John Flynn's POV
This is a complication I don't think we needed right now but perhaps with Carrick on board it will help with the legal side of things but I wonder if Christian has forgotten that he has additional legal staff attending as well.
"Christian, do you still have some of your legal team attending tonight?" as he nods I can see he is wondering if should just keep it in house as such but I think that Carrick is being affected by what he has heard tonight about his son, I have never seen him look so distracted and distraught, yes, distraught is probably a good description of his expression and that perhaps an external person may not be so affected. Given that the Christian's family have only just found out something about Christian, I don't know how they are going to cope with the rest of the distasteful information we have uncovered in the last few days. I wonder how it went down, how the rest of the family found out, I wish I was there because from the look of Carrick and Elliot, they have been broadsided in the worst possible way.
I wonder if this is the best time to do this, yes, I want to make sure Ana is safe and also that Cecilia is safe, she is as much a victim as Ana and I really want both Stephen Morton and Elena Lincoln behind bars but perhaps it can wait until tomorrow but when I suggest that to Christian he shuts me down with a raise of his hand and a "No, tomorrow I am spending all day with Ana, she needs me there and I don't want to be doing anything else. My actions in the past have resulted in her being in hospital and I am going to be at her side to get her out of there as quickly as possible and back on with a life she deserves." Hmm, interesting choice of words.
Taylor appears and says there is a Mr Alex Lia and a Mrs Kathryn Harrison downstairs and can he send them up and Christian nods and herds everyone towards his office, waiting for the 2 members of his legal team to arrive as well as Welch who has rung to say he's on his way. While he does so, Mrs Jones brings in a jug of cold water and glasses but somehow I feel that everyone is going to be needing something stronger than water by the end of the night.
With everyone settled in the room, Christian draws his shoulders back, dons his CEO mask and starts, he produces a NDA for everyone and says "Although I know that everyone has already signed a similar NDA previously, I ask that you take a moment, review this document and sign, I need everyone to be aware that was is going to be discussed tonight goes far beyond any business dealing and delves deeply into my personal life and that of others that have at some point been close to me. The disclosure of any of this information would have severe deleterious effects on GEH and therefore the lives of thousands of employees. I cannot countenance that, while disclosure would have an impact on my own life, that is not my concern in this situation, the welfare of my staff and all the businesses that rely on our business is paramount. If you feel that you cannot honour this NDA, please leave now otherwise read, sign and we can start."
Everyone signs, tellingly, his brother and father included.
Christian continues "Parts of this story will go back a long way but the one thing that has brought this all to a head was a simple student newspaper interview on Monday, yes just three days ago although I seemed to have lived a lifetime in between.
The threads that need to be drawn are as follows:
Monday 9th May 2011 – Anastasia Steele a uni student from WSU came to my office, she interviewed me for the school paper and left the premises of GEH. As she left she was sighted and followed by a Cecilia Morton who then an hour later, in a remote stretch of the I5, ran her car off the road. Anastasia is in hospital with multiple injuries in a serious but stable condition. Cecilia Morton is in a psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr John Flynn here. For the sake of expediency I will draw a quick diagram of all related parties as I understand it, if you accept for the sake of this exercise that I am the glue that holds all this mess together.
Anastasia Steele did not know I existed before the morning of 9th May.
Anastasia Steele is the daughter of Carla Adams.
Carla Adams was married for a time in 2006 to Stephen Morton.
Stephen Morton is the father of Cecilia Morton.
Stephen Morton attacked Anastasia Steele when she lived in the same residence as him in 2006 after having attempted to sexually assault her.
Stephen Morton attempted to destabilise my companies in 2008 with the assistance of his daughter.
Cecilia Morton was a submissive of mine in 2008.
Cecilia Morton was organised for me by Elena Lincoln as with all my previous submissives.
Private information alert: Yes, I have maintained a hidden BDSM lifestyle since the age of 15.
