Despite her behavior, Charlotte knew exactly who Alastor was the minute she saw him. God he was just as handsome as ever. Tall and strong, with brown hair that sported a few streaks of red, broad shoulders, and those strange but magnificent, mismatched eyes of his. One eye the darkest shade of brown ever imagined and one eye as deep and green as a whole forest. His voice still had that accent that which was soft and fluent, almost musical in quality. It was the kind of voice that belonged on radio, and it seemed to hang in the air when he spoke.

They had first met on Charlotte's eighth birthday, her mother and father had taken her to the most popular restaurant in New Orleans called Song of The Southlands. One of her father's sugar mills that had been converted into a glorious and elegant establishment that served it's guests Louisiana's finest cuisines and entertained them with Louisiana's finest musicians. As a special treat for her big day, her father allowed her to sing on stage but she got stage fright. Then out of nowhere a boy came on up, stood next to her, and started singing the first course. It gave her courage and they started to sing and dance their own duet which the audience loved.

Afterward the boy introduced himself as Alastor Devalcourt and she met his mother who was one of the best singers in the restaurant. They didn't have a lot of money, they lived in a small house in the middle of the bayou, and Lucifer thought the boy was very shifty and filthy but Lilith didn't mind letting them be friends. Almost everyday, as soon as school was over, the two would meet in the bayou with two of their classmates and spend hours doing childish things like building forts, climbing trees, swimming in the creek, sometimes they would pretend they had their own club where they would sing, dance, and perform in front of live audiences.

"You have a heart song." He told her once. "That means you're the best singer ever and someday you're going to be famous."

And that spawned her dream of someday becoming a singer. The two played, laughed, sang, and dreamed together. Dreaming of the day she would become a famous singer and he would become the famous host of a radio show that would introduce her. They practiced in the bayou and at times on the stage of The Song of The Southlands. But they did other things too. He taught her how to bait a line and fish the shallows for largemouth bass and took her exploring through the backwoods of the Bayou. They rode in canoes and watched summer thunderstorms, and to him it seemed as though they'd always known each other. When school dances and festivals came up, she taught him how to waltz and do the Charleston, and though they stumbled through the first few songs, her patience with him eventually paid off, and they would dance together until the music ended.

With all that time together, wasn't any surprise that they fell in love?

They had their first kiss at age twelve, underneath the majestic oak tree on the banks of the creek and they made love the first time at age seventeen in his bedroom when his mother was away visiting a relative and she was supposedly staying at her friend Vaggie's house. They were each the first for the other person and that night they were so sure that they were going to be together forever.

But life isn't always that kind. Charlotte's family did not like the idea of them sharing a life. Her father Lucifer thought he was just trash trying to use his daughter to get rich quick, her mother Lilith liked him but thought her daughter deserved better. After all, she was expected to attend Harvard and he worked in the lumber yard. To them, it was an imperfect match. Lucifer wanted to interfere but Lilith advised him to just wait, saying that it was not meant to last and that the sweethearts would surely part after graduation. So Lucifer waited, he waited until that night, he and Lilith came home early from a second honeymoon due to their plane flight getting cancelled by fog and found the young lovers in his daughter's bed.

He threw Alastor out of the house and forbade Charlotte to ever see him again.

"I didn't spend seventeen years of my life, raising a daughter and giving her everything just so she can throw it all away for some sweet-talking but worthless boy!" Lucifer had scolded her.

"He's not worthless!" She had argued.

"He is trash! Not for you! Now you are not to see him anymore and that's final!"

"No it's not! You're not going to tell me, who I can and can't love!"

"Love?" Lilith had said trying to kind and reasonable. "Charlotte you're only seventeen. You don't know about love."

"Yes I do! I love him Mama! I love him!"

"He's not suited for you dear. You'll wind up with your heart broken or pregnant. I'm sorry but the two of you just can't be.

But she was a stubborn girl, even more so now that she was in love. The next chance she had, she snuck down into the bayou, ran into his arms, kissed him and told him over and over again.

"I don't care what my parents think, I love you and always will. We'll find a way to be together."

He was so happy when he heard those words that he almost started crying. The two then tried to run away but the cops caught them just as they crossed the town line. Lucifer only agreed not to press kidnapping charges if Charlotte ended it. And she finally did. Afterward, the Morningstars moved to New York and spent the next twelve years erasing their daughters's childish dreams and passions, convincing her that she had been a fool as a teenager, and turning her into the perfect debutante. Then she met and married Seviathan and by then, the sweet, fun-loving, passionate girl she was before had been changed into the cynical, haughty, and ill-mannered woman seen today.

When she saw Alastor again, she almost started crying but then she remembered what her parents had taught her. That he was trash, that he would only want her for her money, and that they didn't belong together. Now whether she actually believed that or not was debatable, but if she didn't believe it then that would mean her parents had ruined her life and she couldn't face that. Because for all their faults, Lucifer and Lilith loved Charlotte with all their hearts and only wanted what was best for her. They wouldn't ruin her life like that, right?

