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Adrien woke up to his alarm one morning and didn’t want to leave his warm bed. School had started two days earlier after the holiday break, and Adrien wanted more of a break after meeting his grandparents for the first time. Reluctantly, he got out of bed and shuffled into the kitchen for breakfast.
Nathalie made some pancakes this morning. The pancakes are much better than Gabriel’s. Adrien plated one on his plate, added some fruit, and sat down.
“Still tired?” Nathalie asked
“I want a repeat of winter break.”
“I know. But at least it ended on a high note.”
“That’s true.”
Two days before New Year's Eve, Félix and Amelie traveled to Paris and Andre and Audrey hosted a New Year’s party at the hotel and a farewell party for Chloé, who would be going back to London with Amelie and Félix to start at a new school. Audrey offered both Chloé and Zoé to attend this prestigious school, but only Chloé accepted. Zoé wanted to stay in Paris where her real friends were, and Chloé and Audrey completely understood.
“You should hurry up and get ready. It’s too cold for you to ride your Vespa to school, so I asked the Bourgeois’ chauffeur to give you a ride.”
Adrien got himself ready for school and said goodbye for the day. Once Adrien closed the door, Nathalie went to wake up her fiancée.
“Adrien just left,” Nathalie whispered, sitting down next to her on the bed.
“Hi, Nat.” Emilie stirred awake, her voice filled with sleep.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah. I was up when you were, but I didn’t feel like getting out of bed just yet. But I’m ready now.”
They both prepared for the day. The cold casts a gloomy mood over them, but it’s always beneficial to get moving.
Around lunchtime, there was a knock on the door. They weren’t expecting any visitors today. Emilie stood up and answered the door.
“Is this the Graham De Vanily-Sancoeur household?” A stranger asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Emilie answered.
“I’m here with France’s Criminal Foundation,” They announced, flashing their ID. “I’m Robin Corbin.”
“Hi I’m Emilie, and this is my Fiancée, Nathalie.”
“Very nice to meet you. I’m so sorry for coming unannounced, but I have some rather unfortunate news to share with you, Emilie.”
Emilie immediately started to feel her heartbeat, and the room suddenly became hot. Sitting at the kitchen table, Nathalie took Emilie’s hand and squeezed it.
“Your ex-husband, Gabriel, passed away late last night. We’re currently investigating what happened, but I wanted to let you know before my team informs Najia and Clara.”
Emilie looked at Nathalie, her face giving Nathalie the answer she needed.
“Yeah. Go ahead,” Nathalie spoke, “Millions have been following our story, we might as well let them know about this. But not until the 6:00 news. Our son is still at school, and I can speak for both of us when we say we don’t want him finding out at school. We want to tell him first before he hears it from the news.”
“Understood. Here is some of the evidence we already gathered,” Robin opened their files and put some papers on the table “Feel free to read through it at your own time. And I understand the relationship the three of you have with him is complicated.”
“Thank you,” Nathalie said
Robin got up, and Nathalie walked them out. Once she returned to the table, Emilie was shaking.
“Oh no,” Nathalie whispered, running to her.
The moment Nathalie wrapped her arms around her fiancée, Emilie started to bawl. Nathalie held her tighter, feeling her tremble through the embrace.
“It’s okay. I’m here.” Nathalie whispered, doing all she could to comfort Emilie.
When Adrien got home, Nathalie broke the news about his father. Adrien was emotionless about the whole thing and excused himself to his room. Nathalie feared he didn’t want to be alone, but he heard him on the phone with Chloé. He is never alone.
Once 6:00 hit, the news of Gabriel’s death was aired. Texts started flooding in onto Adrien’s and Emilie’s phones. Emilie threw her phone across the room. Nathalie put it on the charger on the kitchen counter, making sure there weren’t any cracks. She has been lying on the couch, buried in blankets for hours now, watching a feel-good TV show.
The first time Nathalie’s phone rang, she didn’t recognize the number. The location said Paris, so she answered it.
“Hello?” She said, excusing herself to her bedroom
“Is this Nathalie Sancoeur?” A male voice asked
“Yeah, it is.”
