These quotes are in order and will give away the story. So if you haven't read it, please consider reading it before viewing this page.

Madeline (Erik's mother) 1831-1840
Erik 1840-43
Giovanni 1844-46
Nadir 1850-53
Erik 1856-61
Counterpoint- Erik and Christine 1881
Raoul 1897
 

 Madeline 1831-1840

    'He had a will of iron, which I could not bend, and a spectacular temper which frequently reduced me to violence.' -Madeline

    'But music was the keystone of his extraordinary genius. Music welled up from some bottomless pool within him and flowed like a ceaseless fountain through his fingertips...' -Madeline

'But in Erik's eyes I saw fear and great misery' -Madeline
 
    "His voice is a sin," I said grimly. "A mortal sin. No woman who hears it will ever die in a state of grace.-Madeline

 
    I took a deep breath and looked down at the little corpse face against the pillow. The deep socketed eyes were staring desperately into mine, seeking the reassurance that I alone could give. And I knew then that, in spite of his rapidly burgeoning genius, he was still to young to bear the reality of this burden. -Madeline

   'Physically and mentally, I had scarred him for life.' -Madeline

  'But I could not deny him his dreams. Even then I was aware that dreams were all he could ever have.' -Madeline
 
  "You ruined my life the day you were born... I hate you, I hate the very sight of your devil's face and angel's voice... I wish you were dead, do you hear me? I wish you were dead!"
    He seemed to shrink, almost to shrivel in front of my eyes. Whatever he might have been a few seconds before, he was only a child now, recoiling in disbelief from a punishment beyond his worst imagination... And I knew, as I looked at his crushed misery, that he would carry those words with him to his grave. Nothing I could say or do would ever wash their corrosive stain from his mind.
I suddenly saw him as the grown man he would become - totally consumed by his obsessive quest for perfection, formidable and frightening in his ruthless drive to create. He would be nine this summer and, and already he was touched with the awesome, unpredictable majesty of the Greek Gods. -Madeline

 'This grim gesture of childish sacrifice showed me every painful thought which had led him to this final act of despair.
    I had given him life, but now he chose to take no more from me. And in the tomb-like silence of this sunlit room, his last, unspoken words rang in my ears like  the tolling if a passing bell.
    Forget me. . .'

-Madeline
 

 Erik 1840-43

    I wanted her (mother) to be happy. She was so beautiful when smiled at the statue of the shepherd boy. That was why I made it sing for her -  so she would be happy and smile...

    I can make anything disappear if I want to... Anything except my face.

    Sometimes I used to dream I was a spider, scuttling in a terrified search for some safe dark hole where no human would ever find me...

    Increasingly I ceased to feel I belonged to what is loosely termed the human race... I found myself unable to take revenge upon my tormentors except in the dark prison of my mind. There in that uniquely private domain, where I was free of chains... My world was strange a beautiful, an entirely new dimension where music and magic held sway...'

    'My mother had taught me to conduct myself like a gentleman, to be fastidious in my person and courteous in my demeanour.'

    'All I wanted was to be like everyone else'

    'I could live with cruelty and hatred; it was the happiness of others I could no longer endure, the sudden realization that my none os my talents was ever going to win me acceptance as a human being.'

    'Five minutes ago I had been an innocent, terrified child, now I was a man, with a remarkably efficient murder to add to my credit...
    The end of innocence!...
    My childhood was at an end and the world beckoned to my unique talents. I had only begun to explore the fast empire of my mind and now its frontiers stretched ahead of me like a vast horizon.'
 

 Giovanni 1844-46

   'I could not believe he was evil; not when he touched my hand with all the silent wonder of an innocent child.' -Giovanni

    'He moved like a cat, with a lithe. flowing grace that made him pleasing to watch... in spite of his height, he had none of the gawkishness normally associated with his age.' -Giovanni

    'Once I choose to look with Luciana's eyes it was very easy to see and
understand the primitive allure of the almost regal dignity, the curious, hypnotic quality of that unique voice. Beneath my roof I was sheltering a young prince of darkness. The sensuality of power radiated from his every move, but he remained unaware of his extraordinary ability to attract... But he was blind to see the most essential element of his magnetism. Someone had taught him to expect only rejection and revulsion in the world and now, in the natural shyness of youth, he was merely repeating to himself whatever painful lessons he had been forced to learn by rote in childhood.' -Giovanni

