A/N: I'm pretty sure I don't have the year right, so if someone could correct me that'd be great.
Aminta's Diary
31st October, 1897
It's Halloween. A little more than four months have elapsed since the rooftop incident, and my life has changed forever. I now live in a beautiful, opulent house tucked away safely in the woods, but close enough to town for Mother and I to go shopping or to the theatre, etc., etc. Raoul has since moved away, gone to America to find a rich girl to marry and forget about all this. I can find it in my heart to hope he finds peace.
Father, having long ago forsaken his former life, has decided to take on the surname Dubois. Very apropos, I must say. At least, it is now. He and Mother are married now, and few know about it. Mme. Giry is one of these few. As far as everyone else know, Mother and Raoul simply got divorced and Christine moved to a new home. We prefer it that way, really. It makes things simpler. Our new home Father designed himself, putting his genius to work. It's a magnificent Gothic marvel of a building, riddled with secret rooms, trap-doors, and hidden passageways. Well, Father is a trap-door lover, and Mother and I certainly don't mind. I still don't know where all of them are, but that's half the fun!
I've never seen Mother or Father happier. They're so in love. It's very touching, really. I received a letter from Raoul asking if Mother was truly happy, and another after I had replied that yes, she is, saying that's really what he wanted for her. I guess I can forgive him now. Mother and Father go about arm-in-arm, talking and laughing freely like young lovers. It makes me smile to see them happy, finally at peace with themselves and each other. I sit for hours outside the music room, long after I'm supposed to have gone to bed, listening to them sing together, or Father sing and/or play for Mother. I have the nagging suspicion that Father always knows I'm there, but he never says anything. That suits me just fine. If Mother knew I was there, I'm sure it would be back off to bed with me.
Mother still sings at the Opera Populaire, though no more notes appear anymore. Father does like to surprise her sometimes by calling to her from behind the mirror, but that just makes her laugh. It used to be that only I could make Mother laugh, but now Father can too. She laughs much more frequently and easily now than she ever did before. Her laughter's as beautiful as her singing, and I hope it never stops.
And me? Well, I've been doing wonderfully. I'm still dancing at the opera house, and Mme. Giry says that soon we – my classmates and I – will be ready for the stage. She still says that one day I will be a prima donna like Mother, but that'll have to wait a few years. Father still teaches me as he taught Mother, and often tells me how much I sound like her. I hope to be prima donna someday and make them both proud. Father home-schools me, but I still have friends in town and I visit them often. I've met a boy now, too, a friend of my best friend, Catherine's. His name's Joseph. He's so sweet and smart and fun…I think I'm in love! Mother and Father are happy for me, especially since Catherine says that Joseph reciprocates my feelings. I can only hope!
Father's been trying to scare me all day, in keeping with the spirit of Halloween and his being a sort retired ghost. He hasn't succeeded yet, but he claims that he will before the day is out. Not likely. But we're both having fun anyway. Mother just laughs as she watches us. She's not nearly so skittish anymore, but she still doesn't like to be scared purposely so she's abstaining from our little game. Maybe next year she'll join in. We'll see.
I have never been happier. I have home, parents that love me, friends, and a new trap-door or hidden room to discover every day. But more than that, I have something else. Me. For the first time in my life, I know who I am. I am Christine and Erik's daughter, the spitting image of my mother. I am Aminta Dubois. I am my father's daughter. And nothing can take that away.
Aminta Maurelle Dubois, age 16
FIN