Abrielle: Learning To Lie For Survival (Patreon)

One question that has come up a lot whenever it came to Abrielle - especially in regards to Alette was "How did Abrielle became Matriarch when she obviously had all of these very anti-Severin Tradition beliefs?" 

And I was surprised when those questions came up because the answer to me was obvious. WE (The audience) know of Abrielle from the perspective of Camille/Silvia/Athalie and what we see of her true intentions. But what Alette knew was a lie.

When you have a parent like that - one as controlling and strict and demanding as Alette. You learn to lie and hide who you really are in order to make things easier and safer for yourself. 

Alette was always one to pick favorites, she believed very much in pitting Athalie and Abrielle against each other in their youth and Abrielle always came out on top. ((If you want an example of sorts - think like Gamora and Nebula. Abrielle is just didn't have to try hard to be 'better'  - it of course helped that being 'favored' made it FEEL like things were easier until it did just become easier. Where as Athalie would always have to struggle against the expectations on top of performing well and would cause her to slip up. Alette made the notion of Abrielle being "better" that VERY known and that just drove in Athalie's desperation to one up her)) 

Abrielle was used to putting on a mask for her mother even from the start, but the the mask became more elaborate and flashy as time went on especially after she met Kalen to throw Alette off her trail. This of course, unfortunately, meant that a couple of times she would have to join in with her mother in mocking Athalie in order to save face. (She would apologize later but obviously that wouldn't mean much.)

The problem just deepened the closer she got to Kalen. Because she was away from the house more, she was learning more, and she was changing faster. 

So now the small lies (basically acting perfect when really she was tired or annoyed) turned into BIG lies in regards to where she was going and what she was doing with her day. which turned into BIGGER lies because Athalie was aware of them and kept trying to "expose her" 

Luckily, by the time Kalen came along. She was already so good at lying that it was easy to brush off her mothers concerns. Which just made Athalie look even more foolish even though she WAS telling the truth. 

Abrielle DID want to help Athalie, she tried to explain things to her. She tried to introduce Athalie more directly to Kalen but she wasn't interested. Kalen and Athalie never once had a full conversation with each other - only observed each other at a distance. But she knew him and hated him simply because what she was "changing her sister" 

• Not So Fun Fact: when I met chase (my wife) back in 8th grade, she had a friend that was her 'best friend' but they would often get into fights and were just generally combative/aggressive. Chase thought that was just how friendship was until I showed up - and I like to think that I'm generally pretty chill LMAO but anyway. that friend absolutely HATED me because I was "changing" Chase and thought that I was trying to take chase away from her. When really it was just that I was a generally more relaxing person to be around as;ldfkjaskljfda
• I didn't think about that until just now as I was writing this. But yeah I guess i was effectively the kalen in that scenario LMAOOO 

Abrielle kept on that mask until after Alette died. Which- again- she didn't cause even though Athalie believed that to be the case. 

But she never actually admitted to Kalen being Camille/Chloe's father to Athalie because by then she had learned that telling her the truth would only ever have a backlash. 

And to those wondering about what happened to the banker guy that she was pretending was Cam/Chloe's dad. He didn't die or anything she just stopped talking to him LMAO And since the Severin's are so off the grid it wasn't like there was anyway for him to find her HAHA

Would things have been better if she had admitted things about Kalen? Probably not. By then Athalie was already too far gone. She had also intended to present Chloe and Camille to the Lacour and show that they weren't dangerous and didn't need to be Muted even though they had dual blood in the hopes that they could openly be themselves as both Leroux and Severin. But she unfortunately never got that chance.