One Way or Another

A Solution and A Colorful Cake

Everyone sat at the dining room table in the Agreste mansion the next morning.

Annabelle was surprised, but overjoyed, to see Adrien and Marinette there. They never came over for breakfast. But her joy immediately disappeared when everyone turned to look at her.

"Anna," Emilie said gently to her daughter. "Why did you open the gate and unlock the front door last night?"

The girl's eyes went wide. After a few seconds of quick thinking, she came up with a reason. "Uh, because I wanted to open them for Adrien!" she lied.

Adrien's face fell before he spoke. "I never told you that I would come over. Why did you think I would?"

She blinked at him. "Uh, because you always come by!"

"Annabelle," Gabriel said quietly. "Did someone else ask you to open them?"

A vigorous head shake.

"Annabelle," he repeated as a warning, clearly not believing her.

She shook her head again.

He sighed and looked at his wife.

"Anna, are you lying to us right now?" Emilie asked softly.

"I'm not lying, Mama," she insisted.

Emilie remained silent for a moment before talking to her again. "I think that you're lying to us. I think that a lady is asking you to open the door for her."

Another head shake. "Ladybug isn't asking me to open the door."

Emilie raised her eyebrows in confusion. "I didn't say 'Ladybug,' I said a lady."

And suddenly Annabelle's face paled as she started to panic.

A quick glance at Marinette before Emilie continued. "Did Ladybug ask you to open the door?" she asked quietly.

"No," the little girl replied, her eyes starting to fill with tears. "Ladybug didn't ask me to do anything."

Everyone stared at her.

"But you've been talking with her?" Emilie surmised.

Realizing that she was caught, Annabelle started crying. "She... she's on a secret mission! She told me not to tell anyone!"

Emilie quickly got up from her seat and hugged her daughter. "It's okay, baby. It's okay. We're just trying to figure out what's going on. It's okay, don't be upset."

"I'm sorry, Mama," she cried, holding on tightly.

"We're not mad at you, baby. We just want you to tell us the truth."

Annabelle cried for a minute before she calmed down and spoke again. "Ladybug asked me to open the gate and the door."

Emilie nodded. "When did you talk to her?"

"Yesterday at school. She came to visit me."

"She came in her costume?" Marinette asked.

Annabelle shook her head. "No, she was in real clothes."

"Then how did you know it was her?"

"She told me. She remembered me from my birthday party. But I wasn't supposed to tell anyone! No one is supposed to know her secret identity!" Now the girl looked completely distraught.

"It's okay, baby," her mother tried to assure her.

"Annabelle," Adrien said, taking out his phone. "I want you to look at this picture. Is this the lady that talked to you? Did this lady tell you that she was Ladybug?" He held the phone out toward her so that she could see a photo of Lila Rossi on the screen.