The day of the grand opening of the Opera Perdu had finally arrived. Erik awoke very early in the morning, only to find Christine lying awake. She looked as though she had hardly slept.

"Christine, are you alright?" he asked, turning to her.

She nodded, her eyes not moving from their focus on the ceiling.

Erik narrowed his eyes. "Christine, how much sleep have you gotten since I fell asleep last night?"

She stayed silent for a moment. "None," she responded, her voice dry and weak. Erik's eyes filled with fear.

"What's wrong?" he asked, gently laying a hand on her stomach.

She shook her head. "It's not the child. I feel no pain. I just... couldn't sleep, that's all."

She felt bad lying to him, but she couldn't tell him what Meg had shared with her. He would go insane. She heard him sigh and get up.

"Sleep, dear. I will wake you when it is time to get ready for the event tonight," Erik said, removing his hand from her stomach. "I will go fetch your gown while you sleep. Just please, do rest."

Christine nodded and they shared a very brief kiss before he dressed and left. Christine slowly fell asleep.

Christine's sleep was not peaceful. She had a horrible nightmare that someone had indeed come looking for her, but they were not good. They had kidnapped her and done horrible things to her and no one could save her. She awoke with Erik's hands on her shoulders, shaking her awake. "Christine!" he said as she snapped back to reality. She sat up quickly, breathing heavily. "Christine, what's wrong?" he asked, keeping his hands on her shoulders and looking at her. "I... I just had a bad dream.." she said, finally catching her breath. "That's all. I-Is it time to get ready yet?" She tried to change the subject, and thankfully, Erik didn't spend too much time thinking about her nightmare.

"Yes, now would be an excellent time to start getting ready," he said.

Christine rose from the bed and raised her arms above her head. Erik instinctively slipped the nightgown off of her and went to the armoire, pulling out a light orange dress. Christine smiled upon seeing it. It was beautiful. It had white lace on the sleeves and cute little orange bows on the bodice. Erik helped her into the dress, then created a bustled the back for her.

"Oh Erik, it's lovely," Christine smiled brightly.

"I knew you would like this one."

His hands found her cheeks and he kissed her lightly. Christine eagerly kissed him back, then parted her lips from his.

"I must finish getting ready," she said, turning and heading to the bathroom.

She fixed her hair and tied half of it up with an orange ribbon that matched her dress. Erik knew she'd use it, so he had set it in the bathroom earlier. She emerged and went to him, kissing his cheek and taking his hand in hers. They went out to a fancy carriage Erik had sent for earlier in the day. The carriage took them to the front of the Opera Perdu, where many reporters with cameras and notebooks waited. As they climbed out, many cameras flashed and many questions were shouted out at them. Erik simply nodded politely at the reporters.

"How do you do, gentlemen? I do hope you can stay for the show tonight, I have a feeling it will be very good."

He smirked, charming the knickers off every person within 100 feet of him. He guided Christine into the Opera House. Immediately, Abigail Augustin spotted them and waved them over.

"Good evening, Abigail," Erik greeted, politely kissing her hand.

Jacques did the same to Christine. Erik spoke small talk with the Augustin's, but Christine could not focus on the conversation. She was too worried that someone was looking for her. She looked around and tried to see if she recognized anyone, but she didn't. She felt a hand on her arm and jumped a bit. "Darling, let's go to our box. The show will be starting soon," Erik said. Christine nodded and waved goodbye to the Augustin's as Erik took Christine to Box 5.

The show was fantastic. Christine had no complaints at all, and she didn't even think about anything Meg said while watching. She was so into the show! Erik smiled when he saw how into it she got, her eyes never leaving the stage. Little did they know, there was a certain pair of eyes on Christine as she watched, and the eyes did not belong to Erik. After the show ended, Christine was on her feet, giving a round of well-deserved applause. Erik applauded also, then took her arm and led her out of the box and into the lobby. Reporters flocked to Erik and Christine upon their entrance to the lobby. They stopped to answer a few questions. Christine was not asked many direct questions, it was mostly just things like "How are you feeling?" "Was the proposal a surprise to you?" "Have you recovered from the accident?" Christine answered every question simply. Another reporter spoke up. "So sir, you've just been engaged and now your Opera House is open. What's next?" Erik looked to Christine, bringing a hand to her stomach. "Well, I think that now we are just patiently waiting for the arrival of the child," he said, smiling. Christine returned the smile and kissed his lips gently. It was a short kiss, but it had everyone around them turning their attention to the happy couple. Christine smiled at him and stroked his arm.

