"Anthony created a video online, apologizing for what he did."
Aunt scoffed with a roll of her eyes as her attention turned back to the TV she was watching. "Attention-seeking gold-digger. Just ignore him, darling. He doesn't deserve any attention from anyone!" After what had happened, Father had allowed her to stay over for a while, but she and Felix, along with Dad were going to be moving back soon. I placed my phone away before giving her a kiss on the cheek and hurrying upstairs, where the rest were still waiting for me. I opened the door to my bedroom and walked inside, before closing the door right behind me.
"Are you ready?" Alya asked as she grabbed ahold of the remote. Father had managed to set up another TV in my bedroom, although I hadn't really been the one to ask him too. I was still kind of ignoring him, which I knew I shouldn't be doing still, so Felix had been the one to ask and he had surprisingly agreed. I nodded my head at Alya's question and jumped on the bed, landing right beside Marinette as I rested my head and fixed my eyes on the TV. Alya's phone then suddenly beeped, and she took it out, before staring at it for a good few seconds. She lowered her phone down a little as her eyes turned over to Marinette. "It's Lila. She says she's waiting over at the bakery and wants to desperately talk to you."
Marinette's mouth was hanging opened for a few seconds, before she leaned in and grabbed Alya's phone. I watched as she silenced it, before she put the phone away. "Just ignore her!"
^~^
I stood in front of my father's bedroom for a while, arguing with myself whether to open the door and go in or just turn around right now. After a while of just standing there, I finally decided and reached down to the knob, before twisting it and pushing the door opened. Walking in, the first person I saw was Father, sitting on his bed, once again seeming to be far too busy at the moment as he typed on his computer. Deciding to maybe come back at another time, I started turning to leave, only for him to call me back and ask me to wait. I waited, watching as he typed. Finally, he stopped and turned off his computer, gently placed it back at its spot, and turned his head around to face me. I waited for him to say something, but when all he let out was a sigh, I decided to speak first. "You called me?"
"Yeah." He still sat on the bed as he talked, eyes never leaving my face. "You've just changed so much ever since you started school, and it still surprises me until now. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was definitely not expecting a whole new Adrien. Well, your words seriously did hurt me, but first of all, I'd like to apologize. You know I would never lay a finger on you Adrien, right? That time had been the first, and it even surprised me as well, but I definitely promise that it's going to be the last." He didn't wait for me to speak at all as he continued. "I'm sure you have friends now who you would like to be with all the time, so. . .I'm firing you as a model."
My eyes almost popped out with the words, shocking me with the way he had put it. "I'm sorry. What?!"
"What I mean to say is. . .you're free. You don't have to do this anymore. I've been really thinking and watching you close. Whenever you're doing your photoshoots, you always fake a smile. But whenever you leave it and go hang out with your friends, you have the realest smile I'd ever seen you put on. It finally just came to me that I needed to think about your feelings too. I mean, what's the point of having a job for the rest of your life if you don't even like it? I finally realized that my son's happiness was much more important than my own selfishness. So, I'm letting you go. I'm going to find someone who actually wants the job, and replace you with them." Father ran his hand through his hair as he turned around, his back now facing me. I still couldn't believe the words he had just told me, and I just felt like bursting out into tears because this is what I've always wanted to hear from him. My hopes had died that it was never going to happen, but here we were.
"T-Thank you."
He didn't reply, so I was wondering if he was mad or upset to be letting me go. I took a step towards the door, before I stopped. Then, I turned back around and headed towards him, wrapping my arms around his body and pulling him into a tight hug. "Adrien, I don't hug!" Was what he said, but had hugged me back after a few seconds.
When I pulled away, his face still looked upset. "I know this is probably making you upset and all. Really, this. . .is huge for me. I'm just really happy that you finally got to realize my feelings as well. And I'm extremely sorry it has to end like this. I did like working there, Father. The only problem was that my schedule started to get full and I barely had anytime to do whatever I wanted, but. . .thank you. This really means so much to me." After my words, I waited for him to say something, and instead, he just gave me a small nod. I gave him a huge smile, before turning around and walking out of the room.
~~
Marinette's P. O. V
I walked inside class, already seeing the rest of my friends there, showing me that I was a little bit late. It was Wednesday today, so I unzipped my bag and pulled out my homework, before handing it in. Before I could leave though, Miss. Bustier stopped me. "Oh Marinette. You were requested to be seen in the office a few minutes ago. You may go there now." She gave me a small smile before looking down at the pile of books she had on her desk. I watched as she started class, before I slowly made my way out of the classroom and started heading down to the principal's office. To be quite honest, I barely get sent down there, and the only reason why was because my parents had arrived early to come pick me up because we had to go somewhere. Well, it couldn't be that now, could it? I mean, I just left the bakery, and they would have told me if we were going anywhere today.
