CHRISTIAN’S POV

 

After a long week of work and waiting, the weekend has arrived and Anastasia and I are taking Teddy over to my parents house for a barbecue this afternoon. That is if she ever leaves her office.

“Anastasia, we’re going to be late,” I call, and a few moments later she walks out into the kitchen.

“Sorry, I’ve got a mountain of work. You wouldn’t believe how many manuscripts get sent into my office in a two week period. I might have to go into the office later tonight so I can get some work done. Everything takes me too long here, what with Teddy and my husband distracting me with his sexpertice.”

“It’s a Saturday. Manuscript reading can wait until Monday, when you’re supposed to be in the office.”

She smiles at me coyly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Grey, but my boss’s boss’s boss is a real slave driver.”

“He’s probably trying to get you in the office after hours so he can get into your panties,” I say as she winds her arms around my waist.

“Oh, I hope so, Mr. Grey. He’s a very attractive man.”

I bend down and kiss her, feeling my body begin to crave more as her fingers comb through my hair.

“Anastasia,” I say. “If you continue to do that, I’m going to want to fuck you and we’ll miss my parents’ barbecue.”

She sighs and pulls away. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be ready in twenty minutes, I promise.”

I finish making the bottle I’ve started and Teddy has almost completely finished it by the time Anastasia gets back downstairs.

“Ok, I’m ready,” She says. “Oh shit, do you have the contract from the designer that we wanted your dad to look over?”

“It’s in my desk,” I say, nodding towards my office. She disappears down the hallway and I finish feeding Teddy while she looks for the document. I dump the bottle into the sink and look down the hall after her. What’s taking so long? It’s in the top drawer, clearly labeled.

“Ana?” I call and walk out of the kitchen towards my office. She’s standing over the desk, looking at something like she’s horrified.

“What is it, baby?” I ask and I freeze as I realize what it is she’s holding.

“What the fuck is this?” she asks, holding Elena’s phone up for me to see.

“Anastasia…” I hesitate. What do I say? Fuck, what do I say?

“Don’t lie to me, Christian. I already looked through it. I know who’s fucking phone this is.”

“Ana, you have to believe me. She came here, I didn’t ask for her to come. She just showed up.”

“Really, Christian? Because I opened her email and there is one here from you that says, ‘9am. Escala.'”

I gulp. Fuck. This is it, I’m going to have to tell her. God damn it, why didn’t I take the phone to GEH?

She’s there too, Grey.

“So you fucked her in our apartment while I was being held hostage? While I was being beaten you were beating her in your playroom, is that it?” She screams at me.

“Ana, no. Jesus, no.”

She hurls the phone at me and I shift so that it hits me in the shoulder instead of hitting Teddy.

“Fuck Ana, I’ve got the baby. Will you calm down?” She looks down and her eyes widen with panic as she sees Teddy. Shit, is she that mad at me that she didn’t even notice? She starts towards me and at first I think she’s going to hit me but she storms past me, leaving me in the wake of her anger.

“Anastasia!” I yell after her but she doesn’t stop. I follow her up to our bedroom but she slams the door in my face. I hear the sound of the lock drop and I bang on the door.

“Anastasia, open the fucking door!” I scream. She doesn’t answer. “God damn it, Ana. I’ll wait here all day, open the fucking door.”

I stand there for five minutes but she doesn’t open it. I turn around, taking Teddy to his crib in the nursery and then head down the stairs. If she doesn’t want to open the door, I’ll open it for her. There’s a key in the utility room. I get to the room across the hall from Ana’s office and throw open the metal box where Mrs. Jones keeps spare keys. It takes me a few minutes to find the right key and when I do, I storm back across the house and up to the bedroom, but the door is open.

“Anastasia?” I call, but I don’t see her in the bedroom. Where did she go? Suddenly, I hear the garage door opening. Fuck. I run out of the room and look through the windows that overlook the driveway. Ana’s car is pulling out. No, Anastasia!

I reach in my pocket for my blackberry to call her but I realize I left it on my desk. I move quickly to my office and retrieve the blackberry and dial her number.

“What?” She snaps.

“Anastasia, please come back. Let’s talk about this.”

“Tell me what you did, Christian.”

“I didn’t do anything, Ana. I swear to you. Nothing happened.”

