This is my story using some of the characters and lifestyles from Fifty Shades:
This is an extra long one and was complicated to write, if I have missed something holler out, in the comments box...
WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS...
Chapter 38: It all comes down to blackmail:
Christian's POV:
I am mingling, without my wife and I feel odd without her. This is a networking event and unfortunately, it has to be done. The chatter around the tables is the news of my wife and the generosity of her brothers. I would ordinarily think there was something funny about their insistence to be known publically as her brothers. After all, there is no blood bond and until recently they did not know of each other existence, or again did they know about Ana? They are three strangers who, for all intense and purposes, are related to each other by a dodgy marriage. I cannot reason why they would want to know Ana, especially because Ana's mother killed or we think, killed their mother? I have to wonder if this is some elaborate plan to take revenge on my wife... Am I worried? You bet I am. But, and this is the kicker, they seem very genuine, they seem to care, they seem nice, so are they too good to be true? I am have so many doubts, but they do seem to fucking care for Ana. I mingle and when I hit their table, they stand and we hug. Okay a couple of months ago that would have had them on their asses.
"Chris, where is Ana?" Anton asks.
"Good question, she went to use the rest room an age ago!"
"Did she need to pee?" He is Elliot, only in Russian form...
"She did. Now, the donation it was amazing, you do realise that next year you get to do the speech, I doubt this lot will raise more than forty million. I am shocked you donated to my families charity too, can I ask why?"
"Ana she was very angry, no, she was very sorrowful and strong willed. She said she would not keep the money she is gifting us back, and when we told her we do not need it, she said well give it to a cause close to our hearts. So, we are going to do as she asked and do charitable things with it. She mentioned, in our chat, that your family are altruistic, and had gave their time to just causes. So, I went on-line and researched your mother, she is indeed a great woman, as is your family. You should feel proud to be one of them." Alex it seems is very knowledgeable of my families charitable works, when Ana herself wasn't too sure about them. Interesting...
"I am, very much so. It means a lot to her that you included her charity, the money can only help her to expand it to other cities, across America, she is rather pigheaded about taking my donations, so she works hard to make others donate instead." Anton is scanning the room.
"Where is Eli, I'd like to catch up with him?" He asks.
"I think he is trying to socialise, he hates these things."
"I feel his pain, and after next week that honour falls to Alexi here. I am official a beach bum." He goes in search of Eli; really, I cannot see Elliot as an Eli, Lelliot yes, fool? Definitely yes!
"Good luck with that. I may need a holiday after all this, we have had quite a fraught few days in Paris, when I suggested that she came with me, I promised Ana the time of her life, I didn't quite expect it to have so much drama thrown in." Alex smiles.
"Yes, it was a hell of a week for me too. I have eyes on Ana's mother for a while, so if you need information, let me know, my security have extensive files. I myself came to Paris to find proof of her misdoings and in doing so, I found Ana in the house."
"Did you know about Ana before?"I do some digging of my own.
"Yes, her mother visited her several times, when she started working for my father. She was, I don't know, she was very difficult to understand. Ana telling me of her illness explains everything perfectly. The changes in her personality, her dresses, her differing ways with my mother."
"Your mother, why?"
"We were forcibly banned from the Villa, by my father's thugs, his body guards, because she did not want us to see her as she was, but we would video message her constantly and saw that she was fine. She spoke of Violet all the time, her kindness and of her caring nature, my mother said she would speak of her daughter Anastasia all the time, and they bonded. My mother truly cared for Violet. As the weeks passed, it got a little confusing when she told us Carla was making visits to the villa and had stopped Violet coming. I of course asked my father what she was talking about. He told us Carla had found and interviewed a woman for the position and as far as he knew, she was still there.
It was then I realised he didn't go to the villa much; I was told it was because of the illness, it was slowly killing my mother. So he stopped at his club more, seeing this Carla interviewed a woman, a British woman, a nurse and companion, called Violet. Then Carla, she stepped into the role of manager of his life and saw to our mothers care. She was promoted from cleaner and tea maker to manager within weeks of starting at his club."
"Why did you not go for your mother sooner, if you thought something was wrong?"
"Why indeed. I was wrapped up in business that's why. For my shame I cared too much for it, and not enough for my mother. It is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life."
"We all have regrets Alex." I say.
"That we do. Anyway, after I was told about Carla's illness, I did some digging when I got back to the Embassy on Carla Brooks a name we knew nothing about. Apparently there is one dominant persona in the mind of a person with her illness, and it would seem that Carla was a stronger figure than the weak Violet. So when she had to go to care for my mother it wasn't always as Violet. I am sure Vladlena made her appearance too, because that is when my mother was truly afraid, that was the last conversation I had with her, that my father's mistress was trying to kill her.
Believe me; I did not ignore that call. I had the jet readied, got a nurse for her and grabbed Anton. We, alas, we got there too late. She was already dead. Violet had gone and so too had this Carla woman. We took our mother home and buried her there; we left my father to his life he didn't even come home for the funeral. We went home and he went on a holiday, returning a few months later to Russia, married to the Vladlena woman."
"It would seem so. Can I ask why your parents, both seemed to be fascinated by my Ana, as do you and Anton?"