I walked inside the office, greeted Mr. Damocles, the principal, before being asked to sit and sitting down right across from him. "Marinette, someone came in here and handed me this." The man pulled out a box, before opening it. I peeked inside and inside of it was a phone. "The phone looks brand new, doesn't it? They asked me to give it to you. But they also told me to mention this part as it is extremely important. You get into the phone and there's a recording waiting for you. The person said to give you the phone so you could listen to the recording." The principal leaned over and placed the box right beside me. Now looking closer, I could see there was also a charger right inside of the box as well.
I reached forward and took the phone out of its box. Mr. Damocles left the office, saying to give me some privacy to do what I had to do. I could feel the saliva rush down my throat as I stared at the phone longer, already having a feeling of what this was about. I then turned on the phone and swiped up; no password needed or anything of that such. I went over to the so called recording Mr. Damocles had claimed was important. I could tell this was a new phone too because there was barely anything on the screen. The recording must have been the only thing they did as soon as they bought the phone, and then never touched it again. I stared at the screen for a while, before I breathed in and out and finally clicked 'play'.
"Hey, Marinette. By the time you're receiving this recording, I might either be at the airport, or outside of Paris by now. Anyway, because you wouldn't want to talk to me, I decided perhaps this was the only way I could really reach out to you. Please listen to the end, okay?
Pretending to be abused wasn't something I wanted to happen, and it wasn't something I thought I'd ever be seeing myself do. It all started when I got invited to your bakery, Marinette. You were just the sweetest person, even if you barely knew me, you welcomed me with open arms. Then unlike my own parents, your parents were amazing, so lovely, and still together. That was the time when my jealousy started to grow. Looking at your parents, I'd wish they were mine instead. Even if I could have treated them like my second set of parents like you had asked me to, I just didn't feel good enough about it; I wasn't satisfied. My parents were crap, even if they didn't harm me in a physical way, they still emotionally destroyed me.
And you know, that feeling even got worse when my father brought home a woman. Now, she was the abusive one, always treating me like a mistake she had picked up from the streets. She got kicked out by my father, but by then, it'd already been too late; I hated him even more, and I felt even more worse about myself with all the wicked insults she had thrown at me. I had then overheard your parents talking about probably sending me away back to my father or something, and it wasn't just once they talked about it. I felt even more unwanted then, before I promised myself that I was going to do whatever it took to stay. So I started the whole lie just so your family could keep me close, just so you'd continue to feel bad for me and keep me close. I always loved that overprotective side of you, one you'd always have whenever you felt insulted with someone insulting me. I just loved being taken care of you and your family, and I didn't want to leave it. It had been such a long time since my mind ever took a day off from thinking too badly of myself, but your family just made me feel even more loved, and I wasn't willing to lose what I had.
Pretending to be abused wasn't meant to hurt anyone else, but I had no idea it was hurting you the more I lied to you everyday. I decided to cut it off, and then just pretend it hadn't happened at all. I wanted to tell you that my father had stopped abusing me, so then I wouldn't have to lie to you anymore, but I got caught before I could. I've never seen you so angry, Marinette, and it honestly broke my heart when I saw you like that, because you were mad at me. Do you know how my heart had just stopped beating instantly after you'd almost got hit with that car. I wanted to keep the most precious people close to me, but instead, ended up making things worse and losing you. I'd really like to apologize, Marinette. In fact, an apology isn't enough for what I did, but I just hope that you'd find it in your heart to forgive me for being just a stupid idiot who couldn't think before acting on her actions. And~" *sniff, sniff* "I'm just sorry you had to experience that. It must feel so good to finally have gotten rid of me, right?"
I ended the recording there, already feeling the tears brimming at the bottom of my eyes. I wiped them off before they could roll down, not wanting to start crying now. I made a mistake. I wish I had went to see you when you requested to see me. I had let my anger get the better of me. I took a deep breath before looking down at the play button again, just remembering how Lila had started crying just at the ending of her apology. I then tapped the button once again and listened.
"I hope you're at least doing okay with all the friends now. By the way, it had been me who had asked Juleka to take a picture of me with Adrien just so I could play the victim again. I'm super sorry you had to deal with someone as bad as me. I hope your life is better now that I'm not there with you, or at least, I just hope it's better in general. Again, I'm sorry. Anyway, you can keep the phone if you'd like. Take it as my apology gift for you. It hurts to say goodbye, so. . .until I see you again.
. . .Hopefully."