Chapter 15. Changes.
Eric had always tried to shield me from his temper and sorrow; he would sing me to sleep when I missed my father doing do, and he call me little pet names, like 'Dear' or 'Angel' and once he even called me the apple of his eye. And he was always go to extreme lengths to make me happy. He sent flowers to my room, always red roses, and he would buy me the sweetest chocolates. He would always complement my singing before he told me what I needed to work on. Oh and when I first came and I was only sixteen, I had been scared of the dark so bad I would scream when my candle went out at night when I was still awake, and even though I hadn't seen him, he kept it lit for me.
Around the time I turned twenty, he showed himself to me for the first time, and he begged me to not ask what was behind his mask, he said it would make everything fall apart, I didn't know what he meant till years later, but I did realize that he had affections towards me that an angel shouldn't, but I still told myself he was an angel, and I began to love him like he loved me, until around the time Raoul came, and he took on I different personality.
He became cruel, jealous and demanding, and he kidnapped me, just so I wouldn't marry Raoul.
Raoul, when we were children, he saved my scarf from the river, he helped me learn to read and he kept me company when father was sick. My first kiss was with Raoul.
But then he changed sometime after I left to live with the Giry's. He dinks himself to sleep, he has a bad temper and he dallied with women who had wedding rings, got into fights with their husbands and then bet everything he had in a game of poker, and now that we are married, the only thing that has changed is he no longer dallies with women.
And he suspected that Eric had raped me, that long ago night, and yet on our wedding night he still made make love to him, and it was practically rape because of house rough and demanding he was. Nothing like how gentle and careful Erik was. I hardly ever made love to Raoul after that.
And I had changed too. At first Raoul started to take note of how sick I was getting, and how hungry I was, then we found out we would have a baby. Raoul was too drunk to know I had given birth.
After a shocking discovery, I went into a stage where I desperately wanted to end my life, but I didn't because of my little Erica. After that stage I began to work at an opera house again, much to Raoul's disappointment, but this time it was only for the money. Not for the music Eric had taught me to love.
For a while I thought of quitting, just so I wouldn't have to think of Eric, the I realized, that a part of him would be with me forever.