Like Father, Like Son

by nerdywriter36

Christine is dead and the Phantom is alone once more. But this time...not completely. He now has Gustave, their child, with him. After learning the truth, he is determined to stay with his true father. Though talented in many areas, will fatherhood be the one skill Erik cannot master? A continuation of Love Never Dies with heavy Kay influence.

36. Epilogue (Figuring It Out)

tw - reference to self-harm

---

JANUARY 1923

ERIK

"Erik, you've made this dish before, I don't see why you feel the need to have me here watching you," Nadir said from where he was leaning against the counter and watching me cook.

"If you haven't realized yet, you are the Persian person here, hence why I want your opinion why I am cooking a Persian meal," I replied with a roll of my eyes; I couldn't see why he was pretending not to understand my wish for him to be present. "Besides, I haven't made this for a while, I'm out of practice."

My friend laughed to himself. "You are not. You pay a ridiculous amount of attention to the most minute details, this is going to be fine. It smells very good if that's any consolation. Not to mention that you know how to tweak it slightly to fit our friends' European palettes."

"Well, this isn't particularly spicy, to begin with - I made sure to pick a recipe that wasn't, especially with Lizzie - but I didn't think any of them had had much interaction with turmeric and all the other various Persian spices, so I figured I would play it safe, even if they are missing out on spices other than salt."

"You raise a good point, my friend, but playing it safe is wise."

I laughed quietly at the commentary on our companions' limited spice range before I checked my watch and quickly confirmed that the chicken I was making had finished cooking. "Okay, taste that and then the salad while I fluff this rice so you can taste that too," I instructed."

My friend nodded, grabbed a fork, and made quick work of tasting the various parts of the meal. "It's very good, Erik. Put a little more lime juice on the chicken and you'll be set," he replied.

"More lime, okay," I said, quickly picking up the little green fruit and squeezing it over the pan with the chicken before setting a lid over it to keep it warm just as I heard the front door open. I smiled right away at the sound, knowing exactly how it was; Maddie, Charles, and Lizzie had finally returned from the English countryside. They hadn't intended to be gone eight full months, that much I knew for certain - Charles had missed the first months of the school year with his new students as a result, which I knew he hated, - but within a couple of months of their arrival, Maddie's mother had succumbed to her illness. So between the grieving process, the funeral arrangements and legal matters, as well as supporting her father, their stay continued to be extended. I understood why, but I was still thrilled to finally have my closest friends and my goddaughter back home.

I quickly wiped my hands off on a dishcloth before I walked out to the foyer to greet them. "Hello, you three. It's so good to see you all," I said, smiling wide when I saw Lizzie shoot me a grin before starting to hurriedly take off her shoes. "I've missed having you here."

"Yes, good, where's the baby?" Maddie asked. "It is lovely to see you, really, but I want to see the little princess."

I rolled my eyes playfully as she pushed past me in search of my granddaughter. I wasn't the slightest bit offended; she hadn't seen Christine, who was already eight months old, since only a few days after her birth. She had every right to be as excited as she was, but that didn't mean I was going to let it go without a bit of a fight.

"A baby in the house and your best friend no longer matters. Fine then," I said as I stepped out of the foyer to look into the sitting room, smiling when I saw Maddie on the sofa with Christine in her arms, tickling the little girl's side to make her giggle. That baby was practically a granddaughter to her, given how close she was to Gustave, so I wasn't surprised to see how drawn she was to Christine.

"Oh, leave me be. I see you all the time and you don't change; I haven't seen her since she was born," Maddie replied, not even looking away from the baby as she spoke.

I laughed quietly, turning my head when I felt little arms wrap around my leg and smiling when I saw my goddaughter looking up at me. "Hello, princess," I said as I scooped her up to hug her tightly. "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Uncle Erik,'" she giggled, wrapping her arms around my neck. "Did you like the pictures I sent in the mail?"

"I loved them. I put my favourites up on the wall in my study," I said as I kissed her cheek. "But I much prefer getting pictures from you in person now that you're home."

"I wanted to come back sooner, but then Nana died," Lizzie said softly as she rested her head on my shoulder.

I sighed, gently rubbing her back. "I know, I heard. I'm so sorry," I replied, turning to Charles and shaking his hand to greet him. "It's good to see you again, my friend, though I know the trip was extended for good reason. How has your wife been?"

"She's doing better now. It was hard when her mother was so ill and then passed, of course, but being there with her father helped a lot," Charles said with a nod. "But she's been much better these past couple of months, even more so now that we're home."

"Good, I'm glad. Was the trip nice besides the obvious?"

"Once things settled down, it was, yes. The little village where Jacob lives is so quaint and peaceful; Bishopstone, it's called, right near the coast. It was a nice place to just sit outside and get my lesson plans ready for the new school year, as a matter of fact. I think you'd like it quite a bit."

"Well, perhaps I'll have to visit with you all some time and see it for myself," I said. "Now, why don't you go meet little Christine? Your letters gave me the impression that you were quite eager to finally do so."

"Oh, certainly," Charles replied as he shot me a smile before he stepped over to sit with his wife, Gustave, and Lara to meet my granddaughter, having not been able to do so before he and his family had travelled.

I turned my attention back to Lizzie a moment later when I felt her gently poking my shoulder. "Uncle Erik, why is Christine still so small? Daddy said we were going to play," she said softly.

"She's only a baby, Lizzie, just eight months old; she hasn't even learned to walk yet," I explained. "Once she gets a bit bigger and can walk and talk a bit more, you two will play together all the time, I'm sure of it."

"Oh. Okay," she replied, a satisfied smile on her face as she looked back at Christine. "She's cute."

"She is. Just like you."

Giggling away as I set her on her feet, she ran over to the sofa to say hello to Gustave while her mother finally passed Christine to her husband and came over to me, her arms outstretched for a hug.

"Oh no, don't give me hugs after you avoided me. I'm not important anymore," I teased as I stepped to the side. "I have other friends, it's fine. I have Nadir."

"No you don't," my friend called from the kitchen.

I smirked when I heard him yelp a moment later, knowing Adele had given him a smack for his comment. "Until one of us dies, you're stuck with me," I retorted.

While I was distracted by our banter, Maddie got her hug, wrapping her arms around my waist. "You know I missed you," she said with a laugh as she looked up at me. "And Christine isn't the only one who's changed quite a bit around here; you look like a proper silver fox now. Enjoying the full scope of being a grandpa, are you?"

"I suppose you could say that, yes," I said, chuckling as I ran a hand over my new grey hairpiece. "And it's Nonno, actually. Someone told me years ago that my grandchild would call me that one day, so I'm sticking with it."

"Well, I think you look very handsome, for one, and I love that title. It suits you, as does the grey," Maddie replied, smiling at me. "Now, is dinner ready? It certainly smells like it is."

"It is, yes, so let's go sit down. We have lots of catching up to do."

---

"Dinner was wonderful, Erik. I never would have thought you would have a meal like this in your repertoire, but I stand corrected," Maddie said as dinner came to a close. "You'll have to make Persian food more often. Nadir has taught you well, it seems."

I smiled proudly as I looked around at the clean plates in front of everyone. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. I did indeed learn from the best, I must say," I replied with a gesture to my best friend.

"And I learned from the best in my life as well," Nadir said. "My cooking doesn't hold a candle to my wife's or my mother's. I just imparted the knowledge I did have onto Erik and he ran with it, as he does with everything else."

"And run with it he has," Adele added, turning to Maddie and Charles. "Erik has been trying his hand at quite a lot of Persia food lately. Almost all of it has been lovely, so now you'll be able to enjoy it with the rest of us."

"Almost all of it?" Charles repeated with a laugh.

"There have been some duds along the way," I admitted. "But cooking is all trial and error, as your wife has taught me."

