Chapter 1- Justified
"Drive," Erik Delozier whispered. And he kept repeating it. "Drive... Drive..." He needed to force himself to obey. Seeing her did not change anything. He needed to understand that..he had to. It was coincidence, nothing more.
And even if there was more to it, it didn't matter. He'd told her he was letting go, that he was leaving and moving on. He needed to keep his promise, no matter how hard it was.
But... How did she know?
There's more to it...
She went to the mansion, just like me.
There's more to it...
She was thinking the same thing.
There's more to it...
He couldn't suppress the small reminicent smile that came to his masked face.
Our tastes always have been so similar. He'd nearly forgotten that.
How could he forget the way they first met, when she fell into his office like a newly unwrapped present?
Or how he'd saved her life at the bank. His timing had been perfect, as if fate really did play a part..
Or their voice lessons, how she'd asked him to be her accompanist and then he became her instructor, which she liked as well.
She used to thank him.. She was once grateful for everything he did for her...
And then he'd gone and kidnapped her. The ultimate mistake. She'd hated him with every fiber of her being during that time.
But, towards the end...
Erik began to remember something he had somehow managed to block out within the past year. She had begun to come around, especially when he found her most cherished possession- the earring. She thanked him for that. She was grateful. Things had begun to take a turn.
If it hadn't been for Nadir Kahn...
The man had gotten in the way numerous times, in multiple ways. Nadir was the primary reason she never could see clearly. If she'd only been able to see clearly, Erik was sure she would have come to understand and evaluate her feelings. She would have fallen in love with him. If there hadn't been complications back then, she could be in the passenger's seat of this car, beside me at this very moment... We could be singing, laughing, holding hands..
But Nadir had ruined everything! Him and his insistent meandering. He only ever did have one goal, and that was to destroy me.
She never was able to see clearly because he was always in the way, poisoning her.
What if it had been just the two of them, all along? By the time Erik had taken her to the Tennessee cabin where they really were all alone, it had been too late. The damage had already been done. She'd successfully been brainwashed into believing that he, Erik, was the bad guy when really, all along, it had been Nadir brainwashing her. It was Nadir who was the bad guy.
And now there was a criminal lurking in Tallahassee, Florida, free and able to do as he pleased. Nadir Kahn was a dangerous man. And she didn't know... She was defenseless.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, it felt as though the air was punched right out of him. Erik pulled his car to the side of the road and hunched over.
His eyes were wide. Insight... So much insight.
There had been definite reasons behind taking her. All this time, for twelve whole months, he'd been forcing himself to believe otherwise.
It hadn't been some insane act of injustice. It had been completely justified. Everything he did, he did because it was good for her. Whether she knew it or not, he always had her best interest at heart.
She's not safe... To have gone to the abandoned mansion all alone where any criminal, including Nadir, could have been lurking was entirely unsafe. Thoughts of the bank incident came back to him. His sweet innocent had been harmed by a criminal that night. What if I hadn't been there? Again, that same scary question...
She needed to know the truth! She needed to be aware of the horrible things Nadir had done and was likely still doing. She needed to be aware so that she could protect herself.
He had to see her!
He needed to be in the presence of his angel one more time to make her understand.
Christine Daae, I will find you.