Chapter Thirty-Eight: Five Months Later

I sat next to Erik in the backseat of Dad's Ranger rover, as we made our way slowly up the mountain road. The Vermont wilderness about us was covered in snow, almost like what one would see on a postcard. Even now, the white fluffy flakes of chill were still falling. I knew that this year, we were definitely going to have a white Christmas… which was a first for all of us involved on this trip.

Dad sat in the front seat, maneuvering the car carefully. I could see the back of his head covered in short, dark blonde hair. I was so happy to see him when he came back home in early August. He swore that he wouldn't be away from me for the rest of the year, and so far, he had kept his promise. Upon his return to Belleview, I realized a bit of him had aged. His blue eyes were tired looking, and the wrinkles around his forehead and mouth were beginning to show. Yet he gained his energy back after he was in Florida for a while, and being more involved with involved in my life seemed to help his peace of mind. At least he was now informed in what was going on with my crazy school life (being a senior now) and having a boyfriend.

I turned around to look behind our car and saw Maggie and her parents following us in their SUV. I waved to them, and Mrs. Gardens waved back from the front seat. Maggie saw me in the backseat and also waved. It was nice that they we were all invited up here to Erik's aunt's Vermont cabin for the holidays. But wait… I have some catch up to do now, don't I?

Four months ago, Erik had decided to get in contact with his family. He had no clue how to proceed with what he was going to do, and Mr. and Mrs. Gardens didn't have a clue either. So the first thing they did was find out where Erik's closest living relative, Lucy Gates, lived. This was his mother's sister, which made her Erik's aunt. This was the woman who had organized the charity auction that had put up Eva Gates' necklace, the one that he gave me and what I wore all the time. She also took care of all of his parents business, charities, and records that they still sold now. After looking on the internet for a while, Erik had managed to find an address where he could write to Lucy Gates, and later on that night, he penned out a letter for her, explaining who he truly was, what had happened to him, and apologizing for any shock that his words may cause her. He gave her Mr. and Mrs. Gardens' home number (it was decided he would continue to stay with them for a while) and an address, in case she wanted to write instead of call. I never saw the letter myself, but I guess it was about five pages, and Mrs. Gardens said it was well written. Erik put it in the mail the next day, and waited and prayed for a reply. Every day I came over to their house while they were in limbo, and the letter and his family were all Erik and I talked about. I tried to vanquish any fears he had, even though I wasn't sure how well everything would turn out. Would his aunt call him a liar? Would she denounce him from the family, and break his heart?

Three days later his phone rang, I was at the house, and sitting with Erik on the couch in the living room. The phone rang, and Mrs. Gardens answered it. In that moment, Erik's life changed forever.

"Erik!" Mrs. Gardens cried, running out of the room with her hand over the receiver, "Erik, it's one of Lucy Gates' reps. He wants to talk to you!"

Erik shot up and took the phone. "Hello?" He said nervously, speaking into it.

I couldn't hear what was being said on the other side of the conversation, so after squeezing Erik's hand in support, I walked into the kitchen where Mr. and Mrs. Gardens were waiting. We were in there about twenty minutes before Erik came back in, and set down the phone on its charger. "What did he say, Erik?" I asked.

He looked up, and gave a small smile. "He said that Lucy wants me to go to Washington DC, and get a DNA test done. This kind of claim has happened before, so they have to make sure this isn't a hoax. But if the test rings true… he said that she wants to meet me."
"When do they want you in DC?" Mrs. Gardens asked.

"As soon as possible."

Mrs. Gardens nodded, and pulled out a small sticky note from her pocket. "I have his number right here Erik. I'm going to call him back, and tell him you'll be in DC in two days."

Preparations were quickly made, and sure enough, Erik was in DC by Friday. I couldn't go with him, since I had to watch the house and clean since Dad was coming home soon, but Erik called me on the hotel phone every night he was there. The first night in DC, he and Mr. Gardens stayed at the hotel, and then the next day he was taken to a nearby lab to get a sample of his DNA. He couldn't say where it was, since everyone was around to keep his visit under wraps in the public eye, but he did say it went well. He stayed in DC for the next five days, waiting for answer in his hotel room.

On the sixth day at noon, I got a call from Erik on my cell. I had been cleaning the kitchen when I heard my phone ring in the living room, and I bolted over to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Chris," Erik began, sounding out of breath, "Oh God, Chris…"

"Erik, what is it?" I asked calmly, "What happened?"

