CHAPTER 53

(EVA)

"So, what do we do now?"

I glance at Gideon as he looks at me questioningly, we have watched the GEH jet disappear and it occurs to me that we have been just sitting in the car talking about everything that has happened for over an hour now and Gideon has also been on the phone to Arash getting him on board and bringing him up to speed with everything. I realise that I need to return Jen's phone and I pull it from my purse and wave it at him.

"Our first point of call is returning this" I say and Gideon nods.

"Where do you think she will be?" he asks.

I shrug nonchalantly, "My best guess would be she would head to the police precinct or she would go to her father's office to tip him off that his wife has left him and that his behaviour is no longer a secret" I say.

"Where are we going then?" he asks and I think for a moment.

"My gut tells me to go to the police precinct and if she's not there we can go to David's office, and drop her phone off there whilst informing him that we know what he's been doing". I grin at Gideon as I say this and he lets out a small snort.

"I am sensing the idea of that fills you with great joy" he says wryly and I nod.

"Oh god yes, after everything Sadie and Lucy said I am eager to shovel some shit his way" I reply.

As we arrive at the police department I glance out of the window and nudge Gideon.

"Bingo!" I say as I point to the familiar figure of Jen disappearing inside.

"Ok well we know she is here now, let's go" Gideon says with grim determination.

We walk into the police department and heads immediately turn our way. The general buzz of talking and movement in the building immediately ceases as everyone takes us in and stares open mouthed at us.

"Why do you always have that reaction on people?" I whisper as I nudge Gideon.

He wraps his arm around me and lets out a small snort, "It's a gift" he replies simply, but with obvious amusement.

We move forward and as we do so, Jen sees us approaching her and she comes forward to meet us.

"Your phone" I say simply as I hold it out to her.

"Can we talk?" she asks as she takes the phone from me.

"It depends on what you want to talk about" I say sarcastically.

"Let's go somewhere a little more private" she replies as she glances around and sees everyone staring at us and hanging on our every word.

"Fine, but I have nothing I really want to say to you. I am just returning your phone as I assured you I would, there isn't really any more that needs to be said" I say.

Jen nods but gestures towards a small office, she opens the door and waits as we walk past her inside. She follows us inside and closes the door.

"I am assuming my mother and sister are now on route to Seattle with the Grey's?" she asks and I nod.

"That is correct, and you should also know she has also told us about the physical abuse and we have seen the evidence of it with our own eyes," Gideon says coldly.

"But…" Jen begins and I hold up my hand.

"Don't, don't even think about it. There is nothing you can say to excuse your behaviour. We know that you were aware of the abuse – all of the abuse, we know that you did nothing to help your mother escape the wretched situation she was in. We know that you are as bad as your father and used details of the abuse simply as a tool to coerce and control him which, quite frankly, makes you no better than him and you will crash and burn along with him when Sadie presses charges".

Jen snorts at that and shakes her head, "She won't press charges, she is too afraid of my father to go against him" she says dismissively.

I grin at her, "Yeah I'll agree with you that she is scared of him, but it's amazing how that fear can be replaced with bravery when you are believed and supported, not to mention when you have the resources of two powerful multi billionaires at your disposal. Believe me when I say my husband and I will not rest until your piece of shit father is where he belongs and you are right there with him. I obviously cannot speak for the Grey's but by the expressions on their faces when they saw Sadie's abused body tells me I'm fairly certain Christian, Ana and Elliot are of the same opinion".

I see the colour slowly draining from Jen's face as she listens to what I am saying and she licks her lips nervously. "I could hand over all the evidence I have gathered over the years detailing my father's abuse… it would help my mothers' case" she says after a moment's thought. I stare at her in disgust and shake my head.

"Is that to salvage your conscience, or to simply save your own neck?" I ask and Jen opens her mouth to speak but Gideon quickly steps in.

