Hello guys!

As most of you know, I usualy take this first part of the chapter to share some, hopefully, comical episodes with POTO's main characters or to celebrate with you another record of views (7195 by the way and thanks to you guys), but not today! Today I woud like to thank to two very special reviewers who moved me behond tears, laughter, whose reviews made all kind of emotions rush through me.

Until now I've recieved some damn good reviews from all of you, but I most confess that none have touched me or moved as these two reviewers. I'm new to fanfiction and, as you know, this is my very first story on the site. To know that you guys appreciate and enjoy what I'm trying to do here is very important for me, and I can't describ how it feels to see and read every single review you guys write. It keeps me going and trying to make myself a better writer at every chapter I post. Thanks a lot for all the suport you've been giving me so far, and a special thank you to GRANDMA PAULA, whose kind encoraging words turned what would be a dreaful day into a sunny and happy day, and to ANA NUNES, who is my Arts and Society teacher. Yes she wrote her review in my mother language and, as she said and very wisely so, most of her kind words would have been lost in translation. You are however welcome to try and translate, if you are curious...

Before I start crying, lets get on with busyness. Here you have a new chapter, bla-bla-bla, you know the drill and I hope, as always I hope you enjoy it and I wait paciently for more reviews.

Love V.R

Roxanne was walking in circles around the room as Angelo enjoyed his coffee and read the day's journal. Every now and then her eyes fell upon him and her mind drifted to musings she usually would rather avoid, but now they were welcome. What had happened between them had been so long ago and now he behaved like her rock were she could go for comfort and to whom she could tell everything that she had troubles believe that this was the same man that had recklessly broken her heart. Oh he was still a charming man even if he had a limp and could barely walk without his cane and no longer worked as an actor. He was a warm and kind man, a perfect gentleman with nice manners and a fatherly care for her girls... So why was she so unwilling to forgive him for his past mistakes? He had to have a good reason for what he had done... No there was no good, poor or acceptable excuse any man could have to leave his bed in the middle of the night and the woman he claimed to love alone and never return. Oh she had to leave that house as soon as possible. If she could she would move out that exact moment, but she had obligations towards her daughters and, most importantly, towards Julia who had been do quick to take her and the girls into her privacy.

"Where is your sister?" Roxanne asked sternly as she turned to look at Angelo. He looked up to meet her gaze and smiled.

"I believe she went to the seamstress, but she should be arriving any moment now." he answered matter-of-factly.

"You seem very sure of that." Roxanne remarked seating on the coach nearby. Angelo just answered with another smile as he turned his attention to the journal. Roxanne cursed him under her breath for his cool and rather oblivious behavior. The way they could go under her skin with ease made her almost want to scream... If only she was able to do the same.

Trying to avoid as much as she could to meet Angelo's gaze or even his shape, Roxanne started to stare at the painting on the wall of some country view but it was no good. As the silence between them started to build so did the tension and with that the haunting warmth belonging to a much happier time in her life.

As if hearing Roxanne's call for help the entrance door opened and Julia's rang through the house.

"Mary, take this to my room please and tell the cook we are expecting guests this evening."

Julia had been met by a young woman at the door wearing a maid's uniform and a white cap upon her head, her ginger hair carefully pined up under it. This would not have happened if the male servant of the house had not gone out to help the cook bring groceries back to the house.

The girl helped the mistress of the house to remove her jacket and her large hat and placed then on the coat hanger so she could get the brown paper package her mistress had brought

"Of course Madam." The maid said bowing her head. "Is there anything else?" Julia was already walking down the hall so she turned to face Mary once more, smiled and said:

"Once Peter arrives with the cook tell him that I need to speak to him. "The girl bent her knee and both women continued their separate ways.

Julia walked through the hall and joined her brother's and Roxanne by now very awkward silence. Roxanne got up almost in a jump and took her friend to where they could speak in private. It had been years since Julia had seen her friend this agitated and this didn't seem like the new Roxanne she had come to know through the months. Looking around they found themselves now in Marco's, Julia's deceased husband, study. The younger Italian woman invited her friend to seat with her on the only sofa in the room and looking into her eyes she tried to read them.

