A/N: Originally written years ago and recently found/dusted off. Technically AU but I like it, so I'm making an exception and may open this collection up to more AU drabbles if the mood strikes!
Choices
It was his own choice to marry a woman who did not love him. Erik reminded himself of this often as he watched his beautiful, living bride in the home he had built for them, a house with real doors and windows as he had promised her. She had thanked him politely when he had announced that they would be leaving the dining room on the lake, but her smile had been joyless. She was a nightingale singing in a gilded cage, but he comforted himself with the thought that it had been her choice to take up the perch.