     'I realized the enormity of the crime I had committed, I realized when I saw the look of hate... I had been a father to him; I had shown him honesty and hope and led him to believe there might be a chance for him to live with pride and dignity among the human race he so distrusted. For love of me he had begun to abandon his deepest instincts and grope tentatively and painfully toward the certainty that I did not care what lay beneath the mask.
    Now in a single unconsidered moment... I had reached up and pulled that castle of dreams around him. I had demanded the one thing he had trusted me never to ask of him; and if I had plunged a dagger through his heart I could not have destroyed him more effectively, I could not have given him more intolerable anguish.' -Giovanni

     'You were the child of my imagination, the son that God withheld and I learnt to love you in your slow and painful striving for the light' -Giovanni

    'Tomorrow these flowers you cared for will lift their faces once more to the sun, stretching up proud and true to acknowledge the true creator in all their beauty' -Giovanni
 

 Nadir 1850-53

        'A remarkable physical change came over him as soon as his hideous face was out of sight. His shoulders straightened and his entire frame once more exuded the mysterious strength and power I  had sensed last night' -Nadir

    'And then again, just as unpredictably, he would become amusing and sociable once more, showing off his skills as a magician, musician and ventriloquist, stunning us all with fresh evidence of inexhaustible ingenuity.' -Nadir

        'He was a born storyteller. Extraordinary legends fell from his lips with a rhythmic and compelling intensity that held the listener spellbound. I learned more secrets of the world in those weeks of travel than I could have ever done in a whole lifetime if study.' -Nadir

        'A man in a Kalmuck dress came at him from the undergrowth with a knife, but, before I could utter a word of warning, Erik had rounded like a wild cat on his assailant.
    A thin lasso whipped through the air, neatly garrotting the intruder with one , swift, savage jerk, and the man fell dead in the churning mud almost before I had time to blink. I was dumbstruck by that lightening reflex, and automatic, merciless response which betrayed all the instincts of a jungle predator to whom killing is as natural and commonplace as breathing. He had killed many times before, many times; of that simple fact there could be no question of doubt.' -Nadir

 "....Have you no architects in Persia?" (Erik)
    "There are worse places in the world," I muttered (Nadir)
    "Not many, daroga, not many. This is the most disgraceful example of a capital city that I have ever seen... the whole area is a stinking midden bereft of a single building worthy of my attention." (Erik)

     "There is nothing I cannot do, if I choose." -Erik

    "He (Giovanni) taught me everything... I can't go on wasting all that he gave me. I want to build something beautiful... something in this world that he would have been proud of. There had to be a purpose in being in this world.... There has to be some  purpose in living..." -Erik

    "It is customary to barter before purchasing items in a bazaar," I reminded him sternly. "The wretch is asking at least four times what she seriously hopes to receive."
    He glanced at the infant on the woman's lap and then at the small, pinched face peering from behind her shoulder.
    "She is poor and she has children to feed. I am able to pay the price she asks without hardship... why should I stand here and haggle with here like a miser?"
    "She expects it, Erik... I tell you, it is the custom."
    "F### your customs!" He said succinctly.
I watched dumbfounded as he dropped double the asking price into the woman's trembling hand...
    "Now," he said, turning to me cheerfully, "tell me where I can buy an opium pipe and at least a crate of that heavenly poppy cake one burns inside it."

     "This face which has denied me all the human rights also frees me from all obligation to the human race," he said quietly. "My mother hated me, my village drove me from my home. I was exhibited like an animal in a cage until a knife showed me the only way to be free. The pleasures of love will always be forbidden to me..." -Erik

   'I was fully aware that he was by no means indifferent to the opposite sex, quite indeed the contrary. A powerful sexuality informed his every gesture, Curbed and ;leashed, expressed in the enormous sensuality of his hands, this sexuality gripped every audience and made him uniquely a compelling performer. I believed it was this very quality that had fascinated the khanum, a woman of intense and urgent passions... Had he no eyes to see what the woman really wanted. To be so corrupted with vice and yet maintain a child's essential innocence!' -Nadir

    "Don't preach at me," he sighed, "my mind id like the floor of an abattoir, slimed with blood and filth. Opium draws a beautiful veil across my eyes... it lets me forget for a while..." -Erik