"You look like you had to swallow some toad." Julia said teasingly, hopping that this would help her friend relax.

"It's nothing..." Roxanne answered with a light smile.

"You were the one who dragged me down here Annie and besides that, I know you." Julia told her holding her shaky hands. Roxanne got up and walked around torturing her hands by contorting them around each other. Her mind was rushing and making her terribly dizzy, almost sick to her stomach. She was hopping that what she was about to say wouldn't offend her dear friend and the nerves were starting to make a wreck of her... She just had to get it out.

"Don't think me ungrateful or anything but me and the girls... We have to move out." Roxanne said looking to her friend.

"Ok! What did Angelo do to infuriate you?" Julia asked crossing her arms and leaning back on her seat.

"Nothing. We've just been abusing of your hospitality for far too long." the older woman explained patiently, hopping she would not see through her.

"Nonsense! I love having you and the girls here, and so do my brother and the boys." Julia recalled her friend in her so often carefree manner.

"Still, it's been far too many months and sooner or later we will need an apartment." Roxanne insisted. Julia said nothing just smiled arching her brow in disbelief. Roxanne looked at her and for a moment there they were young girls once again back at the dormitory talking about everything just like they used to.

"Now, what really brought this on?" Julia pressed on as Roxanne returned to her side.

"I don't know... I just can't take being here anymore." She confessed keeping her eyes low and focused on the ground.

"Do you still love him?" The diva asked looking at her friend. Roxanne started to slowly shake her head in negation, but then her head snapped up to face the brown eyes gazing at her.

"Love whom?" Roxanne asked trying to seem confused.

"Annie, please. You know exactly of whom I talk." A provoking smile appeared on the soprano's lips as she waited for an answer.

Roxanne looked once more down, this time at her hands where a golden ring shone. It had been almost ten years of marriage with César and still Angelo's abandonment stung like a finger into an old wound. Had she loved him all this long? How many years had it been anyway...? She was forty years old... Dear God! It had been twenty years...

"Lie, what a question to make!" Roxanne protested getting up before her mind started to question everything and got into a knot. "I took you for a more sensible person."

"Well but that's just it. There is nothing sensible about loving. Or you do or you don't." Julia explained with a light smile. "Annie, I don't know what happened between you two, but my brother never got over you. He never created a family of his own, never loved another woman. If you wish to leave fine, but at least give him a chance to tell you his side of the story."

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That afternoon, after all rehearsals had ended, Christine decided to return with Meg to Julia's house and having Erik with them, engaged at her no less, made her deliriously happy. This was so different from when she had been engaged to Raoul. With Raoul there had been fear, uncertainty. She had not been willing to share her supposed happiness... No she had not been happy. All through her engagement with Raoul she was longing for another. She wanted her Erik. Now she wanted to scream to the world that she, Christine Louise Daae was going to marry the man she loved, the man of her life and dreams. It felt so right and even if she had already given herself to him, there was no shame about it and her face was starting to hurt from the large smile that seemed unwilling to leave her lips.

All the way to the house Erik had been walking arm in arm with Christine but as they got closer his happiness gave into the worriedness and his pace grow slower and slower until he stopped. Christine looked at him with a wondering look in her eyes and that beautiful smile that always stole his breath away and when she saw that haunting eyes go dark she knew something was troubling him. 'Not your demons again... Don't let your past, your mother get to you.' she begged mentally as she got before him to give him her hands to show him confidence.

"Darling are you alright?" she asked caressing his unmasked cheek. Erik said nothing, but held her hand in place and sighed. Oh she knew that look. That same choked look he always had when he didn't know how she would react to whatever he was going to say.

"Just get it out of your chest." She told him looking straight into his eyes.

