F•O•U•R

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She was so beautiful. With her dark hair and pretty blue eyes...

"....te?"

Marinette. Her name fit her perfectly too.

"....greste."

He just knew she was the one, no questions asked.

"..Agreste."

Though he found her, he just... couldn't have her. She was married. For four years. She was definitely in love with that redhead if she stayed married to him for that long.

"MR AGRESTE!"

Adrien shot up immediately and glanced around the room. Oh yeah, he was in a meeting. A very important meeting, that he was paying absolutely no mind, at that.

"Seems I blacked out there. My apologies," He chuckled. "Where were we?"

"You were just about to adjourn," His assistant, Alya, informed him, shooting him a slight glare.

The blond thanked her and proceeded to end the meeting. After the people left, Alya shot out of her seat to scold her boss.

"This is the second meeting today that you zoned out like that, Adrien," She stated, hands on her hips as she watched him scratch the back of his head.

"I was thinking about something," He muttered, avoiding her heated gaze.

"About what?" The brunette rose a brow. "About that married woman again?"

Adrien winced slightly when she emphasized the word 'married', but stayed silent.

"Seriously?" She sighed heavily. "You cannot continue like this! You should not be fantasizing about a married woman, Adrien! There are millions of single women left in the world, it's not going to kill you to forget about her. She shouldn't even be on your mind right now. You are moving your headquarters to America, that's what you should be focusing on. You probably won't even see her ever again once we have settled there. This is going to be the last time that I tell you this, Adrien: Forget about her."

The door of the room slammed loudly after Alya left the room.

Adrien sunk further into his chair with a heavy sigh.

She was right.

He knew she was right.

But he also hated that she was right.

He had to accept the fact that she, Marinette, was taken --married-- and he had to move on. Him continuing to do this would make no sense...

...but he wanted her.

"No," He said to himself quietly. "You can't say that, Adrien. She isn't an object that you can purchase."

He should listen to Alya, she always knew what was best.

He should let her go. Marinette wasn't his in the first place and she would never be his.

She was married...for a long time, and he would definitely not be a homewrecker. What would people say about him then?

Breaking up a perfectly healthy marriage would be the lowest of the lowest and he couldn't do that. It was, though he hated to admit, selfish. He had to listen to Alya.

Two words. Two very small words with a big meaning: Move On.

And that was what he would do.

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A lot was going on.

Nathaniel was around the house a bit more than usual.

He was hiring new help.

He was rarely spending time with Marinette, not that she minded that.

So yeah...a lot was going on.

An escape plan was also in the making.

On Sunday, right after her parents had left, at least five new maids were hired. What Nathaniel wanted those maids for was a puzzle to her.

One of the maids had caught Marinette's eye on the Monday. After Nathaniel had left in the morning and the blunette retired to her room, the new maid scampered in behind her.

That wasn't what shocked her though. What shocked her was what the little maid had to say.

"Marinette," She greeted lowly after turning the lock on the door. Marinette's eyes widened as she thought about what the maid could possibly want. "There is no need to be afraid. I am here to help."

"Help?" Marinette thought out loud resulting in the maid nodding.

"I was sent here by your parents," She replied, her voice high pitched as her somewhat green eyes glanced around the room. "They have been working up this plan to get you out of here for about three weeks now. Two weeks ago, Nathaniel put out an announcement that he was looking for some new household help, so we used that as our way in to get you out."

Marinette nodded, still unsure of this woman. "How am I sure that I can trust you?" She asked, taking a seat on the bed as she eyed the woman. "You haven't even given me your name."

"My name is Tikki," The maid, Tikki, informed her, tugging at her brown hair with annoyance. "I know this is a bit much, but I ensure you that I am not trying to deceive you. I will be getting you out of her tomorrow."

[A/N: Do not mind Tikki having brown hair right now. It's still Tikki :-) Back to the story <3]

"What's the plan?" The blunette asked as she beckoned the girl over to her.

"It's simple really...." Tikki began to explain the plan. Marinette nodded along, a small smile rising to her face as she listened. It might just work...or, well, she hoped it worked.

The feeling of a heavy hand slapping her across her face brought her out of her thoughts immediately.

Her hand flew to her burning cheek as she stared up at Nathaniel with wide eyes while he looked at her with angry ones.

"Do you think you can just blatantly ignore me and get away with it?!" He yelled causing the startled bluenette to flinch. "I have been talking you for the past few minutes and you have yet to acknowledge me."

Normally, she would have told him 'sorry' in her usual weak, timid voice, but she wasn't feeling it and so she stayed silent. Her eyes darted around the room frantically and she took note that they were in their bedroom. Not good. Never good.

