At exactly 8, there is a stern knock at the door and I rush to open the door so Liam doesn't wake up. Whenever I open the door, I am not surprised to find Christian Grey standing there in a crisp grey suit. My breath hitches in my throat and it is then that I notice that he is even bulkier than I remember. He must have been working out a lot over the last 8 years. He clears his throat to bring me out of my errant thoughts.

I finally look up at his face again and smile when I see the smirk on his handsome face. "Uh, sorry." I move to the side. "Come on in." He nods at me and he walks casually into my apartment. I close the door behind him and I follow him into the apartment. I stop and give him a soft hug. "Would you like a drink?" I ask as I let go of him reluctantly.

He smiles a beautiful panty dropping smile at me. "Do you have wine?"

"I do." I smile back and go and get the wine out of the fridge and I can feel his eyes on my ass again as he follows me to the kitchen. "Are you staring at my ass again, Mr. Grey?" I ask as I stand back up out of the fridge and put the bottle on the counter.

He smiles. "I'm sorry, but you look stunning tonight, Ana." I blush and bite my lip and I reach up into the cabinet and get out 2 wine glasses. I pick up the wine bottle and glasses and walk past him out of the kitchen, nodding for him to follow me.

I sit and he follows me. I sit on the couch as I sit down the wine bottle and glasses on the coffee table. I pat the couch. "Have a seat, Christian. I don't bite."

He smirks again and he unbuttons his jacket as he sits down beside me. I pour us both a glass of wine and I hand one to him and I sit back on the couch and he sits back as well and he puts his arm around me on the back of the couch without touching me. He leans into me and gives me a sweet kiss. I pull back reluctantly. "You're engaged, Christian."

"I know. I don't have to be." He says as he goes to kiss me again and I stand up abruptly and I look back at him and he looks confused. "What's wrong, Ana?"

I sigh and take a drink of my wine and set the glass back down on the table and I walk around it and look at the picture of Liam on the mantle. "I have to tell you something important, Christian."

I pick up the picture and hold it against my chest and I walk back towards him and he looks up at me and sits up and puts his own wine glass down. "What is it, Ana?"

I sit down beside him. I take a deep breath. I look into his concerned eyes. "I don't have a nephew, Christian."

He furrows his brow. "Okay. Why are you acting like that may be a problem, though, Ana?"

I sigh again and look away and take a deep breath. "I have a son."

His eyes widen. "Wow. I wasn't expecting that. How old is he and why do you still look like something is bothering you?"

I look into his eyes and I put my hand gently on the side of his face, to soften the blow of the next words about to come out of my mouth. "He is your son, too, Christian. He is 4 and a half." His eyes widen and he looks away from me, clearly shocked by this revelation. "You don't have to be a part of his life, Christian. I mean, I would like if you are, but you don't need to be. I can take care of him on my own, as I have been for the past 4 years." He puts his hand up to silence me.

He closes his eyes and leans his head into his hands. He is silent and I'm curious as to what this man is thinking and extremely nervous about what he might say about this revelation. I go to hand him Liam's picture and he takes his head away from his hands and he takes the picture and looks at it and runs his finger along the picture, as if he is assessing our son's features. "What's his name?" he asks.

"Liam Christian Steele." He keeps looking at the photo for a few minutes and then he sits back up and he looks back at me.

"Can I meet him?"

I sigh in relief. "He is asleep right now, but yes." Just then, I hear a noise come from down the hall and he must notice it, too. We both look towards the hallway and suddenly Liam comes walking out, rubbing his eyes.

"Mommy, I can't sleep." He says. He finally opens his eyes the rest of the way and that is when he notices Christian. I look over and Christian has his mouth open, but he says nothing. I look back to Liam and he looks between me and Christian a few times and then he comes running over to me and he climbs onto my lap and wraps his arms around my neck. "Mommy, who is this?"

I look down at him, with my arms wrapped around him. "Liam, this is Christian."