"It's nothing." He sounded more like a frightened little boy than the man she knew and loved, and she knew he was lying.

"Are you sure?" She insisted looking him in the eyes. He avoided her eyes and nodded.

"Hum-hum, right." she said giving him wary look. "I shall pretend that I believe you." He gave her a light smile and they continued their way, Meg always two steps further from them as she was still upset that Christine had been able to forgive Erik so soon.

The streets of Manhattan were bustling with activity and thankfully tonight was one of those days when Met became vacant from dramatic sopranos, staring tenors with their drama and their love stories and far more interesting lives them common people, but Meg knew that the end of the season was arriving and everything would have to be perfect. With Christine back home, their mother would be back on track once again and Met's ballet corpus would be working like slaves to make up for the lost time. True. Hector had done his best to keep them on track, but no one could deny that Madame Giry was the best.

Christine caught up with Meg and held her arm making her stop before they could reach the two floors house were they had been living.

"Could you go ahead?" Christine asked with a pained voice as Erik had stayed behind once again. Meg looked over her sister's shoulder to the tall man with the large fedora and bowed head.

"Mister Moody is mopping is he not?" she asked mockingly only to have Christine glaring knifes at her.

"I would appreciate that you would not call him that." Christine hissed clasping her hands neatly before her and taking a deep breath. "I need to understand what the matter with him is."

"Well he's an idiot with psychotic episodes, an utterly moody man that used some poor excuse to have you out of his house so he could talk to some hooded guy you've never seen taller or smaller before in your life." Meg answered as plainly as she could making Christine fume.

"Sure go ahead. Mock the situation." Christine told her turning around to return to Erik's side. Meg grabbed Christine by her arm looking deep into her eyes.

"Christ! Christine, I'm not sure what is going on here but one thing I know. Even you love him it doesn't give him the right to do what he did." Meg recalled her.

"For the love of God! He and I made mistakes and hurt each other in the process. Do you think that he enjoys arguing with me? Or that I enjoy it? We don't." Christine almost shouted in frustration.

"Fine! If that's what you want, then fine!" Meg said throwing her arms up, giving up. "Just don't come running to me crying and saying that I was right. This is clearly none of my business anyway." She turned away and continued making her way home. Christine looked at her in awe and this behavior, so unlike her sister, made her wonder what, besides her clear annoyance at her for being so willing to forgive the man she loved, was making her edgy. Soon after the answer seemed to run by her as Fabio ran by, holding his hat tight.

"She's mad at me... I can tell." Erik muttered with his head low in shame once he regained Christine's full attention.

"As mad at you as she might be she is furious with me." Christine said getting closer and straightening his jacket's lapels. "She thinks I forgave you far too soon."

"And what will the others think once they find out about what happened?" He asked touching her hand gently as his other hand was holding her suitcase. "What will Roxanne think?"

"Well, if we explain everything carefully they will thing that, even if you could have been honest, you are a very loving and caring man and that I was overreacting." She answered looking up expecting to meet his eyes.

"Still, shouldn't we, maybe, keep this engagement thing just between us?" He asked sounding more like a frightened little boy.

"Why?" she asked utterly confused.

"Here I am, this guy Roxanne's friends never heard of, back into your life after a week of you being away and you return home engaged?" Erik only asked what other would but she didn't care.

"Is that your problem?" she asked grinning. "Are you truly worried with that fact that a woman who goes after the man she loves, that is willing to go through heaven and hell to spend the rest of her life with you is willing to share with the world that she is engaged with the very charming..." she continued getting closer and closer "very mysterious Phantom of the Opera?"

"Are you teasing me?" he asked allowing his and hand to rest on her waist.

"Why yes I am." she told him. "We love each other and we've known each other for a long time. You've asked me to marry you time and time again in your every unusual way and I finally said yes and you are worried what people will think because they have never seen you? Besides, my home is wherever you are and they know I've far from home for far too long. They should be happy for me" Erik was ready to start arguing the issue but as soon as Christine's lips met his own his mind and protestations went into a blur. As their lips parted Erik leaned his forehead against hers and smiled.