He is displaying an aura of complete icy calm as he stares at Jen, "You should know that it is a given that you will hand over all the evidence you have. There is no could about it, you will hand over everything you have. My attorneys are now on the case as we speak and I am certain that Christian Grey has also put wheels in motion to get his father, who is one of the top litigators in Washington State on board. They will be liaising to build a case against your father and you will be forced to hand over everything that you have in your possession which will be of use in building their case to get Sadie what she deserves" he says coldly.

We watch as the last bit of colour drains from Jen's face and for a moment I fear she is going to pass out, we can almost see the cogs turning in her brain trying to figure out a way to wriggle out of this and avoid any repercussions from her actions. "You should know my father is aware of what my mother has done and he is making plans to fly to Seattle as we speak" she says eventually and despite her obvious fear I still sense the defiance in her voice as she says this.

I shake my head in disgust, "Because you went running straight to him to tattle to him as soon as we had left" I say my words dripping with derision.

Jen shuffles uncomfortably but doesn't say anything which tells me all I need to know, that is exactly what she did.

Gideon sighs in obvious irritation at that, "Well, in which case I will just have to persuade him not to do that, and make him realise that would not be a clever thing to do," and with that he moves away from me. He pulls out his phone and I watch him; I am wondering who he is calling and a moment later I get my answer when I hear him say Carrick's name.

"Hello Carrick, Gideon Cross here… yes I'm good, listen I am assuming Christian has called you regarding Sadie Greaves?... Good, listen there is a good chance her husband Dr David Greaves is on his way to Seattle to cause trouble, I need you to start putting in motion a restraining order for him so he can't get anywhere near Sadie… yes… I believe Christian and Elliot have plenty of evidence to support the case for a restraining order… yes, she was a complete mess… yes… is she? That's good, Grace will be able to give a medical opinion on the injuries we witnessed… yes… yes we are I have already got my personal attorney Arash on the case so I'll get him to call you so you can liaise with each other… I will, thank you Carrick… I will… Thank you, goodbye". With that Gideon ends the call and pushes his phone back into his pocket with a satisfied look on his face. He turns his attention to me and his gaze softens.

"Christian had already called him and given him the basic story so he was fully aware of Sadie and he is going to get the ball rolling from his end. I'm now going to go and pay Dr David Greaves a visit and advise him that it would be in his best interests not to fly to Seattle and also let him know of what will happen to him if he does, but make sure you call Ana at some point to warn them that there is a possibility that he could show up in Seattle".

I nod, and glance at my watch, "I will, but there is a good chance that they are still in the air at the moment and Christian doesn't like phones being used whilst in flight so there is no point in calling yet. But I will, and when I have finished here, I will join you at David's office" I say.

Gideon nods and leaning down he presses a small chaste kiss to my lips before leaving the room. I watch him go before returning my attention back to Jen who has also watched him go. She looks at me warily as I appraise her.

"I really can't figure you out" I begin, "as a police officer, someone who is meant to protect and serve not to mention as a woman, how could you not do everything in your power to help your mother escape your father? She is your mother for Christ's sake, she fucking gave you life. Surely, it's the very least you could do as her daughter to help her and considering the profession you are in it makes it all the more incredulous to me that you did nothing" I say.

Jen shakes her head and she is trying to look defiant but I can see she is now beginning to realise the situation she is in. "You don't know what kind of man my father is, I figured it was in my best interests to learn ways to dominate him so I didn't end up like my mother and sister" she says.

I shake my head, "That is no excuse and you know it, your sister has been working quietly and helping to get your mother away from him for years, and she was the one who saw the opportunity that presented itself when Elliot got in touch. As soon as you became aware of what he was doing to your mother you should've gathered the evidence not to simply hold over him but to put the abusive bastard away and put an end to the nightmare your mother was living. It's not fucking rocket science, you let your own mother be systematically physically and emotionally abused for years and turned a blind eye to it just to gain the upper hand with your father, in my opinion that makes you no better than him and hopefully you will get what is coming to you as well" I say derisively.

"I have said that I will cooperate with you, and hand over all the evidence I have gathered that should help" she says and I hear the desperation in her voice as she says this.

"My husband has already advised you that you will hand over everything, I just suggest you examine your motivation and reasons why you are doing so" I say. With that I turn and leave the room as I can't bear to be near this woman any longer.