He looks back at Christian. "Hi Christian."

I look back at Christian myself and he is staring. He finally clears his throat and offers his hand to Liam. "Hi buddy."

Liam shakes his hand and leans back against me. "Would you like to have dinner with us, Liam? I know you already ate, but it doesn't hurt to eat twice."

He looks up at me with a smile. "Yes, I'm hungry Mommy!" I smile and help him off my lap.

I look over at Christian, who still looks shocked. "Christian, will you still be joining us or do you need to go?"

He shakes his head and looks into my eyes. "I will be joining you if that is still okay?"

"Of course it is okay." I get up and he does as well and we all go to the table and I go gather our food after everyone else is seated. I sit down beside Liam, who is sitting between me and Christian, who is still staring at him, but the look in his eyes, morphs from shock into joy. During the meal, Liam and Christian discuss baseball and Christian clearly doesn't know much about baseball so it is humorous to watch. All the while, Christian watches us eat, while eating himself.

Whenever we are finished eating, we get up and I clear the table while the guys move back into the living room. After I get done cleaning up, I walk back out to the living room myself and I stop for a minute and just watch as the 2 bond on the couch. I finally make my way to the couch and sit on the opposite side of Liam as Christian. Liam is really enjoying himself with Christian. He hasn't really had much time to bond with any guys before because he was mostly around women.

Liam yawns and looks back at me. "Mommy, can you tuck me back in? I think I am ready to sleep now." He asks me.

I smile. "Of course, Liam." I go to stand up.

"It was nice to meet you Christian. Will I see you again?"

Christian smiles and looks into Liam's eyes. "You will see me again, I promise."

Liam smiles and runs over to him and hugs him and Christian freezes for a moment, but then relaxes and he puts his arm around Liam as well. "Good night, buddy."

"Good night, Christian." He says and he lets go and comes back to me and takes my hand and I quickly wipe away the tears threatening to fall from my eyes.

"I will be back shortly." I tell Christian and he nods. I walk Liam back to his bed and tuck him back in.

"Mommy, will Christian be my Daddy?" I gasp.

"I don't know buddy. Let's discuss this tomorrow." He nods and gives me a kiss and a hug and he lays down. "Good night. I love you."

"Good night. I love you." He says back. I smile and I turn off his light and shut the door again as I leave his room.

When I get back to the living room, I find that Christian has already poured himself another glass of wine. He makes eye contact with me and smiles. "I hope you don't mind."

I giggle. "Of course I don't mind." I walk around the table and I have a seat beside him and he puts down his glass and he pours me another glass for myself and he hands it to me with a smile and a wink. I blush under the scrutiny of this handsome man's gaze. "Christian…" he cuts me off.

"I want to be in Liam's life, Ana. I…" he trails off. "I'd like to spend more time with him and get to know him. He seems like an amazing little boy so you must've done great with him so far."

I clear my throat to distract myself from crying again. "I'd like that, Christian. I think he would like that too, based on tonight. Do you want to let him know that you're his Dad or do you want to just be a friend?"

He shuts his eyes, contemplating this. "I want him to know that I am his Dad, but I don't want anyone else to find out just yet. I'm sure if people know that I am associated with you and they see him, they will most likely figure it out, but I need to get some things sorted out in my life before I let anyone else know about him. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I understand. I can introduce you to him tomorrow. Do you want to just meet with him here, then, since you want to keep him a secret for now?"

"Yes, I believe that would be best at this point. I can come by tomorrow after work and we can let him know that I am his dad together, if that works out with you?"

"Yes, that works out. I don't have a job yet, anyways, so I'm pretty much always available."

"Ana, how did this happen? I assumed that you were on birth control."

