's escapades. Even if the woman and the children are nice and sweet, I think meeting them or even talking about them can wait until she's a little more stable." He said softly, squeezing the woman's hand very gently once again.

Nathalie gave him a thankful look.

"You're right. I am glad that we came here and that Aurelie knows them and can maybe introduce us one day, but just now, I am more than occupied with everything that happened lately. The only things I want to care about at the moment are Gabe, Adrien, Marinette and this baby. And you, if you'd like that. You can't even imagine how many times I wished that you could be my mum instead of mine." She then informed the elderly woman.

"Oh Nath, of course I'd like that. But next time, I'll come visit. What's your address, dear?"

Gabriel laughed out loudly.

"Really, mum? It seems as if you were the only person in all Paris who doesn't know where we live." He mocked her.

"Wait! You don't have a place of your own? Have you been living with them all those years? Oh Gabriel, when was the last time you used your brain? Can't you even imagine how much you hurt Nathalie 'and' Emilie over all the time?" His mother blurted out angrily.

"It's okay, Aurelie. Emilie and I were really close. She even wanted me in the delivery room when Adrien was born. Gabe and I were each holding one of her hands and helping her to be in a comfortable position. You would have loved her too. She was so sweet and kind and always smiling and thinking positive. Even when she got sick, she always tried to not let Adrien see, how much she was suffering. I never had a female friend before and she had left all her friends in England. Not just that. Due to that evil man her sister was married to, she kinda was forced to stay away from her identical twin sister. There were times, when Amelie came to visit. Mostly when her abusive husband had to go to America and take care of his businesses there. Even then we were as close as they were. I felt so sad for Amelie. Not because of that bastard dying, but because she lost the man she had once loved and her sister who she shared everything with, down to the smallest bit of DNA, around the same time. Her son, Felix, looks just like Adrien. Only that he is, well, a little different. He, well, he's not as pure as Adrien, not so good and righteous."