The Wedding Planner

Chapter 9

"Chloe?" Adrien pockets his keys as he looks around the foyer of his house. "Chloe, I know you're home. Please don't make this harder than it already is."

Chloe appears at the top of the stairs, staring down at him, "Adrikins, home so soon?" She coos.

His eyes narrow, "We need to talk. You need to listen to me."

"Oh, I heard you loud and clear, Adrikins. When you said we were through. That you were leaving me for some slut you just met." She seethes, her teeth clenched at the end.

"I never said-"

"You didn't have to." She begins her descent down the staircase, pulling out the folded piece of paper, "I gave her a proper talking to, nonetheless."

"Chloe, I never cheated on you. Nothing happened before I called off the wedding, I swear." Adrien defends, standing his ground.

She stops a few steps from the floor, "You can't call off our wedding, Adrikins, don't you understand?" She holds up the paper as if examining it, "One of the great things about technology, really," a devilish smirk crosses her previously cold face, "everything is traceable." She flicks the paper at him, it slowly drifts to the floor between them.

His eyes follow the paper on the ground, then back up to her twisted face. "What did you do?" He accuses.

"Nothing you can prove." She starts her way back up the stairs, "I warned her, Adrikins. I did. It's too bad you had to bring her back into this." She turns back and leers at him, "I guess we'll just have to find a new wedding planner."

Adrien's breath catches in his throat. He runs up the stairs and cuts her off, "What did you do?!" He demands, all the while trying to keep himself from trembling with fear for Marinette.

She raises an eyebrow, "Say the wedding is back on. Tell me that we will be wed, and then maybe I'll think about stopping what's been set in motion."

He shakes his head, "No." He starts to back down off the stairs, "I will never marry you. You're not the person I thought you were." He crosses the foyer and opens the front door.

"Then you haven't been paying attention." He hears her say as he shuts the door behind him.

He runs around the side of his house, "Plagg! Transform me!"

In a flash of green, he shoots out over the streets of Paris, making a bee line for Marinette's boutique.

He opens his communicator, "Please, please, please," he prays, but she doesn't pick up.

Chat forces himself to keep his head clear, battling all the horrible things that could be happening to Marinette. His eyes blur over with tears. He wipes them away without missing a step.

His heart stops when he spots a cloud of billowing smoke rising ahead of him. He pushes himself faster.

The sound of fire engines ring in his ears. He touches down in the street as firefighters form a barrier around the inflamed boutique. The heat radiating off the building singes his face.

"It's too dangerous", "Stay back!", "Is there anyone inside?", "It's Chat Noir!"

The voices of the firefighters and onlookers penetrate his dazed state.

He scans the crowd of staff huddled by the ambulances, with no sight of her. "I'm coming, Marinette." Chat whispers to himself. He takes a step back before getting a running start, throwing himself through the already shattered front windows.

He keeps his head down, his eyes squinting through the smoke. He covers his mouth and nose with one arm and feels his way through the smoke with the other. He tries to take a deep breath but feels the smoke sting his throat, "Mar-cough-Marinette!?" He calls out blindly, trying to yell above the crackling roar of the fire.