There are about 9 or 10 chapters left. Those of you who have read my other stories know I usually start asking, "How will it end?" right about now. LOL Any guesses?

I noticed there weren't as many reviews for the last chapter. Am I getting stale? Hopefully, this one will stimulate more reviews.

As a formality, I own nothing.

Had circumstances been different, Erik and Christine would have been rejoicing with the arrival of annulment papers, already signed by Raoul. All she had to do was sign her name and the lawyers would have her free and clear to marry in no time. Yet there wasn't much to celebrate when they still seemed nowhere close to finding Gustave. They told each other encouraging words and spoke of making all the arrangements once their son was home. However, it had been several weeks and still no word from the Girys, nor could anyone seem to find where they were hiding.

Erik's press conference did well with getting the word out and he provided photographs of the boy, as well as Antoinette and Meg. The reward money seemed to turn a few heads, but the real image was a grief-stricken mother crying and the mysterious Mr. Y holding her to provide comfort, that got the town talking.

The newspapers ran the pictures and the story every morning and evening for three weeks' straight. Oscar Hammerstein himself sent a telegram, offering whatever means necessary to help bring Gustave home. Erik was moved beyond words at everyone's gratitude. Yet he felt so empty and guilt-ridden inside.

Erik couldn't stop blaming himself for these terrible events and ever since the press conference, he began distancing himself from Christine. He left before she would wake or came to bed when she was already asleep. Granted she didn't sleep much, but she had to force herself to rest when necessary for the baby. She knew what was going on and after weeks of feeling isolated and alone, she had just about enough.

She woke up in the middle of the night and when she saw he wasn't beside her, she knew all of this had to end right then and there. She dressed and went to his office. While she wasn't surprising to find him there, she was surprised to see him facing her portrait and speaking to it, as he reluctantly drank scotch from a glass.

"How can I face you, knowing this is all because of me and who I am? My actions caused this, not that sweet, little boy's. Yet he must pay for my sins and I watch you day and night suffer without him. What if I hadn't pursued you after Raoul left? You could have had a fine life living with Gustave and performing for Hammerstein. But no… the selfish bastard that I am had to try. I had to pursue you and work like the devil to get you to fall in love with me again. If I had really loved you and Gustave, I would have let you get as far away from me as possible."

He took a sip from his glass and then gave up, as he moved it away from him.

"I don't know what is killing me more, the hate I feel for myself or knowing that soon, very soon, you will grow to hate me too. You will realize what a mistake you made by staying here and you'll recoil against me. I know it. I can see it happening already…."

"Erik, stop!"

He turned around, showing his mask less face and fell to his feet.

"Oh Christine… Can you forgive me? I know I shouldn't ask it of you, but I can't help myself! I…."

She went to his side and slid down to be close to him.

"Why haven't you told me any of your feelings, instead of telling them to a painting, who cannot respond back? She can't ease your mind or your heart. She can't tell you that you are being a fool. She can't slap you silly for shutting her out and making her feel alone. She can't show you with actions that she could never leave you. She is bound to you, as you are to her. And she can't tell you how much she needs you right now to be her pillar of strength and to love her and show her that we will get through this, together. We will get our son back and be the family we were always meant to be."

He went to touch her, but she pulled away.

"How could you think I would hate or blame you? What happened to your trust in me?"

"Christine, I have spent all this time becoming a man worthy of you. All this time telling you that I want to be better and yet since Gustave has been missing, I have wanted to do nothing but murder anyone that I see as a potential threat in getting our son back! How can I think you trust me, when I am not sure I can trust myself?" He got up in a furry.

"Angel, stop. Look at me."

He wrestled with himself but finally he couldn't resist her. Their eyes met, and she held out her arms. He was wrapped around her in seconds.

"I am sorry." He cried into her neck.

"I don't blame you for anything, so don't blame yourself. The Girys did this, not you. They wanted to punish us both. There is no guarantee that Meg wouldn't have tried to hurt Gustave even if I wasn't here. Only I don't even want to imagine my not being here. You are my home."

He sniffed and then looked at her.

She then went to feel his skin, so she could touch his heart, without any material separating it from her fingers. "We will get our son back, Erik. But we need to be strong and stable together. He needs us to be."

"But my thoughts…."

"I have had the exact same thoughts! I don't hate you. I admire you even more because although you have continuously thought about it, you haven't once acted upon them. God knows, you have been tempted but you stopped. You retrained yourself. You have changed, my love. I told myself a hundred times in these painful three weeks that if I had your past, I do not think I could dismiss the temptation to go back there so easily, and it scares me, angel!"

He embraced her tightly. "It is your grief. That is not you." He touched her stomach. "You are the most amazing woman. You bring life to everyone that you meet, you don't take it away."

