Alrighty, for readers of A Little Angel, this is very very similar. Only this is told from Christine's diary. Many of the same characters and a similar plot line only with the added Diary. I hope you all enjoy!
Summery: Christine is dead leaving behind two devistated men and a daughter behind. The two men try to find a light at the end of the tunnel with the help of the Diary written by their beloved Christine. See how two sworn enimies can join forces to raise the child left behind by a woman they both loved more than anything in The Diary.
Erik sat calmly on the couch in Raoul's parlor. He was so very confused, so lost. Since Christine… since her death both of them had been very confused and very lost, seeking comfort in one another, though they were so very different, such opposites. Most of all, they felt anger. Though they were busy consoling one another, they also had a major problem to deal with.
The baby.
The child was Christine's death, and yet it was also her life. The child was obviously Erik's, the raven black hair, the haunting amber eyes; the child was unmistakably his. Something that deeply angered Raoul, as he had been Christine's husband. But now was not the time to hash things out between them. Now was the time to mourn the loss of the woman both of them had loved deeply.
"Erik?" Raoul called from the kitchen. His voice shook as he sat upon a chair looking through documents, documents that held Christine's life. He held his head in his hands as he rested his hands on leather bound book.
"Yes?" Erik replied as he joined Raoul at the table listening to the nanny they'd hired for the time being hum lightly to the baby. Poor child didn't even have a name, the nanny just called her Baby.
"I need your help going through this. This is her life on parchment. And this," he looked at the book, "This, I'm taking was her diary. I don't know what to do with any of this. What am I supposed to do? She was my wife, my childhood friend, I don't want to get rid of it all, but I also don't want to hold on to things that will only bring pain." He shook his head, tears welling in his eyes.
"Well," Erik sighed, "I believe we should read it, she had been sick through most of the pregnancy, she must have known. Maybe it has some clue as to what she wants. I know it's hard Raoul, but she wouldn't want you to wallow in sorrow." He placed his hand on the book, rubbing his thumb on the leather binding.
Raoul sighed as well, "Might as well, as you said, it might give us a clue." He smiled and wiped his eyes.
He placed the book in front of the both of them, "Ready?" he asked looking to Erik.
"Oui, as ready as I can be." He smiled as Raoul opened the book.
The DiaryDear Diary,
Today was one of the loveliest days of my life. I got married to the man of my dreams. Monsieur Raoul De Chagny, We were once childhood sweethearts. I'm so very happy. But in someplace in the back of my mind, I see a masked face. Such a mournful looking face, so full of hate. The world was so very unkind to him, turning him away based upon appearance. How could anyone be so unkind?
But on a happier note, the wedding was beautiful. I wore a dress made specifically for the day. Raoul being Raoul insisted that I had the dress designed any way I wanted. It was white with pink on the trim. It had pearls sewn into the bodice. It was similar to the dress the Phantom, Erik, had for me. I almost felt sorrow when I put it on, though I was elated to be married. I wanted nothing more than to be married.
Meg was my maiden of honor; her gown was just as beautiful as mine, as it should have been. We were best friends since my father's death. As we walked down the aisle, arm in arm as we had agreed seeing as my father was no longer alive, beautiful organ music played. A voice in my mind asked where this music was coming from seeing as Raoul and I had never hired an organ player and with the recent disaster….
Raoul had wanted to be married as soon as possible. He wanted to take me away from Paris, but it was my childhood, and I couldn't leave it. He wanted to have a hold over me so that if the Phantom… Erik, were ever to try to kidnap (as Raoul put it) me again, it would be adultery or something. I never can understand why he is so worried about me. It's as if he doesn't trust me, or thinks I'm so easy to be captured.
But as I stood, finally at the alter, all my thoughts of my past of the Phantom, of Erik, evaporated. All I could see was Raoul's smiling face, his reassuring smile and I felt safe. I felt as if for the first time in so many years, I could breath again.
After the ceremony was over Raoul and I went home, where I am now, in our new lodgings as a couple. I sit, looking out onto the Parisian night sky from my window. I sigh as I see the rain pour down almost without a sound. Now as I am writing this I can hear my new husband's approaching footsteps, coming to make me his wife. So now I close diary a new person, I am no longer Christine Daae, I sign this Christine Daae-De Chagny.
As Raoul went to close the Diary a worn piece of paper flew out of the book. He went to pick it up but before he could Erik grabbed it.
"Here, I'll read it out loud, if you don't mind." Erik looked to Raoul who nodded. Erik took a breath and began to read.
