I warn you now...all hell has broken loose.

CHARLES

Rehearsals for Il Muto had gone by quickly and by the end of January we were ready to open. Benedetta had it in for Madeleine, however and did her best to make her life miserable, especially since Maddie had been named understudy for the Countess. So she had not left to go to the London opera. It didn't matter any more. Once everyone saw Maddie as Aminta in Don Juan Triumphant, they would fall in love with her instantly. Maddie had agreed to come home with me the night she'd auditioned and stay with us both and we couldn't imagine her not being there any more. Dad cherished her as the daughter he'd never had. Monsieur Khan had been by to visit a few more times, never giving anything away except for the fact he had been very fond of my mother and father. He kept looking at me though, everyone was always watching me...what was it about me that people were fascinated by?

Maddie came into the sitting room with her newly copied score of Don Juan Triumphant, going over her lines and songs to herself. I smiled, flipping to the back of the original copy with the costume sketches in it. The costume for Aminta in the second act would be lovely on her. I cringed at the thought of Benedetta wearing it. Rehearsals would start after opening weekend for Il Muto. Maddie looked up, noticing me.
"Hello." She said softly. I nodded, patting the sofa next to me.
"Are you excited about tonight?" I asked, taking her hand as she set her script down. She shrugged.
"Nervous really...I know it's a silent role...but Benedetta...she's so horrid!" She exclaimed and I nodded.
"She's an absolute pig..." I agreed as she leaned her head on my shoulder.

She studied the painting of an angel near the window.
"That is beautiful..." She murmured. I smiled, thinking of Mother.
"My Mother...she had a slight obsession with Angels..." I laughed, remembering her stories. Before she tucked me in at night, Mother would come into my room with a candle and sit on the edge of my bed and tell me stories her father had told her about the Angel of Music and Little Lotte.
"Do you believe in Angels Maddie?" I asked her, and she looked at me.
"No." She said softly. "No I don't." I smiled, pulling her back to sit with my arms around her as we looked at that picture.
"Mother used to talk about them incessantly with me..." I said laughing and she looked around at me.

"Really?" She asked, intrigued and I nodded.
"Would you like to hear a story Madeleine?" I asked her and she nodded, like an enchanted child.
"Little Lotte thought of everything and nothing...She wheedled her mother, was kind to her doll, took great care of her frock and her little red shoes and her fiddle, but most of all loved, when she went to sleep, to hear the Angel of Music."
"The what?" Maddie asked, turning to look up at me.
"The Angel of Music silly...every great artist receives a visit from the Angel at least once in their life. No one ever sees him..."
"The Angel is a he?" She interrupted again, and I laughed.

"Yes...at least that's how she told it..." I replied and Maddie bit her lip.
"Sorry, I just always pictured angels as women...silly...isn't it?" She asked and I shrugged.
"Michael the archangel wasn't a woman..." I said and she nodded.
"That's true." She said and motioned for me to go on, never taking her eyes off my face.
"Anyhow, he is only heard by those meant to hear him, when they least expect it. They are suddenly blessed by the divine voice which will call to them...the Angel came to Little Lotte. He leaned over her cradle and she was able to play the fiddle at age six better than men who played all their lives." Maddie took my hand in both of hers.
"Do you believe in Angels?" She asked and I was dumbstruck, but I thought before I answered.
"Yes...well, that is...I do believe my mother is an Angel now...maybe she and the Angel of Music work together!" I laughed, for once being able to talk about Mother and not feel the emptiness of losing her.

Maddie giggled.
"I suppose you're sort of my Angel of Music, wouldn't you say?" She said and I laughed.
"Hardly...I simply gave you some help in an old storage room...you were wonderful to begin with!" She stood up messing up my hair.
"I'd better go start getting ready for tonight. Bathing and such!" She said, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek before spinning and running out of the room with a grin on her face, taking her score with her. About five minutes later a shrill scream came from upstairs. Dad was out for the day meeting with some old friends and Therese was off. I sprinted up the stairs, deathly worried she'd hurt herself. I found her kneeling on the floor of her bedroom, staring into her open locket.
"Charles!" She breathed heavily. The small photo of her mother had fallen out as she took it off. She was squinting at something inside it still. I knelt beside her and took it gently from her hand.