Maddie smiled as she looked at me. "I'm glad you've learned that," she said. "But it seems we've missed quite a bit while we've been away; Christine has grown so much, Erik's gone grey and he's cooking new foods. Did we miss any more excitement that you can fill us in on?"

Nadir, Adele, and I quickly exchanged glances, the same answer undoubtedly coming to all of our minds, and I knew that if Gustave and Lara were with us at the table rather than tending to Christine, they would have been on the same page. I didn't want to tell them; the last thing I wanted to do was reveal the fight that Nadir and I had had while they had been away, but I knew that nothing good would come of not telling them. So I convinced myself to clue them in, resolving to only hide the information about how low I had sunk and the new scars on my wrists.

"Excitement is one word to use. You didn't miss much; Christine said 'Mama' as well as a few other words, Jane had another baby in November - a little girl named Marielle, - and little William has grown up so much," I reported, toying with my wedding ring while I spoke. "As for what happened with us specifically...it was eventful, to say the least."

"And why do you say that?" Charles asked with a bit of a laugh, clearly not expecting anything serious.

I still hesitated to reply despite my resolve to do just that, so Nadir spoke up instead: "Erik and I had a fight. All is well now, quite clearly, but it happened while you were gone."

"You two fought? You never fight, what on earth caused it?" Maddie asked with a frown.

"It's a bit of a long story, but I'll try to sum it up," I said as I tried to piece together the details of the night that I avoided reliving whenever possible. "Philippe and Marguerite had dropped by Gustave and Lara's home to visit them and Christine, but with Philippe came an unwanted gift from his brother and his new wife, Meg Giry, and yes, when I say Giry, I mean the daughter of our lovely Adele. To put it simply, Gustave is far from fond of either of those two; the Vicomte for obvious reasons and Meg in connection to what happened to his mother. Gustave was furious with Philippe, as was I, but I took out the brunt of my anger on Nadir because he knew that they had gotten married and hadn't said a word to me, despite knowing who was involved and Meg technically being his stepdaughter. The two of us had it out with each other, Nadir left in a huff and that was that."

Charles and Maddie looked nothing less than shocked, but I understood why; they knew me and Nadir as best friends who bickered, not a pair that had vicious screaming matches.

"What happened after that?" Charles inquired quietly.

Yet again I hesitated because the only answer coming to my mind was what I had done to myself late that night in a drunken, depressed fog. I hated thinking about it, but still found it plaguing my mind whenever I saw my bare arms; the other scars there, whether it was the ones from breaking the mirror as a boy, from other mistreatments over the course of my life, or from similar experiences when I had made attempts on my life, the ones that appeared as a result of that night stood out every single time.

I must have been silent for longer than I thought, too busy running my fingers along my forearms over the exact spots where the scars lay beneath my shirtsleeves - I knew their exact path; I had traced them enough times on quiet nights alone in my room not to, - because I felt Nadir set his hand over mine before he spoke up again: "The two of us went to our respective homes, recognized we were stupid, but were too caught up in our own emotions to admit it, so Gustave and Lara tricked us into being in one room. We made up, we hugged, all was well."

"Oh, I'm glad. I don't know what the rest of us would have done if you had kept fighting; I hate choosing sides in arguments, never mind in a fight between two of my closest friends in the world," Maddie said as she gave me and Nadir a smile.

"Believe me, we're glad that you weren't there to see it; it wasn't a shining moment for either of us," I replied, taking a deep breath and returning her smile. "But now you've heard about us, so what about? How was your trip? Besides the obvious unfortunate part of it, of course."

"Oh, yes, besides that, it was very nice. I got to talk with my father more than I have in quite some time, and I learned much about my family history while we were there," Maddie replied with a nod, setting her napkin on her plate. "Apparently, I'm named after my great-aunt Madeleine, who lived in France."

That statement piqued my interest, considering my own mother's name and birthplace, but I was quick to brush it off as yet another coincidental similarity between Maddie and my mother and kept listening to the story instead.

"But your family didn't know her all that well, right?" Charles asked. "I thought I heard your father mention that, but I could be wrong."

"No, that's right; my father knew her - she was his aunt, after all, and they were very close, - as did my mother, since she and her husband would come to visit quite often, but the rest of my family, not so much. Apparently, she was very distant after the death of her husband and kept to herself in her little town in France. She had a young son to raise, after all."

It was then that my heart seemed to stop. It wasn't a coincidence...I had gotten past the name they shared and the moments when I thought they looked vaguely similar, thinking it was all purely by chance, but all of that was being thrown out the window with every word that my friend said.

"Do you, by any chance, know where she lived in France?" I asked, needing to confirm my suspicions.

"Oh, some little town not far from the northern coast. It had a French name that I'll probably butcher," Maddie replied with a laugh.

"Try your best." I knew my tone was serious, but there was no other way to be in any area where my mother was or may have been concerned.

"Erik, what's wrong?" Charles inquired. "Why are you so serious all of a sudden?"

"Just say it, Maddie," I insisted.

She was still frowning slightly about my reaction but thought to herself for a moment before replying: "Saint Martin de...oh, something like that. The last word started with a 'B,' that's all I can say about that."

"My god..." I whispered, my eyes wide as my suspicions were confirmed. Her pronunciation of the French words may not have been perfect by any means, but I knew what she was referring to and it almost made me slightly nauseous.

"Her husband, you...you said he died, but do you know his name?" I added once I managed to settle my nerves for the moment.

"I believe my father called him Charles. That seemed to check out, given the initials on some of his handkerchiefs at Father's house were 'C.D.'," Maddie replied.

"Erik...you're pale. Are you alright?" I heard Adele ask as she set a hand on my shoulder.

I could tell from her tone that she was concerned, so I managed to find the words to explain despite my mouth being as dry as a desert and my tongue feeling like it was made of lead: "I'm alright, yes. I'm just trying to process the fact that Maddie and I are seemingly related."

There were quiet gasps all around the table, though, not surprisingly, the sharpest one came from Maddie. "What?!" she exclaimed.

"Your great-aunt was from Saint-Martin-de-Boscherville; she's my mother! Charles Destler - the man that those handkerchiefs belonged to - was my father!" I quickly explained. "That makes us cousins!"

"My god, Erik, we're family!" Maddie practically shrieked as she jumped to her feet.

"We're family?" I repeated, finding myself still questioning it momentarily as I quickly got to my feet, only to flinch when my chair toppled over behind me. "Well, there goes my chair."

"Oh, forget the chair, this is more important!" Maddie replied, hurrying over to me and hugging me tightly.

"Okay, Erik, remember that promise I had you make to marry her to take care of her should I die? I take all of that back, just support her emotionally and financially," Charles piped up, laughing through his words.

I laughed as I recalled that promise he'd had me make when Gustave and William were still young boys. "It's good that you recovered from that bout of influenza, then."

"Yes, thank goodness for that," Maddie giggled before she turned towards the doorway. "Gustave, Lara, get in here! A discovery has been made!"

A moment later, both Gustave and Lara stepped into the room, the former gently bouncing his daughter in his arms. "What sort of discovery? Lara was just going to go upstairs and feed Christine, I'm sorry we've been out of the room," he said.

"Well, it turns out that we are a little closer to being Maddie and Charles' family than we thought," I said, smiling and wrapping my arm around Maddie's waist when her excited giggling continued.

"In what sense...?" Gustave asked hesitantly as he shot the two of us a suspicious look.

"We're actually family! By blood!" Maddie blurted out, bouncing up and down on the spot slightly once she'd declared that.

Both my son and daughter-in-law's jaws dropped. "What? How?!" the former asked.