My darling husband and dearest Erik,
If you are reading this, I must have passed. Don't be sad my darlings, it was coming. I admit, I'm sad to go and sad not to be able to raise my beautiful child. But know that where I am is better, I am no longer in pain, and I'm not sick. But I want you both to know; I loved you both, so very much. And my child, oh how I wish I could have seen my baby grow up to be a wonderful person. My wish for my child's name is if my baby is a girl, he name is Madeline. Madeline for her grandmother, a woman I never met, but a woman who gave birth to her father. And if it is not a girl, my son is to be named Philippe after an uncle I wish he could have known. A brother-in-law I never had the pleasure of knowing, but a man who played an important role in the life of my husband.
To set the record straight about what happened with the father of my child. Raoul, you were my husband, a man I loved when I married him, and a man I loved when I died. And Erik, you lit a fire in me that could never burn out, a fire that never will burn out. I loved you from the moment you sang to me until the moment I drew my last breath. And I didn't mean to be unfaithful to you Raoul; it was never in my intentions to become an adulteress. I never meant to hurt you, but Erik was so… different. I loved you Raoul, but our passion died quickly. You just wanted to save me and be the hero. That's how it always was with you, running to save me, just as you saved my scarf from the sea. But Erik… words cannot describe how you made me feel.
Don't think Raoul that it had been this way our entire marriage, because it hadn't. Erik didn't appear in my life until after our second anniversary. You had been away in Normandy on business. Meg came to visit a few times, mainly to be sure that I hadn't become deeply depressed at you absence. Funny how she seemed to concerned at your absence, but not of when I soon refused to see her during those long two months. Erik, darling dearest Erik appeared about a week or two after your departure. Meg had yet come to call that week so I was pleased to see someone. When I opened the door, I couldn't have been more surprised.
Erik stood on my doorstep clad all in black, a hood hiding his face. I knew it was he without even needing to see his face so I ushered him in and offered him tea. We didn't immediately go to the bedroom. No, we talked for a while then he insisted he return to his home and promised to call again.
And he did, a few days after he arrived again at my door, sweeping me up in a kiss and leading me off to the bedroom. I was so shocked I didn't protest until we were entering your and my chambers. I almost told him to leave right then and there, but instead I asked him to keep this between us to which he responded with a laugh. The next moments of passion do not need to be shared with you my husband.
When I woke the next morning in Erik's arms I made him leave. He agreed that it was the right thing to do and left. A few days later he returned and the next morning I wasn't so quick to make him leave. Soon, I didn't ask him to leave at all, and a few days we just stayed in the bedroom all day asking the maids to bring us food.
When you returned Erik's visits disappeared. How could he come when my husband was home? At first I tried to cope with the loss of his visits, but soon I just couldn't cope. So I used Meg's mother's illness as an excuse to be gone for long weekends. Hardly did I see Madam Giry in her dying moments; no I was beneath the newly rebuilt opera house with my beloved Erik. This went on for nearly a year until I learned I was pregnant. At first I was joyous at this prospect that I would be a mother and elated, I told Erik. His immediate response was to go home and have you, my husband bed me. You could never know of this affair.
So I did, and I told you the news shortly after, you in your ignorance thought nothing of it and celebrated this news. But in only a few weeks, really a few months into the pregnancy I got sick. You were gone away and Erik was staying with me. He called for a doctor when I started vomiting blood. The doctors could not diagnose what ailed me, for just as quickly as it appeared, it left. When you returned Erik came to call, and you reluctantly let him in at my pleading. He had brought a Persian doctor, well known for curing people of many things. He too could not fix what ailed me.
So throughout the long months of my pregnancy I fought with some unseen villain, having good days, and having horrid days where if I moved my body hurt. Through it all Erik was at my side, Raoul darling it was these months that I loved you the most. For, I had fallen out of love with you for so long and now in my weakest time, I loved you. But Erik was always first in my thoughts.
I write this now a few days before the doctors say my dear child will come. I have kept record of all that went on in this diary. I want you both to know I loved you. And let my dearest child know I loved him or her so very much and that I wanted nothing more than a good life for them.
Erik, I know you'll be a wonderful father to our child. I love you with all my heart and with all my soul. I'll miss you so very, very much.
And Raoul, my dutiful husband, thank you for rescuing me. I'm so very sorry and I ask that you forgive Erik and provide for my child as if he or she was your own. I know now that I loved you once, but our passion didn't last. I regret this.
Yours always,
Christine Daae-De Chagny
Erik finished reading the letter with tears in his eyes. He looked at Raoul who also had tears in his eyes.
"Well, the baby has a name now…" Raoul smiled as he stood, ready to tell the nanny and to embrace little Madeline.
