HOW DAT TEA TASTE FROM THE LAST CHAPTER? MUHAHAHA. Let's hear more from the prized cow.

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we're burning all the bridges now

Friday

Lillian was dumbfounded while Carrick's expression had morphed into the beginnings of a volcano about erupt.

"B-bull-s-shit!" Lillian managed to finally get out after finding her words. "You're lying, and vasectomies fail all the time."

"Less that 1% fail and you know I'm glad you brought that up because last week I went for an appointment to discuss having it reversed and to my delight, not only was I still snipped but I could have the procedure done as soon as my schedule allowed it." Christian revealed, cocking his head to one side. "So I'm going to ask you ONE MORE TIME Lillian, who have you been fucking behind my back? Because despite our arrangement I have remained monogamous." He stressed the last word for added effect.

It was true. He never once strayed, Lord knows he could have but for a man who loved sex, it no longer mattered in the elemental way that it did before. Not since Ana.

Except now that Ana was in his life again, sex was all he could think about. He wanted her badly. He wanted more. So much more.

"You're lying." She was desperate. "I want proof. A third party of our choosing."

"How about this. You get the non-invasive paternity test done. I'll happily provide a DNA sample and I'll get another checkup done then we'll both lay our cards on the table but I am dead certain that I will take you for everything you've got Lillian and I'll have a fucking ball doing it so think again." Christian wore a smug expression. This was just too much fun. Watching Carrick's face now start to pale was even better.

Lillian shook her head and bolted out of the Great Room with Taylor hot on her heels. Christian found it amusing how she ran like a little bitch. He honestly thought she had more fight in her.

"Son... I—" Carrick began. He was stuttering now. "Christian—"

Christian turned to look back at his father who was now struggling to speak. Good manners would dictate that he offer him water at least but he didn't give a shit.

"Nuh uh, Consular." Christian mocked. "Your prized cow is on the loose. You might want to go after her and make sure she's locked up in the barn."

"Christian, I genuinely thought you were making a mistake."

"You're right, I was. By marrying that bitch, I was and you chose her over me. Your son. Sure, I've been a fuck up but Dad, for Christ's sake, I've been really trying. You didn't even give Ana and Belle the slightest chance. After everything she did for me. In those few hours she changed my life completely. I was just too late to realize it." Christian shook his head. "But as I told you last weekend. You and I are done, personally and professionally."

"I can fix this." Carrick offered weakly. Grace was going to kill him. The firm partners were going to kill him. Everything was going to go to shit.

"How does it feel Carrick? The woman you thought was from high society and well educated, with class to carry the Grey name?... in the end she acted like a two-bit whore. And you had the gall to call Anastasia one. You made your bed, Carrick. Now go and share it with your prized cow and her baby daddy. I'm sure they'll stroke your ego well."

Carrick swallowed, unable to find his words. He was going to kill Lillian.

By the time Christian was done speaking, he could sense Taylor was back in the Great Room. He turned around to address him.

"Taylor, please escort him out. Make sure he's on the proscribed list from here on out." He said firmly and began to walk to head in the direction of his study.

"Christian, let's talk about this." Carrick pleaded. "I'll apologize to Anastasia and Belle... I made a mistake."

"The time to talk was last Friday but you made the decision to be a fucking asshole to the woman I love and my daughter. You didn't show them one ounce of respect or affection. As I told Mom and now I'll repeat it to your face... you're dead to me."

After talking to Taylor about putting security back on Lillian and asking Welch to look into her further, Christian asked for one more thing.

"Taylor, I want you and Welch to personally analyze the previous security reports for Lillian from the duration of our time together in addition to everything else. This remains between the three of us."

"Sir." He nodded in agreement. "In addition to vetting all her known associates are work, is there anyone you remember from your time together who may be of interest?"

"Honestly, I barely paid attention. I was bored out of my mind for the most part." Christian ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "If only I hadn't fucked up two and half years ago." He muttered under his breath.

"Christian, you can't keep holding on to that. She's back now."

He looked up to Taylor. "Jason, as thrilled as I am that she's alive and back in my life. I swear it hurts even more than when I thought she was dead. I am constantly at war with myself with the peace and guilt... and now all this shit." He gestured his extended arm towards the door to point at the situation earlier.

"It's not even been a month and all that shit will die down. Focus on your new family, that's all that matters."

Christian took a deep breath and nodded distractedly.

Later that evening, as soon as Christian read Anastasia's email, he bolted out of his bedroom and called Taylor.