It was then I heard him burst into tears. "Chris, the DNA came back. Lucy Gates… now knows without a doubt, that I'm her nephew!"

I let out a scream of delight, and began jumping up and down. "Erik, this is wonderful!" I yelled, "I'm so happy for you!"

"She's coming here to meet me in two hours! I… I'll get to talk to her. Chris, I have family. Oh God, I have family." He let out a sob. "It's going to be okay now. I don't have to do this alone anymore."

I started crying with him. "It's okay, Erik. It's okay."

After Erik met Lucy Gates in the hotel that day, she had told him to call her Aunt Lucy, and that she had always cared about him and loved him. She had brought photo albums with her, full of pictures of when he was a young boy, with his mother and father. Erik had confessed that he had broken down seeing the pictures, and that memories of his happy life with his parents came flooding back. He even remembered more about Aunt Lucy, and the birthdays, weekends, and holidays they had all spend together as a family. They spent over six hours talking, and the next day, Aunt Lucy even brought him and Mr. Gardens to her home, so Erik could meet her husband, and his Uncle Peter. They ended up spending half a week being guests at her house (well, I guess it was more like a mansion, according to Erik) and when it was time him and Mr. Gardens to come home, it was decided Aunt Lucy would fly down to Belleview every weekend to visit him, and they would talk on the phone every day.

In the next three weeks a few things happened. The first thing was that my father came home, and he got to meet Erik. Before the big meeting I sat down with my dad and told him all about Erik, and who he truly was. I told him he had endured a sad life, but that he was a beautiful, strong person. I talked to my dad about his gifts as a musician, how treated me amazingly, and that he was a good guy. At first, Dad was upset that I kept so much from him while he was gone, but he got over it after meeting Erik and seeing that everything had turned out fine ( in his own words "Well, he's got a college education, he's financially stable, and he clearly treats you like a princess"). He really didn't have too much to complain about. He liked my boyfriend right off, and they even sat down and played violin together. It was nice to see Dad pick up his instrument after not playing for years. He was a bit rusty, but once he got used to how the violin felt in his hands, he was back to being the musician I had once seen as a kid.

The second thing that happened was that the press got wind of Erik's existence, and before people could start making up stories about him and publishing them, Aunt Lucy and Erik set up a press conference so that he could tell his own story, with nothing but the truth. He even admitted he was 'seeing someone', but he kept my identity safe and never mentioned it. Which… didn't make much of a difference anyway. They found out who the young blonde was standing in the back of the conference room watching him protectively. At least I didn't have any major secrets, or some type of scandal they would dig up about me (but boy, they tried)! So the media frenzy had been insane since then, but now things were dying down… and with perfect timing, seeing that it was Christmas.

So now, here we were, on December 20th driving up Aunt Lucy's cabin in the mountains. During Aunt Lucy's last visit to Belleview two weeks ago, she had shown us pictures of it, and it was gorgeous. It was about two stories tall, and it had six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, study, and dinning room. Everything was made out of wood, and had that old American rustic look… with a twist of the upscale. Let's put it this way: in the living room they had a huge couch that was shaped in a half circle, and looked like it could fit twelve people, with a large stone fireplace feet away. That was the rustic part. The upscale part was that there was a black iron chandelier hanging in the same room. All the areas of the house were like that. Like, the beds in the bedrooms were carved out of wood with a large headboard, but the quilted blankets were designed by Ralph Lauren. So while I knew we would be pretty much in the middle of nowhere, I knew we wouldn't be without some luxury.

Suddenly I was pulled from my thoughts by Erik's singing, and listened closely to see what he was harmonizing too. Josh Groban's Silent Night was playing on the radio, and the sound of their voices combining soothed me, while making my chest tighten with emotion. God, Erik had such a beautiful voice. I was glad that after I got out of school in May, Erik and I would start working on our CD for Firestone Records, and we could get our music out there. We called Quinn Lockhart a few days after Erik held his press conference, to see if she still wanted us to sign onto the record label and work with her, and she seemed more eager than ever to do it. She was even okay with Erik's real identity, but then again, why shouldn't she be? Working with the son of the most famous musical couple in history surely couldn't be a bad thing for her career.

"We're here!" Dad said suddenly, "Wow, look at that cabin!"

