Disclaimer: I do not own Erik, daroga, or other references of Leroux's novel. They belong to the author that created them.

A/N: Okay, well… I have come to a decision. I will stop asking you people for reviews. I know how annoying I have become. If you want to review, I would love for you too. I will review your stories. Anyhow, in this chapter, William does something shocking. However, I will only say this… Just wait till later in the story! I have written up to Chapter 16. I am currently working away at chapter 17. I just want to know if this story is worth it. Ok. Well, I did not get many if any reviews so I will not post them. I only hope to get some for this chapter…

Chapter Seven- Among the Silent Sufferings

I never knew when William returned, but I noticed that stupid cold wall he put between us was back up. He never looked at me while I ate breakfast. Never acknowledging what occurred the previous night, my heart sank.

Around noon, I attempted to break the ice. We sat at the opposite ends of the large mahogany table in a pretty dark, though candle-lit, room. He wore a new mask, all red and black around the eyes which only added to the black eye sockets that glared menacingly at me. Apparently, he was sending me a threatening message.

"William, we need to talk."

"What is it with curious women…always gossiping and searching for truths where they should not."

Ignoring his hateful remark, I continued, "William, I know you are furious with me, but can you blame me? I have loved you for many years after all we went through. How could I not long to see the face of my husband, not the mask."

A slight twitch of his lip showed he was angry… not at me… but an invisible ghost of his past. "Stacy, I am not your husband. He died a long time ago." Putting his napkin down next to the plate of his uneaten food, he stood throwing a pile of papers in front of me. I felt a cold wave burn my cheeks as if I had been invisibly slapped, then it was followed by fury. His back was facing me as he gazed at the glorious city of Moscow.

Barely standing, my heart pounded all the way into my head. "You… you're divorcing me! How? Why? I d-don't understand." Turning to face me, he glared and nonchalantly answered, "You don't have to understand. Just sign the papers."

"No. Never will I sign the paper. I won't give up on our marriage!"

After I said that, fury, absolute fury, coursed through his golden eyes.

He exclaimed, "You don't have a choice! If you will not sign them, you will be committing an offense to the law and possibly be sent to jail." It was a blunt threat, I saw, trying to scare me into submission, but I did not and would not yield to him.

"Yes, you do that, William. Send me to jail. Send the mother of your children, your beautiful kids, to jail. Send the woman who made you weak inside and made your knees tremble. The woman you were madly in love with… the woman who never left you. NEVER! The woman, who loved everything about you, your faults, your face, your gifts, send the woman you made love, with all the passion inside of you, send her to jail. Yes, send that woman to rot away in prison because she would not give up on the love she shared with you. I'm sorry; William, but I made a commitment to God and you for better and worse. I refuse to go back on that promise. Good or bad, I chose you. I loved you and I will always choose you."

Out of breath, I waited for his response. William shook his head and picked up the phone. "Yes, daroga, send me an officer right away." When he hung up, I felt total and utter betrayal course through me. I could not breath much less believe that he would follow through with his threats.

Out of nowhere, loud sobbing echoed in the room. Steadying myself to face the place where the sobs originated, I saw our four children standing frozen, their faces etched with horror and hurt. I gasped out loud when I felt their unbelievable pain. Nicholas my rebellious fourteen year old son walked over to me and held me. "I love you, Mom. I'm sorry."

Tears springing forth, I clung to my son I loved. Serene remained at the threshold while I hugged my three kids giving them silent comfort. Amidst the tears and declarations of love, I gazed at my oldest daughter as she slowly made her way to her long-but not-forgotten father. One of the very few weaknesses that William had was children.

He stared lovingly at his daughter and knelt to the eye-level of his daughter. "Serene, I'm sorry, but this must be done. This does not change how much I love you or the others."

In a brief span of a minute, I witnessed Serene's attempt to slap him, but William grasped her wrist. She then shrieked, "You are a liar! You never loved any of us! Mom never did anything wrong. She's right. ALL she did was love you and I will hate you until I die for what you have done!"

