Hello all! This is our newest story about Erik and his only daughter, Madeline.
Jammes- Yeah, I know it's your story but I'm still writing to you because I'm in lab and SOO board. I love your new story, I like how you discribe her. It's really well written. Your style is really comming along, I'm so proud of you and so is Erik. I love you so much...Your my soul sister...
I stand before the mound of dirt freshly broken. It doesn't seem correct, none of it does. My father tugs on my arm but I rip away from him. I hate him. I hate him for letting my mother die. I hate him, yet I hate myself for this. He never made me want for anything and he always showed how much he loved me. But I hate him because I cannot bring myself to love him. I am a sick person.
"Madeline, she would not want you to morn for her," he has the audacity to whisper. I bestowed him with an icy glare.
"How dare you," I rasped, my larynx was corrupted by tears. My lungs refused to breathe.
"Love, she's not in her body. She is not down there." The fool was openly crying now. "She's with us. She's happy now, Madeline. She was sick for so long. She's happy now," he whispered again. I didn't want to hear it, I wanted to scream until the dreams in my mind stopped calling to me. I wanted to hurt him…badly.
"I…Hate…You," I spat feeling my heart wrench in defiance at how bitter my mind had grown. I had destroyed everything my mother had created in me. But I did not care. I hated her too. But most of all I hate myself.
Three weeks had passed since the funeral and Madeline had hardly spoken to her father. The guilt of how she had treated him crushed her. She had hurt him badly when he was still mourning for the loss of the woman he had loved more than life. Madeline slowly approached his study where she could hear his muffled sobs.
"Papa," She whispered as she let herself in, seeing him crying for his broken heart cut at her. Submissively she dropped to her knees, laying her head on his lap. "I'm so sorry, pappy. I do love you," She whispered and began to cry. Raoul too began to weep, holding his daughter.
"Madeline, you are sixteen, a woman now, I've sheltered you for as long as I could and I will not be around forever. Your uncles brother has a son who is of you age. He has promised your happiness and secure future if I permit you to marry him." Raoul glanced down at his child who had stopped weeping. "I wanted to ask you first."
"No," She said firmly, angry tears pushing against he eyes. "How can you ask me to marry a man I don't love, a man I've never even met?" He looked at him with disbelief. "You loved mama. How can you expect me to have an arranged marriage?" Raoul gazed down at his daughter.
"I just want the best for you. I want you to be happy. Will you at least mean the man?" He begged.
Bowing her head, Madeline simply said: "Yes, father."
Madeline smoothed her gown, knowing that her future husband was down stairs in the foyer waiting for her. With one last tug at the fabric she affected a smile. In the drawing room she could see her father talking to a young man.
"Father," she murmured to ensnare their attention. Raoul turned to see her daughter dressed beautifully. The only sign that she was not a holy angel was the agony in her eyes. He pondered if it was indeed too soon to think of marriage followed so closely on the heels of her mother's death. Tears pricked his eyes when he thought of Christine.
"Madeline, please enter. This is Henrik DuBoise, your second cousin. Henrik, this is my daughter."
A/N: I hope the first chapter wasn't too boring. There is a bit of The Woman in White in it, both now and later.