"I'm like a puppet in your hands, my love." he told gently stroking her cheek.

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Meg arrived home as quickly as she could, even before Fabio could even reach her and get out of her what was troubling her so much. True she was mad at Christine for forgiving Erik so soon, but that wasn't all.

As Meg walked past the opera house corridors to return to her rehearsal she had found Pietro leaning against the wall. At the moment she had paid no attention but as she walk passed by him he grabbed her by the arm and pinned her against the wall, kissing her. She pushed him away and looked straight into his eyes, cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand. That had infuriated her but it hadn't hurt, she knew what kind of man he was. Yet his words..."Do I disgust you?" she saw him grin at her smugly.

"I thought you and your brother had talked about this last night!" Meg told him, glaring at him.

"So you have the hearts for little Fabio." the man before her just assumed crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back on the wall.

"I most certainly have not and even if I did it would be none of your business." she told him continuing her way to the ballet room.

"That's good little Giry." Pietro said making her stop on her tracks and lower her head waiting for whatever he was going to say next.

"He's just like me. All the hearts I've broken he was right there to mend them only to be broken again."... Continued ringing inside her head as she lied on her bed to cry.

Her mother entered the room without she even noticing and her heart broke at the sight of her whimpering child. For so long she had relied on her that she had forgotten that the womanly figure before her was still her sixteen year old daughter that needed her mother's love and care. Roxanne sat beside her little Meg and softly caressed her golden locks waiting patiently for her sobs to diminish so perhaps it would easier for her... Before she could even finish her thought Meg had already clung to her and hid her face on the nape of her neck like she used to do as a child.

"There, there my little bird. Nothing can harm you now." she cooed to her child rocking her like she used to. She could feel her daughter's hands gripping the fabric of her dress and her tears staining it. She would not let go, until her daughter was able to speak or until she fell asleep.

Little by little, Meg's arms and hands went limb, her sobs turned to soft whimpers and her eyes closed allowing Roxanne to lay her down, resting her head upon her pillow and covering her sleeping form with a blanket.

Roxanne got up from her seat and as she reach the door she looked back, knowing that it would be rather unlikely that her child would wake up in time for dinner, but she would bring her some food regardless and maybe, just maybe, she would be able to revel what heaved her heart so much. She sighed and silently closed the door, returning to the leaving room on to be met with a very pleasant surprise.

It seemed like years since Roxanne had faced the haunting white mask resting upon the face of the man she used to call brother, or had the flaming amber eyes burning her soul from beneath it, although it had only been months.

The room where they stood, even if empty and void of any Di Carlo/Alessandri family member seemed ice cold as an awkward guilty silence filled it up to the brim. So many thing unsaid, so many promises broken, so many confessions and tales to share flied through the empty air and yet the tired look on their faces said it all. Both ballet mistress and musical genius stood silent, hoping it would be the other to break the barrier standing between them.

Before Roxanne had arrived to the room Erik had been seating with a very tired, still very upset Christine, his arm was comfortingly around her shoulders while her hands played with his long pianist fingers as she told him, for the third time in a row how much she regretted all the things she had told and how much this mood swing thing that was happening to her wad troubling her. In his turn, Erik tried his best to convince her that they would find out what was causing this. She had been deliriously happy for being his bride now, but as soon as they entered the house, not knowing what they would have to face, Christine returned to her troubled self of that same morning. Now she stood beside Erik, her hand locked with his and straight as an arrow while his head hang in shame.

When she entered the room, Roxanne rose her trembling hand as to prevent some gasp to escape her lips, and her eyes quickly welled up with unshed tears, so many months, far too many, of fear and wondering finally brought to an end with glimpse of those catlike eyes.