    "You have more enemies than any other man in the country... you've burnt your boats now, make no mistake of that."
    "Ah, well..." he mused with a sort of dreamy, distant sadness, "...hell is full of burning boats, did you know that Nadir... I daresay that's what makes it so bloody hot."
    I smiled faintly. Even in the darkest mood he retained that, odd, engaging little quirk of humour... Since Reza's death, he had been the only person who could regularly made me surprise myself with laughter when I had thought I would never learn to laugh again. -Nadir

     "At least permit me to make one gesture of myself towards my keeper. . . and my friend." (Erik)
    We were both silent by then, stunned by the harsh simplicity of those last two words. I knew that friendship was an alien emotion to him, frightening, perhaps as it was unfamiliar. Friendship intruded uneasily on his existence, demanding responsibility, accountability and loyalty.
 

 Erik 1856-81

    It is strange how the deeply etched habits of childhood emerge from the mind in moments of shock. I found myself automatically giving a stiff little bow, and saying with cool formality, just as I had been taught to say all those years ago:
    "Good evening, Mademoiselle Perrault, I hope I find you well."

     'I never put another spider on her shawl after that ...
    This nervous, anxious, well-meaning lady had taught me to respect all members of the weaker sex. She had dropped one pearl of purity into my soul, and even now, after all these years, it was still there, displacing a little of the dank, disgusting sludge of depravity. I had done many terrible things, but I had never harmed a helpless woman.'

     'Guilt, I thought, with a flicker of remorse for my heartlessness ... guilt is surely the saddest of all human emotions. But guilt is not love; it is a fire that consumes without giving warmth to those not embraced in its tangled coils.'

    'I hated broken promises and dishonoured pledges; I hated going back on my word. Disappointment is such an exhausting emotion- all that energy dissipated first in painful hoping and then in futile, hopeless resentment.'

    "It was not a feat of engineering," I explained hastily, it was an act of love."
Erik on the construction of the Paris Opera House.

     "You could have been a great man," he sadly, 'distinguished beyond all other members of the human race. It's such a waste... such a tragic waste!"
    I went slowly down the shabby stairs and out into the street. He had destroyed my complacency and my peace of mind, insulted, threatened and humiliated me. Men had died at my hand for far less than I meekly accepted from Nadir tonight.
    I should have felt sad and angry, but I only felt sad and degraded beyond measure by the bitterness of his terrible disappointment.
    I wished I could hate him, but I couldn't.
    He was still my conscience.

     'Perfect pitch, a crystal clarity of tone, no weakness in either register . . . this girl possessed a near perfect instrument!
    And lacked the inner will to play it!
    I had never heard a voice so sweet and true, nor one as utterly negative. Her boundless potential lay almost wholly untapped, like a rich vein of gold buried deep beneath the dead weight of strangling indifference. There was nothing there except faultless technique. She sang without soul  . . . no expression, no joy, no sorrow . . . nothing! . . .
    There was something wrong with this girl, a near extinction of spirit that made her voice affect me like a cry in the dark. She was slowly dying on that stage, drowning in my ears . . . I must not think what I might have made of that lovely, lifeless voice had it been entrusted to my care.'

     'And the knife that I had dimly feared all these months buried itself into the hilt of my throat.'

    'Hell is not a place, it's a state of mind and body; hell is obsession with a voice, a face, a name ...'

    'I began to lie to myself, to cheat and deceive that other half which cried out that this could not be, this must not be... He was very strong, this other side of me, ungovernable as a wild stallion and terribly clever. I began to listen helplessly to his insidious whispering.'

    'She was a lovely, wilting flower that I longed to rescue from the strangling creep of weeds. I wanted to plant  her safely in the labyrinth beneath the Opera House, to hide her from the world so that no one else should ever find he, hurt her . . . take her away from me. I could make her grow . . . I knew I could make her grow . . . if only I dared to reach out and lift her from the barren, acrid soil that was stifling her natural talent.'

    'She wanted an Angel of Music . . . an angel who would make her believe in herself at last.
    I'd been the Angel of Doom for the khanum. There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music for Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her . . .
    But I could be her angel'

     'My voice was my only one beauty, my only one power, my only hope; my voice would open a magic pathway into her life. I could not steal her body . . . but I could steal her voice and weld it irretrievably with mine; I could take it and mould it and make it mine forever, one little part of her that no other man should ever possess. All I had to do was break the silence that stood like a wall between us.'
 