"I thought you would ask, it must seem strange to you, but for us we are making amends for being bad son's. My mother was very spiritual. She believes when we die, we return to earth as another being or entity. She believed Ana, your Ana was her daughter Ana. It was that simple for her to believe this. Violet would show her the photos she had of her Ana as a babe in arms and my mother saw what she wanted to see, her daughter back. I allowed her to indulge in this fantasy, because it made her happy."
"That I understand, but what about your father?"
"He was no different, he just saw her as a replacement for her full stop. His mistress, she really made her daughter, his daughter. In his grief over my mother, he 'adopted' Ana as his own!"
"I believe so. He left her a lot of money." I tell him, like he doesn't know Christian, I tell myself.
"He was very rich, lonely and complicated, we didn't have much to do with him, we were angry with him over his abandoning our mother and keeping the truth from us. He would then talk about this girl Ana, who our mother wanted us to care for, and we of course listened, purely to see if he was going mad with the grief. He bought her a home in Seattle you know, Ana, he bought her a home?" That was random...
"I didn't, as in he bought her it or he bought it for her mother?"
"As in he bought it her Ana, it was not bought by or for her mother, but my father bought it for Ana. He was convinced she was his daughter reincarnated too, they did a number on both my parents it would seem."
"But why buy her a home in Seattle? She has only just moved there from Portland."
"I don't know the real reason. I only know when he and Vladlena got back from a trip there; apparently, she had business to tend to, he had bought Ana a home there. He called one day, he told me had bought Anastasiya a home, that's when I thought he had or was losing his faculties. It turns out however, that he left it to your Ana. He had been driving on his own, and was watching the sea, and he remembered that Anastasia she loved the water. He was driving, and watching the water and spotted a home for sale, he bought it sight unseen for Anastasia Steele, who he had yet to meet. I was so confused as to who was her mother, was it Violet, Carla or Vladlena. We were so sure that there were three women in his life. I wish we knew then what we know now."
"I am feeling like that at the moment. I wish I knew more about my past than I do."
"Mine was very good, that was until my mother got ill and she and my father moved here. She loved the Villa and she adored Paris. After she got ill, that's when our lives got complicated. When others got involved, my father's advisor and security guy, Andre Vasin and the other women. Or the one woman, with the others. I wasn't too bothered after my mother died, about anything my father wanted or asked of us, because he became someone I did not know, I did not like and was someone I did not want to be around. He was just not our loving father anymore."
"I'd say if Carla, and that's what we called her and the others, because believe me it's a mind fuck all her names she used. If Carla planned the meeting with your father, then it was with a purpose, she was always quick to draw men in and planned their downfall just as quickly, usually she had married them. She knew what she was doing, or one of her 'people' did. She had an IQ off the charts or rather one of her others had a great inelegance, though you wouldn't think so, because reading her journals, they are confusing. In them you can see the confusion and the torment she battled daily, you can see the in-fighting going on in her head, for one of the personas to be the dominant one in control, the hardness in them is an ugly thing to read, though, there are some very sweet thing too. I do believe some of the others were good people and Violet was one of them."
"Madness, this is all madness, the many people she ruined and the many women inside just one vindictive woman, who knows for sure, who was the one who did bad things." Alex, is as confused as Ana and I.
"Yes, it is. Why though do you consider Ana your sister?"
"Right, yes, the original question. My mother is the reason, my mother asked us to look out for her and we loved our mother, so much so that I said would look out for the daughter of her friend. We, at the time, did not know was in fact the daughter of her murderer. You don't know how much Anton and I worshipped our mother and what we would do to make up for our abandoning her to the monsters herein Paris."
"Oh I do, I love and adore my mother Grace, and yes if she were to ask me to do just what you have done then yes, I'd like to think that I would."
"I was hesitant at first taking on their madness, but I did seek her out. But for my shame, and only after hearing of Vladlena's death, did I think to look for this Anastasia Steele. I had too, seeing as Ana got everything my father had left his wife, upon her mother's death. Her mother not remarrying meant we forfeited everything, to a girl our mother thought of as a daughter, but who we thought was in this with her mother."
"Ana never wanted the money."
"I didn't believe that, but after just an hour spent with her, in the house on the Avenue, and I knew she was not the same as her mother. I will always be there for her as a friend, to honour my mother's last wishes, but now having met her, we, Anton and I would like to be there for her as her 'brother' too. She is something special, something rare; she is a girl with a pure, uncomplicated, kindly and good soul. You are a very lucky man, and I am envious of what you have."
"Thank you, we found each other at just the right time. Now, now we have a mess on both sides to sort out, both hers and mine." I told him about my father and his being here at the ball, here one minute and gone in the next minute.
"Wow, what will your first week in Italy bring? A world war?" He has a fucking point, perhaps I should get Ros over here and take my lady on a honeymoon?
"Knowing our luck Venice will sink..." We roar with laughter and I notice Ana and Gage rushing towards us...
"Christian, oh hello Alex. You will never guess what I have found out, no? Well I have found out who the guy is, the one who you thought was your father, well I think he is your father, he is Christian, but he is not called Henry, this man calls himself Gersham Horowitz, well that's the name he goes by, I mean that is who he has been living as and not just for two years, but for well over seven years. Christian, he is here to see you, Freedom..." She is rambling and hasn't taken a breath...
