A New Beginning

Chapter 43

The day of the trial came. It had felt like the worst years of Christine's life, when in reality it had only been a couple of days. Nadir took her to court and left the twins back home with Gangle, for even as it was no place for the kids to be, he wanted to focus on Christine. She was mostly alright, but still looked very tired and rather weak. Still, she couldn't bring herself to sit still as she waited in the room for Erik to be brought out.

Nadir kept whispering things to her that he thought would calm her down, but deep down he was a little nervous himself. He knew they were going to win the case but what he worried about was Erik himself. Surely he didn't need to go through any traumatic events anymore.

It seemed like the wait for Erik to be brought into the room was even longer than the span between him getting arrested and the day of the trial, but soon enough he was brought in. Reporters shouted questions at him and took pictures. Christine breathed a sigh of relief as she saw they had let him keep his mask on, but she couldn't help but notice how tired he looked. He was almost as pale as the porcelain mask and he had dark bags under his eyes. He kept his gaze to the front, not wanting to seem weak in front of the reporters despite him being tightly cuffed but Christine knew he was frightened, and she held Nadir's hand for reassurance that all would go well. The latter gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then got up to meet his friend, or in this case, client.

Erik nodded politely at him and waited for the judge to allow him to begin explaining himself, and he began to talk.

"Your honour, all I have to say for myself is that I haven't yet entirely understood the situation. I was told I was arrested for being the Ghost of the Opera or something along those lines but I can promise I don't know what that is. My lawyer has kindly brought the results of the research he did on the matter and has explained the basics to me."

Before the judge could speak, Nadir continued.

"You have the wrong man, your honour," he claimed confidently, "Mr. Y is a good man. He helps everyone he can and is an amazing husband and father."

"All of that sounds wonderful," the judge nodded, "but what about that book he wrote for his daughter? It certainly sounds a lot like what happened at the Opera Populaire some years ago."

Nadir agreed.

"It does, your honour, but I believe we're here because my client has been accused of being the Opera Ghost, which he isn't, and I can prove it."

He proceeded to take out some pictures and articles he had prepared some time ago, in which Erik with a face full of makeup to change it up as much as possible, lay on his back, looking lifeless.

"These articles were written two years ago, your honour. They are from the day the Opera Ghost died," Nadir said.

He handed all of the fake evidence to the judge and watched her examine it, while Erik instead looked at Christine with apologetic eyes, seeing she was frightened of the thought of him being dead.

The judge got up and decided to head outside so he could make a decision on the matter, and as soon as he left the room, everyone started murmuring and pointing at Erik.

"Do not lose your temper," Nadir warned him through gritted teeth. "They will do anything to prove you guilty. Drama sells more papers," he said.

"I know," Erik replied absent-mindedly as he stared at a worried Christine and shot her glances of love. Little did he know, those looks helped more than he could imagine, and Christine has missed them so much that they would be just enough to keep her calm until the end of the trial... if they did win the case, that is.

Soon enough the judge returned.

"I have reached a decision," he said as he sat back down and stared at Erik intently before raising his staff and getting ready to form the sentence that could change the Destler's forever.