(One final) A/N: Thank you so much for everyone's interest and reviews; you all have made sharing this story a very rewarding experience. If you're looking for an update on my other multi-chapter phic, it should be arriving in a few days. Parting is such sweet sorrow, dear readers. Please enjoy.
Epilogue
One year has passed since my only encounter with Raoul de Chagny and the first night I invited Christine to my bed.
We have since been wed, and I could not be prouder nor happier. Since that day, we have not spent a night apart.
I suppose one would wonder how our relationship has changed. Christine still completes the majority of the cooking and cleaning, though I do help. Of course, she is no longer paid, and is no longer required to dress as a maid would. Predominately on my insistence, she wears the finest gowns custom fit to her delicate frame, which is now growing slowly but surely broader in the midsection.
I have learned from my first marriage and family. I savor the time I have with Christine, and intend to do likewise with our child when he or she is born. I do not know how long I'll have with her. Though I can hope and pray it will be many, many years, I can never know until we are parted. None of us can.
I live each day with Christine with the knowledge that it could potentially be our last. It is a curse, in a way, but also a blessing. My wisdom from past experiences has given me the ability to enjoy my time with my wife, and love her as fully as any man ever has, perhaps even more so. As I drift off to sleep at night, my arm wrapped protectively around Christine's womb, I can smile softly with the reassurance that if I should never wake again, I will depart having loved and been loved in ways I only could have dreamt of before, and that I leave in my wake a bond that can never be broken.
Fin