"Slow down and breathe Ana, breathe. Gage can you ask one of the waiters for water please." She nodded and went to get Ana some water. Alex and I sat her down and she explained everything about Jane Plane? I did not ask if she was the same girl as Jane Doe... Her tale was complicated enough as it was.
"Ana, this girl you spoke to, why did she tell you everything, without question?" Alex asks.
"People tell me things all the time, if I ask nicely they tell me more, and I did, so she did. Anyway, he must have been planning this a while, he moved to Hong Kong five years ago, but before that, he was in Grand Rapids, Jane only worked there for two years, prior to Hong Kong."
"Michigan?" I ask. "Ana, did she say Grand Rapids, Michigan?"
"Why is there another?" She says between breaths...
"No, well there could be, I happen to know Henry he did a lot of business with Freedom Electronics and Communications, in fact he did business with them all the time, they were based there or they were until it moved to Hong Kong, as you said. They weren't of interest to me, not until I wanted to expand into Asia, hence the meeting on Monday. Ana, how did you get her to talk?"
"I asked her and she sort of thought I carried some sway with you for some reason. She, Jane is a nice girl, who says Henry, or Gresham, is a very kind man and very lonely. So the packages, what do you both think they contained?"
"I would hazard a guess, information on new and opening markets in Russia and Asia, or insider trading, but really they could be anything." Alex says, as Ana becomes sort of, well for the want of a better word, 'A Nancy Drew Detective'. For fucks sake, all I want to do is relax; I would love to do nothing but relax. As soon as this shit is sorted we're going away for a month, a month with no phones, and the only way to get to the damned island is a boat. Ana nudges me as I get lost in my thoughts, why did he fake his own death, if in fact it is Henry, why let his daughter ruin his company, why not come to us for help, if in fact things were that bad? We would have helped. Questions, the dead man needs to answer.
"Christian, earth to Christian. I know it's a lot to take in, but it makes sense, well to me it does. Do you know anything about his dealings with Freedom?" She has the bit between her teeth and is not letting this drop...
"They do have a very firm footing in Asia Ana, and Henry liked to visit there and often. I wonder how long he was planning this, because he must have been switching his Asian assets from Harlow, to Freedom for years. He bought the best parts of his own company that must have taken some planning and some dodgy paperwork. It's neat trick, if you can get away with it. I had wondered why he'd cut back on his time at Harlow, because when he died he'd left a moron in charge, I had to help Jorgia with the company, it was in a mess, but she got very angry when I said she should downsize and streamline to a level she could more easily manage. She thought I was after her father's company and we never spoke of business again. I have to wonder why he let the moron and then Jorgia ruin his family's business?"
"Well, perhaps he'd had enough of his daughter too, perhaps the only family company he was interested in helping was his old family company, founded by his father?" Ana says. Alex starts to laugh. Okay I see the funny side in all this we have had nothing but death and mystery since we got to Paris.
"You two have had a rough week. We will leave you to yourselves tomorrow. We could come on Sunday perhaps and bring all we have on your mother and join it with what you have." Alex says, as I wonder why all this crap is happening, Karma is definitely biting me in the butt, that's for sure. I must have been a bad bastard, because this latest twist is certainly a fucker to get my head around.
"No, come, Ana and I are only working for a few hours in the morning, come for lunch and after lunch we will see what there is to be found at the club she had here." I tell him.
"Which one she had several?" He counters.
"Death house, Christian, he means death house." I laugh as Alex looks at Ana with what can only be a look of astonishment, welcome to my world, my wife and her straight forwardness.
"Good idea Christian, but the girl, she definitely delivered packages there Ana?" Alex asks.
"Yes, she described it and my mother perfectly. You looked in the offices yes, was there a lot of paperwork and files and office stuff?"
"There is a room with a lock and I could not get in it." There are filing cabinets and boxes everywhere, in there, it was a mess!"
"Where else would you put secret paperwork, but in a locked room?"Ana says.
"Anywhere, knowing the mad lot we are messed up with..." Alex is part of a plot he isn't aware is as huge as it is turning out to be, Elena and Carla were in cahoots with Henry, but why and for how long, that's the key to understanding all this. I want to know why, why was he in league with the devil and a witch?
"Christian... Can we please, just have two or three days were nothing happens?" Ana asks as she catches her breath with the water Gage hands her.
"We could try I guess!" I say as she smiles.
"All this would make for a great book Christian." I have to admit it would be a long winded one.
"Well my dear wife, get writing it then, I do believe you are under contract to Grey Independent Publishing are you not?"
"I am, and my non-fiction story is being swamped with this real page turner of a fact filled fiction murder mystery thing." That was a mouth full and right now all I want is my mouth filled with Ana.
"I have to be going, Anton and I are guests at the Russian Embassy, we may have donated enough to cover one of the onion domes in real gold, or it feels as though we have. I will see you tomorrow, yes?"
"Are you not staying to dance?" Ana asks, as I stroke her bare back, getting hornier by the minute.
"I do not dance, I hate dancing. Anton is the dancer of the family; I would rather take my own teeth out. So Ana, we will see you at lunch, about twelve thirty? You have my number Christian; call me if there is a change." He gets up, as do Ana and I, he hugs her tightly, and then I am given a man hug and a hand shake. He smiles as he passes my mother and grandmother, who it seems is asleep stood up.
