Chapter 9

"I heard it's someone's birthday tomorrow," Grace said to Elsa as she looked down at her with pure adoration while grinning at her. Christian looked at his mother and daughter and felt his chest expand with gratitude and love, feeling happy that his mother had completely accepted Elsa despite the circumstances of the situation.

Elsa looked up at her grandmother and smiled warmly at her. "It is! I'll be fifteen. One year closer to sixteen, which means one more year until I can get my own car?" Elsa looked at her mother with hope in her eyes as Grace and Christian laughed.

Ana raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "We've been over this, Elsa. You know what has to happen to get a car."

Elsa sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, we work for the things for we want."

"That's exactly right."

"But why do I have to work for anything when it turns out my father's loaded?" Elsa whined.

"Elsa!" Ana chided her daughter, her eyes shifting to Christian in sheer embarrassment. "What have I told you about thinking about what you say before you say it?"

Christian laughed at Ana's embarrassment and Elsa's lack of brain-to-mouth filter. He shook his head as he watched Ana pull their daughter to the side and chastise her further.

They were sitting in his parents' sitting room, most of the guests having already left. They were chatting about inconsequential things as Christian, Grace, Ana and Elsa waited for the rest of the Grey family to join so everyone could hear the most anticipated story in Grey family history.

Christian was sitting on one of the love seats, a tumbler of whiskey in his hand as his mother stood by Ana and Elsa, clearly too infatuated with the fact that she finally has a granddaughter to leave Elsa's side. Christian had to internally chuckle and shake his head at his mother. She had introduced almost every single living soul at the party to Elsa with a proud smile on her face. He assumed most people wondered why they were just now hearing of a granddaughter, and he assumed many had asked, but he was hopeful his mother didn't give too much personal information away.

His gaze shifted back to Ana as she smiled at Grace while she unconsciously ran her hand over her daughter's head, smoothing out her long golden brown hair that looked so similar to her mother's at that age. He stared at Ana as she talked, watching the way her mouth moved, the way her lips formed each and every word. The way her eyelashes fluttered over her pale, creamy cheeks. The way her nose crinkled when she smiled. He was still as obsessed with her now as he was fifteen years ago, but now he thought he was even more danger of losing himself completely in her, and it was only because she gave him the greatest gift anyone could ever give him: a child.

He would admit that he was still irked by the fact that he had just learned of her existence, but that fact seemed to pale in comparison to the knowledge of now knowing she would be in his life from here on. She had that type of personality a person just couldn't help but like. And she had this aura about her that pulled you in, a trait he was sure she had inherited from her mother. Not to mention her beauty, another trait he attributed to Ana, though he was proud that Elsa possessed a few of his characteristics such as his eyes.

"Are you expecting her to disappear again?"

Christian looked up and saw Elliot and Kate standing next to him, his dad trailing in after them. Kate kissed Elliot on his cheek, gave Christian a smile and walked over to the women as Carrick poured himself a drink from the decanter on the opposite side of the room.

Christian's eyes moved back to Elliot's. "No. Why would you ask me that?"

Elliot smirked at him and shrugged his shoulder. "You were staring so hard, I was wondering if you expected her to vanish into thin air before your eyes."

Christian lifted a brow at his brother. "Is that what you're expecting to happen?"

Elliot stared into his eyes, hesitating before he gave his answer. "Don't punch me for saying this, but yeah, I am." His tone grew quieter. "You can't tell me that you're not even a little doubtful that she's not going to just run again, Christian. I mean she hid your daughter from you, what's stopping her from doing it again?"

Christian stood up as he gazed at his brother, setting his drink on the coffee table. "She never hid Elsa from me."

Elliot's frown deepened. "Well it wasn't like she was sending you post cards with their location either. She could be back now just in search of another source of income."

Christian shook his head and ran his hand through his hair as he struggled to keep his temper in check. "You just don't understand. I don't think you ever did, but that doesn't matter anymore. Ana's back in my life now, and I know the way she feels about me and she knows the way I feel about our daughter. Nothing any of you can say about why we're just now learning about Elsa is ever going to change that."

Elliot held up his hands defenselessly. "I'm just looking out for you, Christian, and you're right I don't understand, but I hope I will soon."

Christian turned away from his brother and walked over to the women of his family. Ana was the first to look at him as he approached and she gave him a shy smile, tucking her hair behind her ear. Christian smirked at her, happy that he could still evoke certain feelings out of her even after all this time.