"It turns out that my mother is Maddie's great-aunt, which I still don't understand," I said, looking down at my friend. "You are one of the sweetest women I have ever known, while my mother is the devil on earth. I don't see how you two could possibly be related."

"Don't say that about your mother," Maddie replied as she gave me a disapproving look.

"You know that I have the right."

"That doesn't mean you should say it out loud."

"Well, I have said it before, and I will say it again; she was wicked."

"Okay, okay, let's set that aside and focus on the fact that we're family!" Gustave said with a laugh.

Lara smiled at her husband's excitement and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "It's fantastic," she said. "And hey; you did have your father's family at our wedding."

"Oh my god, you're right." I could see gears turning in his head before he whispered. "William." I knew he had clued in that he and William would have technically been family and it was hard for any of us to ignore that type of sadness.

I tried to give him a smile when I noticed tears in his eyes. "No tears, mio soldatino, come on."

"This is incredible," Charles piped up.

"Now you're all stuck with him. Adele and I can come and go when we please," Nadir said with a laugh, sounding rather pleased about that idea of freedom, but we both knew that it was a fruitless one.

"Until one of us is buried in the ground, Daroga, we are stuck together, and we both know that I'm the one who has to go first; I need people to cry at my funeral and God knows that nobody besides you and Gustave will," I retorted.

I received a swift slap to the chest from Maddie as soon as I'd spoken. "I would cry!" she exclaimed.

"You say that now," Nadir scoffed. "Spend as many years with him as I have and that feeling slips away."

"Oh, you know you would cry, Nadir. I think that, besides Gustave, you love Erik the most," Charles said. "Maddie, Lizzie, and I do love him, but I think your bond is different."

"Yes. 'Bond.' That's the word we'll use."

"Okay, we have to discuss this a bit more, but maybe once Christine has been fed," Gustave said, hushing his daughter as she started to fuss.

I nodded as Maddie stepped back over to her spot at the table. "Definitely. And while Lara is feeding the little angel, we can clean up down here," I said as I went to sit down, only to stumble and fall onto the floor as a result of not fixing my chair. Naturally, the reaction of almost everyone in the room was to burst out laughing; Nadir was practically doubled over with the force of his laughter. I was shocked that he didn't manage to hurt himself, frankly.

The one exception, though, with her big heart, was my goddaughter. "Are you okay, Uncle Erik?" she inquired.

"Yes princess, I'm fine. Thank you for asking since, apparently, none of my other friends seem to care," I replied, glaring at everyone in the room.

"We do care, Erik!" Maddie tried to insist even though she was still laughing as she spoke.

"I don't believe that for a moment," I replied as I pushed myself off of the ground, my back aching as I did, which told me that I was in for quite a bit of pain the next morning.

The sweet little girl across the table from me jumped out of her seat to run over and climb onto my lap as soon as I sat down. "I care, Uncle Erik! Did you hurt yourself?" she asked, wrapping her arms around me.

"Yes, I'll be alright, princess. The only thing hurt was my pride," I said as I kissed her forehead.

"Good," Lizzie replied with a smile.

"You still have pride?" Nadir queried.

"Somehow, yes," I replied.

"I didn't think it was possible."

Lizzie frowned and gave me a poke in the side. "Be nice to each other."

"I'm sorry, princess, we will be," I said before I glared at my friend.

"I promise nothing when your uncle is involved, but I will try, Lizzie," Nadir said with a nod.

I rolled my eyes before I looked back down at my goddaughter and kissed her cheek. "You know, I suppose we should try and fill Lizzie in on the new development," I said as I looked over at Maddie, then quickly added, "Not it."

Maddie simply rolled her eyes before she crouched next to my chair and smiled at her daughter. "Lizzie, you know that Uncle Erik isn't really our family by blood, but we still call him family?"

"Yes, Mommy. I love him," Lizzie giggled as she snuggled closer to my chest, making me smile warmly when she did; I truly had missed that while she'd been gone.

"Yes, I love him too, but guess what? We are actually a true family! Uncle Erik and Mommy are related, which means you and him are related too!"

With a quiet gasp, Lizzie squealed and whirled around to hug me tightly. "Yay!" she exclaimed, giggling all the while. "That's so cool!"

"It is cool, isn't it?" I asked with a quiet laugh as I hugged her close to my chest.

"And Erik and I are only related by marriage, which isn't as cool," Charles added.

"It means you can still escape," Nadir said.

"He's not allowed to escape," Maddie quickly pointed out.

"Not that I would want to, love," Charles replied, leaning over in his seat to kiss her.

I smiled at the pair before I set Lizzie back on her feet. "Let's clean up so that we can have coffee and dessert ready by the time Gustave and Lara come back down. Then we can keep enjoying our evening together; a true family event, as it turns out."

It wasn't long before my son and daughter-in-law returned with their little girl, who was much happier after being fed, and Maddie was quick to jump on the topic of our new revelation again.

"So now that we know that we're related, I want to know more about your parents, Erik," she said. "You've told us the odd thing, but not much at all, to be honest. I'd like to learn a bit more."

I sighed quietly, biting back my immediate inclination to deny her request. I never spoke about my parents to her or to anyone, for that matter, but with the discovery that they were a connecting point between us, I knew that I owed her at least some information. Not to mention that Lizzie was out of the room playing with Sasha and Ayesha, so I didn't have to worry about her hearing anything unsavoury; that in itself was a weight off of my chest.

"Well, quite frankly, I can only give you so many details about the two of them," I replied. "I'll start with my father, I suppose; his name was Charles, like we've covered, and he was an architect. I followed in his footsteps in that regard."

"Which is very sweet. Is there anything else? Was he funny, serious? Did you two look alike at all?" Maddie inquired.

"We looked practically identical, besides the obvious, of course. As for his personality, I have heard from a family friend that he was a bit of a comedian. You might have known her, actually; Marie Perrault?"

"I believe I've heard Father mention the name once or twice."

I nodded, happy to even be thinking about Marie again; I could only hope she was doing well. "It is a small world indeed," I said. "Anyhow, is there anything else about my father you'd like to know? I will see what I can tell you."

"Did you two get along?"

My heart sunk a bit at that. Maddie and Charles knew that my father had passed away, but given how little I spoke about him, it wasn't a complete shock that they didn't know the circumstances or timing of his death.

"I would like to think we would have, but I can't say anything for certain. He died three months before my birth," I explained.

"What?" Charles asked, a frown forming on his face.

"There was a workplace accident, to put it lightly. He was inspecting a construction site for a building that he had designed with no attempt at safety precautions at all, and he fell to his death," I said, only to tip my head to one side as another factor crossed my mind. "Well, the falling bricks came first and that's what killed him, truthfully, but either way, he died rather swiftly, unfortunately."

"Erik, I imagine there are more delicate ways to phrase it than that," Maddie said softly. She was trying to scold me for being insensitive, but I could already see a sympathetic expression forming on her face. Most of me wanted to tell her to stop, but the part of me that missed my father deeply was the dominant mindset at that moment, so I said nothing.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be comedic or sarcastic about this, but...that's how it happened. He was dead before they could even get him to the doctor. Before my mother had a chance to say goodbye," I said quietly, trying my hardest to smother the ever-present heartache that came about when I thought about my father.

"That must have been very difficult for her," Lara piped up. "I can't even imagine how that must have felt, especially considering she was pregnant."

"I think it was hard, yes," I said with a nod. "Sometimes I imagine that she wouldn't have resented me as much had he been alive. It's probably wishful thinking, though; for all I know, they could have both been the same."

"Now Erik, you don't know that," Adele pointed out.

A small smile crossed my face for a moment when I realized that the women had rallied around me to offer comfort; maternal instincts clearly never wore off.

"It is possible. To be fair, though, we are speaking entirely in the hypothetical, so anything could have happened," I replied.

