The phantom's daughter

Chapter fourteen

Victoria had a small amount of blush on her face the rest of the evening. She tucked the note into the black ribbon that was tied around her waist, hiding it perfectly. She walked over her father. "papa?" he tapped his shoulder. He turned around, he was talking with a blonde haired woman.

"yes Victoria?" he asked with a soft smile.

"may I get some food from the dinner table please?" she asked. He chuckled.

"oh course you can, why do you think the table is there?" he laughed.

"I just wanted to let you know where I was, in case you wanted to find me." she smiled shyly. He nodded, letting her know he understood and to get some food. She crossed the dance floor in attempt to get to the dinner table, swerving around the dancers in their beautiful costumes. She reached the table, grabbed a plate and helped herself to some food. She tried to pick up a roll with tongs, but with a lack of coordination, she dropped it. She crawled underneath the table trying to find it, only her skirt and shoes showing. Then she heard a warm voice.

"mademoiselle, what ever are you doing?" asked the voice. Victoria quickly came out from underneath the table, roll in hand. She looked up at the person the voice came from. It was a woman and something about her was setting off a little red flag in her mind.

"I um, dropped this roll under the table, and I thought it would be very rude to leave it for someone else to pick up." she said placeing the dirt covered roll into the can that was filled with more trash. The woman nodded and kindly smiled.

"well that was very kind of you." she smiled getting her own plate and putting food on it. "I very much like your costume." she complemented.

"thank you, I like yours too." Victoria blushed. She put a little more food on her plate.

"thank you." she smiled "my names Christine by the way." she put her plate down to kindly shake hands with Victoria. "what's yours?" she asked sweetly.

"Victoria." she shook hands with her. Christine looked puzzled.

"Victoria... I had a daughter named Victoria." Christine told her.

"what happened to her, if you don't mind me asking." Victoria asked.

"she was taken when she was a baby, I haven't seen her since." Christine sighed. "You remind me of her actually. Well, what she would look like if she was your age." Christine explained. Victoria nodded and was about to say something but her father called her over to him. She grabbed her plate.

"I'm sorry about your daughter, but I must go. It was nice talking with you." she smiled as she walked away. Christine nodded.

"funny, today's my Victoria's 16th birthday too." Christine chuckled to herself. Her laughter ran cold when she realized who she was just talking to.