I was introduced to the BDSM lifestyle by Elena Lincoln when I was 15 and I was her submissive for three years until I chose to be a dominant and she was then my submissive until I was 21. After that she then procured suitable candidates as consensual participants for me to continue my BDSM lifestyle here.
There's an audible gasp when he makes that last statement and I wonder how everyone will cope with the filler information that I will provide once he completes his statement. He doesn't acknowledge that anyone made a sound and continues.
"Each of these submissives signed agreements both NDA's and also contracts for our arrangements and I can provide them all to show that all relations I had were of age and full consent. My own sexual relations with Elena ceased at age 21," He laughs humourlessly and says "I guess I got too old."
He shakes his head with a look of disgust and continues, "My business relationship with her started when she lent me $100,000 seed money to start my business – she was the only one that had faith in me at the time after I dropped out of Harvard" Carrick lowers his head and his shoulders sag as he makes this statement. Christian isn't looking at him though, he is staring at some speck on the wall and continues "I paid her back as soon as I could and then to repay her for her support, I went into business with her in her Esclava beauty salon business as the financial partner and it is in this capacity as well as her "recruitment" of partners that we have maintained constant contact," and then his voice drops as he says "And just yesterday I figured out that she has been controlling all interactions I have that are not in a business setting."
He shakes his head, "At Harvard I was still under Elena's control as she didn't allow me to interact with anyone else otherwise I would be caned, brutally so, when she next saw me. Once I dropped out I was so busy proving that I could make the business successful to prove all the doubters wrong that I wasn't interested in anything else and once I had made it successfully in business, it was easier not to interact with anyone to keep the vultures at arms length. The BDSM lifestyle made it possible to just interact with someone on the weekend and satisfy every sexual need I had and it carried me for the rest of the week and I would have dinner with Elena every Wednesday and now when I think about it, she would spend that time putting ideas into my head….Fuck I've been an idiot!" again he shakes his head and closes his eyes.
"Thank you Christian" I say, "If you will allow me to continue with the details provided by Cecilia Morton in both a written and verbal statement and also to provide some background on other comments you have touched on." I look at him and he nods to go ahead.
"I have been supporting Christian for a number of years and it was only yesterday that some major breakthroughs have occurred in the understanding of how his relationships in the past have been manipulated and he has seen them for what they truly are and while this isn't the forum to discuss it, I need everyone to understand the following:
BDSM relationships are a lifestyle choice and if they are practiced in a safe, sane relationship between consenting adults, then it's a nonissue. My understanding is that Christian has conducted all of his BDSM relationships in this manner. His introduction to this lifestyle is another matter and at age 15 he was neither an adult nor able to give informed consent and the adult in this "relationship", one Elena Lincoln is a pedophile. Not only in everyone's mind but under the definition in the legal system and like a typical pedophile, she didn't stop or start with Christian and one of the actions from tonight is to decide on the legal action in relation to her pedophilia. We need to determine the extent of her activities and ensure that evidence that will stand up in court and not be outside the statute of limitations. We need hard evidence of such activity within the last two years.
Every other BDSM relationship Christian participated in has, unlike his introduction, been started and maintained within clearly defined contracts between consenting adults and all have concluded with the submissives retaining all benefits provided eg cars, clothes etc and this was the same with Cecilia Morton despite her stealing and in other ways taking advantage of her situation.
This morning I was able to speak to Cecilia, she provided a spoken statement that has been transcribed and she has signed as being a true representation of her statement, here it is please read it."
As they read it I sit and watch the faces but it is Christian and Taylor who know the background from Welch who look furious, Christian looks like he is about to be sick and Taylor quietly passes the bin towards him and is met with a slight shake of the head.
