Just my Luck -Book 1

Chapter 19: Worse than Hawk Moth?

Adrien stepped outside into the cold crisp March afternoon. It didn't seem like a horrible, life-changing kind-of-day. His bodyguard was standing beside the limo with his arms crossed and a frozen frown on his face. Had that guy even moved from yesterday?

Adrien walked up to the car and Gorilla opened the door for Adrien, as though it were business as usual and nothing had happened. Like Adrien hadn't openly defied his father by ignoring him. Adrien nodded to his driver as he got into the back. He drove to the Agreste mansion in silence.

When Adrien got home, his father was standing at the top of the main stairs, his hands clasped together lightly behind his back, and on his normally passive face, there was a slight frown. "I want to see you in my office."

His father was pissed.

Adrien didn't say anything as he followed him up the stairs. Once in the office, his father sat down behind his desk, then threw a few photo spreads down on the table. "Take a look at these. We were lucky to get two good shots of you. The rest were garbage."

Adrien shrugged. "I pretty much work for free and have zero control over my life so..."

Gabriel looked up at his son, shock clearly evident on his face. But Adrien wasn't going to play the sweet dutiful son he had for years. Not anymore. "You get paid," Gabriel said. "It goes into a trust fund."

"Which you control. And if I'm not mistaken you cut me off, even from my own money."

"Perhaps. But that still doesn't explain the fact that you walked off of a job. That was incredibly unprofessional of you. I am very disappointed."

When is he not disappointed? Adrian sighed. "I wasn't feeling it. And I'm an adult now; I can quit if I want to. I have more important things to do. Like school."

"Well, now you have Spring Break for the next two weeks. I double-checked with your school when you were ignoring me for the past three days. You can't use that excuse."

"Can't you just get another model?"

Gabriel cocked his head. "Another model? That could damage the brand."

"I'm not a brand. I'm your son," Adrien said as he clenched his fist. "I'm not something you can set on some secret shelf and lock away. I'm a person."

"There are consequences for not listening to me, son."

"What are you going to do? Blacklist me from the industry? Is that what you did to mom? Is that why she ran away, and never looked back?"

Gabriel stood up from his chair, his eyes flashing with emotion as slammed his open palms on his desk. "That's not what happened!"

Adrien took a step back, his father was showing more emotion then he had since... since his mother was home. He remembered before she left that they would fight almost all the time. But Adrien was also angry, and he wasn't going to let it go. "Then tell me what happened! You never told anything about it. You never talked to me about it at all. She just was here one day and gone the next. So tell me. Because when she left you, she abandoned me too."

"She didn't abandon you." Gabriel took in a deep breath and adjusted the silk cravat that was pinned so elegantly to his designer dress shirt. "You're angry. Good."

Good? "Give me one reason why I shouldn't turn around and walk right out this door right now and never come back."

The look on his face told Adrien that he had finally gotten to his father. That he had finally gotten through to his father's thick emotionless core. "I suppose it is time I show you. Come with me."