Her silence angered the redhead resulting in him delivering a blow across her face.

"Are you serious right now, Marinette?!" He yelled, gripping her hair and yanking her up from the bed and close to his face. "Do I have to teach you another lesson before I leave for work?"

"No," She quickly said. Nathaniel's beating most times left her bedridden and she couldn't afford to be bedridden on the day she was to leave.

He didn't really want that answer though, so he ignored her as he pushed her down on the bed. "Stop fighting me!" He shouted angrily as he held her down.

"Nathaniel, stop," She tried again, attempting to keep her voice as strong and stern as possible though her tears were betraying her. He scattered wet kisses "Stop!"

In a normal relationship, that should have worked right?

Well, this relationship wasn't even close to normal, so the words 'no' and 'stop' meant nothing but 'yes' and 'keep going' to the redhead.

After some time, she didn't bother to count, Nathaniel was dragging his bare body from hers as he went to get dressed in a different suit.

Marinette continued to lie there, tearful eyes trained on the blue painted ceiling as Nathaniel moved around the room swiftly, muttering to himself about how late he would be because of his seductive wife.

It made her blood boil and her tears fall harder.

"Quit your pathetic crying," He spoke as he went to stand by the bed. "You know you enjoy it as much as I do every time."

She felt drained, so drained that she didn't even react to his idiotic statement.

"We will be renewing our vows next week," He told her, slipping on his shoes. "I'll see you tonight, love. Maybe we can finish what you started."

'I won't be here tonight,' Marinette thought after she heard the door slam. 'Nor will I be here next week to renew any stupid vows!'

Leave. She wanted to leave at that exact moment.

But Tikki said that they had to wait. They had to give Nathaniel at least an hour head start so that they didn't have to worry about him turning back and ruining the plan.

A soft knock was heard on the door, but Marinette made no move to answer it.

The door swung open and Tikki's high pitched voice met Marinette's ears.

"Marinette!" The little maid exclaimed as she locked the door. "What did he do to you?"

The bluenette felt a hand touch her bare shoulder and she flinched away on instinct, gripping the sheets that covered her naked body tighter.

Tikki's eyes widened when she realized what had happened. She was not informed of this. Did her parents even know about this?

"He- he raped..." She was at a loss for words. Marinette nodded wordlessly, tears still spilling from her eyes no matter how hard she tried to stop them. "D-do your parents know that he does that?"

Marinette shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut.

"H-have you even tried calling the police?" Tikki asked again.

Marinette shook her head. "T-there are, uh, only t-two phones allowed on the p-premises. One with N-nathaniel and the other a-at the front g-gate. Workers c-can't have phones e-either."

"How often does t-this happen?" She didn't know why she was asking these questions, but they were just flying out of her mouth. Tom and Sabine had only told her that he was beating Marinette relentlessly, she wasn't aware of the sexual abuse...

"A-at least t-three times a w-week," Marinette croaked out, her voice hoarse from shouting at Nathaniel earlier. She sat up and leaned against the headboard as she kept her burning eyes trained on the bed.

Tikki's jaw dropped as she looked at the broken girl. She didn't know what to say. Was she to say she was sorry? It wouldn't make sense because she wasn't the one who was responsible for the bluenette's pain.

Not knowing what to say, she wrapped her arms around Marinette. Luckily, Marinette didn't recoil, instead she accepted her warm embrace and began to cry once more.

"You don't deserve this, Mari," Tikki muttered, feeling terribly sad. This made the blunette cry harder. "You deserve so much better."

Marinette found it hard to believe.

"We should get you ready to leave, yeah?" Tikki whispered to her after some time. "We're getting you out of here, right?"

Marinette nodded, wiping her eyes. Tikki offered to help her to the bathroom, realizing that her ankle was still sprained, and Marinette accepted the help.

Soon they were both dressed, Marinette in a jeans pants and a yellow sweater and Tikki in her maid outfit, and ready to go.

"Ready to go?" Tikki asked as she unlocked the door.

Marinette was about to nod when she remembered something. "Gimme a sec."

She rushed over one of the drawers before pulling it open and taking out a sock and a small picture. She tucked the items in her pocket and made her way over to the confused Tikki. "Ready."

They left the room quickly and made their way through the halls and down the stairs.

Just as they were about to arrive at the front door, a voice stopped them.

"And where do you two think you're going?" Marinette recognized the voice immediately and scowled. Bertha.

"I received an order from Mr Kurtzberg earlier," Tikki told her with a blank face. Bertha eyed the brunette maid with a frown.

"What order?" The old woman questioned, folding her arms over her chest. Maids knew that Marinette wasn't allowed to leave the house at all, so this was puzzling her.