 Counterpoint: Erik and Christine 1881

    'I can hardly describe what I felt when I first heard his voice. There was an enormous exultation, but also a terrible fear of my own unworthiness, and utter terror that he would leave me as suddenly and mysteriously as he had come.' -Christine

    'his voice is my inspiration and reward. It lifts me from my earthly shell and carries me to the very edge of the universe, a wondrous flight of body and soul that leaves me utterly exhausted.' -Christine

    'Again and again I toss her to the sky like a young falcon and each time she soars with greater confidence and strength before returning to the safety of her master's gloved hand. All she needed was belief and inspiration and these things she had found in my voice.' -Erik

    'He had given me the wings of an angel and taught me how to fly. I shall not disappoint him tonight' -Christine before the Gala

    'I can scarcely believe in the perfection of my creation. The sense of power and elation it gives me to see her standing out there on stage, almost buried in flowers, is overwhelming ... but there's something else, an emotion so utterly unfamiliar that I can hardly classify it.
    Happiness? Is this how it feels, this tremendous surge of warmth and breathless euphoria?' -Erik, after Christine's triumphant gala.

     'Oh Christine! If there was indeed a loving God in heaven it should be my arm around your waist now, my shoulder upon which you lean in your utter exhaustion...
    Happiness is like the first blissful intoxication of morphine.
    It doesn't last very long' -Erik, after the gala.

     'I know he's going to spoil everything, blunder into the delicate fabric of my dream and rip it to shreds. If he doesn't stop hanging around her soon, he's going to meet with a fatal accident, in spite of Nadir's vigilance.'-Erik

    'I sank myself into the music as though it were a warm pool of soothing water and let myself drift and float along the staves, improvising subtly and building new melodies. I ceased to be aware of my surroundings and the relentless passage of time that brought morning to this world of eternal darkness...' -Erik

    'There is no Angel of music.
    And yet he continues to live in my mind ... in my voice ... and in my soul.' -Christine

     'I'm beginning to realize just how much of a child she really is, how terrifyingly immature and vulnerable ... even unstable. There's a fatal flaw running though her like a crack in a Ming Dynasty vase, but that imperfection makes me love her with even greater tenderness.' -Erik

     'Whoever marries Christine will have to play the father as well as the lover' -Erik

    'Now was the time to stop and let silence betray my wicked deception, but my voice was drunk on its own power and refused to let the dream end yet. I rocked her on the sweet tide of my music until she slept in my embrace and then for a long time I simply held her, cherishing the weight of her body in my arms and the slight pressure of my head against my shoulder. So slight and fragile! She seemed no more than a child.' -Erik

   'I found him standing by the pipe organ in full evening dress, wearing the mask, a wide-brimmed felt hat and the most beautiful black cloak. He looked suddenly so strong, so incredibly powerful, that I felt my hands begin to tremble against the tray. I've never seen him on his feet before, I didn't realize he was so tall . . . and yet I seemed to recognize the inherent authority - the awesome majesty! - with which he was now invested...
    He moved with a slow majesty, as though his whole body was informed by the rhythm of a music he alone could hear and I was stunned by the breathless terror which seized me as he approached. As he put out one hand to trace the outline of my hair, my heart beat so rapidly in my throat that I thought I would suffocate.' -Christine

     'He moved with a slow majesty, as though his whole body was informed by the rhythm of  a music he alone could hear...' -Christine

    'So now I know what lies beneath the mantle of gentle courtesy and almost fatherly affection. Those graceful, sensitive hands, which are so beautiful to watch are capable of killing without a qualm of conscience when provoked.' -Christine

    'My awareness of the world is utterly changed now and I look back on my old self with fierce contempt. What a poor, ignorant caged creature I was before I knew Erik, imprisoned within my limited perceptions, no thought in my head beyond the next performance, the next new gown. Now I could see and hear and understand in a way that would have been beyond my comprehension six months ago.
    I do not languish in his power like a pale prisoner, denied the light of day, but I grow ever upwards beneath the benevolent sun of his genius. Where once I was content to be a wilting marigold, I now aspire to the glorious height of a sunflower. He has captured all the wonders of the universe, enchanting baubles that reflect shafts of incandescent light. And like the child, starved of toys, I reach out eagerly with both hands, turning my back gladly on the world I left behind.
    I often sit on a cushion at his feet, with my back resting against his chair, and beg him to read to me, gazing into the flickering fire while his voice paints pictures in my mind' -Christine