Erik and I peered out the window, and gasped. It looked better than it did in the pictures. It was a large cabin with a wrap around porch and wooden French doors. The front of the place was covered with windows, where you could see in to the rustic and posh interior. As we gazed at the large place, Erik's aunt and uncle came running outside to greet us, waving enthusiastically. Lucy had her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, and her blue eyes sparkled. She was a small, woman, now in her early forties, but she looked beautiful still. She was wearing jeans, a red sweater, and black coat with boots. Her husband was next to her, in brown boots, wearing a brown jacket zipped up with a hood, but you could see his graying hair sticking out underneath, and his green eyes sparkling.

We didn't even bother getting things out of the car right away, as soon as the Range Rover was parked, Erik and I opened the door, and dashed out of the car to say greet them. Erik and I had dressed warmly (both of us in sweater and jeans with boots), and I was glad for the coat and gloves I bought as soon the winter air hit me. It was ridiculously cold, but I loved it (and it made me slightly more thankful for the thick clothes I had bought online in preparation for this trip).

Immediately Aunt Lucy and Uncle Peter greeted us both with hugs. "It's so nice to see you here, darling!" Aunt Lucy said as she embraced Erik, "I'm so excited! This is our first Christmas here, with all of us together!"

"I know, it is exciting." Erik said, hugging her tightly. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek, and he kissed her too. It was so sweet, I almost shed a tear. Uncle Peter gave me an embrace and greeting, and then Aunt Lucy got a chance to hug me.

"Hello, Chris." She said, "Is my nephew treating you well?"
"He always does." I laughed, "He's been a good boy."
"Good. You're a good girl to him. And you always look so pretty when I see you!" She kissed my forehead, and then looked over to see the Gardens family getting out of their car. "Everyone, let's go inside and warm up, before we get your things from the cars." She decided, "I have some hot cocoa on the stove right now anyway."

"Sounds like a plan." Mrs. Gardens said.

As a group we all begin to walk inside, but suddenly, Erik stopped me under the doorframe.

"Well, Chris," he said looking up, "What is this I see?"

I turned my head up, and saw that attached to the top of the frame, was a sprig of mistletoe. I looked back at Erik and smiled.

"You know very well what it is." I said.

"Why yes," he whispered, wrapping his arms around me, "yes I do."

At that moment he leaned in and kissed me, and my arms snaked around his neck. For a while we stood there in a passionate embrace, until Maggie yelled at us.

"Hey, stop sucking face you two, and come inside!" She said, "It's freezing out there."

Erik and I laughed, and backed away from each other. But he still kept one arm around my waist as we turned, and walked into a house full of light, warmth, laughter, and for the very first time for Erik, family and love.

The End

A Note from the Author:

My dear readers, right now I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read and review this story. When I first started writing this novel a year ago, I didn't know how well it would turn out. I felt such a deep connection with "The Phantom of the Opera" in the first place. I saw the movie when I was in 6th grade in theaters, and I loved it. I related to the Phantom immediately... since I understood what it was like to be an outcast. I was different than most kids my age. I was the kid who, instead of playing on the play ground, was reading Shakespeare. And I was ridiculed for that. I had shown some interest in writing before hand, but after I saw "Phantom", my writing blasted off into a frenzy of story after story. Because of Phantom, I found my gift. So here I am, years later, and I wanted to pay homage to "The Phantom of the Opera" and dear Erik... a man who's only true sin was being born in a time peirod where most people could not accept those who looked or acted 'different'. Even now, my heart breaks when I think of him. So when I began writing this novel, I thought to myself "I really don't want to screw this up." I wanted this to be meaningful, and for it to impact the reader. I knew I wanted to get this story published, so I decided to post it on this fan fic site, to gage the reactions of the audience.

Your support has been overwhelming. All of your reader reviews make me smile, and they have been nothing but supportive. I had NO idea my story would be this big, and I thank you for that! You all have made this story into something large to me. I have decided, yes, I will search for a publisher who would be interested in publishing my novel. I will have to delete my postings on the fan fic site soon if I'm going to make that happen, but I promise, I will post other stories. In fact... I just so happen to have one in the making right now. Or I might have two. Who knows? If you want to keep in touch with me, you might find out!

Anyway, thank you all again. I feel so blessed to have taken a chance with this story. You guys have made the risk worth it. Please, I do hope some of you keep following the work I do, and feel free to send me a message anytime. If you have questions about my novel, let me know. I want to answer anything that I can.

So, to conclude, God bless, and I hope to see you around the site.

~ Your truly, Diana Kay Warry