Adrienette Love Story

Chapter 17

Adrien's eyes met the security guard he had stationed outside of Nathalie's hospital room.

The police should have done it, since Nathalie Sancoeur was functionally leading one of the biggest fashion houses in the world, and they could be cutthroat. There were plenty of enemies out there who might try to attack, though that was usually through less direct means.

He was just worried that one had managed to succeed.

He sat down, patting her arm.

"How are you feeling, Nathalie?"

She groaned, stretching as far as the IV tube would allow. "Like I got hit by a car."

"A little too accurate as always." Adrien smiled, squeezing her hand. "Any idea why you were even down the street by the alley? The Gorilla told me that you are always picked up in front of the front doors of the building each day."

She groaned, shifting position.

"What do you remember?"

Her eyes narrowed, as she tried to recall. "I remember announcing the staff."

"About the contest?" Adrien prompted.

"Yes," she smiled... barely. "You've spent months chattering on and on about your designer friend. It made me realize we've limited designs to only the experienced designers, but we needed to open up the floor to foster competition and find the best we have to offer."

"Nothing else was different?"

She shook her head, before instantly regretting it. "We started to get submissions in. I ate lunch in my office and sent some of the images to Gabriel for his input. He said we hung up around 1:30 pm. After that, I'm afraid it's a blur."

"Please say you have some good news for me, Nino," Adrien murmured as soon as he picked up the phone.

Talking to Nathalie now that she had woken up had been hard. Far harder than he had expected.

Nino's voice sounded muted. "I have... Some..."

"Anything about the accident?" Adrien asked hopefully.

The sigh on the other end of the line was disheartening. "As I suspected, they saw it looked like an accident and stopped looking any further after they wrote up the report."

"Did they have any statements?" Adrien tried to keep calm. He couldn't imagine why his father wasn't already digging into this. Didn't he care?

His lips quivered as he exhaled. He suspected he already knew that answer.

"I'm sorry, dude." Nino hesitated. The hushed din of noise in the background grew louder, but Adrien couldn't recognize where he was. "It looks like they only took details from onlookers who saw her walk into the street."

"It's not your fault, Nino." He sighed, stopping outside the hospital valet pickup area. "She couldn't remember much. They just didn't bother to dig deeper, or else they would have understood that Gabriel never left the house and that the Gorilla has been Nathalie's exclusive driver these past few years. She never had to walk in public unless she wanted to"

"Do you think she would have had a reason to?"

Adrien shook his head. "As far as she could remember, it was a regular day. She recalled lunch and her afternoon tea. Everything else was a blur."

"Do you have anything she might have been working on? Maybe there was something in there that could have reminded her ... Or look weird if she reviewed it."

Adrien frowned, getting into the car as soon as he spotted the Gorilla's vehicle. He shut the door and belted himself quickly, eager to get back to the hotel. "Her assistant should have brought the files to her after she woke up. When she is bored enough, she might ask to see it. I'll ask the next time I drop in. They just ended visiting hours for the night."