Standard take-your-lawsuit-elsewhere rumble: None of them are mine. Like the rest of you, I wish they were, because then I'd have a lot more money than I do right now.

It was raining when the train pulled into Rouen. No one was there to meet Christine, but what of it?
"He was probably expecting a letter, not a personal visit," Christine thought wryly, hailing a carriage. Nadir was so reserved, so disapproving yet protective of Erik, she was amazed he'd written to her at all. "He must be so sad," she reasoned.

The cab stopped in front of a large estate, walled and set back far from the road, but with an open gate. She marveled at its size until she realized Erik must have left Nadir everything. He'd been rich, did he bother to draw up a will? If Nadir had been the sole heir of everything Erik owned, and who else would be, that certainly explained the mask. She paid the driver and started up the stone walkway on foot.

Nadir welcomed her in before she could knock at the heavy door, and seemed only mildly surprised.

"My dear," he said, holding the door and motioning for her to come inside. "How are you?"

"Fine," she lied, "and you?"

"I get by," he said simply. "Where is your husband?"

"I have no husband," she said coolly, a little taken aback by such a personal question. "Raul is in Paris, I imagine. And our wedding is to be Sunday."

"And then?" He offered tea; she refused. "Will I be seeing you in any operas when the new season begins?"

"Hardly," she snapped, ashamed with her conduct but unable to hold back her rage. "Raul wants a "respectable" wife, slow and sweet, to love and pamper and control. He wants to, no, insists we, move to England. It's all so dull!" Nadir smiled dryly and chuckled before commenting.

"Allah knows your life has been far from dull!"

"Oh, that didn't used to be true, before- Nadir, you said you had information. I can only assume from the mask that it's about Erik. Pray, what is it?"

"You might have asked before you left back in February. Perhaps if Erik had told you himself- Mme. Daae, Erik and I met years ago. You know the story. But I underestimated him over and over. I thought his obsession with you was merely manipulation. I never thought him capable of love, though I should have. He loved me, and my son, and any animal that had the fortune to encounter him. He loved beauty, which should have been a sign immediately when it came to you. But in your case- forgive me! – I thought it was only lust. Or that you were some sort of pawn. But he- you must believe me – Erik truly loved you."

Christine had sat silently at first, but soon she began to cry uncontrollably.

"I know," she sobbed. "I was foolish, a child, scared of the world and all he had done for me. Raul told me he was trying to use me, but I can't believe that! Oh, Nadir," she wept, crying into his shoulder as he stiffly tried to comfort her, "what happened?"

Nadir rose and unlocked a cupboard. He removed a think book and gave it to her. It was a musical score.

"Erik wanted you to have this," he explained, "but it is never to be performed. He wrote it for you, though he didn't know you when he began composing it. It was, he said, for the woman who could love him. Even a spider has a right to a mate, his words were."

Christine wiped away tears and read the title on the first page: The Nightingale and the Rose. Seeing her expression, Nadir asked,

"You are familiar with the story then?" Christine merely nodded, brushing more tears away with the only handkerchief that she could find in her cloak: one from Erik. It had been awhile, then, since she'd worn this one.

Nadir watched her for a moment.

"I am sorry to have upset you. Perhaps sending the mask was too much. I assumed you would want to have it, and that you would only reply to me if you wanted to know more. Christine, are you happy?"

"I thought so, at first," she said slowly. "Everything was simple, there were no mysteries. I was safe. If only I had realized earlier- I didn't need Raul's protection. I didn't care about what society thought, not really, and that was the only danger. I love him! Oh Nadir, why didn't you stop him?"

"Could anyone hold Erik? To be frank, you alone, perhaps, and once you'd gone- there was nothing left I could do but respect the wishes of my friend."