"That much is true, yes," Maddie said with a nod. "Is that really all you know about him, though? There's nothing else?"

I took a moment to think to myself again. "From what I heard, he was very much in love with my mother," I eventually said.

"Well, that's something at least. It's just such a shame that you never got the chance to meet him."

"I appreciate the sentiment. I try not to think about what could have been, though; that way, it doesn't bother me."

I noticed Charles smile slightly at that. "There's a little part of you that misses him without knowing him, isn't there?" he queried.

My friends caught on quickly, I had to give them that. "There is, yes, and I honestly don't understand how that works," I admitted with a breathy laugh.

"You were meant to have a father and you never got the chance to. That's how," Lara replied.

"I technically did still have one, but I just never physically saw him," I said. "I had father figures instead."

"Which is different from getting the chance to know your real father by blood," Maddie pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose it is."

Maddie set her hand over mine then and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Anyhow, all in all, I'm sorry to hear all of that, Erik," she said. "But what about your mother? You've told us that you two...were never close because of your face, but you never really went into detail."

"Well, for one, she kept me in the attic. That space was my world for the longest time." I figure it would be best to be frank when it came to my mother. No need to draw things out.

"She what?"

It was my turn to squeeze Maddie's hand for reassurance as she looked back at me, horror pointed on her face. Variations of that expression were mirrored on the faces of Charles, Gustave, and Lara, while Nadir and Adele simply looked sympathetic; they had known the story of my childhood for years and yet, it never seemed to pain them less to hear.

"I was kept in the attic; it was the only place in the house where I wouldn't be seen or found. That was the room I knew for most of my time at home," I explained.

"She hid you away like that? Her own son?" Charles queried.

"As far as she was concerned, she didn't have a son. I was the rumoured demon that haunted her home."

"Was that just...how it always was? Ever since you were born?"

I nodded. "The only other people that I saw were the friend I mentioned earlier and the priest of the town."

The next thing I knew, Maddie was hugging me. "She never hurt you, did she?" I heard her whisper.

"I don't think that is something I should get into for your sake," I whispered in response as I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her embrace get tighter as soon I had spoken.

"So what happened? You clearly got away, how did you manage that?" Charles inquired a moment later.

"Well," I began, smiling at Maddie when she kissed my cheek before she sat down, "I managed to get away when I was nine and travel with a group of circus performers, then escaped them and travelled to Italy when I was about 12."

"All the way to Italy from France? That's quite a distance for a boy of that age," Maddie said.

A fair point, I couldn't deny that. "Well, yes, but I like to think I was mature for my age."

"All things considered, you must have been," Charles said.

"Indeed. Still, I was glad for the help that I did have; when I got to Italy, I met Giovanni and he cared for me for a couple of years," I added.

"Giovanni...the architect. He was the father of the young girl you mentioned years ago, the one you fell for," Maddie said.

I couldn't help but smile; of course she had remembered my teenage affections for Luciana. "Indeed he was; he's also the man who wanted my grandchild to call me Nonno. He was a good man. Probably more than I deserved."

"Nonsense. Of course you deserved someone like that, Papa," my son said.

"And I appreciate that, but things...happened in Italy that dispute that. I won't get into them, though; I'm not proud of them and don't enjoy discussing them," I said as I banished the image of Luciana's broken body from my mind. "I was only there for three years, after all. In fact, now that I think about it, London holds the record for the longest time I have spent in one place."

"You aren't the same as you once were, Erik," Nadir said, clearly set on not letting that topic slip by without at least a few words of wisdom. "Yes, you've made some questionable decisions, but you are so far from who you were then. The man you used to be is completely different from the man you are now."

I gave him a small smile as a form of thanks; as much as I pretended it annoyed me, I was almost always grateful for his wisdom. "I suppose you simply have more faith in humanity than I do. I've seen the ugly underbelly and it is not for the faint of heart."

"Perhaps you have, but you are so far from that now. You are a wonderful man, Erik, and we all love you for that."

"And I am grateful for everything you've done for me," I replied before I turned back to my newly discovered cousin. "But enough about me, though, really. I have a question for you, Maddie."

"Well, ask away," she said with a warm smile.

"Is that...all you heard of my parents while you were away?" All the talk about my mother and father had resurrected my seemingly unending need to know more about them. I had only learned so much about either of them over the years, so I jumped at any chance to learn more.

"I'm afraid so. I wish I had more to tell you, truly."

Admittedly, my heart sunk slightly at that confession, but a follow-up question crossed my mind to fix that: "Is there someone who would?"

"My father would, definitely. We could go down to Bishopstone and visit him if you'd like," Maddie proposed. "I'm sure he'd be happy to meet you; he is technically your cousin, after all."

"That would be an interesting endeavour, to say the least," I replied, only to sink back in my chair. "He probably wouldn't want to hear from me, though."

"And why would you think that?"

"Well, this is all rather unusual. Plus, all he really has to go off of in the way of believing me is the word of mouth from someone he's never even met."

Maddie simply sighed and gave me a small smile. "So seeing you will help him confirm or deny what you heard. My father isn't the type to pre-judge, Erik, believe me," she said. "Besides, don't you want to meet more of your family?"

That statement made me pause. It was so foreign to me, someone saying that I had a true blood-related family. It would be an adjustment, that was for certain.

"Goodness, it really is odd knowing that I might have family out there," I said.

"I know it's a new feeling for you, which is why I want you to experience how wonderful it is," Maddie replied. "Please consider coming with us to visit my father. He really would be so glad to meet you."

I sat back and pondered that for a few moments, but an encouraging smile and nod from Gustave helped to solidify my decision. "You know what? The worst that could happen is that he tells us that we were wrong about our relationship. I suppose it can't hurt."

"Oh, good! We'll arrange it soon then!"

"Wonderful. Just let me know when I should start packing."

---

We had made our way to the sitting room, cups of tea and Maddie's cookies in hand, and had been chatting more about our discovery; needless to say we were all rather amazed by it. Of course we were, though; to realize we were related after almost 15 years of friendship was quite the shock.

"So do you have pictures of your parents, Erik?" Lara inquired. "I like to think that you would, but given your childhood circumstances, I don't want to jump to any conclusions."

"I have one photograph of each of them, yes," I nodded. "Portraits, more or less, set in one frame."

"Could we see it? if you aren't comfortable with that, it's alright, but I'd love to see it if you don't mind," Lara said softly.

I didn't have to think about that for too long: "of course I don't mind. I'll just be a moment."

Getting to my feet, I kissed Christine's cheek before I walked up the stairs to my bedroom and gently picked up the framed photographs of my parents from atop my dresser. The frame had been replaced after the glass had broken all those years ago; as symbolic as it may have been that my mother had taken the brunt of the damage, looking at a broken frame was immensely dissatisfying to me, so I had purchased a replacement. The note that my mother had left for me in the old frame had since been tucked away in one of my drawers, keeping it out of both sight and mind.

I made my way back down to join my family, smiling at Lara before I handed her the frame. "There you are."

She studied the photographs intently for a few moments before she looked back at me. "Goodness, you look so much like your father," she said.

"So I've been told, and considering that he was a handsome man, I must thank you for that," I replied with a quiet laugh.

"Oh, you're handsome too, hush," Maddie quickly retorted as she leaned over to glance at the photographs, looking between them and me. "You have your mother's eyes."

"Gustave said the very same thing when he saw that photograph for the first time years ago," I said, giving her a small smile.

"And all things considered with how I feel about your mother, that is true; she has nice eyes and you inherited them," Gustave said with a nod.

I couldn't help but chuckle as he grasped at straws to find something positive to say about my mother. "I appreciate that, my boy."