Remember me always...you are my heart. RC

"Oh God..." I said, looking at her.
"Are you alright?" I asked, touching her arm. She carefully replaced the photo.
"I don't know...but I think that the man who is or was my father gave this to her and these are his initials." I sighed.
"I'm sorry Maddie..." I said and she shrugged.
"It doesn't matter...he didn't want me." She said and I looked at the locket again.
"Maybe he didn't know...he seemed to love her." I said, and she buried her face in her hands.
"Even if he was still alive why would he want me now after all this time? I am eighteen Charles! The scandal alone could kill him!"
"Is he from Paris?" I asked her and she nodded.
"I think so...Mama said she'd never been anywhere else." I took her hand.
"Come with me." I said.

I led her into Dad's study.
"Charles..." She said, obviously unsure of this. I patted her hand.
"Relax...you said he was wealthy right?" I asked and she nodded. I pointed to his desk.
"Dad has an address book...all of the wealthy men in the area are in it." I said, opening the drawer. I took out the black leather book and opened it to C.
"Maddie, I think I have something here! Renaud Champoux..." I said, and she looked down at it.
"Do you think?" She asked, but pulled away. "It doesn't matter...I don't want to know..." She said, sighing and sitting in the chair to look at the book herself. She began to close it, but stopped at the inside cover which read.

Property of Raoul de Chagny.

She sighed and closed it. As I put it back in the drawer, I noticed the bottom drawer of his desk was open. It was always locked. Curiosity got the best of me as I knelt down to get a better look. There were a few things in it. A folded slip of paper, a woman's wedding ring and a double picture frame. I took out the slip of paper first and noticed there was something scribbled on it.

My heart foreseeing your condemnation, into this tomb I made my way by stealth, and here, far from every human gaze, in your arms I wished to die.

"Jesus Christ..." I said, realizing I had read the same thing, down in the cellars of the opera, and had found then, a man's wedding ring. Could this have something to do with that same quote that I had taken and now sat, with the man's ring in my own desk drawer? I studied the ring which was really an engagement ring with a beautiful sparkling diamond. Carefully, I picked up the double frame from the shadows of the drawer, dusting it off with my sleeve as I did. Maddie came to kneel beside me. As the portraits came into view I felt my heart stop. It was a man and a woman. The man was nearing middle age, it was obvious and the woman was still very young in this photo. The worst part of it was, the man was me. Everything about it was identical, besides the slight crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. I opened the picture frame and slide the portraits out to look at the back of them.

Charles Destler, 1845
Madeleine Destler, 1845

Charles and Madeleine...Oh what cruel fate was this? Yet, the woman...she looked just like my mother and Madeleine...Wait...Destler. Destler? Erik Destler. Mother's friend. They must have been his parents, then why...why would I look like his father?

"Oh Charles, you look so like your father..."

"Your mother knew him rather better than I..."
"Was he an architect?"
"Architect, musician, magician composer-a genius in very many fields…so I was once told."
"I wonder why Mother never spoke of him. It's a pity he died, isn't it? I'd have liked to know him."
"Yes…yes, my dear boy…I rather think that you would."

I fell to the floor, nearly dropping the frames. Dad...what have you been hiding? It hurt, it felt like my heart had been ripped out of my chest. I couldn't breathe.
"Charles..." Maddie's voice brought me back to reality. I fell against her. "Come on Charles...we have to get ready..." She said solemnly, helping me up. We placed everything carefully back into the drawer and left the room. I felt very old...my body hurt as Maddie helped me to my room and I let her dress me. She held my face as I stared blankly ahead. Words were ringing through my head, I was trapped in my own mind.
"Listen to me Charles...please...it will be fine...your father will be home soon, and we'll go on to the opera." She said and I stared through her.
"My father..." As he walked in an hour later, I felt sick. Almost as sick as I had felt the day my Mother had passed away before my eyes.
"Dad." I whispered, looking into his teal eyes that looked nothing like mine.