Nathalie Sancoeur's secret past

The Invitation

The wedding day approached with quick steps. Though Nathalie had told him, that she would be totally good with a tiny ceremony and just her closest family, meaning him, Adrien and Fei with both their girlfriends, Gabriel had organized something a little bigger to surprise his beloved almost wife.

He wasn't quite sure though, if he had done the right thing, by inviting Nathalie's family, the ones he could get into contact with in the short time. Mr and Mrs Sancoeur coming to the wedding, as well as her Chinese grandfather was supposed to make her happy. At least he thought he would be doing that until she had told him, two days before the big day, that she was glad, her family would stay far away.

"Why's that, love?", he wondered, trying to look not suspicious at all.

"It's just, I don't know how to explain, but I moved away from them for a reason. My very traditional grandfather, who forced my parents, to send me as a teenager to a city on the other half of the world, to be schooled by a stranger. My grandmother, who was half French and had never even been to Shanghai, completely supporting his decision, talking my mum and dad into obeying them. My dad, born and raised by French parents and had never left the country at all just thought it would be good for me, and my mum, well, she had disappointed her father already, by marrying a French man with, for him, too modern ideas. To come to the end of it, he was very upset, when I came back home after I had not been seen in Wu's school for about four months and hadn't finished my training completely. He said I wasn't worthy of wearing the red strand. What he didn't know was, that Wu Sifu had somehow figured out, that I had left Fei at his doorstep and had caught up with me at the very last minute, before I went into the airplane, to tell me, that by doing that, by giving her up to let her have a better life, I had made him proud, as it was one of the most important things, he was teaching: Being selfless and putting others first. And he said, it was the last task to finish my education, so, I was and am worthy of that red streak!", she started to cry now, "he said, he would be taking good care of her and that it was fate, which brought me there and the baby girl to him. I am sure, he thought, I had done something stupid with one of the boys, because if he had known the truth.... Maybe he did before he died and that's why Cash had him killed instead of simply doing what he was used to: Stealing!"

Gabriel had listened to her story with growing hatred for the woman's family and his respect towards the Kungfu master had risen immensely. They were in his office, where Nathalie was just trying on the wedding dress, he had made, a simple, yet beautiful dress, made of creme white silk and covered with pink lace, the top part was a corsage, which was laced up in the back, while the skirt started right above her knees in the front and fell almost down to her heels. To the hem was a red lace with red roses attached, which playfully whirled around her legs when she moved.

Gabriel let go of the dress, he was just trying to get into the right position to see, if there was anything to change before Saturday, and hugged her tightly, letting her just cry into his chest.

"Shush, darling. Just have a look at your actual situation. You have her back, you don't have to try and be a villain anymore, we're in love and we're about to have a baby. So no matter how painful the past has been, let's look into the future with hope instead of regret, alright? What about your mother? Have you never tried to tell her?"

Nathalie lifted her head and scoffed.

"I tried to tell her, that I was violated, but she just told me, I shouldn't tell lies to get attention and that if this was true, would have been caused by my slutty behaviour. With slutty behaviour she was talking about wearing a light makeup or a short skirt sometimes. Or even a sleeveless top. I was fourteen and compared to the other girls my age, I was dressed like an old spinster!"

She shook her head and tried to not remember that conversation.

Gabriel looked more than guilty now and felt really bad, for even considering to invite them. He inhaled deeply, then admitted:

"You're going to hate me so much. If I had known, I would have never even tried to contact them and invite them. But I will immediately take care of that issue, by telling them, that we decided to keep it to just the two of us and our children. Please, don't get mad. I really thought, I was doing you a favour!"

"Excuse me!", the pregnant woman exclaimed and ran out of the room and upstairs.

Gabriel sighed, then followed her, seeing the door to their bedroom open and stepped inside to hear her vomiting in the bathroom. He knelt down beside her and rubbed her back very gently.

"I really am sorry! Now you're even puking again because of me. I shouldn't have told you and just should have told them to stay away from us instead!", he uttered ruefully then stretched a little to soak a washing cloth under the tap. "Here, for your mouth!", he said caringly.

"Thank you!", she croaked and took it, to wipe her face clean with the cool, wet fabric. "I am not mad, I just felt....well, even thinking of them, how they didn't care about the things I had to go through or didn't even believe when I tried to tell them, how I felt!"

Her face took a hard and angry, almost evil expression now.

"Let them come! I want my mother to have a look at my daughter and then tell me, that she still doesn't believe me. And then I want my grandfather to admit, that we are both worthy of wearing the sign, that we finished our education. And maybe my dad will eventually be a man and stand up to them for me, as he back then never had the guts to, though he at least hugged me, when I came home and told me, he was gad that I was back. And he was the one, who comforted me every night, when he heard me cry into my pillow for weeks. My mum only told me, that I had gotten fat!" Nathalie laughed cynically. "I had given birth three days before, of course I wasn't back in shape, but she wouldn't even try to let me speak. She just told me to do some exercises, what I luckily refused. It was my instincts I think, which kept me from doing too much too early, as I found out years later, it could have caused quite some damage in my body!"

Gabriel only shook his head. He had felt bad for the way, he had treated Adrien for some time, but he had been mourning the loss of his wife and was possessed by the thought of changing reality, so none of that would have happened. His fiancée's family just had been too stuck to what they wanted Nathalie to be and how she had to act, that they didn't care about her wellbeing at all. He kissed her lips very tenderly after she had brushed her teeth and laid an arm around her waist, nudging her into the bedroom, to take off the dress and change into her regular clothes, when they heard a knock on the door. There were Fei and Marinette, asking sheepishly, if they could have a look at the dress and if there was anything they could help with.

The designer looked at Nathalie and asked:

"Would you like to tell your daughter, what you just told me? In the meantime, I'll take Marinette with me, to help with the tiny adjustments, I would like to make on the dress."

The assistant nodded and quickly got out of the dress, handing it to her soon to be husband, to then start to explain to Fei, that she would be meeting more of her family over the next days.

"Oh great! Maybe Kagami should bring Mrs Tsurugi too. I am very certain, she would have an opinion to their behaviour. She seems very strict and more than overprotective, but well, that's the difference, right? She wants Kagami to be the best in everything she does, but she also take scare, that she won't get into any danger at all. If she had sent her daughter to someone for education, she would have most likely send any kind of surveying robot with her, to see what is going on around her. When they're at home and all of Kagami's tasks are done, Tomoe can indeed be fun!"

Nathalie smiled at her daughter.

"So you're okay with the fact, that I will drag you before my mother and tell her, that you are the product of the assault, that never happened?"

Fei hugged her mother and pecked her cheek.

"More than okay, 'mum'!", she hummed while she kept rubbing Nathalie's back, knowing very well, that her, calling her 'mum', would make the hormonal woman cry even harder.