CHAPTER 18

The man was a murderer. Lisa didn't know why she should feel upset since she'd deduced as much from her earlier analysis of him, but that day in the ballroom seemed so long ago now. Now he was in her house taking up residence.

She was trying her best to sort through the situation as best she could. The problem was she wasn't feeling what her head told her she should be. She wasn't afraid of him, and despite the revelations he'd made Lisa couldn't make herself feel like he was a danger to them.

What she felt was sympathy, compassion, and a need to console. These were dangerous emotions, she knew, and unwarranted. What had this man done other than condescend, ridiculed or threaten them? But he'd also trusted her; first with his child, than with the boy's care during this situation, and now with this knowledge.

Tonight she'd seen and heard a different side of him. But what if this story were some kind of ploy to trick her or keep her off balance? Her heart told her no. It seemed like there was some strange force at work here, but should she fight it and listen to her gut?

If Charles were here he'd say that she should always do what felt right, and damn all the rest. But if he were here, she wouldn't be in this situation. Lisa rolled her eyes and shook her head; chastising herself once again for asking 'If Charles was here.' She'd spent the last 15 years walking with his shadow by her side it seemed. Sometimes it was a comfort, at others it was a suffocating pressure, and then it was the guilt of having survived.

The thought made her instantly feel empty inside, as she had so often since that day. The hollowness had become a familiar pain, like the ghost pain an amputee forever feels. She'd lost so much of herself since then that she wondered how she was able to get up every morning. How did she manage to take the next breadth God had prescribed her?

For the first few years after her loss Lisa's love for her husband had remained a tangible substance that had filled and sustained her. It was her food, water, air and spirit. Not that she loved Charles any less, but as time passed it seemed to drain away and Lisa struggled to replenish her soul.

The answer was simple, her mother needed her, and so did Kara. They were all she had left and as long as they lived she had purpose. Now there was Gustave. Her impulse to invite him into their home had been uncharacteristic, and then to encourage his continued visitation was a great leap. But it had lifted her heart so much the way he brought light and energy into their lives.

He was special as she had always known, but he was also a salve to Lisa's wounded and stagnant heart. She'd been more inspired in the time they'd known each other than she had been in years, and Mama Aguilar had reclaimed some the vitality lost in the last decade. Even Kara had found a new reason to feel more alive. Lisa had denied herself for so long the opportunity to care for someone new, and it felt good and refreshing.

But nothing comes without price or consequence, and now the child lay damaged in her home and his volatile father would be living with them. Lisa should put an end to it all now and not risk the possibility of getting hurt, either physically or emotionally. But could they all really go back to how things had been. It seemed like a death sentence to even consider it. She was more afraid of the past than the future for the first time in years.

'If Charles were here…' she repeated to herself as she laid down on her coverlet, considering how disappointed he'd be in her. A part of Lisa wanted to be able to let go of her sorrow and give in to all the possibilities, good or bad, that the future held, but so much of her soul was saturated in memories. Maybe, just maybe, all this was happening for a reason, and just maybe they would all find salvation in the end.

Lisa grabbed the edge of her blanket and wrapped herself up in it. She managed to drift to sleep within a few minutes even though her mind was still busy trying to balance itself. Murderer, father, possible phantom, loneliness, pain, guilt, hope, anger, need, fear, excitement; the atmosphere in the mansion was thick with so much energy not one of its occupants failed to be touched by it.

Kara could not sleep with the masked man in the house. The same man who'd already violated their home and whose past was such a mystery. In the presence of outsiders Kara knew her place was to keep quiet and play the part of dutiful servant, but she was neither subservient nor ignorant.

She'd been paying close attention to all that had been happening and what had been said. Kara remembered the events 13 years ago in Paris, and was aware that this man could quite possibly be the infamous Opera Ghost. She had been quite captivated by the story at the time. It was a welcome distraction after the horrors they'd experienced.

The papers had told the tale in depth of a masked menace that had killed 2 men, defrauded the managers, terrorized the cast, and set the Garnier ablaze, all to propel the carrier of rising star Christine Daae. It was rumored that the Phantom of the Opera had even kidnapped the ingénue, and when her lover the Vicomte had tried to rescue her he'd been captured and held prisoner by the fiend.

Then after the destruction of the opera house, the diva and Vicomte had mysteriously resurfaced unharmed. They had never validated the story, but they never discredited it by providing their own version of how events had unfolded. Then when an unidentifiable body had been found in the bowels of the Garnier, everyone had assumed it was the Phantom and the story had become an urban legend.

But when the child of that same diva shows up at their doorstep with a masked man for a father, and that same man admits to having not only lived at the Garnier during that time, but to having been the soprano's teacher; Well, it didn't take that great a leap of imagination to put all the pieces together.

Kara could understand Mama Aguilar missing the connections, but she was perplexed as to how Lisa could or why she would be ignoring the strong possibility. She knew her friend was deeply enamored of the boy, as they all were, but could that really be enough for her to dismiss the danger of having a homicidal madman in their midst.

Kara needed to do something to neutralize this threat before it was too late or they were in too deep to turn back. The day had been too busy to start, but she'd already decided to make inquiries with Salena in Paris and learn more about the events surrounding Mademoiselle Daae's death. She would do her best to expose this snake in the grass, even if that meant cutting off his head.