"We are heading back because your grandmother is tired, I say drunk, she says tired, so she is being put to bed. Elliot is worried about Kate, who is being sick, so they are already at home."
"Is she okay?" Ana asks.
"It was just the men's horrid cigar smoke; it is one of those smells she cannot tolerate. How Elliot has not guessed yet, well it is beyond belief. Are you stopping?" I look at Ana and she winks.
"No, we can finish off the party there; it's been a long day." Ana says as she twigs I need some loving.
"Is that okay Ana?" Please say yes for fucks sake or me and my boner will be heading out of here caveman style?
"Umm, this has been a heck of a long day, and you Christian Grey have had no sleep at all. So Gage can you find Luke and tell him we are ready to leave. It seems our table and half the others are in the ballroom."
"Your grandfather and your fathers are both outside; they were the one's smoking and feel terrible, because they cause Kate and Elliot to leave early. We will see you when you get back." We help her with Grams to their cars and await ours. I take off my jacket and throw it around Ana's shoulders as she shivers. Their cars arrive and we wave them off.
"Alone at last. Now, stop worrying Christian, it will all be alright in the morning."
"We are working in the morning, well I am, Ana, you can do whatever you like. Stay in bed, read, shop, whatever. Though I would like for you not to try and solve all this on your own, promise me you won't?"
"I solemnly swear I will get up to no good." I ponder her words for a moment.
"Ana you will solemnly swear you will not get up to no good, you were missing a two consonants and a vowel Baby!"
"I thought I nearly had you then. Who's the meeting with and what's it for?"
"It's a takeover, of a small publishing firm, with several outlets over Europe; they have one or two very good authors on their books. It could be all signed sealed and delivered in an hour, or it could take all day?"
"A hostile takeover?"
"It isn't yet; it is however, bordering on unfriendly at the moment. They have not been very lucky with their last big name; his work was stolen from a student of his it seems. I have not got the details, but the real author has submitted her books and hers can be validated as she scrap booked each chapter on this Pinetrest thing? He cannot tell the company how he got his inspiration."
"Working Girl..."
"No, I don't think she is a prostitute Ana."
"No, the film, Working Girl, not that sort of working girl, you ninny. A new girl in mergers and acquisitions, your line of work, I do believe? Well, she has some great ideas and her boss takes all the credit for her work and she gets shafted, but she fights back, when her bitch boss breaks her leg she sees how she did it, and she makes her mark, only for the boss to call her a liar, and like the Pinetrest girl, she too can tell them how she came up with her ideas, were as the wicked boss, she couldn't. It's a pretty good film, with Melanie Griffiths and Sigourney Weaver in it. It's an old film, late eighties old, not old-old, but old."
"You do like your romantic movies Baby." I kiss her head and we hug.
"They killed a few hours when I was on my lonesome." I smile and try hard not to think of her as alone and lonely with only a film for company. She hugs me close and we kiss. I swear there are fireworks going off as we kiss, because the sky seems to get brighter. We continue to kiss, and it is then when we hear the fuckers start screaming for a comment, the fireworks were camera flashes...
"It's the Pap Rats, Baby keep snuggled in against my chest and cover yourself with my jacket." I am about to lose the plot, when our car arrives and Luke gets out and helps Ana into the car. Gage is driving.
"Sir, they were at the garage and saw Gage and I. Then they blocked our path with their mopeds."
"We are safe now, just drive carefully home, because they like to get in your face and may try to follow us home Gage." She nods and we head for home. Somehow she loses the hangers on and we coast home. When we get there Luke gets a call, apparently the house is in uproar, because we have a zombie for a house guest... Henry has arrived for a visit. Elliot, Pop's and my father are with him in the office and Taylor and Ray are combing their contacts, apparently the security suite is hectic...
We get out in the garage, I ask Gage to see Ana to her room, to change. I don't doubt for one moment she would stop in her room, and this has something to do with her too I guess? Fuck, we head in and I feel so sick with worry, angry with him and afraid to hear what he has to say too. It seems our answers are coming sooner than we thought and from the horse's mouth...
"Christian, I am not stopping up there..." I cut my wife off.
"...I don't expect you too, get changed though and join us, I am so sorry this is not the wedding night I had planned Baby."
"It isn't over 'till the dead man sings..." She gets in the elevator with Gage and I head to the office. My mother is seeing to my grandmother and Kate, one is in a drunken stupor and the other, green around the gills according to Gail.
"Christian we sent everyone home and told them to come back tomorrow. We had to when Mr Henry turned up and asked to see you. Jason was in the security suite on a conference call with Fred and Barney; I answered the door and stopped dead in my tracks."
"Are you okay, did it shock you too?"
"Shock me, that's an understatement. When I saw Lazarus at the door I passed out for a moment, I knew he was real when I came to; to find he'd caught me. He carried me to the office and Jason pulled a gun on him."
"Good for him, you can' be prosecuted for killing a dead man, well I don't think you can? Gail can you go and see to Ana, please?"
"Yes, I was heading to your room anyway, to dress you room for the night. If you need refreshments give me a call!" Gail is a born romantic. Doing the room would be her idea...
"I will hardly be killing the fatted calf Gail. Get some rest." I need to go and see what a dead man looks like up close and personal. "Gail, please go and rest up, or go and see Ana, she may need a strong tea, go and do whatever you want Gail, It is going to be a long night."
