ballerina in the music box

chapter nineteen - telling the surprise

Verena’s POV

It was the day that Erik would surprise Elizabeth, the day of the masquerade party. I walked into the small kitchen with my still very sleepy son cuddling around my neck, there by the table everyone was already waiting, even Eliza, the last few weeks she had started to wake up in time to eat breakfast with us, even if shehardly ate anything at all, and when you are a mother of two children I must say you start getting a little… suspicious… about things like this, but I was probably just imagining things. I sat David in his chair and sat down next to him, he honestly looked as if he would fall asleep again and I had to laugh as his head almost dropped into his food, he was so cute, he looked a lot like his father… messy brown hair and beautiful blue eyes and a smile that could make your heart melt. There was a time when I thought that me and their father would spend our lives together… but I was wrong… he didn’t love me… just left me and took everything I had but the children… nowadays he lives with his new girlfriend… or new maybe the wrong term as they had something together several years before we got divorced, and now… he was back in town… TROWING A GOD DAMN PARTY!! It…it just made me sad to see how happy he was with that… skank… she was much younger than me and of course beautiful like an angel… he had always been chasing after young beauties… and once in a time I had been one of them… I’m actually not that old yet, I had actually just been around Elizabeth’s age when I got Rosie… but that was 11 years ago and I wasn’t that pretty young girl anymore… he must have thought I was becoming old and left me… I took another cup of coffee and a bagel; this would be a long day…

I looked at Erik; he looked very excited, just like a little child on Christmas… I could tell he really wanted this to work out, since the opera closed he must have had very little to do…

Elizabeth’s POV

I’m not going to lie, I felt terrible… the last weeks I had started to feel sick in the mornings and eating was just awful, but I didn’t want anyone to be worried about me so I did my best trying to hide it, and I failed… horribly, Verena had started to look at me suspiciously as if I had some weird disease, and even Tanya had noticed that something was wrong, but seriously I didn’t think anything was wrong; okay, I feel a little bad on the mornings but that isn’t that bad, the rest of the time I feel great, a little tired but great!

I looked over at Erik; he looked as if he had won the lottery… I had to giggle, he had a big smile on his lips “wow, you look happy today, something good happened?” I asked him, he shook his head “not jet” hi said and when I gave him a questioning look he added: “you’ll see” and smiled, even if I had a lot I wanted to ask him I just had to except that answer, I drank my tea and looked over at Verena, she has playing with David, I had to smile, he has so cute! One day I hope to get children myself, and maybe live with them in a little house by the sea, and have a husband who always smiles at me in the morning and makes me coffee, and on the evening we all sit by a fire and sing… and… I know it seemed weird, but… every time I think of that I see Erik sitting there next to me, I really love him, more than I ever loved someone else and I’m so happy to have him in my live, I smiled at him and he smiled back and then he shared a look with Verena, she just nodded and said: “do whatever you want” and continued playing with David, I gave her a confused look but she said nothing, a sound made me look at Rosie, she was almost jumping of excitement “oh, is it time??? Yay!!” and then she ran off to her room, I gave Erik a look “am I the only one that has no idea what you are talking about?” I asked and he smiled “well, do you want to know?” he asked me, I nodded “of course I want to know!” I said, he smiled “well, I have planned something special for today… go to your room and put the dress on, and then I tell you the rest” he said kissed me on the cheek and went off himself, I was confused but I did as said and went to my room, the first thing I saw was Rosie wearing a bright pink dress and trying to pin up her hair “what are you doing? Why are wearing that dress?” I asked, she looked at me thru the mirror and smiled “look on the bed” she said, I looked on the bed, my eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped, there on the bed was the prettiest dress I had even seen, long white tulle with a fluffy bottom and a thigh strapless top, and next to the dress was a thin black box with a beautiful necklace in it, Rosie walked to my with a smile on her face “like it? I must say Erik has style” she said but I was to shock to answer; she laughed and walked out of the room, leaving me there in amazement…

I put on the dress and the necklace looked myself in the mirror; it just looked beautiful, the top of the dress slid around my small body and at my hip it was very big and puffy, and the necklace just made the look complete, I loved it! I put on a pair of white high heels I had stolen from Verena and tried to fix my hair, god, this would be much easier if I knew what Erik had planned… when I was done I walked down the stairs where I was meet by Erik, Rosie and Verena, Erik’s eyes grew wide when he saw me coming down “wow, you look beautiful…!” said and I smiled at him, but he looked very good himself, he was wearing a white shirt, a black vest and a pair of black pants, and a black tie, and on his face he had a simple black mask, wait, a mask?! Oh my god I think I know where we are going…!!

“Erik, are you taking me to the carnival?!” I asked in excitement, he nodded and I could have jumped up and down in happiness if I hadn’t worn heels, I loved the carnival but it had been so long since I been there… I looked over at Verena “you planned this, don’t you?” I said, she smiled and nodded “I helped Erik, and I choose he’s clothes, but he should be really happy, I was going to choose something hideous but my damn consciousness told me not to…” she said, I had to laugh as an image of Erik in some ugly clown costume popped up in my head, Erik looked very thankful that Verena didn’t force him to wear something stupid, he took my hand and dragged me towards him, and then he pulled out something from behind; a white mask with small feathers and black rhinestones, he put the mask on me, it fitted perfectly, I smiled, god, I love the carnival…