"Tell Stephan to ready the jet. We're going to the Maldives." He barked into his phone as he walked into his study.

Exactly two minutes later, Taylor walked into his Boss's study slightly disheveled and trying his best to appear awake in a pair of black sweats and a hoodie.

"Sir. What happened?"

"It's Ana." Christian began. "Lillian accosted her in the Ladies room at Asiate. She told her about the pregnancy and the BDSM. WHERE THE FUCK WAS SAWYER, DID HE NOT SCAN THE PLACE?"

"Sir, I read his report. In his initial scan of the restaurant she wasn't there. She may have been in the ladies room waiting." Taylor's mouth was now set in a grim line. This was a colossal fuck up. "Sir, may I ask... why didn't you tell her?"

"Because Taylor... I'm sure Gail has told you. She's been abused for years and now with Belle in the mix and to find out this— I was going to tell her but I just got them back and it's been..." He shook his head before he sat on the leather couch in his study and held his head in his hands for a few seconds before handing the phone with the open email to Taylor.

Taylor read over the email and let out a measured breath. She was scared. Gail had showed Taylor some of the key videos on Ana's channel including the 60 minutes special. He had also reviewed her foster care files and was overall sickened to know what she had been through. It was a harsh reality but when it hit closer to home, it was an unbelievably hard truth to swallow.

Still, Ana had gone through this and survived and now she was thriving or trying to at least.

"Don't go to the Maldives, Christian. You'll only make this worse for her." Taylor spoke.

"What the fuck? I need to go."

"You'll overwhelm her. She's out there for a job, don't jeopardize that. Give her some time to settle with this information, email her back and if you're really unable to control yourself, call her but do not go there."

"I can't lose her again."

"If you push, you will. She said she'd be open to meeting you with your lawyers. That will be your in. Maybe Mr. Rodriguez and Miss Garcia or your siblings can help to facilitate something before hand... but Christian, seriously. Do not steamroll her. You saw how it backfired when she went out on a date."

"Don't remind me." Christian muttered and clenched teeth trying to rein in his anger at this situation. "I'm going to fucking kill Lillian."

"She's not worth it but we can have fun destroying her?" Taylor smirked making Christian chuckle.

"I'll leave the specifics up to you and Welch but yes, destroy her."

"Christian, as scared as she is, she does love you. Granted the child isn't yours but she loves you enough to make sure you have the experience that you didn't have the first time around in addition to not keeping Belle from you."

Christian felt his chest constrict at the thought of all he missed out on. "Still, she's afraid of me and it's my fault. She thinks I'd take Belle from her which means she's probably thought of this before. It's why she ran away that first time as well."

"It's clear that Lillian painted a picture of the old Dom Christian to her."

He saw his Boss close his eyes with a pained expression. "The old and manipulated Christian. I was such a fucking asshole back then" Christian shook his head. He silently wondered what picture Lillian must have painted to her about their sex life. If she was explicit then Ana would retreat even further.

Sure, the sex with Lillian was rough but it was all consensual. However, to someone with barely any experience at all, it would be scary because at first glance it would appear as not having any control. And he knew how important control was. It was the same thing Ana needed to function as well.

"She doesn't know anything about you." Gail's voice came through the threshold of the study. "Once you get the chance to explain everything to her, she will understand and see things differently. All of this is new Sir. You'll both get through this."

"She doesn't deserve all this shit." Christian stared at the floor. "She's lived with enough fear and pain in her life."

"Write back to her explaining everything. Even if she says she won't read it. Write to her." Taylor spoke again.

"And then in a few days, try to call her... maybe she'll pick up otherwise talk with Mrs. Grey and Miss Grey to help out." Gail smiled at him.

While she never agreed with her Boss's older lifestyle and his ex-fiance, she knew deep down he was a good man who thought very little of himself... for reasons she didn't know why.

Christian silently nodded and bid them goodnight. He sat in the same position for a while. Kate would give him the same advice Taylor did, so would John. They'd all tell him to wait for her to come back. Jose and Alice would block his efforts too saying the same. He didn't want to be the reason why Ana had a low but he silently wondered how she'd be feeling right now.

If he were in her place, he'd fucking ripped everything in his sight in half in a jealous rage. He almost did when she had a simple date with Jack. To even think of her moving on with someone else and having their child growing in her body... he'd never be able to handle it.

To watch another man play father to Belle while he wasn't there, just the mere hypothetical was driving him insane.