"I will go and see to Ana, if that's okay and then come and busy myself clearing away and help Madeline, she too was shocked. Christian, I don't think either of us could rest knowing we have a dead man in our midst."
"Okay, but try to relax, he is not dead, he just faked his death, I don't think Paris is under threat from a Zombie Apocalypse, though I bet Elliot thinks that's what's happening?"
"He keeps saying 'this is so not cool man' he was behind me when Henry walked in."
"He would, I will see you later Gail, and Gail thank you." She smiles and heads off to see Ana. I go and head to see my papa!
My father and dad are screaming at each other, Pop's is sat with his hands in his hair staring. Jason is on a conference call and I see endless amounts of security rushing around.
"Can all security stop what you are doing, please go and help the ladies clear up, with the exception of Luke and Jason, if we need you we will call." They head out and I sit down. "You look well Father dearest!" Henry looks up and looks almost shocked; shocked I knew his dirty secret.
"I am not your father Christian."
"I beg to differ I have a file that says you are and it is in your handwriting, I have yet to look at it but my dad says it's yours. The contents of the file were verified by your ex-wife, too."
"Well, I can assure you Christian, I have never fathered a child ever."
"Jorgia and I are proof you did."
"Jorgia has my name, but she is not mine, had she been my child she would have bore my mother's name, not the awful one her mother gave her, it was a strippers name, one she was friendly with. As to you, I can assure you, to make a child you have to have had sex with the mother, I never knew your mother, I am as they say barren. I cannot father a child, never could and never will. I had an undiagnosed case of the mumps when I was young, and I am one of the rare men who it seems cannot father a child because of a childhood disease. When we escaped from Poland during the war, my having a sore throat was not thought of as life threatening when we were escaping persecution for being Jewish."
"We have evidence." I counter.
"As do I, I can assure you, you Christian, are not my child, would that you were, I would be proud to call you my child."
"Blood tests, we need blood tests." I scream at the man.
"It will be my pleasure. It will reveal I am not you father, and a test of my sperm will also prove my inadequacy's to father a child to be true too. Who told you this, or do I have to guess it was Elena Lincoln, or her mad friend Carla?"
"Carla who you married." He laughed.
"I beg to differ, I was married once, and that was to Jorgia's mother and that was a marriage of convenience. She needed a father for her child and I needed and heir. Being infertile and gay, meant there was little possibility of having an heir."
"Right, you are gay now too?"
"I have always been gay; alas it is frowned upon in my religion. It is written in the Torah, Lev: 20:13 'And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed a detestable act: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.' My parents and my brother, when they found out, they exiled me, killing me was much frowned upon in America. I was left with nothing but the clothes on my back and my papers." He can quote the Torah all he likes, but it may quack like a duck, but it aint always a fucking duck... I must stop watching Duck Dynasty with Elliot. And there I go away in dream land again...
"So, why did they say you were my father why did Lucy back up the claim written in the file, have you the file Dad?" He passes Henry the file and he commences to read it. He laughs as he turns the pages.
"Interesting, and this file was where?"
"In her safety deposit box, left to her daughter Ana."
"Ana, she is safe I presume and her mother did not manage to sell her?"
"So, you know about that, but you don't know about the other shit?"
"Christian, to understand Carla, Lucy and Ella, you would have to make them undergo countless medical tests, I did and found out all three of them were at some point treated badly. I ran an organisation helping girls escape from the very thing they went through. They were all, at some point sold as a sex slave."
"Lucy too? You married her... She was worth saving and not my mother?"
"Lucy was fifteen and pregnant when she was offered up to me. I bought her and freed her. She was so damaged that it took months just to get her to trust me. I was a man and she saw me as an abuser. I took her under my wing, and when she turned sixteen we married, to give the child my name and to give Lucy a secure future, I must point out I never slept with her. Just in case that was your next question Christian?"
"It was. So, how did you get into that world?"
"By accident. I met with an investor after I had been exiled from my family, an investor who helped me patent some devices I had invented. They were..."
"I know the early listening devices. Used by secret agencies to spy on people." I was always in awe of this fact.
"You remembered Christian? Well, the investor was into this world and I went with him. He saw them as prostitutes, and were nothing more than something to as I saw them as girls needing to be saved. You see the woman who saved us, she was a lady of the night, and gave up her home to many Jews escaping Poland and I never forgot her kindness. She slept with the enemy, to get information on the raids in the Jewish sectors, all whilst keeping us safe in her basement. She died for the cause a few months after we escaped, and I never forgot her, she gave me comfort and warmth. When I made my money, I founded the charity in her name, Hania's Trust." Okay, that sounds plausible I guess?
"Yes, I do remember, I do, but what are you talking about, how did you meet Elena and the rest? That is what I want and need to know and about my mother. Why were you in bed with Elena and Carla?" I will do some research on this trust later, but for now I want answers...