Elliot explodes with disgust and puts his head in his hands and I can see his shoulders shaking with quiet tears and I can only imagine he is considering what his brother went through as a child. This is confirmed when he quietly says "Not only Christian but now poor Ana all because of that fucking bitch" and so I know he knows about Ana and seems in favour of her from the stricken look on his face when he looks at his brother. Christian simply clenches his jaw tighter and I have no doubt he is taking the blame that should be laying on Elena's shoulders and adding it to his own – I have seen how he thinks.
I add for the sake of the others, "Ana was stabbed by Cecilia during Halloween celebrations when Cecilia was in costume and she never saw her while she lived with Stephen Morton so would not have recognised her on Monday. Cecilia has admitted that she has twice attempted to kill Anastasia and since the last attempt was just two days ago, I am recommending that she be detained in some manner as she is a continuing threat."
"I understand that there appears to be a Dom/Sub relationship between Elena and Stephen but what I don't understand is why Elena Lincoln came with Stephen Morton to the hospital this morning, from my understanding she is not normally seen in public with her subs. At no point has Anastasia's name been mentioned other than by Cecilia and definitely not to Stephen Morton."
Welch pipes up with "Conversations that have been recorded since this morning indicate that Ms Lincoln has figured out the link between Morton's statement that his daughter was in a psychiatric hospital because she had run someone off the road in a horrific accident and Ms Lincoln knowing that there was one young female patient in the hospital after such a horrific accident and her express wish stated after they had been turned away and she was alone was to "Make Cecilia pay for ruining my life and that other little bitch needs to go too" therefore Cecilia is at risk from Ms Lincoln as well as Anastasia. However, I don't believe she has shared these opinions with Stephen so at this point we don't know if he knows that Anastasia is the girl in the hospital."
Christian pours himself a glass of water and indicates that now would be a good time if anyone wants one, it creates a little break that seems to allow the three legal eagles in the room to compose themselves – even they look shocked at what they have read and heard.
Before anything legal is mentioned though, Christian says something that has me looking sharply between him and Welch. "When Carla Adams left the hospital today, she gave the address of Stephen Morton as her destination, do you know what happened there? She was only told at the hospital that Ana had an accident, no-one at the hospital knows that another car was involved, the assumption there is that Ana left the road during the rain and hit the tree. On another matter, Stephen Morton's conditions at the time of the legal action against him for attempting to damage my company back in 2008 were that he was not to reside in the Seattle area and he is back here and obviously has been for a while."
Oh Good Lord, could this web get any messier?
Welch says "Apparently when Carla reached Stephen's house, he wasn't there and she simply returned to her hotel room. We are however keeping tabs on each of their whereabouts and tracking their phone conversations and at this point they have not interacted. It is however unusual that she should be seeking him out given that the divorce was not amicable and was a result of him breaking her arm."
Christian pipes up "She probably thinks he is successful and she wants something more from him, seems like she is willing to do anything as long as she ends up with something out of it."
It's obvious that Welch's methods and evidence may not be 100% on the right side of the law so the legal team needs to determine what methods and evidence can be utilised to reach our legal goals and these as I set out for everyone are the following:
Lock Elena Lincoln away – to protect young boys and provide retribution to those previously abused and with the last bit of information protect both Cecilia and Anastasia.
Lock Cecilia Morton away – she has admitted to two attempts to killing Anastasia and would appear to not hesitate to do it again. Although some sort of psychiatric custody should be considered to provide her the support given the trauma and abuse she has been subjected to for so many years.
Lock Stephen Morton away – incest and perhaps breaching the conditions of his release in 2008.
As we are discussing this Welch is on his phone and puts his hand up to indicate that he wants to break into the discussion with some new information.
"Apparently Carla has just contacted Stephen Morton, here is the phone call" and he switches his phone to speaker.
Carla: "Hi Stephen, It's Carla, how are you?"
Stephen: "Why are you calling me you fucking bitch?"
Carla: "Well hello to you too. I was hoping to speak to Cecilia is she with you?"