As I walk out into the main area a police officer walks towards me looking at me carefully, "Eva? Is that you? The daughter of Victor Reyes?" he begins and I grin up at him at the mention of my father.

"Yes, Victor Reyes is my dad" I say and he smiles back at me.

"I thought it was you" he says kindly. "Jesus, the last time I saw you, was when you were a teenager… a rebellious teenager" he says with a grin and I shift uncomfortably as I remember just how rebellious and out of control I was when I went to live with my dad in San Diego. "You probably won't remember me but I was on the job with your dad in San Diego before I relocated to Detroit, my name is Sam, Sam McDonald" he says before pulling my arm and leading me over to a quiet corner.

"Let's go for a little chat" he says as he pushes open a door. I find myself in a deserted break room and he asks me if I want a coffee. I shake my head and we sit down at a table and I wait while he fixes himself a mug of coffee.

"Vic told me you had gone and married that rich bastard from New York" he says as he settles himself down in the seat opposite me and my eyebrows rise at that and he flushes slightly.

"That rich bastard is my husband and I love him so be careful what you say next" I reply with more than a little warning in my voice. I know he is probably joking but my father's opinion of Gideon has undoubtedly been heard by this man and coloured his opinion of him, so I won't have anyone bad mouth Gideon in any way.

He holds up his hand in a gesture of surrender, "I apologise, that was wrong of me to say that" he begins. He pauses and glances around nervously before leaning closer, "Listen to me, I don't know what you are doing with Jen Greaves but whatever you do don't get mixed up with her as she is not a good person. She is a bad cop, who will distort evidence to get the results she needs… and there are other things which she has done which I won't go into right now but all you need to know is that you have to stay away from her. Vic is my buddy, and I've known him for years, so as his daughter I feel a duty to warn you about her".

I place my hand on his arm and reassure him, "Thank you, I am already fully aware of what she is like and while I can't go into any detail at the moment, I'm fairly sure she will get her comeuppance. The situation we are dealing with is quite complex. However, thank you for your concern and I will take on board what you have said".

He nods at me, clearly happy with my response, "How is Vic?" he asks warily.

I sigh, "He's ok, he got shot recently and so he is recovering from that. It was that which set a series of events in motion, resulting in the situation I currently find myself in involving Jen".

Sam looks at me carefully as if he is unsure of what he wants to say next, "I saw the thing in the media about you being related to The Grey's in Seattle" he says eventually and slightly awkwardly.

I nod, "Yes it was all quite a surprise, but it has no bearing on my relationship with my dad, he is still my dad" I say firmly and Sam nods as he realises that I understood what he was getting at but remained unsaid.

I decide that I want this conversation to come to an end and I glance at my watch, "Thank you for the warning and when I speak to dad again I'll tell him I've seen you. but right now I need to go" I say.

Sam nods and I pull out my phone and text Angus who informs me that he is waiting outside for me.

I say my goodbyes to Sam and reassure him once more about my involvement with Jen, then I head outside to the car where Angus is waiting for me. "Hi Angus, can you take me to Gideon please?" I say and he smiles kindly at me as he holds open the car door for me.

oooOOOooo

(GIDEON)

I arrive at the office of David Greaves and take a good look at it as Angus watches me through the rear-view mirror. I have spent the journey filling him in on everything that has happened so far.

I pull my attention away from the building outside and meet Angus' steady gaze. "Will you head back to the police department to wait for Eva?" I ask and Angus nods.

I climb out and raise my hand to Angus as I watch as the car drives away then I turn and walk purposefully into the office of David Greaves.

As I walk in, I see a young woman sitting uncomfortably at the reception desk and a man is berating her.

"David Greaves I presume" I say as I stop in front of the desk.

The man turns and his eyes widen as he clearly recognises me, then confusion fills them as I am certain he is wondering why I am here.

"I am" he says as he straightens and turns to face me full on. His dominance tactics have no effect on me and as I size him up I can see he is just a weak ineffective little man who gets his kicks and eases his own inadequacies by bulling those who are weaker than him.