"When I became wealthy because of the patents for the devise, I set up Harlow; I was wealthy and lonely alone and I attended an upmarket gentleman's club. A young lady named Giuliana Accardi, she was a lowly hostess at the club, and she became a friend, I liked her business and she was very strict on secrecy, or so I thought. After a few years, the hostess became the owner, with my help. I was away travelling a lot, so I didn't attend the club and in my absence it turned into something I did not like, so too did Giuliana, she was a deviant. She had changed her name to Elena Hough because bad men from her past were following her, and she was about to marry a man called Matthew Lincoln. She had a few more clubs too by this time. Alas, did not attend the clubs anymore. I had long since got my wants and needs in check, so I didn't need to seek out male companionship. I did however still own a stake in her clubs, I was the very silent partner. When I went to ask her how we were doing, I stumbled upon her sick and twisted ways. The doorman assumed I was in on the markets she ran... It sickened me to my stomach. Some of the girls were runaways, some of the girls were willing submissive. All of it to me, was sick..."
"Yet you let it continue." I scream.
"I did, you are right. It was the only way I could buy the girls who asked for my help. It was where I met Lucy, because I bought her, she was saved from getting rid of her baby and from the life she had. The others I saved I told Elena I was sending to Hong Kong to a club I had there. She wanted a cut of the profits that the girls were sure to make me."
"So she hooked you how?"
"Blackmail."
"Okay, that I believe."
"To the world and to your parents I was a married man with a child and ran a successful business."
"You were Henry, you were. Grace and I are the ones who read the file to Christian."
"Why she wrote it I do not know? I saved her from the same auction, Elena ran in Detroit. I save her and she did this. What can you expect from a washed up drug user. I knew she was up to no good. She was a worthless woman who ruined many more lives than I saved. She was very sick..."
"You have described my mother perfectly. Hello I am Ana, you must be the elusive and dead Henry Harlow, or is it Gersham Horowitz?"
"I am both, my family name was Horowitz, my name at birth was Gersham, when I was exiled I lost my right to the names. So as a lover of Jean Harlow, I took her name and the legal clerk doing the paperwork, her father was called Henry, so that is where my name came from. I needed a fresh start when I started my own business."
"Do you know why my mother did this to you? Did you marry her as me Anastasia Steele?"
"No, I never married her at all, she was a very good story teller, I would think this file is her attempt at a book? I never knew about you until years later, but I am glad to see you are safe Anastasia; your mother was a very sick woman, who offered you up to me many times, once, I actually thought she was going to deliver you to me. I am glad she did not now. Carla, presumed, because I had bought her from the slave market, that she was my wife. I had to remind her I was married and that I had a child, she knew this, she was still Lucy's friend and she knew I liked men not women... She became like a crazy stalker, even after I paid for many months of care for her in a private clinic, I thought she was cured; alas she returned more determined than ever. She then started playing around with Lucy. Lucy was back doing her stupid things both her and Carla, she partied hard and they were close, Carla told Lucy to divorce me. She even gave her photos of me in compromising positions. I was then divorced and had to pay for my secrets to be kept secret... You don't need to know about this, but I am telling you I never once slept with a woman, so the photos were not of me with a woman, if you understand. I did not know where she got them from, until I realised they were taken at the Detroit club I helped Elena fund. I can only presume I was set up by Elena."
"It sounds like my mother, how did she and Elena know each other?"
"The club is the common factor, once I had bought Carla and freed her, she was still friendly with Lucy and had somehow managed to grab a whole chunk of Lucy's divorce settlement, using this, she went after Elena, for selling her. As revenge she wanted all that Elena had, including the husband and her properties. I went to the club to get out of their worlds, we had words and I had to give her my shares in the clubs, in return for the photos, it was then, when she was searching her files for my indiscretions I noticed a file on you Christian. I asked her about it and she said you were her pet project. I was saddened to see your name there, you were like a son to me and she had got her hands on you. I then made sure I was as close as I could be to you, But you, you fool, took her money to set up GEH. I could have given you the start up funds, had you asked, it would have saved a lot of trouble had you done so." I hear my father say here-here. I fume.
"We could all have done things differently had we had a fucking crystal ball Henry." Ana slaps my arm.
"Christian, please let him talk, we need sleep and stop swearing, please?"
"Ana, we need answers. Why fake your death? What were and are the files your employee delivers to Elena and Carla?"
"My, my, my you have been busy." Is he fucking serious?
"We have had to be, this past week have been a nightmare Henry." My dad says. He moves over and Ana sits next to me. I think, she thinks this will calm me. I am wound up tightly. I need to believe what he says about me, I need to ask questions about Ella too.
"Of course, where as I have had to deal with them for years. I have got used to their mental mind games and their bribery. Faking my death was done to protect you Christian, and let me explain... When it became clear that both of the women in question were hell bent on ruining the other, I had to play the long game. Elena was easy to watch, she lead a very open life. Carla, not so much, she has several people controlling her, as I am sure you are aware? Well she would travel from place to place using any number of aliases. All of which she had a life story for and paperwork to back each of the people she became. She is or was very clever. Anyway, I went to another club to pick up the latest batch of slaves, and Elena was there and became suspicious about my reasons for buying the girls..."
"Why, as long as she got her money why bother?"
"Ana, she kept their papers and she then 'rented them to me' it was her way of making more money. I had to pay her a percentage of what the girls brought in. I had the girls looked after as I did your mother, got them clean, got their medical needs covered and finally when they were ready I got them new lives. I had to send Elena a cash payment each month, and because I stopped, the payments she came back at me with something more than just my sexuality and the girls. She said she would use some pleasing photos she had of my son. This was news to me. She sent me a photo of you bound and in chains. I was being blackmailed to keeping your secrets then."
