MADDIE

I sobbed against the stained glass window of the dusty old chapel. What could I do? He said he'd heard everything, and still he'd left! How could he? Now I was alone in this. Completely and utterly alone. I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my forehead on them. Never had I felt so helpless. I heard footsteps and quickly stood to face away from whoever was coming in. I couldn't stop the shaking that sobbing was causing in my shoulders.
"Maddie dear, thank God you're alright!" Raoul's gentle voice came from behind me. I turned to face him, still crying.
"Raoul." I said and he nodded.
"Look, we have to talk..." He said and I knew what was coming, so I sat in the alcove that I had been before.
"You're right, we do..." I said, motioning for him to sit beside me, and wiped my face with the back of my hand.

He sat and took both of my hands.
"As you know by now...Charles is not my son by blood..." He said and I nodded, starting to say something but he held his hand to my lips.
"Please don't talk until I finish...just let me get it out..." He said and I sat back.
"When Charles was born...he was delivered by Cesarean section...I was extremely worried since he was two months early...Christine and I had only been married eight months you see. However, the doctors assured me he was only a month early which would have been impossible. You see, my dear...when I came to find Christine here at this very opera house, she was troubled. I had known her in my childhood, but she was not the girl I'd known. Yet, I stupidly clung to the dream of what we had shared all those years before." He sighed, as I waited patiently for him to continue.

"I came to find, Christine was entangled in a web of deceit, passion and worst of all fear. There was a man, masquerading as an Angel of Music, teaching my Christine...he terrorized the opera house and still managed to convince Christine he was an Angel her father had sent her. You can imagine my reaction to this. I found out this man was hopelessly in love with her and I intended to free Christine of him in my naive twenty-one year old way of thinking. What I didn't realize was that she loved him too...the thing was...half of his face was deformed and he'd been condemned to a life of solitude because of it. His gifts completely made up for what his face lacked." I gasped, thinking of what they did with deformed people. You could be thrown into an asylum for being deformed!
"Deformed?" I asked and he nodded.

"Grotesquely so...all he ever wanted was love, but I was too young and stupid to see that he truly did love Christine. Until the night he tried to kill me. The night they first performed his opera. Don Juan Triumphant. She pulled his mask off in front of everyone, and I know now that she did it to save his life, knowing full well he would take her from that stage. What happened was, I had arranged for the police to be there and he would be shot if he dared to enter. That night, he killed the leading tenor, Ubaldo Piangi and took his place in the opera. So in revealing his horrors to the public, Christine had saved him. He took her down to his home where he made her promise to marry him." Again, I gasped. This was the same Erik? He went on.
"Foolishly, I had wanted to play hero and save Christine...but she hadn't needed to be saved, yet I knew she was torn between the safety of our young love and the passion of her dangerous love. The Persian man, Nadir and our Madame Giry both led me down into the depths of his domain. Madame Giry left us about halfway, and we continued down together. We ended up in Erik's torture chamber. When he noticed we were in there, he let us out and before I could bring my hand to the level of my eyes, his lasso was around my neck, choking the life out of me. He gave Christine a choice. Marry him or I would die. I pleaded with her not to lie to him but she only looked at me with pity at that moment. She placed the ring Erik had given to her on her finger and kissed him full on the lips right in front of me. My heart was broken." He sighed raggedly and I, having forgotten my problems squeezed his hands supportively.

"Then, he let us go. She had freed herself by offering him her love...but she didn't want to go...she wailed and begged him until I finally had to carry her off as she cried over and over.
'Angel! Angel!' He made me promise to take care of her and to bring her back the day before our wedding, with an invitation. With that he left the room with Nadir without so much as a goodbye. Christine sobbed all the way back across the lake. Sure enough the day before our wedding, she was intent on going back, much to my dismay. I ripped up the invitation she'd been ready to give him and told her if she went back it was over. I left then and she didn't follow. The next day I went down to retrieve her, horrified to find the underground home in ruin. He'd destroyed everything. I waited with the Persian for Christine to emerge from the room with Erik. She finally did, seemingly at peace. Four weeks later, we got married and a month after that we found out she was pregnant. We waited to get married because she said she wanted me to be sure I could forgive her. I didn't know what she meant at the time..."

