Work Text:
Dear Mr. Agreste,
I am writing to give you notice of my resignation as an employee at Gabriel. Being the “face” of the brand has taught me much, and I am grateful for the opportunities the company has given me. I will, of course, fulfill any obligations already on my calendar, including fashion week, should you wish me to do so, but I will no longer be available to take on any further engagements for the brand as I am retiring from modelling so that I can pursue other career options. Please have your assistant inform me of any schedule modifications with regards fittings etc for the aforementioned obligations that you wish me to complete in order to terminate my employment in a satisfactory and above board manner.
Kind regards,
Adrien Agreste.
Dear Father,
It is my 18th birthday today, and as such, I have officially reached the age of legal majority and am therefore no longer bound by law to live by your edicts. Having said that, you are still my father and it is only seemly to upraise you of the decisions I have made about my life, at least as far as those decisions pertain to you.
I am retiring from modelling. Please use the above letter for HR purposes and/or any formal media statements. On a more personal note, while I have never wanted to do anything more than please you, I never wanted to model. While for the most part I didn’t mind it, these last couple of years it has become a burden that I have actively started despising as it has taken so much time away from the things I would rather be pursuing. I was never asked if I wanted to be a part of Gabriel or if this was the career I choose - and it is not. When I leave school I will be enrolling in University to study physics with some thought to either teaching or engineering, although I am open to other career options that may present themselves - but whatever I choose to do, it is doubtful it will be in any way related to the fashion industry.
I understand that my trust fund is officially available to me as of today. Please have Nathalie organise any documents necessary for the transfer of administrative authority to my name at her earliest convenience, and have them delivered to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, along with any further instructions on what I need to sign and where I need to file in order to have everything transferred fully and completely into my name, as is my legal right.
Finally, as of today I will no longer be living under your roof. I have packed everything I consider to be truly “mine”, but you are more than welcome to contest any item I am taking with me. I am taking some changes of clothes, some toiletries, and some of Mother’s jewelry that was left to me, my phone and one or two other electronics, and a number of items that have been gifted to me by my school friends over the past few years. I have no need of any other items from my room or your house. I will be couch surfing with friends until my trust fund comes through and my paycheck from my new job starts coming in, at which time I will update you through Nathalie of my living arrangements. I will be working for Tom and Sabine at the Dupain-Cheng bakery before and after school as a means to support myself, so in the meantime please consider their house to be my forwarding address.
I love you, Father. I always will. But now that I have reached majority, I can no longer live under your roof or under your rule. You no longer have any authority over my life or my decisions. I am grateful to you for many things, and I truly wish we could have had a closer relationship. Your actions, however, have made it clear that I was never anything but a burden to you, a perfect doll to parade in front of investors and then be locked away again. I can never be the epitome of perfection you have always insisted on, and I am done trying to twist myself into something I’m not. I am sorry if these words are hurtful to you. If you had shown up for a scheduled dinner with me even once in the last six months and asked something as simple as how my day went without berating me for some perceived slight or imperfection, I would have approached this whole situation differently. It is clear to me by your actions that you have no interest in a relationship with me, no matter how deeply I desire it, and as it is beyond my power to force you to change, all I can do is remove myself from a hurtful living situation now that I am legally able to do so.
I will not change my mind on any of the above points, so please do not waste either of our time trying to argue them. I do wish you all the best, and hope that one day you will have time once again in your busy schedule for your son. I will meet you for a father-son cup of coffee and a catch up at any time and will ensure Nathalie always has some way of contacting me. For now, however, I must live my life.
Love,
Adrien.