A Fortune Gone Forevermore
Three days later, Adrien swings by the police station to see what's taking them so long. Lieutenant Raincomprix invites him in for another discussion, once again offering to contact an attorney for him; an offer Adrien refuses. He just wants his money back, thanks.
Roger explains how the money was transferred into an account owned by the late Agnes Delacroix, and that there's no clear connection between her and Lila. What's more, the emergency Agreste account was something Gabriel went out of his way to conceal. By the time they found out about it, it was too late to flag any suspicious transactions like when the money was all removed. There's no way of tracking it down, and no way of connecting it to Lila.
What's more, despite Adrien's insistence that she's the only possible suspect, in reality it could be just about anyone. His father made a lot of enemies, especially now that everyone knows he was Hawkmoth... and that's not getting into the possibility that he or somebody working for him transferred the money in order to keep it away from the authorities.
He also asks Adrien about the clear contradictions in his testimony about Lila. While he claims to have been aware that she was a con artist all along, his actions in public tell a very different story, having attested to her honesty in the past... along with evidence of them being quite close, such as a picture he pulls up of her snuggling into Adrien's lap.
Unable to think of anything to say, Adrien finally accepts his offer to contact a lawyer. As he waits for them to arrive, he asks Plagg for help he can't give — and finally starts to pay attention to what he's been saying about karma. Mainly because it gives him something else to blame; this isn't his fault, it's just the universe being a jerk!
But Plagg remains firm: this is completely his fault. And much like Marinette, he's done trying to save a lost cause, particularly when Adrien keeps making things worse for himself.
His lawyer arrives, reviews the case so far and is horrified at how deeply Adrien has dug himself into trouble. His version of events makes no sense; if he knew what kind of person Lila was, why would he associate with her? Why would he defend her? Why would he invite her into his home and give her money? Even if they believe his claims, he's just gone on record making clear that he didn't care about her grifting his classmates. The sole bright spot in all of this is that they don't have enough evidence to support any theories of Adrien's involvement with his father's criminal activities, so they can't arrest him.
After taking him home, his attorney goes to a meeting to determine the fate of Gabriel's company. To Adrien's horror, Audrey Bourgeois shows up, revealing that she's chomping at the bit to acquire Agreste Fashion for herself. Despite his insistence that his father will never sell to her, and Gabriel’s agreement, she laughs in the face of their defiance, revealing that she's done her research... and knows that the Agreste mansion itself is considered one of the company's assets.
This granted her access to the company records, including those for the house... and she noticed how much electricity it's been using. Far too much for even a place of its size. She knows that he must be secretly keeping something running 24/7, something that’s consuming an enormous amount of power. Power that needs to be paid for... and unless he agrees to offer no objections to his shares being sold to her immediately, making her the majority holder, the company and mansion are going to enter arbitration and the power is more than likely going to be turned off. And when it is, whatever Gabriel has running will stop. Backed into a corner, Gabriel agrees to the sale.
Audrey then approaches the Dupain-Chengs, offering to let them stay at the Agreste mansion — or rather, the newly renamed Style Queen Fashion Estate — as part of her plan to start repairing the brand's reputation through positive associations. She also offers to provide Marinette with all the resources necessary to start her own business, though Marinette bargains with her for a fairer deal.
As the Dupain-Chengs move in, Adrien moves out... and runs into Marinette, promptly pleading with her to do whatever she can to help him. But Marinette refuses; it's not her job to save him from himself. All she wanted from him was some support, and he never gave it to her... and so far as she's concerned, it's far too late to repair their relationship. That bridge has burned, the ship has sailed, and they part ways once more.
This chapter contains examples of:
- All Take and No Give: Marinette notes that Adrien refused to support her in her time of need, yet expects her to do everything in her power to help him out now that he's the one in trouble.
- Berserk Button: Adrien hits Marinette's when he declares that as their 'everyday' and actual Ladybug, it's her job to fix everything.
- Cassandra Did It: Given the incredibly suspicious nature and timing of Adrien's testimony, paired with his father's exposure as a supervillain and the fact that the secret Agreste account had been, well, secret, the police strongly suspect that he's lying about the theft and is trying to frame Lila for his own crime.
- Cassandra Truth: Adrien's account is completely truthful, but seems implausible at best from an outside perspective... and even being believed has its downsides, as it means he effectively confessed to standing by and letting Lila have her way.
- Control Freak: One of Gabriel's Fatal Flaws. His need to maintain control of everything set up the dominos that come crashing down on him here.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Gabriel made the mansion part of his company's assets in order to get a tax break on it.