"Can we talk… in private as I'm sure you won't wish for what I have to say to you to become public knowledge" I say with more than a little bite in my tone.

The young woman behind the desk is staring up at me with wide eyes and I smile kindly at her.

"Hello" I say gently to her as I offer her a smile and she immediately flushes and smiles nervously at me.

Greaves nods and gestures towards his office. As he moves towards it I fall into step beside him, and as he opens the door I step inside and he follows me in, closing the door behind him.

"Would you like to sit down?" he asks me nervously. I respond by folding my arms and I remain standing. He watches me carefully as he puts distance between us by moving to the other side of his desk. I am fully aware that I am intimidating him and that is my intention.

I am yet to say a word to him but my eyes don't leave him. I can see him getting more and more agitated by my actions.

"Look what is this about?" he asks eventually.

"Your wife" I say simply and confusion fills his face which is slowly replaced by realisation and understanding.

"Of course, your wife is the half-sister of the child my wife gave up for adoption when she was a teenager and she was meeting him for the first time today after he got in touch with her" he says. He watches me carefully and licks his lips nervously.

I still don't say a word to him, and eventually he sighs. "Look, you don't want to believe everything Sadie tells you. She is a very sick woman and I'm sorry if you have been taken in by her delusions. My daughter told me she had told tales of abuse and how she has now gone to Washington with this son of hers and his adopted family. I will be flying out to collect her as soon as I can and I can only apologise to you for her lies" he says.

I stare at him, "I believe you are the only deluded person in this scenario" I say carefully and Greaves' eyes widen at that.

I take a step towards him, "You see, not only have we listened to Sadie's story which was completely supported by your daughter Lucy. But we also have written evidence of the way you have been treating her as a slave for the entirety of your marriage".

"What!" he splutters, "I am insulted" he adds.

I take another step closer, "Are you really? Well so am I. You are insulting my intelligence if you think I believe the crap that is currently coming out of your mouth. We know you employ your wife here and we also know that on paper she gets paid for that employment. We also know that she sees none of the money as it gets paid to a bank account solely in your name. We know you abuse your wife, because your other daughter Jennifer is so eager to save her own neck that she immediately threw you under the bus and offered us everything she has on you. We also have evidence of the physical abuse you have inflicted on your wife by the state of her body which we saw with our own eyes before she left Detroit".

I watch as Greaves sits down with a thud and swallows hard. He is no longer looking at me and appears to be deep in thought as though he is trying to figure a way out of the situation he is now in.

"Just for the record, Elliot's brother Christian… as in Christian Grey, as in the successful billionaire businessman Christian Grey called his father Carrick Grey who is a successful lawyer in Seattle to help Sadie get a divorce from you". Greaves opens his mouth to protest but I hold up my hand and he quickly shuts it again, swallowing whatever it was he was going to say.

"You should also know, that I have called Carrick and asked him to put in place a restraining order, should you decide to ignore my request that you don't fly to Seattle to retrieve your wife. So it would be in your best interests to not go anywhere near your wife ever again. Christian and I will be making sure there are unlimited resources at Sadie's disposal to get back every dime you owe her for all the years you have employed her and not paid her, and don't even think about trying to squirrel away that money now you are aware of this fact as that would look incredibly bad for you when it all goes to court and we have the evidence of everything you have done up to this point. It would look as though you are hiding something".

"Why are you doing this? It has nothing to do with you" Greaves splutters eventually.

I unfold my arms and leaning down towards him I place my hands flat on the desk. I watch with some satisfaction as he backs away from me as I fix my gaze on him once more.

"Elliot Grey is my wife's brother. That makes him my brother-in-law; therefore, he is my family. As you are probably aware, Christian Grey is also my brother-in-law as he is married to Ana Grey who is also my wife's sister – their mutual father was quite prolific and it was quite the coincidence when it all came out about their parentage and the links between the biological and adoptive families. Anyway, Elliot, Ana and my wife Eva are incredibly close and Christian and I will do everything in our power to make our wives happy. Our wives are not happy at this moment as they have heard Sadie's story and like Elliot, they want to help her. Therefore, it has everything to do with me as I value my family more than anything". I pause and shrug, "…and besides, no real man could fail to be disgusted by what your wife has suffered and I could not in good conscience turn a blind eye to that even if the situation had nothing to do with me".

