Seeing Red

Part 8

"I am very certain that your parents would have had quite an opinion on that. Your mum at least. I never had much more than a short conversation with your dad to speak about him. Oh, and your grandma would've thrown a tantrum!" Nathalie said.

"You think? My mum loved you so much, she would have gladly adopted you. I mean, her little girl turned out to be a boy, so, try to imagine how she felt. And grandma liked you even more than me. She would have been thrilled if we had told her we were getting married. If only they had been able to accept Emilie at least a little bit. But due to some stupid old beliefs they never gave her the chance, as her family wouldn't let her come to visit me at my place in the beginning and they were all too stubborn to come with me to meet hers. So when we eloped because of her father threatening to have me thrown out of the country, and we came to Paris, none of them was willing to even meet her or talk to her. And so I told my mum that after I had already made the mistake of letting you go, I would never do that again. And I also said, if one day she changed her mind, she knew how to find me by then. And well, none of them ever did. And I myself was too proud to even try. Have you? Contacted your folks since you left for university?" Gabriel told her with a pained expression.

Nathalie pressed onto him a little tighter. Then she kissed him very softly on his lips.

"I give a shit about my 'folks'. Did you know that they got divorced not too long ago? I found out about this accidentally when I was contacted by a lawyer who told me that my dad had passed away and that I was in his last will. I told him I'd give a fuck for anything from my parents and asked why my mother wasn't inheriting his stuff. He told me then that they were separated for almost a decade and had recently gone through with the divorce. He also told me that my father had had an affair with his co-worker and that I had two younger siblings out of this liaison. I told him I didn't want to know and asked about my mum. Turns out she joined some weird cult and went to live with them somewhere on an island. After the conversation with the lawyer, I was pissed and angry, but a couple of days later I started researching. My 'stepmother' is a year and a half younger than myself, looks basically like a younger version of my mum and they have two kids, twins, a girl and a boy around ten by now!"

The designer gasped.

"Nathalie, you look like a younger version of your mum!"

"I know!" She blurted out, relieved that she could finally talk to someone about this. "This feels so sick and wrong. From the moment I found out about her, I kept wondering if he treated me the way he did, because he in reality wanted to do something even worse. And if my mother somehow knew and dressed me the way she did to keep me safe."

Gabriel stared at her with wide eyes.

"I don't even want to think about that. Let's not worry right now, love. Not after we eventually have each other back. I love you so much!"

Nathalie smiled gently.

"I love you too!" She hummed and buried her face into his chest. "And I agree, let's talk about more pleasant things than my parents. Are yours still alive? Maybe we could visit them and you could reconcile. I mean, not that I wanted to brag, but they always liked me and surely would love to meet Adrien. Don't you think?"

"I know that my grandparents and my dad have died. My mum closed the friterie and I don't know where she's now and if she's still alive. But she certainly would love to see both of you!"

He had tears in his eyes as he remembered the usual kindness of his mother and how much it had pained him that his family rejected his wife so vigorously.

"I still can't understand why she was making the same fuss the others did. She never was biassed or judged a person without giving them a chance at first."