Destiny Takes Time

Chapter 27 – Truth Uncovered

Christine had just left the chapel when Madame Giry found her.

“Come with me to my room. I need to speak to you,” Anne said rather solemnly.

Christine was curious as to what this was about, but she said nothing and followed.

“Christine, why didn’t you tell me? Don’t you trust me?” she asked as soon as she had closed the door.

“What are you talking about?”

“My dear, I am not a fool. This child is Erik’s. I only wish that you would have told me sooner.”

Christine looked away. “Whatever would make you think that? Is it because you saw me talking to him?”

“No, I figured it out while you were gone with Meg. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before. Her eyes aren’t blue anymore; they’re green, like his. She even has his mole on the back of her neck. See, right here, on the left below her hairline.” Madame Giry gently moved Elaine’s curly brown locks to the side to expose the mark. She had seen that Erik had one just like it on the rare occasion that she’d cut his hair. “Now I understand why you wanted me to promise that I’d be there to help care for your child if anything happened to you. You knew that your baby was Erik’s and were afraid that it might be born with the same condition. That was it, wasn’t it?”

Christine nodded shamefully. She knew that there was no denying anything to her foster mother now.

“Tell me, does Raoul know?”

Christine sat down on the bed, still holding her baby closely.

“Yes, he knows. There was never anything between us. We’re not even married. It’s all a farce that he insisted on to protect my reputation. I suppose you think I’m just a…a whore,” she cried as she looked down at the floor.

“No, of course I don’t! I thought that there was something between you and Erik for a while before you left, but it was none of my business. After you were gone, I came to believe that perhaps I’d been mistaken. You should have told me. I’d have tried to help you,” she said sympathetically.

“I was ashamed, and there was nothing to be done,” Christine said. “Erik didn’t want to see me again.”

Madame Giry looked confused. “How can you say that? He has done nothing but be miserable ever since you left. It’s horrible.”

“He…he was upset after I was gone?” Christine asked, looking up with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“My dear, upset is hardly the word. He has been so heart-broken that it’s pitiful. I worry about his health,” Madame Giry explained. “What was it that made you feel you had to go away in such a hurry?”

“A letter. Erik wrote me a letter telling me that he didn’t wish to see me anymore. When we met again, just now in the chapel, he seemed so bitter toward me, though. If he had wanted me to leave him alone, then he shouldn’t have cared, should he?”

“It doesn’t make sense. So you only had a letter? He never actually told you that he didn’t love you anymore?” Madame Giry asked, narrowing her eyes in thought.

“Yes, everything was in the letter. You don’t think that maybe…oh my God,” she said and put her hand to her mouth. Christine had a knot in her stomach. Could Magdalena have been right? What had really happened? “What if…what if Erik didn’t write it?”

“Christine, I don’t think that he did, but if it wasn’t him, someone else did it with the intention of ruining your relationship.”

“But I had told no one, Madame Giry. How could it have been discovered that we were seeing each other?”

“I don’t know how you were found out. You did a good job of keeping it a secret even from me, but I can only think of one person who would have wanted you away from Erik.”

“Yes, that has to be it…I think I’m going to be sick,” Christine said.