Next of Kin

Chapter 6

Alya dropped Marinette off at the Gabriel Fashion Headquarters before heading off to pick up Nino from work. Marinette promised to call if there was any change to Adrien's condition and she would come around that evening to sort out what message Ladybug would give to the public.

Heading to the lift, Marinette had to hold back a groan when Ricardo waltzed over to her, leaning his arm against the wall next to her head and giving her a flirty grin.

"I hear your "boyfriend" got himself into a bit of trouble this morning." He said, looking at her with an air of victory in his voice. "It will be lonely for you in that big office all by yourself."

"You know you could at least try to look a little less pleased about it." Marinette seethed between her teeth. "Adrien could have died."

When the lift opened Ricardo indicated for Marinette to enter first before following her in. It was going to be a long trip to the 20th floor.

"Well we wouldn't want anything happening to the face of the brand now would we." He said sarcastically, taking no notice of the stink eye Marinette was throwing him. "It would be a shame if a new lead model was required." He pulled on his lapels and rolled his head around.

Marinette in response rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me you're offering yourself for the part."

"I could if I wanted to." Ricardo retorted, leaning in closer to her. "You like models, don't you?"

Marinette glared at him as the elevator doors opened. She quickly exited, leaving Ricardo chuckling behind her.

Entering the meeting room, only Nathalie was in there. The assistant stood up and surprised Marinette with a hug. She didn't say anything, only gave Marinette a meaningful look before sitting back down. Marinette made a point of sitting on the opposite side from Ricardo.

"Mr Agreste has been held up with Officer Raincomprix. He will only be a moment." Nathalie informed them.

"Why is Officer Raincomprix here?" Marinette asked with concern. Ricardo also sat up more interested.

"Just routine." Nathalie replied flatly, looking through her paperwork. Marinette had a feeling there was more to it than that, but wasn't going to ask further in front of Ricardo. A few moments later Gabriel entered the room, his countenance looking clouded.

"We have a mole in the team." He announced as he sat down. Marinette and Ricardo both looked at each other before looking back at Gabriel for him to continue. "Marinette, show me the sketch outlines you completed last week."

Marinette opened her sketchbook and slid it across the table. Her and Adrien had done a collaboration session with Alya and started planning the designs for Rena Rouge, Vesperia and Viperion.

Gabriel looked over the designs and his eyebrows knitted into a frown. "Just as I suspected." He muttered under his breath.

Nathalie took a sheet out of her folder and slid it across to Marinette. Her mouth fell open to see a print out of a dress in an almost identical design as the Vesperia dress, only in a different colour with a few slight changes.

"I don't understand." Marinette exclaimed. "Where did this from?"

"They call themselves "Illusions" and they are based in Milan." Nathalie replied. "They are nothing but rip off merchants. Usually they take dresses from events, award nights, red carpets etc and manufacture them with inferior fabrics to cheaply sell to the public with just enough tweaking to avoid a copyright infringement of the design."

"Who are they?"

"Nobody knows." Gabriel replied, his voice clearly expressing his displeasure. "They operate almost entirely online and no one has ever seen or heard of who is behind the label. This, however, is the first time we have seen them blatantly steal a design that had yet to be released publicly."