I sigh. "When the incident happened, a friend and I witnessed the initial attack and then whenever they saw us, they stabbed me in my abdomen. That is what the scars are from. He twisted the knife and then he pulled it out and I fell to the ground and my friend got shot and I watched as he died before losing consciousness myself. I woke up in a hospital to discover that I was stabbed in my uterus, causing significant damage. That is the same time whenever they decided that they had to fake my death and put me into witness protection. Anyways, it was determined that there was only a 2% chance that I could ever get pregnant so they said that there was no use for birth control. Then you happened. He was born 8 weeks early because of the damage to my uterus and I had to have a hysterectomy afterwards. He was a strong boy from the beginning. He was so tiny."

I finally look back to Christian and he has tears in his eyes. He softly places his hand on my back and rubs it and it is comforting. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that alone, Ana. I knew I recognized you from somewhere whenever I first met you. You were in the news as one of the victims after the incident. So your family and friends all thought that you were dead?"

"All but my Dad still think that I'm dead. I haven't talked to anyone but you and him since I've been back."

He nods. I start crying out of nowhere and he wraps his arms around me and pulls me to his chiseled chest and he smells so damn good. "Maybe you should contact some of your friends and let them know that you're alive and then you will have more people to talk to."

I nod and he releases me and I sit back up. I wipe away my tears and look back into his mesmerizing grey eyes. "I think I might do that." I don't know why, but in this moment, I REALLY want this man, but I must resist. He is engaged.

He puts his hand on the side of my face and he kisses me softly and I deepen it this time. He pulls back abruptly with a conflicted look on his face like he is having some kind of inner battle with himself. "Christian?" I ask, concerned about what is going on.

"I have to go, Ana. I will contact you tomorrow to meet you about Liam." He leans in and kisses my forehead as he lays down his wine glass and he gets up and he leaves. I'm left gaping. What the fuck just happened? Oh, right. He is getting married. He probably has to get home to her.

I drink the rest of my wine and I pick up and put everything back in the kitchen and I go to my room and change into pajamas after locking the front door. I get into bed and hug my pillow and I drift off to sleep and have sweet dreams about the handsome Christian Grey. It was a pretty great night, aside from Christian's abrupt departure.

I am awoken to my son, way too early in the morning. "Mommy, I'm hungry. Come on."

I smile at him. "Okay. Give me a minute and I will be out there."

He nods and runs back out of my room. I get up and freshen up and I go out and my son and I have breakfast together and spend the day finishing unpacking.

Once we are done, I give Liam a bath and get him dressed. "You play for a bit. I'm going to go and take a shower and get ready myself. Mommy has a surprise for you."

He jumps up and down. "Hurry, Mommy." I smile.

"I will be back out shortly." He nods and goes off to play. After my shower, I put on a beautiful blue dress with some heels and light makeup. It's going to be another happy day, I hope. I'm going to contact Kate today as well. I can't wait to catch up with her.

I spend a couple of hours with my son. Whenever he takes a nap, I decide to call Kate and let her know that I am alive.

I get out my phone and dial her number.

"Kavanagh"

I've missed her so much. "Kate. It is Ana."

The line goes silent. "Kate?"

"Am I hallucinating or dreaming or something?"

"No. I've been in witness protection. They had to fake my death after the attack."

She gasps. "Where are you? I need to see you for myself."

"I am at Escala. Come to the underground garage. Tell them you're here to see me. I'm on the 15th floor in apartment 4C. I cannot wait to see you. We have a LOT to talk about."

"I can't wait to see you either, Ana. I will be there shortly. I love you."

I smile. "I love you, too, Kate."

I hang up and wait impatiently for my friend to arrive. I still have 4 or 5 hours before Christian will be here.

20 minutes later, there is a timid knock on the door. I peek through the peephole to find Kate fidgeting, nervously. I open the door and she takes one look at me and her eyes wide and she throws her arms around me and hugs me impossibly tight. "You're alive! This is real, right?"

"Yes, Kate." I struggle to get out because she is holding me so tight. "Can you loosen up a little bit?"

She lets go of me. "I'm sorry, Ana."

I nod. "Come in, Kate."

I let her in and follow her to the living room, where my son is now sitting up. "Ana?" she asks questionably.

