I am baacckk! Have you missed me? I am really sorry for making you wait that long, but I was extremely busy! I just hope you have not forgotten me in the meantime and will still enjoy this story. Once again, thank you all for reading, putting on alert, adding to favorites, and most of all, for those encouraging, motivating reviews that keep me going!

Now on with the story, and keep in mind that I do not own those characters... sad, I know, but true nevertheless...

Chapter 28 – Too Many Years Fighting Back Tears

At the same time Christine met with Erik, Mme. Giry paid a visit to Nadir. Fortunately, the Persian was home, although he had not expected anybody. He was very surprised to hear from Darius that a lady wanted to talk to him, even more so, when he looked at the calling card his servant held out to him.

"Mme. Giry?" he exclaimed. "Erik's..." He was not sure, what to call her. For what exactly was her relationship with Erik nowadays? The two had once been very close, almost like siblings, but then, the Giry-woman as well as her surrogate daughter Christine Daaé, Erik's fiancée, had stopped writing, thus causing Erik severe pain, and a while later Christine had broken Erik's heart by marrying that Vicomte. Nadir was not sure if Erik had been in contact with Mme. Giry after that, if he blamed her for Christine's betrayal, maybe even suspected she might have persuaded Christine to choose the wealthy suitor. He also could not quite imagine what she was doing in London right now, for as far as he knew, the Opéra Populaire had a few more weeks till summer break, and surely the ballet mistress was needed there for rehearsals and practice?

Be that as it may, Nadir had a feeling that Mme. Giry's presence here in London must be somehow important. If she had left her job at such a time, she must have a very good reason for doing so. And to Nadir it was obvious that whatever had brought her here must have something to do with either Erik, or Christine, possibly both of them. He was therefore curious to learn what she wanted from him.

"Quick, Darius," he told his servant, "show the lady in!"

A few minutes later, Darius introduced Mme. Giry to Nadir and went to prepare some coffee for their guest at his master's request.

"Mme. Giry," Nadir began the conversation. "I am pleased to finally meet you. Erik has told me a lot about you..." He let his voice trail, hoping for an explanation of her unexpected visit.

"Has he indeed?" Mme. Giry asked, then continued, "I bet that was a long time ago. Before..." She sighed as she thought of the Vicomte's machinations that had driven a wedge between Erik on one side and her and Christine on the other side and that had lead to Christine's terrible marriage and the alienation between her and Erik.

"Before," Nadir acknowledged. "Before the letters stopped and he lost faith." He looked his visitor straight in the eyes. "There is something important you came to tell me, correct? You still care about him, don't you? You did not stop writing because you supported the Vicomte's courtship of Mlle. Daaé, or did you?"

"Heaven, no!" Mme. Giry exclaimed. "I never supported that vile debauched scoundrel, and I wish I could have prevented this marriage from happening. And we never stopped writing," she added.

Nadir raised an eyebrow. "You never stopped writing?" he asked. "Neither did Mlle. Daaé? Then how come Erik never received your letters? I understand that one, maybe even two letters can get lost in the mail, but I know for sure that Erik did not receive any news from either one of you for months..."

"Neither did we," Mme. Giry explained, "though we now know that Erik, too, never stopped writing."

"No, he didn't," Nadir agreed. "He kept writing, asking you both for an explanation of your long silence. At first he feared that either one or both of you had fallen ill, then he began to fear you might have abandoned him, and when he read the announcement of Mlle. Daaé's wedding in the papers..."

Mme. Giry winced. She could well imagine what kind of a blow to Erik's fragile self-esteem that must have been and how much heartbreak Christine's supposed betrayal must have caused him. "That despicable piece of dirt of a Vicomte!" she exclaimed. "I should have known that he would publish his victory here to try and hurt Erik! It will be forever a mystery to me how one single person can cause so much pain! I am a peaceful person but if he were still alive I would personally skin that monster alive to pay him back for all the pain he has caused Erik and Christine!"

"The Vicomte?" Nadir's curiosity was piqued. "I deduce from your words that some – if not all – of what happened was his doing?"

Mme. Giry nodded. "He read our letters," she explained. "At least, he must have done so at first. He knew pretty much from the beginning that Erik was in London, so we think he read them, resealed them and then forwarded them to us. After a while he just kept them. Christine found them recently, when she was going through his things. She discovered a secret compartment in his desk, and there were all our letters, the ones we had written to Erik, that the Vicomte intercepted and thus were never posted and the ones that Erik had written to us, that we never received."

Nadir's eyes widened. "The Vicomte withheld all those letters?" he asked. "That's how he made Mlle. Daaé believe that Erik had abandoned her, so that she would marry him?"

Mme. Giry nodded. "Yes," she admitted, "but that's not all he did. He must have somehow guessed from what Erik wrote us that Miss Stanton was sweet on Erik, so he forged leaflets announcing a gala concert to celebrate Erik's engagement to her. He showed one of those leaflets to Christine as proof that Erik was unfaithful to her, and he threatened her to inform the police about Erik's whereabouts and to fire my daughter Meg, who had injured her ankle and could not dance for months, if she did not marry him at once."