Judging by how desperate Lillian was, she probably was explicit about their sex life to do her best to drive Ana away. He thought for a second again. If someone came up to him and did the same, he'd lose it. He'd rip the son of a bitch to shreds.

He opened up the email app and began to write back to Ana, praying to the heavens she would read it.

1 hour ago

Across town in Murray Hill, Lillian was sitting in her apartment, almost catatonic.

This day had backfired spectacularly in her face. She had missed calls from her parents and Carrick. No doubt they conversed and a screaming match ensued.

Her strange bedfellow was on his way to the Maldives right now with no cell service. She had to at least tell him before taking care of the problem at hand.

She heard her door knock and looked at the time. It was late and she wasn't really expecting anyone and front desk hadn't called her which means it was probably someone on her list of allowed visitors. She quickly looked in the mirror and wiped off the some of the mascara track marks and tried to make herself look presentable.

As soon she opened the door her eyes went wide and felt a hand around her neck and saw a second person quickly come in and close the door.

She was raised against the wall, choking and kicking, trying her best pry his hands off of her neck and catch her breath. She was furiously kicking as she met a pair of brown and blue eyes.

She started to feel faint and her vision blur when she finally fell to the floor choking and trying to catch her breath.

The first man with brown eyes knelt down, wearing a menacing smile.

"You just had to go and fuck it up didn't you, honey lips?" He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear she still coughed and moved back.

The other man standing over her spoke. She recognized him and the fear and confusion in her grew exponentially with no understanding of what the fuck was happening.

"You had one job. That was to sit pretty and wait for us so you could waltz back in and then do what we needed you to do..." His eyes were a striking blue and his voice was deep but he spoke gently and for some reason it sounded even more frightening. "But you got greedy didn't you Lillian?"

"I...I..." She cried out.

"Get rid of it." The man with brown eyes, crouching next to her spoke. "Then tell him you were lying. You were desperate because you loved him and couldn't think straight"

"But...don't—"

"Stop speaking Lillian. Do as we say." Blue eyes spoke. "Get rid of the problem, otherwise we'll do it for you and it will be... uncomfortable to say the least."

Lillian nodded. She was offered a hand by brown eyes that helped her up.

"Have it done within the next 48 hours." Blue eyes spoke. She nodded again.

"You also intercepted Anastasia?" He asked.

"Yes." she spoke quietly

"And what did you tell her?"

"About the pregnancy and BDSM." Her voice wavered. "I thought I could scare her away..."

Blue eyes looked up and took a deep breath before looking back down at Lillian. "You should be so fucking lucky you're still breathing. You really fucked this up."

"I'm sorry..."

"No you're not." Brown eyes snapped. "Don't fucking play the crocodile tears game with us."

"But I thought you were—"

"Plans changed." He cut her question short. "Get rid of this." He looked down at her stomach. "And then keep your mouth shut. Had you not rattled Anastasia, we could've still salvaged the situation."

The two men talked a little more giving further instructions. Once they left and had their IT guy scrub the CCTV footage of their visit from the building's system.

Blue eyes got into his car in the garage and rolled the window down.

"Start work on Plan B, she maybe useful to us in convincing him to come out and play. Keep watching her and if she fucks up again, take care of her and make it look like an accident."

"You got it, Boss." Brown eyes nodded.

"Good work, Reynolds. Telling them to add another woman to the Maldives detail was a good suggestion. Worked in our favor given the fucking mess upstairs. Are you sure Taylor won't be suspicious."

"Sawyer was mostly her CPO and I was mostly in an emergency capacity bur I've been careful."

His Boss nodded and drove off. As he watched the car exit the garage, he then felt his burner phone vibrate and checked the incoming message.

11:23PM Lillian Atterton: Please come back, can't we just talk?

11:24PM Anthony Reynolds: This is over. I'm too busy cleaning up your shit to stick my dick in you. Find someone else to fuck.

11:24PM Lillian Atterton: You weren't that good anyway.

11:24PM Anthony Reynolds: Says the woman who practically begged me to fuck her every night. We were good together but you just had to go and fuck it up. Now sit tight and do what my Boss asked of you. Till then sweet dreams, honey lips. I'll be in touch.

A/N:A few of you had figured this out already. Also, I'm team Sawyer FOREVER.

Talk to me fanfic familia. Also a lot of us are having a blast discussing character traits and backgrounds on facebook and having in depth discussions. It's fun and full of hilarious gifs. You can find me by searching for Nadia R. Paleseptember10

Bridges - Broods