"This is my son, Liam." Liam turns around to look at us. "Liam, this is your Auntie Kate."

He smiles big and jumps off the couch and comes running around and he puts his arms out to hug her and she bends down and hugs him. "It's nice to meet you, Kate."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Liam." He lets her go and she stands back up straight and just stares at him with a smile. He comes to me.

"Mommy, was this my surprise?"

I forgot I told him that. "It is part of it. The rest will come later." He smiles, excited. I look back up at Kate. "Would you like a drink?"

"Yes, please."

"Wine?"

"Perfect."

"Have a seat." She smiles and nods and sits on the couch. Liam runs off to play in his room.

I gather the wine and a couple of glasses and I walk back into the living room and I walk around the couch and sit down. I set the wine bottle and glasses on the table and I pour us both a glass. I hand her hers. "Thank you." She takes a sip. "Ana, please tell me where you've been and what's been going on? I've missed you so damn much. Have you talked to your Dad yet?"

"Yes, I went to see my Dad for the first 2 days that I was back. I've missed you as well." I take a drink of my wine. "Okay. Where do I start? First off…" I spend the next hour and a half telling Kate what happened. I told her about everything except Christian. I made it some random guy as far as she knows. I don't want to blow Christian's cover.

We laugh and cry together and Liam comes in and sits with us intermittently. He enjoys meeting new people since he didn't get the chance to meet many people in Little Rock. After I tell her about what I've been doing, she tells me about this guy she met. Apparently, Kate finally fell in love after all these years and I am so happy for her.

After we finish this bottle of wine, I go and get another. "Oh, Ana! We are having a small dinner party to make an announcement on Friday evening. You MUST come. Please?"

I smile at her. "I would love to come, but I don't have a babysitter for Liam."

She scoffs. "Bring him along. I'd like you to meet my fiancé and his family. They are such great people. You will just LOVE them!" She is so excited. How could I possibly say no? It's not like I have a life here right now anyways.

"I will be there."

She grins and wraps her arms around me, careful not to spill her drink. "Fantastic. Let me write down the address. I have to go. I'm working the evening shift today."

"Sounds like a plan." She backs out of the hug and I get up and get her a paper and pen and she takes a drink of her wine, emptying the glass and she sets it down before she writes down the address. She scoots it towards me on the table. She stands up and I stand up with her. "Liam, come say bye to Kate." I shout down the hallway. He comes out and runs up to her and hugs her legs.

"It was nice to meet you, Kate."

She puts her hand on his head and rubs his hair back. "It was nice to meet you, too, Liam." He lets go and I walk her to the door and I hug her again before she leaves.

Liam and I spend the next hour together before there is a knock at the door and I immediately know who it is and I'm a bundle of nerves. I check myself in the mirror and I approach the door and compose myself. I open the door and there he stands in his crisp business suit. I smile at him and he smiles back. "Come in, please." I move out of the way and let him in and close the door. I turn away from the door to him looking at me with a loving look in his eyes, smiling. He wraps his arms around me and holds me tightly against his firm body. I wrap my arms around him and we stay like this for a moment. He kisses my head and he pulls back. "Where's Liam?"

"Oh, he went to put some toys back in his room. He doesn't know you're coming. I just told him that I had a surprise for him." He smiles at me. "Have a seat on the couch and I will go get him." He nods and waves for me to go before him into the living room, probably so he can stare at my ass some more.

He sits on the couch and I go and get Liam. "Liam, your surprise is here." I tell him.

He looks at me and his eyes widen. He comes running for me and wraps his arms around my legs, excitedly. When he lets go, I take his hand and walk him back to the living room, where Christian is sitting with a smile on his face and a little gift for Liam.

Liam takes off running to him and wraps his little arms around Christian's neck and he hugs him tight. Christian puts his arms around Liam as well and he looks up at me and winks. Liam pulls back from the hug. "I'm so happy you came back, Christian."