"One that does not concern you," Tikki replied, her tone just as hostile as the other lady. "Now if you excuse us, we have an appointment to get to."

Marinette allowed Tikki to pull her out of the house and they started to walk down the path to the front gate. There were two security guards at the gate and the men immediately shot up when they spotted the approaching women.

"Can you open the gate?" Tikki asked. "I need to get Mrs Kurtzberg to the hospital for her appointments. I received straight order from Mr Kurtzberg to make sure she gets there and back."

The guards glanced at each other with skeptical looks on their faces as they hesitated to go open the gate.

"We don't have all day," Tikki frowned. "We might miss the appointment and I'm sure you won't want to face the wrath of Mr Kurtzberg when that happens."

That did the trick, because soon the gates were opened.

"We might have to call to Mr Kurtzberg to inform him of what time you left-," One of the guards started, but Tikki cut him off and she pulled Marinette towards slowly.

"No need," She said, looking at her watch. "He should be in a very important meeting right now, so he probably won't answer."

Just as they stepped through the gate, the other guard spoke.

"Shouldn't you be taking one of the cars here to go to the hospital?"

Tikki glared at him. "A car is being sent for us. We'll go meet it outside."

"Why can't you wait here for the car?" He pressed, folding his arms over his chest. Marinette then decided that she didn't like this guard.

"Because that is a waste of time and we are going to be late," The brunette countered, waving him off. "Lemme tell you what else is a waste of time: standing here answering all of your ridiculous questions. We have to go now."

With that said, both women walked out without another glance back and the guard didn't say anything else.

After walking for about ten minutes, Tikki said, "My car is parked right beside that tree. I'll go start it."

Tikki quickly let go of Marinette and ran over to a huge tree that was surrounded by bushes.

Marinette almost flinched when she heard the loud roar of the car when Tikki drove out of the bushes. She wasted no time to climb in.

The blunette turned to Tikki and her eyes widened when she saw Tikki pulling off the brown hair off her head, revealing red hair with small patches of black. She then saw Tikki put her finger to her eyeball and take out contacts. She then realized that Tikki had light blue eyes.

[a/n: pic of how i picture Tikki at the top. best fanart of her human form i have ever seen! ;-D]

"I finally got that thing off," Tikki sighed. "I hate long hair. I don't know how you do it."

Marinette smiled and soon enough Tikki was speeding out of there. Marinette then felt like she could finally breathe.

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An airport.

Tikki took her to an airport.

"Let's go," Tikki said as she shut off the car and opened the door.

They entered the airport and Marinette's eyes widened when she saw her parents.

"Mari!" Her mother exclaimed as she wrapped her daughter in a hug. "The plan worked."

"Yeah, and we need to get her out of here before Nathaniel realizes she's gone," Tom stated.

"Where am I going?" Marinette asked, feeling left out.

"You're going to stay with Tikki," Her father said. "In America. That way Nathaniel won't find you because he never branches out of France."

"We want you to start over without him tormenting your life," Sabine said, caressing Marinette's face. "Change your look, maybe your name too. Just...start new."

"I-I don't- I don't know what to-" Marinette cut herself off as tears welled up in her eyes while she stared at the three people in front of her. "Thank you, guy. Thank you so much."

"It's fine, Mari," Tikki spoke, giving her a small smile. She then turned to the couple. "Our flight will leave in the next fifteen minutes, we should get going."

"We'll keep in touch," Tom told Tikki, ruffling her hair causing her to slap him. "We love you, Marinette. Very very much and we're sorry we made you go through what you did."

Marinette shook her head. She never once blamed her parents and she would never blame them. "I love you guys too and it is not your fault."

Her parents smiled sadly as they watched their daughter walk away from them, not knowing when they'd ever get to see her again. That didn't matter though. She was going to be safe.

And she was going start over. Without Nathaniel.

Nothing had ever felt so good.

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Hello, my lovely readers! This book has hit 2K read, y'all! Thank you so much!!

Also, cover change! Made by the one and only SydPanda5 . Show her some love!!

How was the chapter?

What are your thoughts?

I wanna say something. Nothing bad, don't worry.

I noticed y'all kept saying something about Adrien 'saving' Marinette from Nathaniel and that is where I shake my head. I don't know exactly how to say this, but in most abusive relationships, women don't just get saved by a knight in shining armor. That doesn't work in real life (though this is a story, but whatever).

Marinette needed to get out of a toxic relationship by herself with the help of family and not a big, strong, rich man. Fight for herself, you know?

Anyways, the story is only just beginning, isn't it? Hahaha, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!! Until next time,