CPOV
Noah and I spent the morning discussing the shipments I put him in charge off, talking over all his worries and stuff and we came to the conclusion that he will work with one of the seniors on in that unit so he can learn but he is still in charge. I would rather trust my family then people who can easily betray me for money.
Heller comes back without my wife, saying she told him to and that Luke would drive her around. Then I hear that Luke is travelling around on his bike today and I flip and blame Heller for letting Ana risk her life. The fucker should be happy that I let him live, I don't know who I should be more angry at, Ana or Luke. I think I will just go with both.
My phone rings around one in the afternoon, we need to leave in the next forty five minutes to get back in time to pick the kids up on time from school. Gail can pick them up if we need her to, seeing as my wife is not back yet.
"Grey," I bark into the phone.
"Chris, it's Luke. Can you come to the PWT in Queens, I am here with Ana and I think you are going to want to talk to her in person rather then over the phone," Luke says.
"Fuck, what has she done?"
"Nothing to bad… I got to go. Get here ASAP with a SUV."
The idiot hangs up on me, I hail Elliot over and we head over in the SUV, half an hour later we are walking into the filth and stench that is one of or sex slave and prostitution training warehouses. I head up to the second floor where the offices are, the only clean part of the building since it is were us higher ups go.
Luke is sitting on the floor outside of the office Ana and I share, I can hear giggling and girls talking. Has Ana friended one of the cunts for hire? Shit, I figured that putting her in charge of this area would give her reason to make sure nothing is pushed to far.
I storm in with Elliot and Luke scrambling behind me. Ana is sitting on the brown leather sofa with a girl who definitely was one of the cunts, but that girl is wearing one of Ana's dresses and when I look closer the girls look crazy similar.
"Anastasia," I snarl. "What the fuck is happening here?"
Ana leaps to her feet, into a protective stance by the girl. I remember this one, I found her skulking around in some alley in Little Italy, she clearly had nothing and so I brought her here and let them deal with her. It's just a nobody.
"You called him!" Ana shrieks at Luke.
"Do not take that tone, not today. What is happening Anastasia?" I growl.
"You brought her here, you fucking asshole, we never just bring someone off the streets. I instilled that rule over two years ago!" She is fuming. "Christian, this is Leila. Leila this is my fucking idiot of a husband. Leila is my sister Christian, my twin sister who means the world to me. She ran away from mom and Stephan a couple years before me, to find help. She is here now to warn me, warn us and you are the fucker who brought her here. I may have never seen her again if she wasn't so stubborn and fought back while using me name! I hate you!"
I step forward, slap her hard across the face making everyone wince and her fall to the ground. The girl, Leila crawls over to Ana and holds her in her arms. Ana looks at me, an expression on her face that I haven't seen in years on her face: fear, loathing and horror. I step back and throw a crystal lamp at the wall, watching it shatter into a thousand tiny shards.
"Take them to the penthouse, I want security there with both of them. They cannot leave and I will send food over when I feel like she deserves to eat. I am going to go home and pick the kids up. Elliot, you need to be there in case things get out of hand but I cannot look at her right now, she disgusts me."
I walk out of the room, glancing back quickly and can see the bruise forming on her face already. Elliot follows me out, we go down the street to one of our diners, sitting in a booth with some coffee. I have never been more furious at Ana, how dare she blame me for her sisters idiocy, and how dare she attempt to make rules that I am to follow. That is not how we work here and she is smart enough to know and understand that.
"Christian?" Elliot grabs my attention.
"What!"
"You need to calm down, I've never seen you like this."
"Because I have never been like this Lelliot! I don't know how to deal with all these feelings, I feel sick. There is so much adrenaline in my system right now."
"What are you really upset over?"
I throw my mud across the room, the ceramic shattering on the linoleum floor which has cement underneath.
"She never has mentioned a sister, let alone a twin sister. How the fuck am I supposed to take that, and the fact she blames me for her sisters poor life choices!"
"She could have believed that her sister was dead, that they would never see each other again anyway. Who knows but if the situations were reversed and that was you and Mia or you and me. You would have killed Ana or beat her into a mess of blood and bruises, all she did was yell and release all her frustrations. Luke told me that Ana yelled at Leila too, it's not just you she is mad at, you aren't the one she hates it's herself. She used to do this as a teenager too. Something would happen, it wouldn't be her fault but the circumstances placed her in the middle. She would yell at everyone, hate everyone a part of it but she really just hated and blamed herself, mom was the only one she would talk to," Elliot explained making me feel more like an ass. "To bad mom isn't here."
I look at him, mom got so upset after dad took her to Montana to the point where she really lost it. Mom suffered from depression when we were younger but this was weird, there was nothing we could do but try. She killed herself three years ago, took a bunch of pills that she had prescribed herself and went to sleep. Dad moved back to Italy six months later and is working from there, he is the bridge between us and our Italian based family. Ana blamed herself for mom's death, she went into a downhill spiral but was fished out quickly and has been fine since then, but I definitely remember when Ana would have her freak outs when we were younger, I thought they were adorable.
"I need space, can you stay with them at Times Warner or do I have to figure something out? I just can't deal with her on top of the kids right now and they need me more."