"I'm happy to be back, buddy." Liam smiles and eyes the gift in Christian's hand speculatively. I sit down on the couch, leaving some distance between me and Christian and I just watch this exchange.

"Is that for me?" He finally asks.

"It is." Liam smiles and takes the gift out of Christian's hand. He rips off the ribbon and he opens the small box and he gets a confused look on his face as he stares at the contents of the box. I peek over and see that there's some kind of bracelet in it. Christian looks at it. "Oops, wrong box." He takes the box and lid from Liam and he closes the lid and slides it back into his pocket. He reaches down beside the couch and pulls out a bigger, longer box and he hands it to Liam. Liam's eyes widen.

"How did you?" I ask.

"I went and got it from the hallway while you were getting Liam." He winks at me again. I nod and smile and we watch as Liam opens the box. There is a blue t-shirt inside with a picture of some baseball player on it. "Take it out and look at the back." He encourages Liam. Christian grabs the box as Liam takes the shirt out and he picks it up and looks at the back confused. He turns it around so I can see it.

"What does it say?" I look at it and I feel the tears start to fall. It says, "Daddy's Little Man".

Christian looks at me silently asking if he can tell him. I nod and look at Liam. I want to see his reaction.

"It say's 'Daddy's little man'"

Liam's mouth opens and he looks at Christian's face and I see the tears welling up in his eyes. "Are you my Daddy?" he asks.

"Yes, Liam. I am your Daddy." Liam looks to me to check if it is true and I just nod with tears running down my cheeks.

Liam looks back at Christian and he drops one side of the shirt and runs back into Christian's arms and wraps his arms back around his neck. I see that Liam is now crying. "I am so happy to finally meet you, Daddy." He says with his little voice cracking.

"I am so happy that I finally got to meet you, too, Liam." He says and I can hear his voice cracking as well, so I know that he is also crying. This embrace continues for a little bit. I finally peel myself up off the couch to give them some privacy and I go to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of wine and sip on it and try to compose myself.

A little while later, Liam comes running into the kitchen wearing the t-shirt and smiling. "Mommy, I'm going to show Daddy my room!"

"Okay, baby."

"Thank you for finding my Daddy for me, Mommy."

"You're very welcome, baby. I promised that I would one day, didn't I?"

"Yes."

"Go on and play with Daddy then."

He smiles and takes off running out of the room. I decide to cook up dinner. I almost forgot all about it.

We eat dinner together and Liam and Christian run off to play again while I clean up. I've never seen either of them this happy and it makes my heart sing. I just wish that I could have Christian, too.

I go to give Liam a bath, but Christian insists so I let him. I sit on the couch with the wine.

Liam comes out clean and dressed in his pajama bottoms and his new t-shirt again. He gives me a hug. "Are you ready to go to bed, Liam?" I ask him.

He rubs his eyes. "Yes. I want you AND Daddy to tuck me in."

I smile. "We can do that." He takes my hand and I get up off the couch and he takes Christian's hand as well and he practically pulls us into his bedroom. Liam jumps up into his bed after throwing back his sheets. He lays down. I cover him up. Christian tucks him in tight and Liam is just smiling ridiculously. We both kiss and hug him good night and tell him good night and that we love him and I walk out of the room and Christian turns off the light and closes the door. I walk back to the couch and sit back down and pick my wine glass back up. "Would you like some?" I ask him.

He shakes his head. "No, thank you. I have a few things to take care of, but I will be back tomorrow around the same time if that is okay with you?"

"That would be great!" he leans down and kisses me on top of my head. I put down my wine glass and stand up and I wrap my arms around him and he reciprocates the hug.

"I will take care of this, Ana." He whispers, almost to himself. I furrow my brow. Take care of what? He pulls out of the hug and he looks into my eyes with a pained expression and he lets go of me and he walks towards the door. He stops after a few steps and turns back around. "I forgot something. He walks back towards me, pulling the little box back out of his pocket. He hands it to me. "It's an ankle bracelet. I thought of you whenever I saw it. I go to thank him for it, but he walks away again and he leaves.

