Unclean Hands 🫴🏻 (A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction)

30 | An Incriminating Voicemail

Marinette and her parents sat on one side of a steel-silver table and waited quietly and not-so-patiently for the officers to return. They'd been sitting there almost an hour now, which really pissed her parents off.

Right after Adrien was brought in, Marinette and her parents got a call, as well, asking to bring her down to the police station for more questioning. She had no idea why and nothing she said would calm down her worried parents, who were now discussing in hushed whispers beside her if they needed to hire a lawyer or not.

"What is taking those damn officers so long?" Sabine muttered as she checked the time on her watch. "We've been waiting almost an hour now! This is ridiculous!"

"Calm down, my fruit cake," Tom whispered to his angry wife. "This is what they do, like in those cop shows we love so much. They're making us sit here and stew to get our emotions in a bunch."

She snorted. "Well, it's working."

The door opened and the officers walked in. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's about time," Sabine snapped. "You ask us to come down here and then make us wait an hour?"

"We were in the middle of questioning someone else," Officer Reimer began to explain. "You know him, Marinette. Your classmate, Adrien Agreste?"

The pig-tailed girl stared at him without a reaction. "Yes, I was there when you picked him up, remember?"

"Right, right."

"What are we doing here?" Tom asked the officer.

Officer Laurent took a long sip from his paper coffee cup before he sat it down on the table in front of him. "We just want to ask Marinette some questions, that's all."

"About Gabriel Agreste?" Her mother questioned. "My daughter had nothing to do with his disappearance! He ran away!"

Marinette bit her lip and stayed as still as possible.

"Since we started our investigation, we've been going through Mr. Agreste's things—his car, his office, his phone records—and we found something... interesting." Officer Reimer pulled a tablet out from a bag and sat it on the table. He unlocked it and opened to an audio file. "I want you to listen, Marinette, and tell me if it sounds familiar." He pressed play, and her voice filled the awkward, quiet room.

"Gabriel Agreste, I am ashamed to have looked up and idolized you for so many wasteful years! So much time I wasted sketching designs for you, joining summer programs, interning under your influence. No more! I am done with you and your brand!"

Marinette gasped. It was a voicemail she left for Gabriel Agreste the night he disappeared. When Adrien had mentioned to her that his father grounded him again, she lost it. After she learned and saw firsthand of the abuse Gabriel tormented his son with, she wanted to give him a piece of her mind. She would have done it in person, but at the time she thought he was already on his way to Brazil for his business trip.

"You are a horrible, selfish man. You are cruel and soulless and a coward at heart! I won't stand by anymore while you continue to ruin Adrien's life. One day you'll get what's coming and you won't have control over Adrien anymore. Your son will finally be free of you. I promise you, I will make sure of that."

Officer Reimer turned off the tablet. "The night Gabriel Agreste disappeared, you left this voicemail him around seven p.m., and a few hours later, he was gone."

I completely forgot I left that for Mr. Agreste. Marinette shook her head as she tried to defend herself. "That was—"

"That was what?"