Lara set the photograph down on the coffee table and went back to chatting with Maddie and Adele at that, so I turned my attention to my granddaughter.

"Are you enjoying that biscuit, Christine?" I asked with a smile as I watched her mouthing at an Arrowroot cookie.

The girl nodded and smiled around the cookie in her mouth. "Nonno," she said, reaching towards me with the hand free of any biscuits."

"Okay, come here." I lifted her off of Nadir's lap and settled her on my knee, kissing the top of her head. "There we are. Now we're together."

"Nonno," Christine said softly as she held out her cookie to me in an attempt to share.

I chuckled as I glanced at the half-eaten, slightly damp biscuit, then gently pushed her hand back towards her mouth. "Thank you, my angel, but that's your biscuit. I had mine already."

My answer seemed to be a satisfying one to her as she continued to eat her biscuit in content silence, but a few moments later, she looked back up at me and made a request: "Nonno, sing."

"Sing?" I repeated, trying to ignore the fact that heads had turned towards me at that suggestion. "I don't know my angel. Maybe later."

As soon as a disappointed little pout formed on her face, I felt my heart ache. I so hated disappointing her, but singing...that was something I hardly ever did after losing Christine, and never in front of such a big group, as close as I was to everyone in the room.

"Sing, Nonno," Christine insisted, gently patting my chest,

"Erik, why don't you sing something?" Charles queried. "You clearly do, given your granddaughter's request."

"Well, I- not very much. I only sing for her, really," I replied, trying to dissuade them in any way I could think of.

"Oh, please, Erik? We'd love to hear your voice, Gustave has told us that it's beautiful," Maddie said with a smile.

My anxiety was already mounting, so I turned to Gustave for support, but frowned as I watched him walk over to the piano and sit down on the bench. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to play something for you to sing. You need accompaniment, don't you?" he said rather matter-of-factly, as if me singing to a crowd, albeit a small one, made perfect sense to him.

"What- I...I don't know, Gustave, really," I replied with a slight shake of my head.

"Papa, you can do this. You haven't sung in a while and I know you need music; this will be good for you," my son said softly, giving me a reassuring smile. "We can do the song you sang to me when I was a boy, the one you sang for Mother. You know that so well and I can play the melody, it will be fine."

I couldn't say what about that proposition had calmed me - the connection to Christine, most likely, - but all of a sudden, singing didn't seem like such an awful idea anymore. Gustave was right; I loved that song and knew it like the back of my hand, even more so after it had become a lullaby for both my son and granddaughter. So, with that small boost of confidence, I gave my son a nod and got to my feet, passing Christine off to Lara.

I stepped over to the piano and drummed my fingers on the top of it while I listened to Gustave play a few scales to warm up, trying to calm my nerves.

"Hey," I heard my son whisper, and I turned to find him watching me with a small smile. "it's okay, you'll be fine. If you really don't want to do this, you don't have to."

"No, I can do it," I whispered back. "As you said, it...it will be good for me to do it again. It has been too long."

"Okay," Gustave said with a smile, reaching over to set his hand over mine and squeeze it. "You can do this. Keep your back to them to start. They can still hear you if you do, and you can turn when you're ready."

I nodded, taking his advice to keep my back to our friends, at least to start. I listened closely as Gustave played the opening notes of the song and, before I could think twice, started to sing. The lyrics flowed from my lips as if I had sung them to my Christine only days ago, and it was the thought of her that gave me the confidence to turn around to face my friends and family as I sang through the end of the second verse; it felt like Christine was there with me, and that was something that hadn't been so real to me in quite some time.

The reactions from everyone in the room were a mix of countless emotions. Nadir and Adele, for one, wore rather fond smiles on their faces; they were familiar with my voice and simply hadn't heard it in a while. The same could be said for Lizzie and Christine, but in the case of Maddie, Charles, and Lara, the only way to describe their reactions was shocked. Their jaws hung open, their eyes were wide, but it wasn't as if I'd expected anything other than that; Maddie and Charles had never heard me sing, and Lara had only heard brief snippets during our lessons as I helped to demonstrate the placement of a note. It was new to almost everyone, making it even more interesting to experience.

Time seemed to fly by for a moment, but as I approached the climax of the song, I found my stress building again; it had been so long since I had truly sung and reached notes of that calibre. I worried about my pitch and breathing and whether I could belt the note as it should have been, but I found my tension starting to reflect itself in my voice; my jaw was tightening up and I was starting to have to sing around a lump in my throat, so I quickly banished any worries, shut my eyes and let my voice soar as it once had so long ago.

As my voice lightened up to sing the remaining verses, I opened my eyes again to read the reactions in the room, finding that Maddie had her hand over her mouth and mouth she and Lara had tears in their eyes. My music and voice always had had a talent for making people emotional, and I supposed that years of not using it made no difference.

The song came to a close and I could hear my blood pumping in my ears. I was still shocked that I had even done that; singing without Christine had always felt so wrong, but something had changed all of a sudden.

The only thing that brought me out of my reverie was the sound of applause, which I realized had been started by Lizzie and little Christine with the rest of the group joining them a moment later. I smiled sheepishly as I took a bow, not entirely sure why their praise was making me blush but realizing I couldn't stop, so I wouldn't bother trying.

"I didn't know you could sing like that, Erik. That...that was incredible," Charles said. "I mean, I knew you had to be good, given that you trained both Christine and Lara, whose voices are beautiful, but wow, that was more than I ever could have imagined."

"Well, thank you. It's been years since I last sang like that, so it probably wasn't all that good, truthfully, but I appreciate that," I replied, giving him a small smile as I toyed with my wedding band.

"You should have heard his voice in his younger days as well. It's absolutely beautiful now, without a shadow of a doubt, but it really was amazing when I got to hear him perform in Persia," Nadir said.

"You flatter me, Daroga, really," I said with a quiet laugh, turning to Gustave as he got up and hugged me.

"I told you," he whispered in my ear. "I knew you could do it."

I nodded and gave him a squeeze, then looked down and smiled when Lizzie wrapped her arms around my leg. The joy I had always felt when I sang had returned and it made me realize how much I had missed it over the years.

"It really was beautiful, Erik. Gustave mentioned you sang it to Christine; did you write it for her?" Maddie inquired.

With that one question, everything came crashing in on me, my anxiety returning in full force. I had written that song for Christine; it had been our song to share, and our son by extension, not anyone else. I had betrayed her trust yet again.

Before I truly realized what I was doing, I had pulled away from my son and goddaughter's embrace and hurried out of the room, making my way up to my study. With shaky hands, I turned over the framed photograph of Christine that sat on my desk; I couldn't look at her knowing that I had gone back on yet another promise I had made to her, even if it had been a silent one rather than a spoken one between us.

"Oh Christine, I'm sorry," I breathed as I began to pace back and forth, finding that to be the only outlet for my anxiety that I could think of at the moment. "God, I can't believe I just did that. That was our song, what was I thinking? I'm so sorry."

I heard footsteps then, but didn't even need to look up to see who it was, for I knew; the gentle hand on my shoulder to stop me from pacing was enough to tell me that my oldest friend had come to my aid yet again. I truly would never be able to repay him for all he had done over the course of our friendship.

"Erik, stop. You know that pacing will get you nowhere," he said gently.

"Nadir, you don't understand," I replied as I managed to stop and turn to him. "That was my and Christine's song. I wrote that for only her ears to hear, at least when it is sung in its true capacity and not as a lullaby. I swore to myself after I lost her that I would never sing it without her."

He sighed quietly but then gave me a warm smile. "You do realize who you just shared it with, don't you? Her son, her granddaughter; the family that you two started together. You did sing it with her, Erik, she simply wasn't there in person. She was a talented woman with a love for music as strong as yours; do you truly believe that she would want a piece of art as magnificent as that to stay silent and to be buried with you? You cannot apologize to the dead forever, my friend. I know much you loved her and that you will never truly move on, but you should attempt to see it in the sense that, as long as you have Gustave, she is never really gone."