Erik immediately went on his feet, quick as lightning, never really meeting his foster-sister gaze, only guessing the pain he had unwillingly put her through. A shaky breath escaped his lips as he opened his arms and before he could even react and hide inside his shell again, he felt Roxanne's arms go about him almost crushing him in a hug. It took a while for him to overcome the shock, but when he did, he rubbed her back loving and comfortingly, allowing her to cry against his shoulder

It truly was a heartwarming sight and Christine, looking from a far, was beaming. She knew that Roxanne, her new mother, was, as Julia would wisely put it, a tough cookie. She had this strong, stern facade that she always bare for the world, the mask she wore as a teacher where a smile or a tear would rarely dare to make its appearance, but beneath it all she was a warm, caring, loving woman, very easy to hurt, and it was refreshing to see her giving, opening her whole heart to someone, especially to Erik.

Soon, perhaps far too soon, Roxanne realized what she was doing and stepped away from Erik's tall, muscular frame, which was now shaking with repressed emotion. Her memory of the last months was a blur except for Christine's suffering and her own. Once again the rage of a mother lioness filled her up, making her blood boil. She turned back to him and raised her hand to slap his unmasked cheek but did nothing, allowing it to fall at her side as her furious glare was met by Erik's eyes, filled with regret.

"How could you? Do you even imagine the worry, the suffering, the pain you have put us through? What about Christine? What about me?! I've loved and cared for you almost like a mother! Couldn't you have warned me?" she spat with tears refilling his eyes and her voice shaking with emotion. Erik let out a breath of relief that he didn't know he was hold and finally faced Roxanne. He looked broken and as he spoke his voice was low and as broken as he was.

"You know me, Annie. What else could I have done? I had no other option but do what I did. Nadir and Darius would be forced to return to Persian and face that gallous otherwise."

"Gallous?" Roxanne's voice turned into a shocked whisper. "Erik, Francois, Chevalier, what are you talking about?" Roxanne looked extremely confused, but also was Christine. She clearly remembered leaving an envelope upon her bed with Roxanne's name written. There was no way Meg could ever have missed it.

"Didn't Meg give you the letter I left for you?" Christine's voice was heard for the first time in the room as she came closer to Erik's side.

"That she did, but it made no mention to Nadir, Darious or gallous." the older woman commented, still quite disturbed. "Has it anything to do with... You know."

"No Annie. It's about Persia and my escape." Erik answered tiredly taking a seat on the sofa. He reached for Christine so he would be able to pull her close and bring her to his side. "I know I should have tried to tell you face to face..." His eyes drifted to Roxanne as he felt Christine's weight and warmness by his side. "To both of you, but it would only make things much harder... Eitheirway, I thought my Christine would have shown you the letters I left for her."

And just like that an argument started between the two women, making Erik chuckle lightly every now and then only to receive icy glares from both of them. With all the confusion and cold backs they had given each other, Christine had rarely been able to show the letters to Roxanne. On the other side Roxanne found that Christine was squandering her talent allowing some other Italian ninny to get the center stage. Little by little Christine was staring to lose her patience and starting to shake in Erik's arms and before he could prevent it, she got up turning to Roxanne and hissing:

"How many times must I tell you...? Without Erik I have no soul and until sometime ago my heart was crushed by my own foolish actions. I am nothing but a shell of myself without the man I love... How could you, how could I presume to have any talent when there was really nothing but void." Erik could sense the rush of tears in her voice, her strong facade slowly cracking and breaking into tinny pieces and before Christine could completely break down, he was by her side, placing his arm around her shoulders and raised his hand to prevent Roxanne from arguing any further, only then did he take her to where they could not be heard.

"Breath slowly." he told her holding her hands and caressing them comfortingly and gently. Christine looked at him with wide frightened eyes and he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms protectively around her. He kissed her forehead, rubbed her back trying to comfort her as her arms went about his waist clinging for dear life. "I'm here now, my darling girl. No one will take me from you and I'll be able to always protect you."

"You can't protect me from myself, Erik." She whispered even if only for herself as their embrace grew tighter. "My God... What's happening to me?"