"Who told her Christian was your son?" Ana asks. What I want to know what he had on me...
"Your mother. She also told me your mother's name Christian and I recognised her as one of the first women I saved, three girls that night, Lucy, Ella and Carla, all were bought at the same slave market and all sold by Elena and their pimp, as used goods. Carla had run away from her parents and was a mess, when I found them both at some dingy back street market. I bought them all and I managed to get Carla back home, she had been missing for two years when I sent her back clean and healthy, I had hoped she was healed; alas that was not the case. They stayed friends, Lucy and Carla, or so your mother claimed, I am sorry but everything she told me was hard to believe, because there was only ever a smidgen of the truth in any story she told, so as you can imagine I took everything she did and said with a grain of salt..." I bet. "Lucy you know her story, she stayed with me and I thought was safe, well she was safe, she spent money like it was going out of fashion, so I knew where she was, Carla, stayed with her parents for a few years. Until she ran away again, on her return she killed her father, you would know more about her, she was a serial runaway. I believe she returned the last time, pregnant with you?" Ana sighed.
"She did, but what about Ella, why did she return to what you had rescued her from?" I ask...
"Apparently, Ella had returned to the only life she knew, she ditched the name and the home I gave her, she sold everything in the house and left nothing behind. She it seems once she had had the baby, she returned to the life she had, she was used by the same pimp who had sold her at the slave auction. Carla told me about her being pregnant, and that was why she ran away from the safe home she had, when she found out she was pregnant with Christian, who looked like me. Carla, she sold me their information when we met up again at another auction, but before I could find her to help her with the baby, she had disappeared again. When I finally found her and you, she was back in Detroit, but I was too late, she had died, and call it what you will, the gods looked out for you and sent you to the arms of a good family. One I was already blessed to be a part of."
"So this is confusing, Carla, knew my mother had had me and yet you didn't. How come you couldn't find her parents, or my real father, why?"
"Why, she was a foster child, abused by the family she was sent to live with. She was an orphan and had been in the system all her life. The only home she had of her own was the one I set her up in, was the one in Grand Rapids, near my parents home, it was with my family company that she found employment. She was in a good place and was settled, or so I thought. When I asked about her all I heard back were good reports. So I stopped asking. It was years later when I learned the true reasons that she had left the home and her job, and disappeared without a trace, Carla told me her being pregnant was the reason she had ran away. She ran from the father, my brother, because he was married and she felt ashamed she ran and he took to the bottle." My mind ticks away and Ana says it before I can...
"He was your brother yes? The married man was your brother?"
"Yes, yes he was. He was in a bad place in his marriage, the business was suffering and with my parents death, he struggled to run the factory and the company was going bankrupt, he was missing Ella and he hit the bottle hard. So hard, that he drove home drunk and alas killed himself at the wheel. He wrote me a long letter telling me everything. About Ella about Hannah and asked me to take back the company and to find them and care for them."
"Wow, so you are not my father but my uncle?" I say in shock...
"It would seem I am, blood tests will confirm this. I don't need to have them done, I see my father's face staring back at me when I see yours and you have your grandmothers gray eyes. Like mine and my brothers... You were happy with my friends and what could I give a child? My name yes, but nothing more, besides they would not have given you a male child to a homosexual man. So I kept quiet and made sure Grace got to keep her angel. Carla used this information to keep me in line too."
"Henry, you did all that for me?" My mother says as she sits to his side.
"Yes, he needed a family, he had had three years of being in her world, he needed a family, and I was still part of the family. I was Uncle Henry... I thought, I was a great Uncle Henry I did everything I could to make myself a part of your life Christian. I was as close as I could be to you. You are my only family; you are of my blood..."
"Ha, you had a family you had, Lucy and Jorgia..." I bite back... "You walked out on them too."
"I did not feel anything for Lucy or for her daughter. She was in it for the money; she and her daughter hated me. Jorgia knows I am not her father, she always had done. Her mother spilled bile. Half of my company was a good payoff. She however wanted more after the divorce; she and Carla spent a fortune on surgeries and travel, on homes and generally hiring escorts, they were non-stop party girls.
When I realised Jorgia had the same problem, I set up Freedom Telecom, in Hong Kong, my brother left me what was left of my family's business and I swore to make it a flourishing company for my nephew to have back, he would have wanted you to inherit it Christian. I slowly closed my more profitable businesses and sold them to my new company. I was not leaving them destitute, but neither was I letting her ruin my company either. It took its toll my living three lives, and the amount of blackmail going on in my life." I bet... Thats why I send a fortune on shutting it down before it spirals out of control.
"Why what was the matter with you?" Ana asks as I am still stunned that Uncle Henry, is my actual Uncle Henry, it makes me happy and mad at the same time, I have some answers but not them all, but Nancy Drew is on the case for me, I am too confused by it all to be thinking straight, but my parents keep smiling, so I know it's not all bad...
"I have heart problems, I knew after the last attack I had, my time here was limited. So I set about liquidising Harlow Telecommunications, alas I didn't quite manage it before I was hit with the bombshell that Elena laid at my door..."
"What did she do?" I ask...
"She called me in a blind panic, she said you had strangled a girl during a scene at her club and she didn't know what to do. I, of course went to see for myself and the girl had in fact been strangled in some erotic choke hold submission scene you were playing. She said she had sent her young prodigy home and wanted my help clearing away the mess."