I nodded and took a deep breath as my nerves started to subside; Nadir always knew what to say to help me manage my anxiety. "I suppose you're right. I just needed some air, that's why I ran off like that," I explained. "The last time I sang that song, she was with me, she was in my arms, and I was flooded with that memory. The feeling of just getting to hold her close."

"I understand, believe me," Nadir replied, and I knew that he did; as in love as he was with Adele, I was well aware that he had his days when memories of Rookheya made things a struggle for him. "There is no reason that a performance like that wouldn't have been an emotional one, but I can assure you that Christine would be very proud. You know that, don't you?"

"I can only hope."

"Hope? My, having a child really has changed you, Erik. You were always so sure of everything in Persia."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, because I was a young, arrogant, outspoken little twit in Persia."

"For everything except young, you shouldn't be using the past tense," my friend added.

The two of us laughed together, only to turn to the door when Gustave walked in with his daughter in his arms.

"She was wondering where you were and couldn't quite manage the stairs," he said. "Are you alright, Papa? I'm sorry if I pushed you when you didn't want to do that."

"No, you didn't push me, it's alright. I just got a bit overwhelmed, that's all," I replied, taking Christine from him as she reached out for me. '"Hello, my angel."

"Nonno," she said with a giggle, setting her hand on my cheek. "Nonno sing."

"Yes, I did sing. I wrote that song for your Nana," I said, gently brushing her cheek with the backs of my fingers as tears pricked at my eyes. "You can help me make music now, can't you? Just like your Nana."

My granddaughter smiled and set her head on my shoulder, which let me hold her close as I loved to do whenever I got the chance.

"Why don't we head back downstairs, hm?" Nadir suggested as he set his hand on my back. "I think being with everyone will help you."

"Agreed. Maddie wants to apologize as well; she thinks she caused you to run off with the question she asked," Gustave added.

I couldn't help but sigh at that comment. "She shouldn't be holding this against herself," I said, already starting to make my way out of my study and down to the sitting room.

"No, but you know how she is. She hates to think she's upset anyone, especially you," my son replied

"I know, I know. That heart of hers is too big for her little body." I stepped into the room where the rest of my friends and family still sat and smiled at Maddie when she quickly got to her feet. "Please don't feel bad."

"I shouldn't have asked you about the song. I knew it was for Christine, that should have been enough," she said as she stepped over to hug me. "I'm sorry I upset you."

"You didn't, dear, don't worry," I replied, kissing the top of her head. "I haven't sung in years, I was just a bit overwhelmed, that's all."

"Alright, as long as you're sure," Maddie sighed, giving me a gentle squeeze before she looked up at me. "Your voice truly is beautiful, Erik."

"Oh, thank you. I hadn't really warmed up at all, so it was a bit strained, but that's sweet of you to say."

"I don't know enough about music to be able to tell, so it sounded lovely nonetheless."

"It was really pretty, Uncle Erik!" Lizzie declared from her spot on the sofa. "You should sing all the time now!"

I laughed to myself as I passed Christine over to Maddie, then walked to the sofa to pick my goddaughter up and kiss her cheek. "I will consider it," she replied, smiling as I started to tickle her side.

She shrieked and giggled, squirming in my arms. "Don't tickle, Uncle Erik!" she said through her laughter.

"Oh, but it's fun!" I chuckled as I sat on the sofa with the giggling girl on my lap. "Let your Uncle have some fun."

I didn't even get a reply - simply more giggles - but the next thing I knew, I had let out a yelp when my goddaughter managed to find the post on my side where I was ticklish, even though I had tried to hide that information from her. "Oh no, Lizzie, please."

Her eyes immediately lit up when she realized what she had just discovered and she giggled even louder than before as her tickling continued. That only made me start to laugh as I tried to push her away; I had missed getting to play with her while she had been away.

A few moments later, I managed to push the girl off of my lap and onto the sofa before I got to my feet. "My sides hurt, you have to stop," I begged, still laughing as I glanced at Maddie and found her no longer holding my granddaughter. "Where's Christine?"

"Lara went to put her to sleep. She was nodding off even with all of this ruckus," she replied with a chuckle.

I nodded and turned to see Lizzie running over, undoubtedly having hoped for a sneak attack, but I was quick to scoop her up and toss her over my shoulder. "Oh, no, no. You aren't getting me again."

"Alright kids, don't hurt yourselves," Gustave said, laughing as he watched the two of us roughhousing.

"But Uncle Gustave, we're having fun!" Lizzie retorted, her words barely understandable through her laughing.

"Yes, Gustave, we're having fun," I echoed.

"Now, now, Lizzie, your Uncle Erik isn't as young as he likes to think he is, so you have to play nice," Charles said, a slightly warning tone to his voice.

I frowned and turned to shoot my friend a glare. "Rude."

"Charles does raise a fair point to a degree, Erik," Lara said as she stepped back into the room and decided to play the responsible adult in the room; Adele would have done so if she hadn't been resting her head on Nadir's shoulder with her eyes closed. "So settle down a bit or take this to another room so nothing ends up broken."

"Everything will be fine. I didn't get to do this when I was her age, so I am making sure that she gets her childhood and I get to relive mine. Therefore, unless you are joining us, let us be. I'll make sure nothing breaks," I replied, shooting her a reassuring smile.

"You're putting a damper on our fun," Lizzie said, her voice of words making all of us laugh.

"Oh, I don't mean to do that, I have nothing against the two of you having fun," Lara replied. "just be careful, okay? There are breakables in this room, that's what I'm worried about. I would join you if I wasn't concerned about that."

"I thought we were working together on this," Charles said with a frown.

"We were, but her giggles are contagious."

I smiled as Lara defected to our side of the argument, only to gasp sharply when Lizzie tickled my sides again, having to scramble to keep my hold on her.

"Elizabeth, I'll drop you, stop it," I warned even though I laughed through my words.

"You won't drop me," Lizzie replied, sounding quite confident in that claim.

I, however, was never one to fake a threat, so to make good on what I had said, I promptly walked over to the sofa and dropped her onto the cushions, smiling as I listened to her laughter.

"I haven't the slightest idea as to how both Christine and my wife have managed to doze off amidst all this noise," Nadir remarked with a quiet laugh.

"I'm not asleep, I'm resting my eyes," we all heard Adele mumble even as she shuffled closer to her husband, her hand coming to rest on his chest over his heart.

I couldn't help but smile at the pair; they were one of the few couples whose public displays of affection I didn't mind seeing.

"Of course, our mistake. Still, if you actually are dozing off, Adele, you aren't alone, it seems," Charles said as he looked over at Lizzie, who was yawning and rubbing her eyes. "Someone's tired, hm? Did Uncle Erik tire you out with all the tickles?"

Lizzie nodded and reached out for her father, making him sigh playfully as he stood and lifted her up. "You're getting too big for this, my dear." I suppose that was somewhat true, even though she took after her mother's petite build.

"Daddy, I want to sleep over with Uncle Erik," she said a moment later as she turned and reached towards me, seemingly having used her father as a mere vessel to get to me.

I smiled and took her from Charles, kissing her cheek. "You can certainly sleep over tonight, my darling. I have a spare nightgown for you to change into and you can sleep in Gustave's old room," I said.

"No, I want to sleep with you in your room."

"But Lizzie, princess, you can have a whole bed to yourself in Gustave's room."

"I want to be with you. You can keep the monsters away."