“So you just met up with her and what? Had breakfast alone in our apartment?” she asks sarcastically. “I know that’s not what fucking happened, Christian, and even if it did. I’d still be fucking pissed.”

“Ana, please come home.”

“Tell me what you did!” she yells.

“Ana, I didn’t know what to do. I was crazy with worry and I wasn’t thinking straight. I was out of control, everything was out of control. I didn’t know where you were and I knew you were hurt and everything I was doing to try and find you was failing…”

“Did you fuck her?” she asks, her voice low and cold.

“No,” I say. “No, god no, Anastasia. I swear to you, I didn’t touch her.”

“Then what happened?”

“She…” I take a deep breath to steady myself. “She brought a submissive to the apartment.”

Ana is silent on the other end of the phone. I hold my breath, waiting.

“You son of a bitch,” She says so deadly quiet I feel as though my blood freezes.

“Ana, I swear to you. I didn’t do it. She got to me. She told me it would feel good and I just wanted something, anything, to take the pain away. When I got there, my senses came to me and I kicked them both out of the apartment. I swear, Anastasia, I swear, on everything, I didn’t do it.”

“I spent days, Christian, fucking days being tortured and you’re telling me you couldn’t handle the pain? Someone kidnaps me and you run off to that fucking bitch, have her bring you some poor little girl that you can beat and fuck? Ana’s gone so maybe I can get my kicks in while I can, is that it?”

“No, Anastasia. I swear, I didn’t touch her….” My voice cuts off as I hear the sound of Teddy crying in the background.

“You took my son?” I yell.

“I took my son, Christian. I don’t want him anywhere near you.”

My anger builds to a threatening level. “Anastasia,” I say coldly, trying to keep my voice even. “Turn around and come home now.”

“No,” She says. “I’m not coming home, Christian. I can’t even stand the thought of being around you right now.”

“God damn it, Anastasia, bring my son back here, now!” I yell.

“Good-bye, Christian.”

“Anasta-!” But my voice stops as I hear her hang up the phone. Fuck! I call back, again and again, but she doesn’t answer. I dial a new number and Sawyer answers on the second ring.

“Are you on her?” I demand.

“Yes, sir, ” He says. “She’s driving up the I-5 now.”

“Don’t let her out of your sight. I want to know where she goes.”

“Yes, sir.”

ANA’S POV

 

I’m so furious right now I can’t even see straight. How could he do this to me? Can I even believe him? I can see Sawyer in my rear view mirror and I contemplate trying to lose him, but I don’t want to get into evasive driving with Teddy in the car. Christian is going to know where I am, no matter where I go.

Twenty minutes later, I pull up outside of Kate’s place, praying they haven’t left for Grace and Carrick’s yet. I take Teddy’s car seat out of the back seat and storm across her yard. I ring the doorbell and luckily, Kate is the one who opens the door.

“Ana?” She asks. She looks down at Teddy and sees the the duffle bag thrown over my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, Kate!” I wail as I dissolve into tears.

“Fuck, Ana!” She says, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me in through the door. She leads me into the living room where Elliot is sitting, watching a college football game.

“Ana?” He asks, but I look away from him.

“What’s wrong?” Kate asks again and I shoot a pointed glare at Elliot.

“Elliot, can we have a few moments?”

He nods and gets up to leave the room. I collapse on the couch and sob uncontrollably, feeling like my whole world is collapsing in on itself.

“Talk to me, Ana.”

“When I was gone, when that psycho kidnapped me. Christian saw that bitch Elena Lincoln.” I sob. Kate looks at me sympathetically.

“Ana, it’s not what you think. She just showed up out of nowhere. Mia was the one who let her in and she practically forced her way into Christian’s office. He tried to kick her out but the fucker who took you called Christian on her phone so he had to keep the phone to give to Welch. I was there for the whole thing. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

I glare at her. “Did you know about the part where she got him a submissive and he went to the apartment to meet her?”

“What?” Kate gasps. “No, Ana. Oh my god! When?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Before they found me.”

“Did he…?” she whispers. I shrug.

“He says he didn’t, but I can’t imagine that he went over there to meet them and didn’t fuck her.”

“Oh god, Ana,” She says sympathetically, reaching out to rub my back. I hear her phone ring from the kitchen and I know it’s going to be Christian.