I sigh once he is gone and I go and lock the door. I take the ankle bracelet out of the box and it is a small gold chain with a small infinity sign on it. It is beautiful. I wonder what this means. I put it on and then I put up my wine glass and take it to the kitchen and wash it and put it away and I turn out the lights and go down to my bedroom. I decide against taking a bath. I will shower again in the morning. I WILL utilize that fancy tub soon, though. I put on a night gown and I get into bed and decide that I need release so I get out my vibrator and I fantasize about Christian again until I have a pretty incredible orgasm. I put it away and I cuddle my pillow and I drift off to sleep, dreaming of Christian, as usual.

The following day, Liam and I have a great day together. My Dad came over and spent some time with us and took us out to lunch. It was a pretty great day. My Dad left about 5 because he knew that Christian was coming back and he didn't want him to know that he knows he is the father, as per my request.

When Christian came, the evening went pretty much the same as the night before. Christian brought Liam some toys and they had a great time while I stayed out of the way.

After Liam is in bed, Christian has a glass of wine with me. He keeps looking at me with a mixture of sadness and love as we talk. He finally kisses me sweetly again and I attempt to deepen it again. He pulls back so that his lips are just an inch from my own. "I don't want to get married but…" he veers off and he lets go of me and he turns towards the window and he glances back at me and I see tears in his eyes and he looks down. "I have to." He almost whispers and then he gets up and looks at me with a pained expression. "Remember I have a thing tomorrow so I won't be able to make it, but I'd like to spend some time with him this weekend."

"Okay. I have a dinner to go to tomorrow myself. My friend invited me."

He half smiles at me. "I have to go." I stand up and wrap my arms around him and he reciprocates the hug. He pulls back and looks at me again with a pained expression and he lets me go again and he walks away and I hear him hesitate before going out the door, but he goes. I follow and lock the door and I clean up and head to bed.

I wake up in the morning to Liam's voice. "Mommy, wake up." I open my eyes and I see him kneeling, looking at me, beside me.

"What is it, baby?"

"It is going to be a happy day again, Mommy." He says with a huge smile.

I smile back at him. "I hope so, baby. Every day with you is a happy day for me, though."

He smiles. "Make me breakfast, Mommy."

"Okay." He jumps up and gets off the bed and runs out of my room. I get up myself and stretch before walking out and making breakfast.

We have a fairly uneventful day. Kate calls to remind me about the dinner. I take Liam out and buy a new lacy black cocktail dress and heels for myself and a pair of dress pants and a white button up shirt for him with some dress shoes. I don't know the dress code for tonight, but I decided that we should look nice since we're meeting new people.

During the day, I start thinking about our finances. They gave me enough money to last me a little while, but I vow to start looking for a job next week. I hope to get into publishing, like I intended to do whenever I graduated college. I hope that I can find a good job.

"Is Daddy coming today?" Liam asks me.

"No, baby. We're going out to dinner tonight with some friends and he has something going on himself. We will probably see him again tomorrow."

"Okay." He says with a smile. I can tell that he is excited about meeting new people.

"We need to get ready now." I let him know.

"Okay."

We get cleaned up and get dressed and I put on a necklace that my daddy had given me years ago that simply says 'Ana'. I hadn't been able to wear it for years because of the whole witness protection thing.

I spray on my perfume and I leave my room and find my son in his room playing again. His shirt came untucked again so I have to fix it. "Liam, it is time to go."

He stands and walks to me with a smile. "You look beautiful, Mommy."

I smile and bend down and tuck his shirt back in. "You look quite handsome yourself, Liam."

He smiles again. I stand up and I grab our jackets in case it gets cold. I grab the keys and take Liam's hand and we leave and I lock the door. We take the elevator down to the garage and head to our car and I get in after buckling him in. I put the jackets in the other side of the back seat and I drive to the address that Kate gave me.