Nadir gasped. "You have proof of all that?" he asked. "We must tell Erik immediately! It will make him see Christine's actions in a totally new light. I know that he still loves her, that it pained him immensely to see her treated with so little respect by her husband. He thought she was a shameless whore that had sold herself to the rich – and handsome – suitor and enjoyed being groped by him in front of others. But of course she only endured this behavior because that pig threatened to harm those she loved if she did not comply, am I correct?"

Mme. Giry nodded again. "Yes, we can prove that this is what happened. Christine also found hundreds of copies of that leaflet together with our letters. And we have doctors' bills and such to prove that Meg's injury happened a few days before Christine's wedding to that bastard. And you are right, he treated her like a whore and she endured, because if she did not take her clothes off whenever he asked her to, or at least unbuttoned her blouse for him, he threatened to inform the police that the suspected murderer nicknamed "The Phantom" was Monsieur Givenould of "The Music House" in London." She sighed. "Although she had been lead to believe that Erik had abandoned her for a rich heiress, Christine could not stop loving him and suffered through all sorts of humiliations and indignities in order to protect him."

Nadir was horrified. "That vile, vile man!" he exclaimed. "The poor girl, what must she have gone through! And Erik! It broke his heart to see her like that, to think of her as a fallen woman, and yet, he at least had Amanda-Ann! That woman was a godsend for him, I do not know what he might have done to himself had it not been for her. She helped him get over what he thought of as Christine's betrayal and she soothed the pain with her love, but Christine had nobody! On the contrary, she was used and abused by this dirty pig of a husband of hers."

He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. "I knew something was not right," he muttered. "When she did this recital, I went to see her, to form an opinion of her myself, and I could not help but think that her soul was in the songs she sang, that her heart had been broken, that her love was hopeless, even though everything pointed towards her having betrayed Erik first. And now you say she had been tricked, forced into marrying that Vicomte..."

"That is the truth," Mme. Giry confirmed. "She felt betrayed by Erik when the Vicomte showed her that leaflet. The Vicomte had hoped that she would now agree to marry him out of spite, but when she still hesitated, he started to threaten my daughter. That's when she gave in, married him secretly behind my back and let him consummate the marriage immediately, then presented me with the fait accompli." She sighed. "At that I must be grateful that at least he married her. I fear that if he had just told her to become his... his... you know what I mean, she might have felt obliged to do that, too, in order to save Meg and Erik."

Nadir jumped to his feet. "Come with me," he said. "We must tell Erik. He needs to know the truth. For as much as I am convinced that Christine still loves Erik – what you told me about her sacrifice as well as what I guessed from her singing is proof enough for me – I am also certain that the boy still loves her. If there is a chance for them after all, he must see clear."

Mme. Giry smiled. "I think by now he knows," she said. "Christine went to see him and to show him all those letters and the leaflets she found..."

Nadir laughed. "She went to explain this to him herself? Then I bet we can just sit and wait. I have a feeling, we might soon get a phone call, inviting us to an engagement party!"

"You do not think, they might need … our intervention?" Mme. Giry asked. "Christine feared that while Erik might be able to understand her motives, he would not want her now after he saw how the Vicomte treated her."

"Once he knows everything, he will love her even more for what she had to go through," Nadir assured Mme. Giry. "Don't worry. The children will be fine. There will soon be a wedding, trust me!"

Xxxx

When Erik and Christine finally broke their second kiss, Christine nervously asked her fiancé, "what about your father-in-law? Will he have a problem with you marrying me? Maybe he will see it as a betrayal of Amanda-Ann, if you marry again, now that she is dead?"

Erik sighed. "I hope not," he said, "and I think he won't have a problem with it. When he asked me to marry Amanda-Ann, he told me that it would only be for a short period, that she would not live much longer, that I would soon be free again. He basically told me that I could then choose a wife to my liking, though at that time I thought you were lost to me and I did not even remotely consider the possibility of marrying again once Amanda-Ann would be dead."

He paused and thought about it for a few moments, then continued, "He also knows that there was a woman that I loved and that had married somebody else. If I now tell him how you were manipulated into marrying the Vicomte, that you never stopped loving me and that we have finally found out the truth and want to put the past behind us and start again, I doubt he will have a problem with that. On the contrary, I think he will be happy for us, especially, since Amanda-Ann always told us how much she liked you and how much she wished you could be happy as well. But if you have doubts, my love, then I will go home and talk to him, explain the situation to him. Leave that bag with me, so that I can show him proof of what drove us apart. You return to the hotel in the meantime. I will send you word there."

He sighed. "I wish I knew of someone we could trust to act as your chaperone, then we could have dinner together tonight..."

Christine smiled. "Will you be satisfied with Mme. Giry as my chaperone?" she asked. "For she would not let me travel alone..."

"Antoinette is here in London as well?" Erik exclaimed. "Why did you not tell me? That is fantastic! I need to talk to her as well and to apologize to her for doubting her. I even suspected she might have pushed you towards the rich patron in my absence for personal gain! And of course she is the perfect chaperone. Tell her then, to expect me at the hotel at seven o'clock, and that we will all dine together."