“Oh, good. I’m Johnny Grassitte, and my wife Gabrielle is here with me, too.”
Nathalie recognized those names; They were Gabriel’s parents. “It’s nice to meet you, even though it’s over the phone.”
“We heard the news, and we want to do something,” Gabrielle spoke, “I understand that you might have some trust issues with us, given what happened to Gabriel, but we saw him turn the moment he met Emilie. We had no idea what he had done to her, and I can’t apologize for his behavior because it was wrong. And honestly, the divorce was a good move on Emilie’s side.”
They seem so much nicer than Emilie’s parents, who are probably having a cow right now.
“I… thank you for that. I don’t know what we want to do about all of this. Emilie and Adrien’s relationship with him is very complicated, but I would love to meet with you at some point to discuss if it’s okay with my fiancée.”
“Oh, we will love that. And fiancée? Are you marrying Emilie?”
“I am. We got engaged on Christmas Day.”
“Oh, congratulations,” Johnny shouted in delight, “She deserves so much better than our son after what he’s done.”
“Thank you,” Nathalie smiled, blushing a little bit.
She hung up the phone and joined Emilie on the couch.
“Hey. Sorry about that. Gabriel’s parents called. But don’t worry, they don’t support what he has done to you and Adrien.”
“Oh, good. What did they call for?”
Nathalie explained to Emilie what the call was about, “Do you want to come with me to Friterie Grassette and talk? I want to pull Adrien out of school tomorrow, too if that’s okay with you.”
“Yeah, pull him from school. He can’t learn like this.”
Nathalie dialed Adrien’s school and called him out for the next day. She carried Emilie to the bedroom and helped her get ready for bed.
“It’s like old times,” Emilie laughed slightly, “When you used to help me get ready for bed while I was sick.”
“I remember well. Nathalie said, “Before I get into bed, I’m gonna check in on Adrien.”
Nathalie knocked on his door. She peeked in and saw he was on a video call with all of his friends.
That kid has such a good support system, Nathalie thought. She waved goodnight to Adrien and closed the door again.
The next day, the three of them met with Gabriel’s parents at their French fry truck. They were all meeting with each other at noon.
“It’s good to see you, Emilie,” Gabrielle said, “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay. Honestly, still in shock.”
“And you must be Adrien. You look just like your mother,” Johnny added.
“Hello, grandmom, grandfather,”
“Oh, no need to be so formal. Call us grandma and grandpa.”
“Okay… grandpa.”
Gabrielle got some fries on the house and set them on the table for the three of them.
“We want to do something for Gabriel’s death. I’m not sure how you feel about him, given his treatment towards you and Adrien.” Gabrielle spoke
“My feelings towards him are very complicated,” Emilie admitted, “Most of the time, I feel hatred for him, but then I remember the good times. I honestly don’t think many people would want to celebrate his life, but at the same time, I feel like we should do something about the good times.”
“I understand,” Johnny agreed, “Gabi was a good person, even when he met you, but I knew something changed shortly after you got married. Especially once he stopped visiting. He didn’t even tell us about Adrien being born,”
“Neither did I to my parents,” Emilie spoke, “We saw them once when Adrien was a child, but not again until this past holiday.”
“But your parents were also horrible people,” Nathalie added
“Correction. Are horrible people,”
“We never met them, but we’ve heard about them in the news,” Gabrielle stated
“We don’t even have to do anything for Gabi,” Johnny suggested.
“I would like that,” Emilie blurted out, covering her mouth with her hands after realizing what she said. “I’m sorry.”
“No, no, it’s fine.”
“Why don’t we just have something amongst ourselves,” Adrien suggested, “We won't have to have anything for the public. I think that’s what we’re all afraid of.”
“Adrien’s right,” Nathalie agreed, “There are still people out there that don’t support the choices Emilie made, and I think it would be too much to honor his life but also be like ‘screw you, Gabriel’ at the same time. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I think so,”
“So let’s do something with just our circle,” Emilie added, “And you’re invited too. I’ll see if Andre and Audrey can host it. We don’t exactly have the room at our place.”
“That works,” Johnny said.