I sucked in a breath. It was so tragic...no one could have won. He went on.
"When he was born by the surgery, I knew I was not his father. The doctors confirmed it. Still, I couldn't bring myself to hate her or the baby. I was certain Christine was going to die after Charles was born, but she made it through and we were happy for a while. Six years later, we argued over whether Charles should be taught by tutors or sent to the special school for the artistically gifted...he was a gifted child. I insisted he be taught by our tutors, but Christine demanded he take the scholarships he'd been offered. I pleaded with her until she finally became so angry she said, 'It's really not your decision anyway...he's my son!' It hurt...I left that night for Paris...to think. It was there I saw a young girl running through the dark. I stopped her and asked her where she was going. She simply said she was running...she had to get away. That girl was your mother, Chloe. I rented a room at a nice hotel and offered her the shelter which she gladly accepted. When she smiled, my heart hurt because her smile was so similar to Christine's."

I stopped breathing as he went on, speaking about my mother. Her smile flashed in my mind.
"As I got to know her over the course of that week, it was becoming steadily harder to imagine my life without her. She was so vibrant and lovely, but so fragile. I can still remember her smile. I confessed the night before I was to leave that I was having feelings of love for her and she became scared, but admitted she too had feelings for me. We slept together that night. She was gone when I woke up. I searched all day for her, but finally I decided to go back to Christine. I went back to London and when Christine opened the door to our house, I fell at her feet sobbing and she apologized over and over...saying that Charles would have tutors. To make it up to her, I had the very best tutors teach him and it turned out to be for the best since the school he had been accepted at went under in financial debt. We were quite happy but I never forgot Chloe, just as she could never let go of Erik."

I turned away from him.
"She told me you didn't want me...you lied...she lied...how could you do this to me?" I asked, angrily.
"Please try to understand Madeleine..." He begged and I pushed his hands away.
"Understand what? Were you ever going to tell me that I wasn't an orphan? Raoul, when my mother died, I ran. I lived on the streets for a year and got a job at a small café run by Louis Dupont. He allowed me to stay there at night but for a price...me." I said, and Raoul's hand came to his mouth.

"No..." He said in disbelief. "God...no." He sobbed, but I remained stone cold. He took my hands again.
"Oh Madeleine...I didn't know! I didn't know you were my daughter, and yet, there you sit with eyes the same shape as my own. The only difference is they are the same color as your mother's!" He was crying and I could no longer hold back my own tears.
"When did you realize I was yours?" I asked and he smiled through his tears.
"Christmas night...I went through the whole thing in my mind when I saw your locket and the drawing of Chloe...I realized your age...and it added up." I nodded.
"My grandfather forced her to become a prostitute after I was born. He was evil...and I am glad he's dead...but my mother died of syphilis and as far as I am concerned he murdered her." Raoul nodded, still sobbing.
"And you watched her die?" He whispered. I nodded, breaking down finally.

"Oh Maddie..." He said, taking my face in his hands. "I am so sorry...what an idiot I was...I've ruined your life and Charles's." I shook my head.
"No. I might not have found Charles that way...I have no regrets...for you see, now I have secrets of my own." I said, frightened and he stared at me dumbfounded.
"What do you mean?" He asked and I smiled, tragically.
"Just as Christine carried Erik's child, I carry his grandchild..." I said and fell forward into Raoul's arms finally allowing myself to cry openly. He rocked with me, shocked I am sure, but he said something that sent a spark of hope into my heart as I clutched his sleeves.
"Shh...I'm here...you're alright...I won't leave you ever again...I swear it..."