She took off running. Pain then resignation flowed through William's beautiful golden eyes until the other three children were forced to leave.

Slowly getting up, I signed the papers and reiterated a previous statement."I will never go back on the promise I made to you and God." A knock at the door signaled the arrival of the daroga and arresting officer.

William casually sauntered over and let them in. Jacob, totally oblivious, questioned us, "Where is the man we need to arrest? What's wrong?"

William pointed in my direction, "That's the person you need to arrest."

Shock and disbelief were engraved on his countenance. "You have got to be kidding, right?" One look at William, Jacob cried out, "You're serious! What is wrong with you! What could she possibly have done?"

"She broke Russian law by refusing to sign my divorce papers."

"She's not a Russian citizen." William sighed, retrieving some papers from his coat pocket, and held it out. "She is now."

For an instant, rage and fear streamed through my veins at my privacy violated so simply. I remained quiet, however.

"William, there's no plausible evidence that she broke any law."

"It's my word against hers. Who is going to believe a wife in denial or are they going to believe Russia's Head of Investigations?"

Glancing at Jacob, a long-time friend, I witnessed resignation. My kids, clueless of all the transactions, remained with Hugo.

Jacob put hand-cuffs on my wrists and he led me out to the police car. He put me in the back of the car. The daroga sat in the front seat, silent, clutching the steering wheel, breathing loudly. Turning to face me as I sat in the back utterly sullen, silently suffering from betrayal, he asked with a small voice, "Stacy, what on earth happened?"

"I refused to give him a divorce so he had me arrested."

"Has he lost his mind!"

"I don't know. I just don't know."

Starting the car, he drove in uncomfortable silence until we were almost to the police station. I gazed out of the window when out of nowhere a metal pipe come hurling through the window, with such force; I felt the wind it created on my face as it barely missed my head.

Then, a wave of pipes, bats, and wooden sticks raided down upon the daroga's car. I bent down towards the car floor, terrified. I heard shouts from the men who beat relentlessly on the car.

My voice barely audible through the noise, "Jacob, what are they saying?" It was then I realized the blood on his forehead and I believed he was either dead or unconscious. Suddenly, the raid's raucous noise settled down.

My legs and mind were numb as I stumbled out of the damaged car. Unaware of the present danger, I saw five men standing with the assaulting weapons in their hands.

A slight fog slowly meandered through and a dark figure passed through and I realized its identity. I gasped and ran to him, embracing him tightly, "Richard? What? How? I don't understand."

Smiling slightly, in his famous way, a slight twinkle beset his eyes. "I'll explain everything to you, but now we have to go."

"But Jacob…"

"Trust me. He will be fine, but the police will be here any minute. We must get out of here. We need to leave now!"

With that said, Richard, five men, and I dispersed into an unmarked car and left. We drove a long while in utter silence through the cold weather as it began to sleet. I was becoming impatiently curious, "Richard, will you tell me what's going on?"

Facing me with a solemn expression as we sat next to each other, I noticed he looked more haggard. He had a newly grown grey beard with wisps of black in it. He was thinner, but he still was slightly overweight. It suited him though.

"I will explain later, but we are going to take you to a safe house in Nizhniy Novgorod that's been prepared for you. Until I can arrange for you and your kids to leave her and go back to Colorado, you will stay there." Fear edged its way in the back of my mind.

"Richard, William will kill you and now… probably me too." Richard regarded me briefly, before he sighed.

"Stacy, I expected as much, but I will keep you from this terrorist war."

A/N: Okay, I need to let you guys in on something before the story progresses. I lied about not having a Raoul inspired character, I added him later. But I would want you to know that he is DIFFERENT from the Raoul that you have all come to know. First off, he is not rich, he is mean, and he is underhanded. And he is related to William. I just want to clear that up. It is in no way to bash the Raoul character unless you want to view it that way, lol ;). I hope you enjoyed this chapter. In response to one reviewer, Richard was saying follow the evidence to Stacy in hopes that she would find out about the terrorist organization. There is more to it than Richard is telling her. Please ask me if you have questions. I will answer them. All right, I will bid you adieu.