"I need you to keep telling me that. Me, not a painting! The me who is flesh and blood and real. Erik, if you think I can get through this without you, then you don't know me at all."

He hugged her tightly. "You are right. I have been so wrong and an utter idiot."

"Tell me I have you back now. Tell me you won't do this again. Tell me you will talk to me and confide in me."

He fell at her feet and embraced her, as he pressed kisses to her swollen belly.

"I vow this to you from now until I die." He then stood up and entwined their fingers as one. "We are going to get our son back."

She nodded. "I believe you, Erik. I believe in you."

They kissed tenderly but it soon turned passionate. After a moment, they tenderly broke apart and Erik kissed her hand.

"We both need rest." He said softly.

"Let's go home, angel."

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"Mama, this has gone on long enough! We can't keep living like this, nor can we just place a bag over Gustave's face and keep him tied up in the closet! This has to stop."

They were living in an abandoned cabin near the docks. The quarters were anything but livable and with four people, Meg knew instantly that they could not keep this up for much longer.

"Meg, I know what I am doing." Antoinette was rapidly getting a headache.

"Do you?! Because I am not so sure. You have become crazed and obsessed over what, revenge?"

"What don't I know?" She got up and walked up to her in a fit of rage. "10 years of wasting away, of sacrificing, of doing his bidding and for what? For that Swedish slut and bastard to get everything we earned? No, this is not for nothing. This is not just revenge. This is for honor and self-respect."

"Sounds like your kid is turning against us, Giry." Tom quipped.

She walked up to Tom and slapped him over the head. "Get lost for a while. Go and see if there has been any news."

"We don't make a sound, ever since I gagged the boy and locked him up." He motioned to the closet. "He knows better than to make trouble. It's still too light out to get very far by foot."

"Go! I want to talk to my daughter alone."

Tom got up from the chair and took out a cigarette. "Fine."

When he left, Meg went to the closet, but her mother stopped her.

"Don't be a fool, Meg."

"He was never supposed to be gagged or treated like this! He's a child, Mama."

"We had no choice. His crying would have given us away. I know this seems extreme but…"

"Let Gustave go and just tell the police who Erik is. Then they can handle it."

" And leave with nothing, again? Oh no, this time I am making sure we get what we are owed."

"Mama, we were never supposed to hurt the boy."

"As Erik was never supposed to hurt us! You need some air. Go out and come back once you are thinking clearer."

"No, I'm not leaving you alone with Gustave."

She laughed. "Fine, then I will go out for bit. I need the air. I can't trust Tom to drink more than he listens."

Meg waited for her mother to be gone and she then tried to find the key to the closet but realized that either Tom or her mother must have had it with them. Defeated, she let herself fall to the floor. After some time, she then heard the door open.

"Mama?" She got up, wiping her eyes.

"No, Meg, just Tom. It's damn cold out there."

"Mama went out."

"I know. I've been watching the house. Watcha doing by the door?"

"You have the key, don't you?"

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." He grinned. "What's it worth to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm someone important now, aren't I, Meg? I got what you want, don't I?" How about a trade? A little fun for a little key?"

"You are a pig."

He laughed. "Maybe, but it's the only way you are going to get that brat out of here. The old bat has gone crazy. She has no idea what end is up anymore." He threw the paper at her.

"What's this?"

"Read it. Reward money. I usually never leave this place until the newsstands are closed."

She read the headline and saw the picture of Christine crying in Erik's arms. "I can't bring Gustave back and expect a reward. My God, our pictures are on here."

"Not mine. I can return him. Nobody knows I'm in on this. So, let's cut our losses. We split the money and the kid goes back home."

She looked at herself in the mirror. "I don't look like the girl in that picture anymore."

Tom shrugged. "You haven't been out much. If someone had recognized you or Giry, we would have been turned in by now."

Meg started into space. "Ok. Let's do it. Give me the key."

"First things first." He puckered his lips.

"No! I will not do that anymore." She turned away from him, disgusted.

"You're already a whore Meg, what's one more? Don't pretend you're better than me. We both sleep in the same space. It's the same as before. I got something you want, only this time it really is for a good cause."

She was about to answer him when Antoinette come in.

"Good, you both are here. Did you see this?" She threw Tom the paper and he nodded.

"I was just telling Meg about it."

"I should let Erik wait and deal with all the false hopes and dreams as he did to us. That freak didn't even use an updated picture. No one would recognize us as we look now. Another thing he robbed me of…. What was left of my youth. You were right, Meg."

"I was?" She hoped her mother was finally beginning to listen to reason.

"I will write Erik tonight with our demands."

Tom rubbed his neck. "Bye, bye reward money." He then mouthed to Meg the words 'Too late.'