SLOWLY FALLING FOR YOU (α∂яιєηєттє)

Chap. 33

"Anthony created a video online, apologizing for what he did."

Aunt scoffed with a roll of her eyes as her attention turned back to the TV she was watching. "Attention-seeking gold-digger. Just ignore him, darling. He doesn't deserve any attention from anyone!" After what had happened, Father had allowed her to stay over for a while, but she and Felix, along with Dad were going to be moving back soon. I placed my phone away before giving her a kiss on the cheek and hurrying upstairs, where the rest were still waiting for me. I opened the door to my bedroom and walked inside, before closing the door right behind me.

"Are you ready?" Alya asked as she grabbed ahold of the remote. Father had managed to set up another TV in my bedroom, although I hadn't really been the one to ask him too. I was still kind of ignoring him, which I knew I shouldn't be doing still, so Felix had been the one to ask and he had surprisingly agreed. I nodded my head at Alya's question and jumped on the bed, landing right beside Marinette as I rested my head and fixed my eyes on the TV. Alya's phone then suddenly beeped, and she took it out, before staring at it for a good few seconds. She lowered her phone down a little as her eyes turned over to Marinette. "It's Lila. She says she's waiting over at the bakery and wants to desperately talk to you."

Marinette's mouth was hanging opened for a few seconds, before she leaned in and grabbed Alya's phone. I watched as she silenced it, before she put the phone away. "Just ignore her!"

^~^

I stood in front of my father's bedroom for a while, arguing with myself whether to open the door and go in or just turn around right now. After a while of just standing there, I finally decided and reached down to the knob, before twisting it and pushing the door opened. Walking in, the first person I saw was Father, sitting on his bed, once again seeming to be far too busy at the moment as he typed on his computer. Deciding to maybe come back at another time, I started turning to leave, only for him to call me back and ask me to wait. I waited, watching as he typed. Finally, he stopped and turned off his computer, gently placed it back at its spot, and turned his head around to face me. I waited for him to say something, but when all he let out was a sigh, I decided to speak first. "You called me?"

"Yeah." He still sat on the bed as he talked, eyes never leaving my face. "You've just changed so much ever since you started school, and it still surprises me until now. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was definitely not expecting a whole new Adrien. Well, your words seriously did hurt me, but first of all, I'd like to apologize. You know I would never lay a finger on you Adrien, right? That time had been the first, and it even surprised me as well, but I definitely promise that it's going to be the last." He didn't wait for me to speak at all as he continued. "I'm sure you have friends now who you would like to be with all the time, so. . .I'm firing you as a model."

My eyes almost popped out with the words, shocking me with the way he had put it. "I'm sorry. What?!"

"What I mean to say is. . .you're free. You don't have to do this anymore. I've been really thinking and watching you close. Whenever you're doing your photoshoots, you always fake a smile. But whenever you leave it and go hang out with your friends, you have the realest smile I'd ever seen you put on. It finally just came to me that I needed to think about your feelings too. I mean, what's the point of having a job for the rest of your life if you don't even like it? I finally realized that my son's happiness was much more important than my own selfishness. So, I'm letting you go. I'm going to find someone who actually wants the job, and replace you with them." Father ran his hand through his hair as he turned around, his back now facing me. I still couldn't believe the words he had just told me, and I just felt like bursting out into tears because this is what I've always wanted to hear from him. My hopes had died that it was never going to happen, but here we were.