I sighed, but couldn't resist her request. "Alright, you can sleep with me tonight," I replied before I looked up at her parents, Nadir, and Adele. "I do believe the night has wound down; it's been an eventful one, that much is true. Why don't you all get home and rest?"

"We will take you up on that," Maddie said with a nod, smiling as she stepped over to hug me. "Tonight was so wonderful, Erik. I'm so glad we finally learned the truth about our families."

"As am I. It's amazing," I said softly, kissing her cheek. "Now come, I'll see all of you out."

I followed everyone to the foyer, passing out coats from the closet and saying good night before I stood in the front door to see that everyone reached their cars safely. I had hardly been standing there for a minute, though, before I jumped when I was poked in the sides. Closing the door, I whirled around to see my son with a devilish grin on his face. I considered chasing him, but with Lizzie in my arms and Christine asleep upstairs, I decided to just take a menacing step forward, which still made him scurry off, and that was enough to satisfy me.

"My husband is a child and somehow, so is my father-in-law. How did this happen?" Lara wondered aloud as she laughed at the two of us.

"You won some contest, that's how," Gustave said as he reappeared from the kitchen and stood behind his wife for protection.

"He's not wrong, dear," I said.

Lara simply shook her head fondly before she hugged me. "I would help Gustave tickle you, but you have a little girl to put to bed, while I have to go check on Christine and get our things ready to go home."

"Yes, go right ahead. We'll behave, I promise," I replied, kissing her forehead before I walked down the hall towards the stairs, poking Gustave along the way and ignoring his sounds of annoyance.

I got up to my bedroom and sat Lizzie down on my bed, then quickly found her nightgown in one of the bottom drawers of my dresser before I helped her slip out of her day dress and leggings to change into it, giving her kisses all the while so I could see her smile that I had missed so much while she'd been away.

"Now, are you sure you want to sleep in my bed with me and not have the bed to yourself in Gustave's room?" I asked as I grabbed a hairbrush from my ensuite before I sat behind her to gently take out her braids.

"I'm sure. I like your bed and I want to cuddle with you during the night," she replied.

"Ah, I see. Keeping the monsters away and cuddling. Those are definitely two good reasons to stay in here with me."

"I think so too."

I smiled and set her hair ribbons aside before starting to run the brush through her hair, listening to her quietly humming to herself as she did and finding my heart aching slightly. The domesticity and peace of the situation made me think of how it might have been to do the very same thing with a daughter of my own while Christine washed up for bed in the ensuite. As happy as that made me, I knew I had to push it aside; it wasn't possible anymore, and the closest thing I had to a daughter was right there with me, so I would cherish what I had.

"Well, I don't think there are any monsters here. I got rid of those years ago when your Uncle Gustave was a little boy, so they're long gone," I said in an effort to reassure her of her safety.

"Do you promise?" she asked. "Daddy said he got rid of them when William was alive, but I still think there's one in my closet."

"You know, your brother told me the same thing, but I'm sure your father has gotten rid of it. He's a strong man, he can get rid of anything if it means keeping you and your brother safe."

Lizzie turned around then, taking the brush from me and setting it next to my leg before she climbed onto my lap. "Uncle Erik, did you love William?"

I couldn't help but sigh at the question, feeling the ever-present hole in my heart that William once occupied start to ache, especially with the fourth anniversary of his death having just passed two months prior. Even still, I smiled at her and said, "I did, yes. I loved him very, very much, like he was my own son."

"Can you tell me about him?" Lizzie queried. "Mommy and Daddy tell me stories, but I want to hear yours too."

"Well..." I began, thinking to myself for a moment, "he was very energetic. He and Gustave would run around our backyard and house playing their ridiculous games and making quite a mess in the meantime. That was never the fun part because I had to clean up after them, but I loved their laughs, so I never stopped them."

"He was always thinking as well. His mind was very busy, just like yours; he always had something going on in there. Now, whether or not that got him into trouble was a different matter, but he was always thinking nonetheless.

"What else, what else...oh, well, he loved food. God, he practically cleared out our icebox every time he visited with his constant snacking."

Lizzie giggled at that. "Mommy says Daddy does the same thing. She calls him a bear getting ready to hibernate."

"I would have to agree with your mother; your father does love to eat," I chuckled.

"What else was there about William?"

I paused for another moment, trying to filter through all the things that I had loved about that boy. "I think what stood out the most to me was his kindness. He was one of the sweetest boys I have ever known. He always had a smile on his face and tried to get other people to smile as well; especially me, though, with his sense of humour, he never had to try very hard.

"He loved his life and everyone in it so very much; he loved your mother and father, he loved me, Gustave, and all their friends, your Auntie Jane, and...and he loved you too."

"But I wasn't born yet," Lizzie said softly.

"And he still loved you very, very much," I replied as I gently cupped her face in my hands and brushed my thumb against her cheek. "He was so excited when he found out that you were in your Mommy's tummy; I was there when she told him. He could hardly talk, he was so choked, but he got up and hugged her so tightly. He was so excited to be a big brother."

"But he never got to be one."

I sighed quietly and held the girl close to my chest as she sat up to hug me. "No, sadly he didn't."

We stayed like that for a few minutes, simply taking comfort in each other, before Lizzie spoke up with a question that made a lump grow in my throat: "Why did William have to die, Uncle Erik?"

"He...he went to war to be a hero, princess. He fought to keep all of us - you and me and your parents and all of London - safe from the evil people who wanted to cause harm, and he did just that," I explained, my voice thick as I tried to keep any potential tears at bay. "He may have died, but he died so that he could keep you safe and give you a better world to grow up in. You have to understand that, my darling."

I felt her nod her head. "Okay. I understand."

"Good," I whispered, kissing her temple before I stood and turned to flip her down onto the bed, peering her cheeks with kisses to make her giggle and smile even with what we had just discussed. "Now, go to sleep. I'll be up soon to go to bed, but I just want to say goodbye to Gustave and his family first."

"But I want you to read to me," she replied.

"Oh, of course. How could I forget the story? Go pick out a book, then."

With a nod, she scurried off of the bed to step over to my bookshelf, only to slow to a stop in front of my dresser and walk over to look at the photographs of my parents; Lara must have brought them back up when she put Christine down to sleep.

"Uncle Erik, who are these people?" she asked as she stood on her tiptoes to carefully grab the frame before walking back to the bed.

I smirked, realizing she hadn't paid attention when I had shown off the photos earlier that evening. "Those are my parents. Just be careful with that, princess, please," I said softly.

"Okay. Your mommy's pretty, Uncle Erik," Lizzie said with a smile.

"Yes, I...I think she is too," I replied as I lifted her onto my lap.

"Could I meet them?" she inquired, looking up at me expectantly.

"No, dear, they...my father passed away, and...and my mother is gone too."

"Oh. Have they been gone for a long time?"

"They have, yes. My father died when I was still in my mother's belly, and my mother...she left when I was very young." That wasn't a complete lie; it just wasn't the whole truth either.

Lizzie nodded and turned to hug me. "I'm sorry they're gone," she whispered.

"Oh, it's okay, princess. I...I do miss them sometimes, but I'm okay most of the time. It's not so sad now that it's been so long," I replied, kissing the top of her head. "But that's sweet of you to say I appreciate it. Now, why don't you go put this back very carefully and then pick out a book, hm?"

With another nod, she slid off of my lap and I couldn't help but smile at how careful she was as she set the framed photos of my parents back on top of my dresser; clearly, she could tell that it was special to me and wanted to keep it safe.

She then scanned my bookshelf, and I couldn't help but laugh to myself when she hurried back to the bed with a worn green book in hand; I had almost forgotten that I had moved it from Gustave's room to my own after he had moved out.

"The Wizard of Oz. Good choice," I said as I tucked her into bed and sat beside her. This was Gustave's favourite book to read when he was little, you know. Whenever one of us was sick or hurt or we couldn't sleep, we'd read it together."