     'The thought of that white rose filled me with bitter shame... Yearning to turn and reach out to him, I remained unable to conquer that inner fear; it was a chasm I dared not cross. And so I sat there, like the little mouse in Aesop's fable, not daring to look upon the lion bound by cruel ropes. Chained by fate and shackled by pride, he starved in silent pain; and because I lacked the courage of a rose, I could not set him free.' -Christine

    'He gestured for me to take his seat by the fire, the same sloe, rather elegant unfurling of the hand and wrist with which he often drew me towards him when her sang. There was something infinitely powerful and irresistible in that movement; something that made me feel I would follow that hand even if it led me over the edge of the world.' -Christine

    'Even in silence there was music in his hands, a cadence which seemed to flow irresistibly through his fingertips.' -Christine

    'I am not frightened of him . . . not for myself anyway. You need have no concern for my safety. Erik would rather die than hurt me.' -Christine

    'The yellow light of his lantern showed me his powerful, shadowed figure enveloped in the familiar swirling cloak, made the mask and the frills of his dress shirt seem luminously white. Darkness framed him so magnificently showed only what he wanted my to see.' -Christine

    "She was very young and beautiful," eh began with reluctance, speaking in sharp bursts, as though clipped sentences might minimize his pain. "She hated me and I hated her. I ran away from her when I was about  . . . I'm sorry! Do you mind? I can't talk about this!' -Erik

    'In the afternoon her permitted me to explore his laboratory... answering my questions... encouraging me to experiment with his many devices as he wished.
    "Are you really sure you want me to meddle, Erik . . .I might break something that you can't mend?"
    "Yes . . ." he agreed gravely, "yes . . . I think that is a thing you might do eventually. Still, no matter . . . it is a risk that might be taken."
    I knew, as I walked from one bench to another, touching the vast complexity of instruments that lay between us, that he was not talking about the laboratory.' -Erik

     'Slowly, hesitantly, as though fighting against the wavering instincts of a lifetime, he offered his gloved hand to help me ascend the carriage step. It was the first time he had ever directly invited physical contact from me and the moment was fraught with tense significance for us both. My fingers had only to close that little distance between us and I would be a child to him no longer.
    In the moonlight his gloved hand was elusively normal; it looked warm and strong and quite curiously reassuring, the hand not of a monster and a murderer, but of a gentle, loving man, who waited with infinite patience for one little sign of hope . . .' -Erik

     'The dress spread out around me like the stiff petals of a flower and I needed no mirror in truth to know how it became me. Erik had exquisite taste and a wonderfully acute eye for detail. I wondered how many designs he had discarded before deciding on this particular gown. Perfection, always perfection . . . nothing less would ever do in anything to which he set his mind.' -Christine

    'I realized that his voice had become, for me, a drug as powerful as morphine, necessary to my senses, vital to my existence. His silence was a punishment beyond my strength to bear.' -Christine

    "There's so much darkness in my head, sometimes it frightens me too... but it need not be like this, Christine. If I could just live like other men, walk through the Bois in daylight and feel the sun and wind upon my naked face... Oh Christine, I would be dare to do so many things if you were there beside me as my wife. . . If you married me I would accept any condition you cared to name, anything... you understand?" -Erik

    'She did not love me, but she respected me enough as a man - a human being- to honour me with the decency of a considered reply. And I, in turn, my honour her decision. I would keep my pride this time, no tears, no degrading grovelling to make me burn with shame at the memory. Pride was all I would have left to sustain me through the ordeal of her refusal; pride would make me wish her well and let us part with civilized courtesy...' -Erik

    'Of course, you can't help loving him, I know that, none of us can choose where we will love.' -Erik

    Control was rapidly slipping from my grasp as I swung round upon her.
    "I trusted you! I trusted you to treat me like a civilized human being and come back with your answer. All these months I've worshipped you as though you were some sacred vestal virgin... I''ve never even touched you! And you wouldn't come back and say good bye. There was nothing I would not have done to make you happy, nothing at all." -Erik

