She was too busy pacing to notice his entrance. He cleared his throat and she jumped at the sound. He felt bad for scaring her but he couldn't stand to watch her so anxious anymore. She stood still, staring at him until he walked over to her. She stared silently and fearfully into his eyes and he wrapped her in his arms. He whispered "Relax my angel. There is nothing you can tell me that will cause me to harm you or push you away."
Christine answered "I know that, but I do not wish to see you angry, I hate to see it since you have spent so long being angry."
Erik could tell that his anger also scared her and he felt guilt flood through him that he had let his temper get so out of control that it frightened her to tell him something in fear of witnessing another one of his episodes. He answered "I will control my temper to the best of my ability, you have nothing to worry about mon ange. Even if I did lose my temper it would not be directed at you nor will it ever be. And Raoul is not here for me to try anything with him, and even if he was, I would never do anything to him out of respect for you."
Christine looked into his eyes and saw the selflessness in his eyes with the sincerity of that statement. She wondered what had happened to him over the past 10 years to have changed him so. She took a deep breath and allowed him to lead her over to the chairs that were in the corner of the room. He sat down in the chair across from her and took her hands gently in his. He stroked her knuckles with his thumb gently as she took deep breaths to calm her nerves.
Christine started "A small while after Raoul and I were wed, it was not such a bad time. But then he started to drink. He would drink and drink, and would return back to the manor in a unfit state." She kept her eyes trained on the table so she wouldn't have to see Erik's reaction so far.
She continued "The staff and I would get him up to his room and to bed, and he would not remember a thing of it, but then Gustave was born. I suspect that Raoul knew that he was not the father of our son, and he got angry. He began to drink more heavily and return more often in unfit states." She could feel the slight tremors in Erik's hands and she knew that he must have figured out where this was going.
Christine paid it no attention as she continued "He started to become more controlling. Not letting me leave the house unless he accompanied me, he would not let me sing around the house anymore, especially songs from my opera days, and he would begin to say harsh and hurtful words to me, but he never remember this the next morning. After that, he began to gamble as well, losing the fortune he had and starting to put us in tight spots with money. Gustave and I would often have to go without because his gambling debts were so high."
Christine felt tears fill her eyes at the memories that were flashing through her head and she wished that she didn't have to tell Erik the next part. Christine finished "Gustave was affected as well when Raoul refused to play with him or threw out the drawings that he had spent so much time on, but that's not the worst of it. When you sent me the invitation, I was glad to get away even if at the moment I did not know it was from you, and when you asked me to sing for you, I just knew that I could not go back to that life, ever. I loved Raoul, but I knew that for my safety and my son's that he was not the safer man to live with. Fate stepped into my life, because at the time that you sent me that invitation, Raoul would not only use words to hurt me, but his hands, fists, and feet as well. It was a miracle that you sent that invitation to me and I am glad that I accepted to stay here, because I think that he had become closer to hitting Gustave more and more every day."