“Just a second,” She tells me and she gets up to get the phone. “What the fuck do you want?” she snaps a moment later. “Yes, she is. No, you can’t fucking talk to her. No, I’m not going to give her the phone. Don’t you yell at me, Christian Grey. I have half a mind to drive over there and beat the ever living shit out of you. Or you’ll what? Fuck you, Christian.” I hear the phone slam down on the counter and then immediately start ringing again. She turns it off and comes back into the living room, wrapping her arms around me.

“What do you want to do?” She asks after a minute.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I…” but I don’t know how to finish that sentence.

“Um, Kate?” Elliot’s voice comes from the stairs. “Christian is on the phone for Ana.”

“Tell him to fuck off,” She yells. He comes around the corner, holding his cell phone in his hand.

“He seems like he really needs to talk to her,” he says.

“I’m sure he feels that way, but he can just deal with the fact that he’s a cheating piece of shit and Ana wants nothing to do with him!” Kate yells.

“What?” Elliot says, looking from me to Kate.

“Give me the damn phone, Elliot,” Kate demands and he gives it to her. “Christian, you can call everyone in the family, call everyone in the whole damn city of Seattle for all I care, you’re not going to talk to her. You think after what you did you… Yeah, like we’re really going to believe… No, Christian. I’m not going to give her the phone.” She hangs up and hands it back to Elliot.

“He’s going to come over here,” Elliot tells her, putting the phone in his pocket. She gets off the couch and walks with purpose to the garage, and, a few moments later, she returns with a baseball bat in her hands.

“Let him come,” She says, radiating anger.

Elliot’s prediction turns out to be right. I run up the stairs with Teddy and lock myself in her room.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I hear Kate yell from downstairs.

“Where is she, Kavanagh? I’m not fucking around.”

“She’s not here,” Kate says.

“I can see her fucking car outside, Kate. Where the fuck is my wife?”

“Oh, so you do remember you’re married? Do I need to go over your vows with you Christian, you cheating son of a bitch?”

“I didn’t cheat on her!” He yells. “This is none of your fucking business, Kate. Where is she?”

“Get the fuck out of my house, Christian.”

“Anastasia!” I hear him yell. “Get your ass down here and bring me my son.”

“Teddy is just fine here,” Kate says again. “And so is Ana. She doesn’t want to see you.”

“Ana, please come talk to me. Please, I just want to talk. I want to see my son. Ana!” He cries again, and I can hear desperation in his voice.

“Christian, if you don’t leave right now. I’m going to call the cops,” Kate threatens.

“Kate,” he moans. “Please. This is all, this is all so fucked up. I didn’t. I didn’t touch her, I swear. I went, yes, and I’ve felt like shit about it for fucking weeks. I’m disgusted with myself, but I didn’t betray her. I was crazy, crazy with worry and fear and I didn’t know what I was doing until I was already there. I sent them away. I kicked them both out of my apartment and that was it. I swear to god, I didn’t touch her.”

“You need to leave, Christian,” Kate’s hisses. “If she wants to talk to you, she’ll call.”

“Come on, bro. I’ll go home with you,” Elliot suggests and I hear footsteps and the front door closes.

There is a soft knock on the bedroom door. “Ana, he’s gone. Can I come in?”

I open the door and she slumps down on the floor next to me.

“Can I stay here for a while?” I ask. Kate smiles.

“You can stay here as long as you want.”

“Thanks, Kate.”

Christian doesn’t leave. When we get downstairs I can see his car outside on the curb, waiting for me to come out. I feel trapped. I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to talk to him. I’m not ready for that yet. Kate makes me some tea and I sit down at the dining room table with her. We talk for hours, cry together for hours. It’s 3 o’clock in the morning before we hear his car pull away.

“Do you believe him?” I ask. “Do you believe that he didn’t cheat on me?”

“I don’t know, but even if he didn’t fuck her that doesn’t mean he didn’t betray your trust. That’s why you feel the way you feel. If you trusted him, you wouldn’t question whether or not he was telling the truth.”

“I need to know. If I’m going to be able to talk to him, I need to know if he’s telling the truth first.”

“Well, how are you going to be able to tell if he’s lying or not?”

I look up at her. “I’m going to have to talk to Elena.”