     "It was something my mother drummed into me very early... I couldn't have been two when she began to refuse to fasten my buttons and tie my mask in place. I remember her throwing a pole of clothes at me one day in a temper- she had a terrible temper, Christine, I daresay that's where I get mine from - 'Do it yourself!' she snapped, 'You're simply going to  have to learn to do things for yourself!' I sat in my room all day because I couldn't fasten that bloody mask and I didn't care to go downstairs without it. Sacha would have helped me if she could, but poor Sacha didn't know how to do it either... all she could do was lick the tears off my face... dogs like tears, did you know that?" -Erik

    "I'm a wonderful magician, you see, I can make anything disappear if I want to." -Erik

    Such a little thing really, as kiss... most people don't give it a moment's consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh that people take entirely for granted as a basic human right." -Erik

    'I'd totally dismantled this child... taken her to pieces in my crazed determination to make her heart tick in harmony with my own. I'd taught her to sing like one of God's angels, I'd loved her more than anything else upon this earth... but my love had destroyed her, reduced her to a pitiful creature barely aware of her own actions... made her as mad as I was myself.' -Erik

    'As I watched, she slowly lifted the veil back from her face, just as a bride does and I was able to see the black shadows beneath eyes that brimmed and overflowed with tears. With trembling hands she removed my mask and let it flutter to the floor between us; then her fingers crept hesitantly to the smooth lapels of my dress coat.
    A moment longer she stood, like a terrified swimmer on the top of a dizzying cliff, contemplating a plunge that was utterly beyond her courage.
    "Take me!" she whispered. "Teach me..."
    Stunned, incredulous, scarcely able to believe in what I heard and saw, I lifted her face with trembling hands and kissed her bruised and bleeding forehead with all the uncertain timidity of a terrified boy.
    And suddenly I was no longer the teacher, but the pupil... for her arms were around my neck, her caressing hands an insistent pressure against my skull, drawing me forward with unbelievable strength into her embrace.
    When her lips closed over mine I tasted the salt of tears, but it was impossible to say whether they were mine or hers.
    Deeper and deeper she swam down into that embrace, pulling me like a lost pearl from the sucking mud of the ocean bed, dragging me relentlessly back up with her into the searing light of day. She kicked away the crutches of hate that had sustained me for so long and made me stand with helpless wonder while her hands once more sought my face and drew it down to hers.
    A long, long time she held me as though she could not bear to let me go and when at last we drew apart we stared at each other with silent awe, dazed by the intensity of what we had shared.
    It was finished then, of course... that kiss ended everything.
    The moment I knew that she was mine- truly mine- I knew I could not kill that wretched boy.'

 -Erik

Raoul 1897

    'I turn to look up and my heat is squeezed at the sight of this lovely boy who bears no resemblance to me or Christine. . . With every year that passes his features conform more closely to that portrait which I keep safely locked in a private drawer. Even Christine never knew it lay in my possession; I never confronted her with it. We kept our secrets from each other to the very end....' -Raoul

    'Music is in his soul, extends to every fibre of his being and already in England they are hailing him as the most outstanding concert pianist to emerge this century. . .
    "As if it matters what I look like!" he once burst out indignantly. "It shouldn't come into it, should it, Dad? Why can't they listen to the music instead of making cow's eyes over my face?"
    Yes, Charles at thirteen had considered it an absolute imposition to look like a young God.' -Raoul

     RAOUL'S FLASHBACK

    'They were standing very close, almost close enough to touch, and Christine was staring up at him with an intensity that entirely preluded me and everything else in the room. She seemed aware of nothing but him : I would have said she was in a state of trance, save for the look in her eyes, that astonishing look which seemed not to be one of fear, but rather one of ... revelation!'

    'He stood back and gestured for me to take her. Christine made a movement towards him, but I caught her arm and held her in a furious grip as Erik turned his back on us and began to walk to the Persian . . .
    Christine stared at the closed door with disbelief, but this time when I tugged at her arm, she came with me without any further resistance.
    I tried to not to notice she was still crying.'

     'there was a distance in her manner, an intrinsic serenity that always seemed to exclude me from her inner thoughts. And somehow the harder she tried to make me happy, the more quietly certain I became that she had loved Erik far more than she ever loved me.'

    'I had held her in trust for seventeen years until the death chose to reunite her with the one to whom she truly belonged.'