Once everyone got home, Emilie dismissed herself to her bedroom and didn’t emerge for the rest of the night. Nathalie and Adrien chatted in the kitchen before he went to do some homework. At around dinner, Nathalie brought some food into Emilie’s room and set her up with the lap table. She sat in bed next to her, laying her head on Emilie’s shoulder.
“Nat?” Emilie spoke. It’s the first thing she had said since they got home, “Do you think it’s bad that I feel this way?”
“No, I don’t. He was your husband . You have every right to feel what you’re feeling.”
“But he hurt me. He used to hit me even when we were using the miraculous; he’d fight too hard. He left me on the floor when I became paralyzed, he almost killed me.”
Emilie was silent for a second before she spoke again.
“Sometimes I wanted him to kill me, for him to end it all, especially when I was so sick. Those thoughts were the scariest ones. What would happen to you, to Adrien, if I died? I even wanted to end my misery myself too. I always hated having those thoughts, and I would take those feelings out on all the times I cut myself. But Nathalie, you genuinely saved my life. I would have died either way if it wasn’t for you and I don’t say it often enough but I thank you for saving me and Adrien,”
Nathalie wrapped her arms around her fianée tightly, her tears streaming down her face.
“I don’t regret anything I did for you, Em. I love you and I always have. You don’t deserve the pain he caused you and you don’t deserve to die either. Emilie, you matter. You’ve always mattered to me.”
Nathalie and Emilie both sat there crying their feelings away. They both needed this.
“I’m sorry I haven’t told you the whole truth,” Emilie spoke after a while. “I was still processing my feelings and I didn’t want to put this burden on you too.”
“You’re not a burden. Emilie, I genuinely care about you and Adrien. Don’t you dare think for a second I don’t? I’m not that asshole you call your ex-husband.”
Emilie laughed. "Yeah, I know. I think I may need to book an emergency therapy appointment tomorrow just to work through all of this.”
“Okay. And Audrey wants to host the ‘we’re not celebrating your life but we kinda are’ party next Thursday, so exactly one week.”
“Okay. That works. And I like that name.”
“I knew you would,” Nathalie said, kissing Emilie on the forehead.
Thursday came. Emilie, Nathalie, and Adrien put on some nice outfits for the outing. They picked up Amelie, Félix, and Chloé from the train station before making their way to the hotel. Audrey and Andre decorated the banquet room with photos of Gabriel and all sorts of flowers. The best part was that there was a cake that said “Gabriel Agreste, screw you” written on it.
“You all outdid yourselves,” Emilie spoke.
“We knew you’d like it,” Amelie said, “Félix, Chloé, and I were on the phone with Chloé’s parents and Gabriel’s parents planning the whole thing.
Emilie walked around. There was a small section of photos of Gabriel when he was a kid and teenager, even a photo of the wedding a a few dates Amelie recovered that said “celebration of life. She walked to another area where there were screenshots of old news headlines taped to the wall, copies of the charges Gabriel had, and his arrest papers.
“This is perfect,” Emilie had tears rolling down her face.
“Wait there’s one more thing,” Andre added, “Zoé, Kagami, get the champagne and sparking cider.”
Zoé and Kagami came back with the bottles and glasses. Kagami poured champagne for the adults and Zoé poured sparkling cider for the kids.
“To Gabriel.” Emilie said as she raised her glass in a toast, “May he rot in Hell.”
“Hear hear,” Everyone shouted clanking their glasses and taking a sip.
Emilie had never been so sad and happy at the same time. This was the perfect way to get closure.
“I love all of you I hope you know that,” Emilie laughed, “And you’re never getting rid of me.”
Nathalie, who was standing next to her, kissed her lips before everyone else ran up to hug her.
“Well now this is over with, we need to plan a wedding,” Audrey said
“Oh yeah, we do.”
“Let’s focus on that tomorrow,” Amelie added. “I think we all should just get through today.”
Everyone laughed. Johnny and Gabrielle smiled at the group before bidding their farewells and leaving. Adrien and Emilie both looked at each other and smiled.
“Farewell, Gabriel,” Both of them whispered while looking at the ground.