"I'll be there with Heller, Gordon, Marano, Wells and Oxford; however I think it would be important for us to have something to tell her because we know where Ana's mind will go."
"She is going to think I am abandoning her and taking the kids. FUCK! Why can't today have been easy and mellow. We only had one issue and that was with Jair."
"We'll Skype you tonight, get home to your kids."
I get up and storm out of the apartment, I shouldn't drive angry but I do and am surprised when I make it to their school in one piece. Back at the house the kids go to the kitchen and start on their homework and eat snacks. Gail and Taylor and talking in the kitchen, both stopping when they see me.
"Where's Ana?" Gail asks.
"She is staying in the city for the night, she wants to have a break," I answer.
"But what about our discussion?" Jair whines.
I look at my youngest son and his knuckles are bruised, I walk over to him and hold out my hands, he sets his in mine and I examine them. Did my six year old get in his first fight? Maia hands me a letter that is from administration, shit. I quickly read it over, it looks like Jeremiah got in a fight with a boy in the third grade and neither were willing to say what it was about. I have to go into the school in the morning with him for a meeting with the principal.
"What happened?" I ask.
Jeremiah, Canaan and Wyatt look down at the table, Aiden is looking around expectantly while Maia rolls her eyes and excuses herself to get more work done in her room. So the Three Musketeers know what happened and no one is talking. Taylor and Gail take Aiden out to the backyard, they can tell I need to be alone with these three.
"It was the other boy's fault!" Canaan spills.
"Really?" I smirk.
"Jair was just helping me," Wyatt starts to cry.
"Helping?"
"The boy, Peter, he was making fun of Wyatt. He kept bugging and pushing her saying that it is a boy's name and that you and mama must have wanted two boys and a girl. Wyatt was crying and when Canaan stepped in they started bugging her too, so I walked up and punched him in the nose like Uncle Luke taught me, he fell and I kept hitting him because he was being mean to my sisters. It's what Noah told me to do!" Jair explains.
I kneel by Wyatt, wiping her tears away but it doesn't accomplish much because they keep coming. I scoop her up and it on a chair with her in my lap.
"Wyatt, your name means brave in war. You are going to be strong, brave and fight for what is right. Who cares what others think, you are who you are. We didn't know or care if you were all boys, girls or mixed your mother and I wanted you all here and healthy like you are now. Canaan, it is from the bible and what originally was the land of Canaan became the land of Israel. It is sacred land, a place of worship, you are sacred and treasured. The people of the land made mistakes but learned from them, you will make mistakes but we have faith you will learn from them too. Jeremiah, the name meaning is appointed by God, you are a gift from god and will lead everyone in your life to great things," I explain, god this would be easier with Anastasia here. Why did she have to go and piss me off. "Your mother and I took a lot of time to decide on your names, lots of time with lots of consideration. Be proud of your names, kids can be mean and will make fun of everything they can but I want to raise you to be the better person. Stand up for each other but don't fight unless is absolutely necessary. Luke should have told you that."
"Okay, Daddy," Canaan agreed.
"I still think he deserved it," Jair muttered, that's my boy.
"Daddy, where's Mommy?" Wyatt asks.
"She's visiting friends in the city tonight, you can call her if you want," I sigh.
Aiden runs into the house soaking wet, we all look outside and it is pouring rain. And my mom said that the weather never reflected my mood. I beg to differ, it clearly does. Next time I look at Aiden Gail is wrapping him up in a fluffy bath towel.
Wyatt, Canaan and Jair and all seated on the floor around the house phone. Ana's voice is calm and sweet with the kids, although if I said anything I have a feeling that it would change quite quickly.
"You'll be home tomorrow? Right mama?" Aiden shouts.
"I don't know, babies. I may stay in the city for a while, visiting some people who came from out of town and I have work to do. You have your dad, Mrs. Gail and Taylor all there with you. Maia is there and she can sing to you as well. I promise to see you soon and we can talk before and after school, and at bedtime," Ana answers.
"Do you want to talk to daddy?" Wyatt asks, this answer is going to be interesting.
"I don't think so, not right now. I will talk to him later and I saw him earlier today. Have fun with your dad tonight, maybe you can watch a movie all together."
"Mommy? Is daddy in the dog house?"
"Wyatt Troian, where did you hear that phrase?"
"Claire's mom said it about her daddy to her friend when we were over."
"You dad is not in the dog house, we are both just busy with work right now. I have to go, I love you all so, so much. I will call you later."
There is a wave of goodbye's and add ons before the phone is finally hung up and our heard goes back to doing their school work. I go down the hall to the master bedroom, I really love having the master suite on the main floor because we always were and are able to catch when Noah and Maia sneak out.
In my room I call my dad, I don't care about the time difference, I need to talk to him to work this out somehow. I am so mad and so hurt and I don't even know what to do. When he answers I explain everything that has happened today and what Ana and I said to each other.
"Christian you should never walk away from women angry, remember that they can hold a grudge much longer and she does have a point. You know the reason to why she set the rule of not pulling girls off the street, you agreed to it and you didn't listen and she is mad. Now the fact you hit her makes me truly upset, you need to start going to church and confessions again. It will be okay, make it right Son."
"Thank's Dad, bye."