"Oh Mother, it's a nightmare being back here." Charlotte complained over the phone to Lilith. "I'm confined to this yacht and Seviathan is always gone for hours, leaving me completely alone. It's the most bored I've ever been in my life."

"Where does he go anyway?" Lilith asked.

"Fishing. Probably out to get something to replace that shark thing I ruined. Not that it would bother him too much. He'd forget all about it in a week I'm sure."

"Any luck finding your jewelry dear."

"No. It's the weirdest thing, I know I left them in my jewelry box and every time I look in there, I find another one gone."

"You don't think it could be one of the staff members do you?"

"No. They're irritating but their not thieves. At least not Moxxie and Millie.But Blitzo is on parole for theft. He wouldn't take that risk, he's not that dumb. Anyway, how are things back home?"

"Well as usual your father's business is thriving but just yesterday our old friend Stolas paid us a visit, bringing along his daughter and new grandson."

"Oh so Octavia had a baby?"

"Yes. He's beautiful, precious. How lucky Stolas is to finally be a grandfather."

"Yes Mother." Charlotte said, knowing all too well where this is going.

"When are you and Seviathan going to have a baby?"

"Mother please, not this again."

"I want to be a grandmother Charlotte. This great big house of ours has been so empty since you moved out. I want to hear the pitter patter of little feet again."

"Mother we've been through this a hundred times, Seviathan doesn't want children. He says we don't need them. We only need each other."

"Well do you believe that?"

"Yes. We don't want them, we're not having them, and our lives are perfectly complete and happy without them."

"If you say so dear."

"Well I must go now. Goodbye Mother."

"Goodbye sweetie."

Charlotte hung up and then glanced out the window of the yacht, watching as Alastor pulled himself out the water and left the harbor dripping wet. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of life he had been living since she left.

When Alastor first lost "his Charlie" he found it nearly impossible to go on living. He barely ate, and he barely slept, he focused mostly on working in the lumber yard and when he turned twenty, he taught himself how to do taxidermy to make more money. When he wasn't working, he interned at a local radio station in hopes of someday getting promoted to host and maybe even getting his own show.

He didn't date again until he was twenty-two and he met a waitress called Mimzy from a local diner though she was holding out for an acting career. She was blond, beautiful, and talented just like Charlie had been so of course he started a relationship with her. They had many good times together, she was fun to be around, they talked about their dreams and sharing them together, yet he never came to feel the same way about her as he did Charlie.

One night they got a little too drunk and forgot to use a condom, so Mimzy got pregnant and they got married. Tragically that meant putting their dreams on hold, working to take care of their family, and having to save up money to start their careers. Then Mimzy got pregnant again, this time twins, a boy and girl, so their dream savings were spent on them. They lived in his mother's house which wasn't anything really big but cozy and warm and would suffice for raising three children.

Alastor loved all his children at first sight and having lost his father at a young age, he was bound and determined to always be there for his children. For him no sacrifice was too great and whatever he had to go through for them was worth it. Mimzy on the other hand didn't exactly like being a house wife and mother. She had stars in her amber eyes, stars that made her blind to any other form of joy except being on stage. She grew frustrated and angry with home life, and when she became pregnant for a third time, she snapped.

"I don't want another baby Al!" She had complained. "How am I ever going to get my looks back? Once I have it, I'll be hideous! I'll never be an actress!"

"That's not true." Alastor assured her. "Your looks always come back just fine because you're a healthy woman."

"How did this even happen? How did we even end up with so many kids? After Aaron, we always used a condom."

"Condoms break, condoms are only 85 percent effective, or maybe it's meant to be. I don't know. But we'll make it work."

"I'm not having this baby."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm using our savings to pay for an abortion."

"Now wait just a minute! Don't I have a say in this?"

"It's in my body."

"But you didn't make this child by yourself! You're not the Virgin Mary!"

"You can't force me to have it."

"No but I won't give you the money for it. It's both of our savings! And I'm not going to let you do this! At least not until we talk about it first. Please!"

"I can't take it anymore Alastor! I can't take all the cooking and the cleaning and the screaming from the needy kids! I wanted to go places! I wanted to be an actress!"

"It can still happen."

"Not if I have this baby! I am never going to get out of New Orleans! I am never going to be more than just a wife and a mother! I hate it here!"

"But I thought...I thought you were happy here, with us?"

"Well I'm not. I never wanted this life and I can't stand living it for another minute!"

So Alastor worked out a deal with Mimzy. If she had the baby, he'd give her all their life savings so she could leave New Orleans and follow her dreams. She agreed but for nine months he prayed that she would change her mind and stay. Not for him but for their children. Alas, his prayers were in vain, she was gone a week after the birth.

Their last child was a girl and she would never know her mother. Her brothers and sister cried for days, sometimes they lashed out or fought, blaming each other or their newest sibling for why their mother left but Alastor always told them that it was his fault.

"I just couldn't make her happy." He'd tell them. "So if you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at me."

But they never blamed him, and after that, those four children became the only loves of his life. His only reason for living. He didn't have a famous career as a radio star, he didn't have a beautiful wife or a big house or lord of money, but he had four kids who loved him very much and that was enough for him.