"I'll be right back, I'm just going to go to the powder room quickly."

Erik nodded and kissed her head. "Don't rush, darling. I'll be right here."

Christine slipped away and went towards the bathroom. When she had finished and exited the room, she heard her name.

"Christine Daae," the voice said.

She froze and turned to look for the voice. She wandered around for a moment, then felt someone grab her by the arm, pulling her into a dark room. She gasped as the door was closed behind her.

"Who would have thought I'd find my dearest Little Lotte whoring around with Satan himself."

Christine's eyes widened and she immediately recognized the man behind the voice.

"Raoul..." she said, fear consuming her.

He set the lantern down on a table that was beside them. All Christine could see was his face.

"Poor, poor Christine," he taunted. "So lost in her fantasies, she can't even stop to realize that her dear husband could read about everything she'd been doing."

Raoul held up papers, circles drawn in ink around the articles involving her.

"Raoul, you are not my husband," she said, looking at him sternly.

Raoul glared at her. "I realize that, Christine, but you have made an awful choice. You know that he only wants you for lust. He will never love you as I did. As I do now," he took a step closer to her.

Christine turned her head away, afraid of what he was doing. "Do not start this, Raoul. You cheated on me. You betrayed me."

Raoul took another step to her. "That should not matter, Christine. You cheated on me, too, betrayed me, yet I stayed silent. You cannot tell me that you don't have feelings still lingering for me."

Christine could now smell the alcohol on his breath. She shook her head.

"No Raoul, the only feelings I have for you are feelings of hate!" she spat.

He grabbed her arms and forced her to him. "Do not lie to me, Christine! I know you still love me!"

He slammed his mouth against hers, his grip tightening so she could not get away. He pushed her to the wall and undid the front of her dress.

"Raoul, stop!" Christine cried.

But he pushed her harder, the alcohol taking over every part of him. Christine tried to yell for help, but found she couldn't. His lips were too hard against hers. Raoul began to pull the shoulders of the dress down, exposing her thin, nearly see-through chemise. Christine tried to push him off, but he grabbed her hands and stuck them to his chest. At that moment, the door opened and the lights turned on. Christine then saw what room they were in: None other than Erik's office. Erik stood in the doorway, shocked at the sight before him. His fiancée, back in the arms of her ex-husband. Her hands on his chest and his hands grabbing at her barely-covered breast. When the lights turned on, Raoul had pulled from Christine for a moment. She couldn't speak, she was too shaken. Erik looked at her in disbelief and she could see his heart breaking. He turned and left the room. Raoul groaned something about the lights hurting his head. He grabbed Christine and shoved her out the door and into the lobby. She landed on the floor, turning heads and her body hit the ground with a loud thud.

Raoul stumbled out and straightened his waistcoat. "Told you that you still loved me," he said, grinning a bastardly grin as he flicked a coin at her.

People gasped and started to whisper as Christine's lip trembled. She couldn't lift herself up, her arms hurt from Raoul's tight grip. Her dress wasn't covering her chest at all and there was now a small tear in the chemise. She looked around at all the people and saw Jacques and Abigail, staring at her in disbelief. Tears streamed down Christine's cheeks as she finally got up, pulling at her dress and covering herself before running out of the Opera House. She sobbed as she ran down the street, ducking into an alley and hitting the ground, sobbing into her sleeves. She cried and cried until she heard a raspy voice.

"Hey sweetheart, you up for a round?" a grungy man asked, reaching down to grab her.

She quickly scurried up and ran away from him, tugging her dress back over the torn chemise as she ran. Was she not safe anywhere?! She didn't know where to go. Surely Erik would no longer want her in his home, but that was the only place she could go. She began the long walk home, crying the whole way there. Her feet hurt terribly and her eyes were swollen. She made it back to Erik's house around midnight. She was still crying as she pushed open the front door. She stumbled inside and she heard loud, dark music coming from the parlor. She saw Erik slamming his hands down on the piano. She couldn't bring herself to go to him. Instead, she slowly made her way upstairs, entering the bedroom and throwing herself on the bed, filled with anger and sadness as she sobbed into the pillow.