Tell Me Why You Love Me

Divulgence

"Adrien, your father is Monarch."

Adrien wasn't sure how he should have felt. Maybe shock. Fear. Disbelief. All those emotions would have been valid to sense. But instead, all he felt was a mix of anger and sadness.

In truth, he had the hint of the thought that his father might have been Monarch ever since Nathalie brought him down the elevator to the secret repository. That sneaking suspicion was blurred out with inconsistent reasons. He had been swimming in denial. While he knew his father was involved, he wanted to protect that innocent kid that always excused his father's harsh actions growing up. That maybe there was a reason for all of this, a good one. One where he might be mad at his father but have the future of forgiving him to look forward to. The hope that redemption could still be paid. There might have been that glimmering spot of hope he held onto. It fell at the last thread once he saw Marinette.

His own blood had hurt her. Hurt thousands of lives. Adrien had been fighting his father this whole time, and he never knew it until now. Right under his nose, Paris had been terrorized by his parent, who had no regard for the wounded and deaths Ladybug had healed and brought back over and over again for the past six years.

There was no word to describe the evil his father had pursued with the buttery miraculous. His misuse of its power implicated more crimes than Adrien could even count. There was no going back from that. A human being capable of such prolific harm.

He saw a brisk flash of red. The felon was under his roof this whole time. While he and Ladybug kept dealing with a masked enemy, wondering if they were ever going to bring an end to this evil, his own father was pulling puppet strings. What an excuse of a father.

Adrien's blood boiled in anger. Every fiber of emotion was geared toward his father. The man who had always silenced him in his own home and treated him like he wasn't even his son. Sheltered him from a life he could have obtained earlier. The life that disappeared at the same time his mom did, just in a different way. Nearly killed him.

Nearly killed the love of his life. If Adrien hadn't found her by now, who knows what condition he would have seen her in next. By that time, the akuma would have possessed her. It would have broken her.

And now, Adrien wanted to break him.

He shouldn't have felt that little surprise that snuck up on him. His father was always cold and harsh toward workers, employees, and even his own family. Adrien remembered the fights between him and his mom. How she seemed to be the only person in the world who brought his father back down before he acted out too irrationally. And now that she was gone, there was nothing holding him back.

A prominent question that rang in Adrien's mind was, why? Why would his father go through the trouble of this? He knew his father most likely desired the wish that came with combining the ladybug and cat miraculous, but for what reason? What could his father possibly want? It couldn't have been money or fame.

Did he do all of this for mere power?

Was he truly that superficial?

In a way, he wanted to stand in front of his father and hit him with every burning question that fueled his fury. Adrien wanted to know how it began before he brought it all to the end. Did he fully know the consequences of such a desire of a wish? What was even his wish? What could possibly be worth the world as they knew it?

His jaw clenched at the raw thought of it all. He couldn't believe he was related to the bastard.

"Adrien?" that calm voice called out to him, easing his tensed-up muscles into a puddle. She always had that effect on him. "Talk to me."