- Dramatic Irony:
- As upset as Adrien is by how the police aren't breaking procedures and are following the law in how they deal with the theft, that same discretion on their part is protecting him from being arrested, since they don't have any actual proof that he aided and abetted his father.
- Right after Adrien starts thinking about offering Marinette and her parents shelter at Agreste Manor if she helps him recover the money Lila stole, Audrey shows up with Agreste Fashion's board of directors to negotiate a buyout. Since the manor is company property, Audrey becomes its new owner and evicts Adrien. As part of a strategy to salvage her new company's reputation, Audrey invites Marinette and her parents to live in the manor.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: The only reason Adrien recognizes that there might actually be something to all of Plagg's talk about 'karma' is because that gives him something else to blame for his current plight.
- Entitled to Have You: Adrien still feels this way towards Marinette, telling her outright that they're soulmates and that she has to help him and everyone else.
- False Reassurance: Audrey declares that "As long as you're in my care, I will treat you as if you were my own child." Being fully aware of how she treats Chloé, Adrien shudders in revulsion.
- Foil: Both Gabriel and Audrey are wealthy, shrewd, domineering business people who mistreat their children, but as it turns out, Audrey does care about others' lives while Gabriel treats others as entirely disposable.
- From Bad to Worse: After an exhausting and demoralizing ordeal at the police station, Adrien arrives home only to learn that his father's company is about to change hands — and with it, ownership of the mansion.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Adrien's testimony makes him look incredibly suspicious, ruining his credibility. And since he effectively admitted that he's okay with manipulating, stealing, and lying so long as he's not the victim, his character has been thrown further into question.
- Gabriel's need for control led to him hiding his comatose wife in the basement on life support, micromanaging his son's life and refusing to allow him any independence, and making the mansion part of his company to dodge taxes. This all comes back to bite him when Adrien's inexperience with managing money gets the emergency funds stolen, and Audrey strongarms him into letting his shares be stripped and letting her buy his company in exchange for keeping the power running.
- Honesty Is the Best Policy: Adrien's selective belief in this as demonstrated in the previous chapters is deconstructed here. As he finds out, telling the truth would have been the best course of action against Lila's lies when she first started. Trying to tell the truth now backfires because it's too late; his refusal to contradict her lies for months has given them credibility, especially since he only reported her once he was victimized.
- Hourglass Plot: The extent to which Marinette and Adrien's respective fortunes have changed is hammered home when he's forced to move out of the mansion right as her family is moving in.
- Incoming Ham: Audrey announces her arrival by throwing open the doors to the Agreste mansion and declaring "It's lovely!" at the top of her lungs.
- Internal Reveal: Gabriel learns that the secret Agreste emergency fund is no longer secret or solvent, having been drained dry.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Adrien finally starts to recognize that this is happening to him... though he promptly latches onto it as proof that he doesn't deserve what's happening, and it's just the universe being a real jerk for no particular reason.
- Like Father, Like Son: Audrey notes just how similar Adrien is to his father.
- Never My Fault:
- Adrien continues to insist that he hasn't done anything wrong; the universe is just out to get him through no real fault of his own.
- Gabriel blames Adrien for how he's forced to accept Audrey's offer, ignoring how he was not only responsible for keeping his son so sheltered, but set things up so that the only money he could access was an emergency account that he was trying to hide the very existence of in the first place.
- Not What It Looks Like: Due to the timing and bizarre nature of his claims, the police suspect that Adrien may be trying to frame Lila for the 'theft' of the Agreste's secret emergency funds.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Adrien starts to grasp that Lila might have tricked him into believing she was a Bad Liar prone to 'obvious' scams.
- Plot Parallel: Much like with his son, Gabriel's friendship with Audrey only matters as leverage to try and get her to do what he wants. Unfortunately for him, Audrey is not interested in playing by his rules anymore. Further reinforced by the chapter's final scene, with Adrien trying the exact same tactic on Marinette to no avail.
- Riches to Rags: Thanks to his father making the bulk of their family's possessions company property, when he loses control of Agreste Fashion, everything goes to the new majority shareholder. Adrien loses most of his clothes and other things he thought were his personal possessions, and is forced to move out.
- Spanner in the Works: Since the only account Adrien could access was the Agreste emergency fund, and he didn't realize it was supposed to be a secret and was careless in how he handled it, all that money got stolen, leaving Gabriel unable to use it for his own ends.
- Stopped Caring: Both Plagg and Marinette have given up on trying to help Adrien, and his attempts to make them help do him no favors.
- We Used to Be Friends: Gabriel tries to appeal to Audrey by invoking their friendship; she rejects that and reminds him how he turned her into Style Queen and had her attack innocents.
