It was wrong of me to to fall in love with her tortured heart, to gain pleasure from her pain. It was so wrong but I loved it all the same. Her voice played a ghastly melody of eternal longing coupled with the optimistic hope of coping. I came to this town looking for new inspiration and I found Lillian. She was not the stoic beauty I'd always envisioned myself with, but a chatty adorable woman with a terrible pain. We met days before the music festival as I was leaving my room at the inn.

"Hey there you're a new face! My name's Lillian, but everyone calls me Lily. Pleased to meet you." she held out her hand to shake.

"My name is Mikhail, but why ever would you shorten such a beautiful name?" normally I'd have stated my name shook her hand then went on my way, but something about her voice told every fiber of my being to get to know her. The years I spent with her were pure bliss. It was my own personal symphony, I delightfully listened to the slow crescendo of her heart allowing her to love again. It took me over five years to convince her to marry me. Living with her was an endless concert for my ears alone. Every sigh and whisper, all the groans and grunts, mewls and moans all were perfectly placed notes on a scale only I could hear. I loved to watch her sleep, her sleeping face was the only time that cheerful mask she always dawned would crack. Every now and then she'd dream of Cam, mutter his name in a groggy sleepy haze. Her face would contort in a mix of angst and despair and I would relish in the thrills her haunting song sent through my spine. I know her troubled heart will always long for Cam, but her music belongs to me.

Eventually I couldn't bear to see her agonize in her sleep any longer and I'd place my hand on her cheek and trace circles with my thumb. I loved how this would dissipate the anguish and her mouth would curl slightly upwards. I laid next Lillian and kissed her forehead willing my mind into chaste thoughts.