"I think it's time to get to the main part of the evening folks," Christian said, pulling Ana into his side and leading her over to the couch.

They sat on the love seat closest to them, the rest of his family following suit. Elsa plopped herself in between her parents, looking up at them with a wide smile, as Christian's family sat across from them, gazing expectantly at the trio.

"Um, so where to start?" Christian began, rubbing his hands together as he tried to process his thoughts into a way his family would understand best.

"Probably at the part where you banged mom and I was the result," Elsa commented, picking at the ends of her hair.

Everyone was quiet for a moment before they broke out into laughter. Ana was looking down at Elsa once again with a look of displeasure while Elsa merely shrugged her shoulders apologetically. Ana just turned away and shook her head, rubbing her index and middle finger in between her eyebrows.

Christian chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. "Well, I guess that is a good place to start, but I think Ana would be able to fill in the blanks better than I could."

Ana took a big breath before sitting forward in her seat and clasping her hands together on her lap. "Uh, well, as you all could have guessed I found out I was pregnant with Elsa the year I turned sixteen, only a few weeks after my mother and I moved back to England for the school year." She paused as she nervously tucked a few strands of loose hair behind her ear. "Not long after I found out I was carrying, my dad joined us out there to help take care of things that seemed to keep falling apart. And if I knew I was pregnant before I left I would have fought harder to stay here." Ana looked up at all of the Grey's gazing at them with sincere eyes. "I just want you all to know it was never my intention to keep Elsa away from you, I wanted her to know her family. I loved all of you guys, and you all have always treated me as if I was a close relative of yours. I would have never intentionally kept such a huge secret from you."

Everyone was just gazing at her trying to process what she had just said. Kate was the first to speak. "Then why did no one, not even Christian, know about her existence until what, close to a week ago?"

Christian answered her question. "That's what Ana and I can't quite understand." He turned and looked at his parents. "Ana sent me letter's all those years ago, telling me about the pregnancy, why she moved, everything, and yet I don't have them. Do you have any idea where they could be? Did you guys keep them from me?"

Carrick and Grace frowned and looked at each other with confused expressions. "No, of course not. We would never withhold something that was addressed to you. We could maybe check old letters in your father's filing cabinet, but I don't recall seeing any letters from Ana. I'm sure I would have given them to you the moment they came into the mail, darling," Grace said, gazing at Christian with a thoughtful frown.

Christian sighed and ran his hand through his hair again, at a loss as to what to think. A part of him truly wondered if Ana really did send any letters but then he berated himself, knowing deep down Ana would never betray him like that. But that still didn't explain where every single one of her letters could have gone. Did they get lost as they were being shipped overseas? Did they go to a different address? Did someone steal them? Christian thought it quite odd that every single letter that had been sent to him is missing. And he knew for a fact that that Ana sent those letters over a period of time, so he was having a hard time understanding how multiple letters over a course of a long period of time just disappeared. He was left with more questions than answers, and he was feeling more confused than ever.

"Does Aunt Mia not like me?" Elsa whispered to her mother, pulling his attention away from his inner thoughts. He looked up, his eyes roaming over the room, shocked that he was just now noticing that his younger sister had been missing all this time, but as he continued to think about her absence it made sense. Ever since he had introduced Ana and Mia to each other, Ana had been nothing but sweet and kind yet Mia seemed to avoid her like the plague and look at her as if she broke her favorite toy.

Christian's frown deepened as he thought longer about his sister's distaste for Ana. It surprised him that she wasn't all over Elsa, loving the fact that she had someone younger to go shopping with, or discuss all the latest gossip with. At first he just thought it was because Ana was back and she didn't know how to react, but he was now thinking it was a whole different reason all together that Mia was missing.

Just then they all heard the front door slam shut. All heads turned to the entrance of the sitting room as Mia passed by. She stopped when she realized everyone was there, looking at her expectantly. She avoided looking at Christian's side of the room as she asked, "Hey, guys, what's going on?"

"And where have you been at such a late hour young lady?" Carrick asked.

Christian stood, catching everyone's attention. "And while you're explaining your whereabouts, maybe you can tell us what you have been hiding for the last fifteen years?"

I hope you guys enjoyed the update, and if you find mistakes please excuse them. I have a little down time next week so I'll be trying to get the next chapters written and posted soon.

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