"She what. You thought I was still her prodigy two years ago?"
"You were still in business with her, you still dined with her and she still broke bread with your parents, so yes I still thought you and she had something."
"Christian, he has a point..." My mother says.
"Fuck..." I reply.
"I would say fucked Bro..." Elliot mutters. He can shut the fuck up too...
"So what did she have on Christian?" Ana asks, before I can.
"She had filmed the whole thing... She would keep your secret if I gave her a percentage of my company. She would keep the video and photographic evidence as a levy."
"Well, more fool you. I never went to clubs with her."
"I saw you with her in a few when I was there to buy slaves." We are arguing now...
"I went to advise her on business, I was never there for the slave markets."
"How was I to know that, she told me you were her biggest patron, you got all your submissive's from her?"
"I did, but not from a fucking slave brothel." Ana doesn't need to know all this. Neither do my parents, fuck I would kill Elena if she were alive to kill.
"I agreed to giving her a substantial amount of money to invest in a new club and I agreed to give her fifty thousand dollars a month to keep her silence. Somehow though she was not as careful with her clubs as she thought, the finances were a mess, and she didn't know it, but someone far cleverer had been taking what was hers for years. Carla..."
"And my mother was good at taking what was not hers." Ana says.
"I know, I was then hit by the two of them blackmailing me. I decided to fake my own death. I had taken all I could without raising too much suspicion from the company. I went to Israel to visit nonexistent relatives, and the rest you know about."
"The paperwork?"
"Money owed to the pair of them, it had to be done the way it was or they would have traced it to me in Hong Kong..."
"So how... Why keep paying them?"
"They could both still ruin you Christian."
"How..."
"Elena still had the film and photo's and Carla knew about the slave auctions. I had agreed to them having a stake in Harlow Tech. These were the payment s they received. Trevor, my ex son in law he knew what I was doing and he too tried to black mail me. Alas, he was not too bright, he took money too and I had the proof. So all he stole went first to his accounts and then to my off shore accounts, so in a way he was giving me back what I had left Jorgia. She was too busy socialising and being a party girl, spending way more than the company brought in, she was a rich drunk and drug taking party girl. He agreed to my terms and he pocketed ten percent of everything he took. She stiffed him in the divorce so he stiffed her after it, she should never have kept him on as the company accountant, that was her first mistake."
"Was it you who alerted Ros to the Asian deal?" I ask.
"It was, it was one that was five years in the making. That was a long haul deal. I didn't want her blowing away even more money that she had, she had a good run whilst it lasted. I couldn't risk buying it either, not with those two still in the blackmailing game. It is a huge contract and will be worth billions to you. You got everything yes?"
"Yes, I did. So, what next?"
"What indeed?"
"Who was my father?"
"My brother, Lesham. I never spoke of my family They did not exist to me after what they did. I took with me their biggest money maker and they never forgave me. I am not sorry either, they cast me aside and gave your father the company, the man was useless in business, he was too lazy and a spoiled son. I was much older and expected to be a leader and they made me work and let him live the American life, I was to be a leader in the community, whilst he partied. All I did was work and work and make them money, like a good son does, then one day they announced I was to marry. My father and hers had arranged for me to take a child as my bride, she was barely sixteen and I was thirty something, that was not a good match for either her or I, and I had decided I did not want live a lie and told them who I was and what I wanted. Alas, that is all I seem to have done, lived another lie..." Ana is crying...
"Can we all please go to bed? I am so tired Christian?" I look at my wife and I see her red eyes.
"I am so sorry Baby. Of course, Mom Dad, Jason, you all have early flights tomorrow, you go too. Uncle Henry is here to stay, yes?" Elliot had slopped off to see to Kate after her got the glare.
"Now they have gone yes, but they still have their blackmail files Christian."
"They had them; I have them now and believe me I have ordered the biggest shredder Paris has. I am spreading all her files and giving back what I can." Ana says...
"I wouldn't, it will open you up to being blackmail too, these people may just be glad their outgoings have stopped,or they may want revenge too." My thoughts too. Though Alex and Anton seem to be good guys...
"It seems we have more to talk about tomorrow, will you stay?" I ask.
"I have a room at the Four Seasons, but if I might, could I have a ride back and come back tomorrow with what I have on them?" I nod.
"Luke can you take my uncle back to his hotel, please and please come back tomorrow Uncle Henry."
"If I am welcome then yes, I would like that. Grace, Carrick I am glad you are both in good health and you Theo, I am sorry for the hurt I caused."
"We will have plenty of time to talk again, if you are stopping around Henry?"
"Umm, I want to, but as me, as Gersham."
"Okay then Gersham, there's a spot at the Thursday table, same time same place. See you soon." They hugged and slapped each other, would that I could be so forgiving. I guess it will take some time for that, I have many more questions that I know he has the answers to... Ana too has many more than I do, but as she smiles all those can wait. I need my wife...
Wow sorry for the non updates but I had to sort out a complicated who what and why... If you see something I missed shout out... I weave these plots and get a headache un-weaving them... Oh lummy... The pain killers I have taken this week, any way back on a roll, so tell me what I have missed. Carla's part is yet unfinished, that is coming, the shredding and the paybacks...
Thanks for the comments, the pm's and the reviews I love the lot of you xx