A Villain Gains, a False Friend Loses
After going through the motions at school, formally inviting everyone save Chloé to join her and Alya for their chat on Friday, Lila focuses on going through the steps necessary to pull off her real plans, reflecting on how far in advance she'd prepared certain resources. Like her various accounts — particularly one registered to the late Ms. Agnes Delacroix, a past victim of hers.
Logging into the emergency Agreste account using Adrien's passwords, she transfers all but sixty thousand euros into the Delacroix account, paying the fee to ensure it transfers immediately. She then goes to a trendy location popular with the Nouveau Riche and withdraws it as eurobonds, gliding through the double verification process with ease. Then it's off to wire the money to another secret account — one she registered while her mother was briefly working in Switzerland. She then makes sure to destroy the evidence, shredding the pages in her 'poetry notebook' with those coded passwords written on them.
Come Friday evening, she's on a train heading out of Paris while Adrien's heading to their supposed meeting spot. While they wait, her classmates wonder why Marinette seems to be avoiding them lately, complaining about how distant and closed-off she's been. Alix is particularly worried that others are noticing this, and it's starting to spark gossip and speculation about why. The rumors are getting bad, and her roller derby coach has already warned that he might have to bench her if they don't stop soon.
Marinette arrives, bringing Chloé with her. Lila never shows. When Adrien tries calling her, he gets a notice that her number's been disconnected. Next, he checks the number she gave him for his mother's desk, only to be informed of Mrs. Rossi's transfer. As he's trying to figure out another way of contacting her, Chloé's butler gives her a message that she passes on: his father's private suite at the Le Grand Paris is being released because the account he was using to pay for it just ran out of money.
Disbelieving, Adrien checks the account, realizing and blurting out that Lila robbed him. Alya chides him that he can't be right, as they all know Lila doesn't lie.
And Marinette bursts out laughing.
This chapter contains examples of:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lila makes her grand escape, slipping away without anyone realizing that she's leaving Paris.
- Cassandra Truth: Adrien's realization of what just happened is immediately rejected by Alya, much to Marinette's amusement.
- Conspicuous Consumption: Exploited by Lila; the reason she's able to withdraw so many eurobonds at once without raising immediate suspicion is because she deliberately does so at a location that's popular with the sort of rich kids who are prone to flaunting their wealth in this fashion. Thus, she looks like another Spoiled Brat who's Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lila is a firm believer in this, laying the groundwork for potential schemes well in advance. It pays off handsomely for her here.
- Disappointed in You: Chloé gives Adrien a surprised and disappointed look upon hearing from Jean that the Agrestes just defaulted on one of their payments for their private hotel suite due to insufficient funds.
- Elder Abuse: Poor Ms. Agnes Delacroix was a woman without any family left, staying at a senior care home that Lila volunteered at under a fake name. Lila 'helped' her set up a new bank account, secretly intercepting her ID card and registering it for herself. After she passed away, Lila was left with this secret account all to herself.
- Entitled Bastard: Alya really believes she deserves to get the first interview with Marinette after her exposure as Ladybug, and is increasingly frustrated that she hasn't been able to get that scheduled yet.
- False Friend: Adrien is the false friend named in the title.
- False Reassurance: The teller who gives Lila her eurobonds warns her that they're untraceable, so she needs to be careful while handling them. She reassures them that "I'll be sure to watch out for thieves."
- The Farmer and the Viper: The assistance Adrien offered Lila, shielding her from exposure for so long and giving her money to buy that 'security system', is rewarded with a vicious bite that takes over forty-nine million euros from the Agrestes, completely draining their emergency account.
- Guilt by Association:
- Adrien is still struggling with this; when the secretary who answers Mrs. Rossi's old number realizes that he's 'Hawkmoth's kid,' they immediately cut short their conversation and hang up on him.
- In a variant, Alix notes that people are noticing that Marinette is going out of her way to avoid associating with them, fueling rumors about why the protector of Paris is so leery of her former classmates.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Adrien's carelessness around Lila gave her the perfect opportunity to steal a massive amount of money from him before absconding with her clueless mother. And when he realizes what happens and blurts out that she stole from him, Alya immediately dismisses the idea since "We know that Lila doesn't lie."
- Karma Houdini: The Rossis leave Paris, Lila now considerably richer, having dodged the consequences of her actions thanks to Adrien's resistance to exposing her.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Adrien finally starts to notice the effects of his running out when Chloé alerts him to the missed payment, leading him to discover he's been robbed.
- Nouveau Riche: Lila's prior research helped her identify a location where she can withdraw eurobonds that's considered to be trendy by nouveau riche kids, since it lets them withdraw lots of money for the sake of showing off their wealth.
- Oh, Crap!: Adrien upon realizing that Chloé wasn't kidding: all the money in the Agreste emergency account is gone, and it hits him too late who's likely responsible.
- Posthumous Character: Ms. Agnes Delacroix, one of Lila's past victims.
- Race Against the Clock: Alya notes that Ladybug's going to be giving a big interview to Nadja on Saturday, complaining that she's running out of time to get her exclusive interview in before then.
- Shout-Out: Lila takes her creed from one of her favorite movies: "When did Noah build the ark? Before the rain, before the rain."
- Swiss Bank Account: Lila has one, though she notes that there's no such thing as a truly anonymous bank account, and its real strength is that she hasn't touched it since first creating it, meaning the French authorities won't be able to easily connect it to her.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Exploited by Lila; she helped Agnes set up an online bank account, but made it out to be as intimidating as possible so that she'd be wary of accessing it.