I lean towards him once more, "So Dr Greaves, I think you should take my advice and remain here in Detroit and wait for my lawyers and Carrick Grey to get in touch with you, and then I suggest you don't cause a fuss. You don't contest the divorce; you don't do anything other than exactly what you should do if you have any shred of decency in you. You will repay everything you owe your wife; you will also provide her with a generous divorce settlement and you will let her go and let her rebuild her life away from your abuse".

"And if I don't do that?" he asks haughtily.

I shrug, "If you don't then I will make it my business to let the world know exactly what kind of man you are Dr Greaves and if I did that, I doubt you would be practicing medicine for much longer as nobody would wish for you to treat them, as I am certain nobody would trust any doctor who also happens to be a manipulative, controlling narcissistic abusive wife beater – wouldn't you agree?" I say mildly.

I straighten up and as I do so my phone buzzes, I pull it out and see it is Eva and I quickly answer.

"Angel" I say simply.

"Hey Gideon how are things going with Dr Greaves? Do you think he will cause any trouble?" she asks worriedly.

I smile widely and fixing my gaze on Greaves I answer her. "He has been very co-operative up to this point and I don't believe he will cause us any problems… if he knows what's good for him" I say simply.

With that I hear her sigh, and then she lets me know she is on her way here and is about five minutes away. I tell her to come straight in to me when she arrives and she agrees without question.

As expected about five minutes later the door opens and Eva is standing there.

"I called Ana, they have all arrived safely in Washington and from what I could gather they were all with Grace when I called" she says. I nod at that pleased to hear that Grace was now on board so there would be some medical evidence to back up everything else we have on Dr Greaves.

She smiles up at me and then her eyes move towards Greaves and they harden significantly and the pure hatred I see in them as she stares him down surprises me.

"So, you're the abusive fucker are you?" she looks at him derisively before looking up at me, "Seriously I can see why he beat on Sadie, as there really isn't much to him is there? If he took on a real man he'd be flattened in seconds, but that's why you abused Sadie isn't it because she didn't fight back" she says.

I see the anger flash in his eyes and he stands trying to intimidate Eva but she just laughs at him. I smirk at the lost look on his face, he has no idea what to do. He is used to having Sadie cower before him, to have a woman actually laugh in his face and not be afraid of him has left him at a loss.

Eva stalks up to him and gets right in his face, "You will never touch Sadie again" she says as she pokes her finger in his chest. I watch as his hands ball into fists and see he is itching to strike Eva.

"I wouldn't even think about it if I were you, if you lay a finger on her you will come off worse. She practices Krav Maga, you wouldn't stand a chance against her… and besides I would also beat you to a pulp if you touched one hair on her head" I say dangerously.

I watch as he swallows hard and then stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Get out of my office" he says eventually.

"Not until we have your assurances that you will do everything I have requested" I say as I fold my arms once more.

Greaves sighs and after a moment he simply nods, "Alright" he says with more than an air of complete defeat about him.

Eva shakes her head, "Not good enough, we want it in writing. Signed and dated that you agree to whatever Gideon has asked you to do" she says.

Greaves glares at her angrily before yanking a piece of paper towards himself and pulling out a pen. We watch him scribbling furiously and I see Eva is filming him writing it. Then he signs it, dates it and pushes it towards her.

Eva picks it up, quickly reads it and then hands it to me, "Is that everything you asked him to do?" she asks me and I quickly read the hastily scribbled note and I am surprised to read he has capitulated completely.

"It is" I say simply. With that Eva grins at him and turns off the recorder on her phone.

"Pleasure doing business with you Dr Greaves, shall we go Ace?" she says and I nod holding out my hand towards her.

"Yes Angel, lets go home" I say.