"Wow. Is that why it looks so old and broken?"

"Yes, we read it quite a bit; Gustave loved it. I read it to him and your brother once or twice when they had sleepovers."

"And now you get to read it to me," Lizzie said with a grin.

"Yes, I do. Now, cuddle close and I'll start reading."

In truth, I probably could have recited that book from memory, but I figured that, so as not to look a tad strange to my goddaughter, simply reading would be easier. I didn't end up doing that for all that long, though; I had barely started the second chapter when I noticed that Lizzie had nodded off, so I set the book aside and kissed her before I quietly walked down to the sitting room.

"The day that Christine and Lizzie are running around together will be a day to remember," I said to my son as I sat down and took a breath.

"More like the end of the world," Gustave chuckled.

"Perhaps, but their giggles will make it all worth it, I think."

"Without a doubt."

I smiled at my son as he collected his daughter's toys to put them away. "Parenthood seems to be treating you well so far, my boy," I remarked.

"Well, it helps when you have a child and partner like I do," he replied with a smile.

"I would imagine," I said. "What...what was it like? To have a baby, to be there when she was born. I wouldn't know, so I'm curious."

"It was amazing. I was so scared when she was born, I couldn't think, but after holding her and looking her in the eyes, everything got put into perspective," he said. "I had never had that happen before. Have you?"

I smiled fondly at him as he sat down beside me. "Oh, yes."

"Let's hear it then," he prompted.

"Well, it's only truly happened twice in my life. The first was when I saw your mother for the first time. I saw her beautiful face and heard her immaculate voice and I knew that I had found the woman that I wanted to love and cherish for the rest of my life. Everything seemed to make sense at that moment; she was the reason I was born.

"And the second time was with you, the night that I brought to my home on Coney Island. When I saw you asleep in my armchair in my sitting holding a pillow like it was your favourite stuffed bear, everything fell into place right there and then. A little light had appeared in my world of darkness that had only gotten so much darker when I lost your mother. You were my saving grace, Gustave."

He smiled warmly and reached over to take my hand. "I'm glad," he said. "But that is something I always wondered; why Mother didn't tell me about you or take me to you sooner."

"Gustave, your mother was a well-known, respected woman in society, for both her talent and theatrical success and for the man she had married. If it had been discovered that she had a child with a man other than her husband, you can only imagine what that would have done to her reputation. On top of that, she truly loved the Vicomte; wanting to break his heart was not high on her to-do list. Besides that...a normal life for you was what she wanted. She had told me that she wished I could have known, but...the circumstances never allowed it."

"I'll never understand why she stayed; it's not as if he gave her much reason to. I just feel that so much pain, so many bad memories could have been avoided."

I sighed and stroked his knuckles with my thumb as a soothing gesture. "At the beginning, it was love. I saw the way she looked at him when they were newly courting and engaged; he was her world, just as she was mine. Even still, time changes people, and the Vicomte was one of time's victims. If I had been able to, if I had known about you, I would have come straight to Paris and taken the two of you away to give you the life both of you so badly deserved."

"Mother deserved so much better," my son said quietly.

"Don't even get me started. She deserved the world and I had been prepared to find a way to give it to her, but...but the morning after she found me and we had been together...my own fear crippled me. I feared what she would think if she woke up and saw me lying by her side, so I whispered a goodbye and fled," I replied. "I blame myself for that constantly; I could have saved her from so much grief. I could have had a baby."

"I could have had a father that I could actually look up to."

I had pulled my hand away from his by then and my nails were digging into my palms as a question crossed my mind: "I recall at the funeral, you said to him that you would find her crying. Did that happen often?"

"I'm not continuing until you uncurl your fingers," Gustave said simply.

"It's subconscious when I talk about that sad excuse for a man and what he's done to my family," I sighed.

"I know, but we never have to see him again, alright?"

"And thank goodness for that," I said as I managed to relax my fingers, resting my hands on my thighs so that he could tell. "Now, my fingers have uncurled. Continue."

He still hesitated a bit. "Are you sure you want to know?" he asked.

"Not knowing keeps me awake at night, if I must be honest with you," I replied quietly.

"Alright then. I never saw him hit her, but from outside their room at night, I would hear him yelling. Once he left, I would go in to check on her," Gustave explained. "There was one time when I went in and saw that her neck was a bit red and her eyes were puffy from crying. I wanted to comfort her, but she sent me to bed. She wore her dresses with high necks for a few weeks after, and we both know she hated those. I never knew what to think of it at the time; I didn't know how to ask her why she was wearing them, so I just didn't. Not that I think she would have told me."

"God, that drunken monster," I growled as I buried my face in my hands when tears filled my eyes, the image of Christine trapped in high-necked dresses and left to cry at night because of him and his abuses. "I never should have let her go."

"Papa, you can't blame yourself. You were afraid, and you didn't know that he would become so cruel," Gustave said softly.

"I should have kept you both close to me. You both paid the price for me leaving that morning."

I felt the couch shift slightly at that and then he was pulling my hands away from my face so I could see him kneeling in front of me. "If it's any consolation, I forgive you, and I know she would have too," he said softly, reaching up to brush a stray tear from my cheek.

"She forgave too easily," I whispered.

"She forgave you because she loved you. You wrote it yourself, remember? Love never dies."

I smiled slightly and leaned forward to press my forehead against his. "How did I get so fortunate to have you in my life?"

"Fate is funny that way," Gustave said with a smile, only to turn his head when we heard his daughter start to cry. "Oh, dear."

"Let's go see her. It'll be easier to get her home if she's asleep already," I said, pushing my own feelings aside to help my son.

With a nod, Gustave stood up and we hurried up to his old bedroom, where Christine's bassinet was for when I cared for her, finding her squirming around as she cried.

Gustave scooped her up and tried to hush and soothe her, but when he failed to settle her, he turned to me. "Why don't you handle this, Papa? You could use some baby cuddles, right now, I think," he said.

I smiled, knowing that he was passing her off mostly for that, but partially because he was still a bit anxious when he couldn't get her to quiet down, and took my granddaughter from his arms, propping her against my shoulder. "Shh, my angel, you're alright. Nonno and Papa are here," I whispered, gently rubbing her back as I started to sing the lullaby I had put in the music that I had made for the Russian royals so long ago.

By the end of the song, Christine had dozed off again, baffling my son: "That song clearly has magic powers. Where did you hear it?"

"I composed it. I built a music box for the Romanov family on the throne at the time when I lived in Russia. I believe it was found to be Anastasia's as of when she died," I whispered as I laid Christine back in her bassinet. "A memory of mine, my boy."

"Ah, you wrote it, so it is magic."

I laughed quietly and ushered him out of the room, amused by his faith in my music's supposed magical abilities. "She can tell you're stressed, you know. That's what hinders you occasionally when you try to soothe her. You can be so overbearing, Gustave."

"Well, Papa, what can I say? Like father, like son."

---

so this is it! the epilogue! it really is unbelievable to think that we've reached this point. my co-author and i started writing this story in February of 2019 after we had made a joke to each other about erik as a single father post-LND, and now, here we are with a fully completed story and an absolutely incredible group of readers. thank you so so so much for supporting us on this journey that we've been on; hearing that you've all fallen in love with our interpretations of the characters from the musical/book is so awesome, and the fact that you all love our OCs just as much as we do means so much to us. it's a really bittersweet experience that we're here and emotions are definitely running high because this story is our brain baby and we adore it so much, but we've had so much fun writing this. thank you all for your love and support; we appreciate it more than you know. and since you all love these characters just as much as we do, don't worry; this isn't the last you'll see of them 3 - nerdywriter36