Stephen: "Why are you smelling around her? She's in the loony bin anyway so you can't speak to her"
Carla: "What do you mean? Is she ok? You know I consider her a daughter, she was always brighter and more fun than my own _" And if Christian could combust I am sure he would, the expletives fly drowning out the obviously less than complimentary description of Ana that Carla has stated, Christian's face is murderous and Taylor simply rests his arm alongside Christian's and he unclenches his fists but his eyes are still blazing as he looks at Taylor who simply shakes his head.
Stephen: "No she's not ok, she's in the psychiatric hospital because on Monday night she apparently ran some girl's car off the road and caused a bad accident, the other girl is in hospital with multiple massive injuries."
And then there is a pause, a long pause and then
Carla: "Did you know that on Monday night Anastasia had a bad accident and is now in hospital with multiple massive injuries?" and there is silence.
Stephen: "Shit, you're kidding me? CeeCee never did like Anastasia. Have you spoken to Anastasia, did she say it was CeeCee?
Carla: "She didn't say anyone else was involved but I haven't been able to really speak to her because her boyfriend, the great Christian Grey won't let anyone near her."
Stephen: "What the fuck did you just say? Did you just say that Christian Grey is Anastasia's boyfriend? You have got to be fucking kidding me"
Carla: "Why, why would that matter?"
Stephen: "Because he was fucking CeeCee a couple of years ago and kicked her out when he didn't like what I was doing, CeeCee has been going crazy the last couple of weeks since we ran out of money and she has been stalking him out trying to get back with him."
Carla: "So you have run out of money" Ha, that's telling, that's what she took out of that conversation. Then she seems to remember herself and says "OMG have you spoken to CeeCee, has she said she did it? God what a mess!"
Stephen: "We weren't allowed to speak to her, we were turned away today, hopefully I'll be able to go in and see her tomorrow."
Carla: "Who is we?"
Stephen: "Not that it's anything to you but it was my friend Elena Lincoln"
Carla: "Hmm, Elena Lincoln"
Stephen: "Do you know her?"
Carla: "She was trying to set me up with someone a couple of years ago, said he liked small, slim, brunettes with green eyes."
And Christian actually gags and throws up in the bin. Welch pauses the replay to allow him to walk out with it and everyone looks at each other, even the impassive legal team look slightly green around the gills. The sound of crashing and swearing from another room has Taylor out the door as soon as it starts and they walk back in a minute or so later. Christian's head is down and I can hear his laboured breathing but he signals for the replay to continue.
Stephen: "I didn't know you were into the scene"
Carla: "I wasn't until I decided that I liked what you did to me, well, not the broken arm so much so I investigated it after I left you and met Elena at one of the clubs. She is always surrounded by young men and kept trying to hitch me up with boys that looked too young to be in any clubs let alone those types of clubs"
Stephen: "Well did she get you the gig?"
Carla: "The bitch said I was too old for him apparently he was mid 20's though she said she'd subbed for him when she met me but I'm a good 10 years younger than her and better preserved, everything is real unlike her, so I don't know what she was getting at, maybe that Dom had mommy issues and I was too close to his mother's age"
There's an audible groan from Christian and both his hands are in his hair while his elbows are on his knees and he looks like he is in the brace position, his whole body is shuddering as he tries to maintain control. I can't imagine how much this phone call is killing him inside and know it is going to take a lot of therapy for him to move forward.
Stephen: "Maybe we could get back together if you want some fun times or are you with someone at the moment?"
Carla: "I'm with someone at the moment who is in Las Vegas, he's good for the money but doesn't care for sex, so maybe we can work something out." And she pauses like she is considering it and then she says "Oh but what about CeeCee and Anastasia?"
Stephen: "They don't need to know about it and since both are in hospital for the foreseeable future…"
Carla: "What about Elena, you haven't said what she is to you?"
