A Phantom and His Family

Chapter 5: Second Chances

Evangeline's POV

I was finally meeting the woman of my husband's nightmares and if I were honest, I was thinking of the many ways to dispose of a dead body and how to do it so that I wouldn't get caught. It already seemed as if she had no friends, so no one would notice if she were to suddenly disappear. In fact, if they were only made aware of all the pain she caused, they would be happy that she left.

Or maybe not.

"Mommy? Is that our grandma?" Ozzie asked, breaking my train of thought. I moved to answer, but Erik beat me to it.

"No. She is not your grandmother. She is Miss Madeleine."

"And who are they, Erik?"

I saw my husband flinch as she spoke, so I decided to speak up for all of us.

"I, Madame, am his wife. We've been married for about ten years now. And these are our children." I replied with pride.

The look of shock on her face was enough to cause me and Erik to give a snicker in response.

"Surprised? You always thought that no one will want me. Turns out, you were wrong!" He chortled as he came over to me and kissed me on the lips.

Out of my peripheral vision, I watched as my children gagged at our PDA and his mother looked as if she was going to pass out. As we broke out of the deep kiss, I watched as she stood at the door, clutching her pearls and one of her eyes beginning to twitch. She soon got over her mini heart attack and moved away from the door.

"Please, won't you all come in. I'll show you to your rooms and we will talk." She said as she held the door opened.

Without another word to her, Erik took our belongings from the carriage, I took our children's hands into mine, and we entered the house. As I entered, I couldn't help but be impressed by the decor and how beautiful the house was. Despite being a horrible mother ( and a horrible human being in general), she did know how to get her color schemes right. The wallpaper was a light blue with white borders and there were hints of gold around the house. From a small, golden mirror to golden picture frames that held paintings and old photos, the house gave off a feeling of beauty and comfort. There was even a black, grand piano that sat near the middle of the living room!

When Erik came in, I could sense his discomfort in being back here, and I couldn't blame him. The beauty of the house couldn't even attempt to hide the things that happened to him here. Taking the kids with me, I went back to the door and gave him another kiss to comfort him. He said nothing but instead nuzzled into my neck before taking the suitcases and placing them at the seat where we were to be sitting.

The room in question was a gorgeous sunroom-turned-dinning room that was in between the kitchen and a stairwell. A small table was dressed in a white tablecloth and was covered with tea stuff such as small snacks; a silver teapot; cream and sugar; white, gold etched porcelain teacups; and matching saucers.

"I wasn't prepared to have more than one guest, but I can pull up another chair and another cup and saucer." She replied as she retreated to the kitchen, leaving me and Erik to talk to the kids.

"Tia, Ozzie, daddy and I will be talking with Miss Madeleine for a little bit. We want the two of you to stay in the living room until we call you, okay?"

"But why?" Tia asked.

"Because we're going to be talking about boring, grown-up things. Now, I brought out the food we brought as well as your toys and books. Behave and there might be a special treat for the two of you." Erik replied as he led them to a spot in the living room that was still visible so that we could still keep an eye on them.