Chapter 18
Too Many Notes
Corrine had slipped in the room to check on Alec, and she found him deep asleep. Her heart ached, and she felt nauseous. She sat softly onto the bed making sure not to wake Alec. She was finally able to let her tears take over her senses.
"I can't stay here. He deserves all the happiness in the world, and if it's with her..." Her next thought made her sob even more. "Then I'll leave him to his happiness."
She stood up and dried her eyes. She looked at her sleeping brother and the tears started up again.
"Poor Alec. He loves Erik so much. Is it really fair of me to separate them?" She knew the answer before she finished the question.
"No, I can't do that to either one of them. I'll go and leave Alec here."
Corrine quickly packed, and left the room. Three feet out of the room, she stopped in her tracks. "No, I can't leave him."
Corrine went back into the room and prepared to take Alec with her.
After Christine left, Erik went to check on Corrine and Alec. His heart came to his throat when he found the empty room. His music box was sitting in the middle of the bed, and a note propped up beside it. With tears in his eyes he read the note:
My dearest Erik,
It breaks my heart to leave you like this, but I must. You deserve to be happy, and Alec has told me how much you love Christine. This is tearing me apart, but I know it's for the best. I know she'll bring you the happiness you richly deserve. I will always love you. You will always have my heart, for now and forever.
With deepest love,
Corrine
Erik crumbled the note to his chest, and let the tears flow.
Richard returned to his room to find his wife gone. She had taken all her belongings with her. He glanced at the desk and found a note addressed to him.
Richard,
The Ghost is going to kill me for what I did to Corrine. I treated her horribly, and she left. She took that thing with her. I just can't stay here. Along with this note, you will find our divorce papers. As of right now, we are no longer married. I am leaving Paris for good. My ship leaves within the hour.
Goodbye Forever,
Martha
Richard read and reread the note over and over before it sank in; she was gone for good. The strange thing was, there was no mention of love at all. Not for him or the children... The children. The thought of his children gone upset him more than anything.
"I should've grown a backbone and demanded that the boy be treated as a son. I always wanted a son. WHY? Why didn't I treat him better?" Richard sobbed.
Three hours later Mme. Giry arrived at the room to report that his orders for the dead stable employee had been completed. She opened the door and found a gun laying by Richard's body, and a single bullet hole in his head.
Mme Giry made her way down to Erik's lair.
"Erik? Are you there?" She yelled from across the lake.
"What is it? Don't you know how dangerous it is down here?" He asked as he helped her across the lake.
"I need to talk to Corrine it's important," She said ignoring his statement.
"What makes you think she's here?"
"Erik, I make it my business to keep an eye on you. I know she and her brother are here. Please fetch her for me."
"She and her brother left." Erik said trying to hide his tears, which didn't go unnoticed.
"Well, then we'll have to find them," She said with authority in her voice.
"You don't think I haven't tried? I walk the streets every night, and recently I've been bold enough to be out during the day looking for them. Every time I see someone who resembles Corrine or Alec my heart leaps, only for it to fall when the person turns around. I haven't been able to eat or sleep since they left. I love them, and now they're gone. You want to know the worst part about it?"
"What's that?" She asked gently.
"I never told Corrine how much I love her. She doesn't know."
Mme. Giry placed her hand on his shoulder.
"Keep searching Erik. Don't give up. I'll help you look, and I promise we will find them. We have to."
Corrine had seen Erik several times, but managed to stay out of sight. There were a couple times she was afraid Alec would see him, and give them away. Thankfully, Alec was always preoccupied elsewhere. Her brother was more and more withdrawn. At first he cried and begged to go back, now he had stopped crying and speaking all together. It was starting to worry her. She had sold several of her possessions for food, but she wasn't sure how long they could last on their own.
They were walking past a man reading a newspaper, when the front page headline made her lightheaded and dizzy.
Opera Manager found dead
Wife and Children missing
Once she was composed, she walked over to the man.
"Excuse me Monsieur, do you mind if I read the front page of your paper?"
The man slowly lowered his paper to look at her. Corrine gasped at the same time Alec excitedly exclaimed;
"ERIK!"