Christine promised to do that, then added, "I bet Mme. Giry will be relieved that we do not need your friend's intervention, that we resolved everything on our own!"

"My friend? What do you mean?" Erik asked, not quite understanding what Christine was talking about.

"Your friend, the Persian gentleman," Christine explained. "Monsieur Nadir Khan. Mme. Giry went to see him to explain the whole situation to him and to enlist his help, should you not believe me or ..." She blushed. "Or in case you had your doubts about marrying me after... you know... after how I allowed Raoul to..."

"I love you even more for what this pig did to you," Erik told her, then took her into his arms again and kissed her passionately one more time, before he hailed her a cab that would bring her back to the hotel.

Xxxx

Erik went home immediately. He found his father-in-law in his home office from where he was handling most of his business affairs.

Mr. Stanton looked up from his paperwork, when Erik entered. "You are early," he commented. "Is something wrong at the theater?"

Erik shook his head. "No, everything is fine at the theater," he said, then added, a bit hesitantly, "but something important has happened, nevertheless."

Mr. Stanton only now noticed how relaxed his son-in-law was, how brightly his eyes were shining, as if... as if the boy were happy, or... in love?

"You have finally found someone," he stated matter-of-factly. "The day has come that you want to tell me you have found a successor for my Amanda-Ann."

Erik felt the old man's pain as he heard him utter this suspicion. "Yes and no," he explained. "Yes, father, I am happy and very much in love, but no, it is not somebody new that I just found. I... how shall I explain this, but when I proposed to Amanda-Ann you knew that there had been another woman in my life, that she had not waited for me, that she had betrayed me and married somebody else, do you remember?"

Mr. Stanton nodded. He remembered only too well that embarrassing conversation, when he had offered his daughter to Erik.

"Well, she was not unfaithful after all," Erik continued. "She was tricked into marrying that other man. She was made to believe that I had abandoned her, that I had begun a new relationship behind her back – with Amanda-Ann. That now that I had the chance to marry an heiress, I did not care for her anymore."

Mr. Stanton frowned. "But how?" he asked. "I thought that girl was back in France so I assume that other man who tricked her was there as well. How could they suspect about you and my daughter? You said your girl was already married when I asked you to consider proposing to Amanda-Ann? There never was anything between you and her that could be interpreted as courtship before that day."

"He read our letters," Erik explained. "He must have hoped that I would fall for Amanda-Ann, or maybe he realized from what I wrote what I myself had not figured out at that time – that Amanda-Ann loved me – and used it to his advantage."

Erik opened the bag that Christine had left with him, pulled out one of the infamous leaflets and handed it to his father-in-law. "He used that to convince her of my betrayal," he said, then added, "and when she still hesitated, he threatened to fire her best friend."

Mr. Stanton raised an eyebrow. "He was her friend's boss?" he asked.

Erik took a deep breath. Now came the difficult part, now he had to explain who the woman was that he wanted to marry. "Her friend was – is – a dancer. She had injured her ankle and could not work for several months. He was … the patron."

"A dancer?" Mr. Stanton asked. "A patron? Are we talking about opera here? In Paris? Good God, Erik, de Chagny? That would be so like him! I never liked the man and always wondered why such a classy, talented girl had married him!"

Mr. Stanton fell into a chair, exhausted, as the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. "Mme. de Chagny," he gasped. "She is the woman you love and thought had betrayed you. That's why you were so harsh towards her and always accused her of having sold herself to her husband for a life in luxury. And you are the man that my Amanda-Ann thought the Vicomtesse had lost somehow but could not forget..."

"Yes," Erik admitted. "Christine was looking through her late husband's papers when she discovered a hidden compartment in his desk, and in there the letters he had intercepted and hundreds of these leaflets. She came to me this morning to explain it all. We... we... "

"You both want to finally be together after all the heartbreak you have suffered," Mr. Stanton finished Erik's sentence. "And you want my blessing."

Erik gave his father-in-law a hopeful look. "It would mean a great deal to me. To both of us," he confessed. "And do not fear that we will ever forget Amanda-Ann. She has her place in my heart for all eternity, and my Christine considered her a friend..."

Mr. Stanton smiled. "Amanda-Ann loved you both very much," he said. "I think she would be happy for you." He pulled Erik close. "As to myself, I can never thank you enough for how you filled my poor girl's last year and a half with love and happiness and never let her feel that she was only your second choice. You deserve happiness. So, yes, Erik, I give you my blessing, and I hope you will not leave me alone once you are married. This house is large enough for all of us, and as Amanda-Ann's heir half of it belongs to you anyway. Even though you are about to remarry, you will always be my son-in-law in my heart."

Erik hugged his father-in-law. "Thank you," he mumbled. "I was not sure if you would not feel I was betraying Amanda-Ann's memory by marrying Christine..."

Mr. Stanton tried to hide his emotion. "Well, as a business man, I have to say it is a clever move of you to bind such a talented soprano to our theater by marrying her," he joked to lighten the mood.