Stephen: "I'm sure she'd enjoy a second person if you want to join in with her, she likes it when CeeCee is there"
Carla: "Oh Stephen, you don't do you? What do you mean she likes it when CeeCee is there"
Stephen: "Sure we do, CeeCee likes it, we've been sharing everything since she was 13. That's why she was so pissed when you turned up in our lives with Anastasia and Anastasia wouldn't put out."
Carla: "You know I don't think she has yet either and she's nearly 22"
And this time it is Elliot groaning "She is such a fucking bitch" and Christian is as white as a ghost, his fingers gripping his hair tightly.
Stephen: "I thought you said the great Christian Grey was her boyfriend, he screws exceptionally well according to CeeCee, it wasn't just his money she was after when she went stalking him a couple of week ago."
Carla: "Nah, he's not screwing her, I can tell. I think whatever is going on between the two of them is only new, hmm, from what her flatmate was saying, she may only have met him on Monday so no he hasn't gotten into those tight panties yet. I hope he does soon though, I'd like some of the sugar to come my way."
Stephen: "You haven't changed have you? It's all about the money."
Carla: "Ha, you can talk!"
Stephen: "So are you coming over or not"
Carla: "Hell, why not. Ana's money bags boyfriend paid for my flight here, I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here. See you soon."
And the conversation finishes and there is silence, dead silence around the table as no-one wants to be the first person to speak.
It's so silent that I am sure I can hear Christian's heart thumping.
Finally Welch speaks up, "There are tails on all three, Elena, Stephen and Carla, so the girls are safe and I am happy to pass over the tapes if they can be used in any legal action"
Suddenly Christian stands up and looks at everyone and says "Does anyone need me here? I can't help with any legal matters. John Flynn can fill you in with any details. Do I need to be here?"
All three legal eagles look at each other and Carrick says "I guess not"
"Well I'll leave you to it. Make sure the cases are water tight and I don't care what happens to any of them as long as Anastasia is safe." Christian says, cocks his head at Taylor and they walk out the door.
He's correct, I know all his history, Welch has all the details of the incriminating evidence going back in time whether gathered legally or not. Carrick and Elliot know what the family knows and therefore any public knowledge material. The legal eagles know the legal side and what options we have.
It's probably best that Christian isn't in the room being frustrated and having the material hashed and rehashed to build the self-loathing. I just hope wherever he is going that Taylor sticks by him because I don't think it is safe for him to be alone.
Taylor's POV
Oh good, we get to leave the room but I hope we aren't on the way to take care of Carla or Elena, I will need backup if we do because I can't guarantee that I will be able to stop him causing permanent damage or death to either of those two damned evil women.
"Can I ask where we're going?" I ask quietly as we descend in the elevator because he is still as white as a ghost and I am thinking a visit to the emergency room might well be on the cards, tonight might just have been the last straw and so I am extremely surprised when he says "The hospital" and climbs into the SUV without saying anything else, buckles up and puts his head into his hands.
Thankfully at past 11pm at night the roads are clear and we are at the hospital in double quick time and I just follow him as we head for Ana's room – well that's a relief.
Ryan is on the door thankfully, tonight would not have been a goodnight for security to be lax and be missing with the Boss in the mood he is in. I still don't know what he is going to do and then he does the most surprising thing.
He slides off his shoes, turns to me and says "I suggest you sleep in that chair if you want to be ready for the morning," and as he slides into the bed next to Ana, she is restlessly muttering and sounds like she is in the middle of a bad dream, not a nightmare and I really hope she doesn't freak out when she wakes up, especially since we now know the various things that have happened to her.
However, I haven't given him enough credit because he rises up onto his elbow, kisses her gently first on the forehead as he normally does and then whispers in her ear as he gently strokes her face until she calms and then stirs awake. She is in that twilight zone between asleep and awake but recognises him enough to not freak out and lifts her face for a kiss and then simply snuggles into his side and goes back to sleep.
It's amazing, even in the dim light of the room I can see the look of peace that floods his face, he rests his head against hers, wraps his arm around her and he is out like a light.
