I'm awoken at daylight to my handsome almost fiance trying to sneak out of bed. "Christian?"
"Shh, baby. Go back to sleep. I'm getting up to get Liam something for breakfast. I want you to get a little more sleep." He kisses me sweetly on my nose and lips. "I love you." He gets up and I close my eyes back up, smiling again as I hear the door close lightly. Oh, how I love that man. I drift back off into a peaceful sleep.
I am startled awake, hearing someone banging on our front door. I sit up straight and I shake my head trying to wake the rest of the way up. I climb out of bed and I put on my slippers and I get a t-shirt and some shorts and I go down the hallway, where I hear men's voices coming from. I begin to walk a little faster, "Liam, go to your room, buddy." I hear Christian say as he attempts to remain calm but I can hear the frustration in his voice. Liam comes running into the hallway and when he sees me, he wraps his arms around my legs.
"Mommy, the men are trying to arrest Daddy." I gasp and squat down to his level.
"Go into your room and shut the door and I will let you know whenever you can come out. Mommy will figure out what is going on and we will get this fixed, okay? Everything is going to turn out okay, I promise." I tell him, hoping that I can really help to fix whatever is going on.
"Okay, Mommy." He gives me a kiss and runs into his room and I rush out into the living room, where I find Taylor standing by trying to object as two police officers are handcuffing Christian and reading him his Miranda rights.
"What the hell is going on here?" I ask with a furrowed brow, looking back and forth between the two officers.
"Ana, it is okay. Everything will be okay. We will fix this. Please trust me."
I look at him and suddenly one of the policemen starts talking, "Ma'am, we are arresting Mr. Grey because he is being charged with assault and battery and sexual assault." I furrow my brow. There is no way in hell that Christian did that. What the fuck?
"Ana, baby. I swear that it's not true. I would never…"
I cut him off and look into his concerned eyes. "I know, baby. I will help however we can and we will get you out of this. I love you and I will see you soon."
Relief washes over his handsome face. "Okay, baby. I love you, too." He looks back to Taylor. "Get Sawyer down here to stand guard in the hall and watch over Ana and Liam. Then, I need you to contact my lawyer and get him down to the police station. After that, I would like you to explain to Ana what is going on and then you can come down to the station as well. I will need you to pick me up." He looks back at me. "I need you and Liam to stay inside this apartment today. Is that going to be a problem?"
I shake my head. "It's not a problem at all, baby. It is basically what we've been doing since we moved here."
He nods. "I'm ready officers." He looks back at me. "I will see you soon, Ana."
I nod. "I look forward to it."
The officers basically drag him out the door and I manage to keep the tears from falling until the door closes behind them. "Have a seat on the couch. Let me take care of these phone calls and then I will explain everything that I know." Taylor tells me. I nod and take a seat on the couch. I notice that Christian cleaned off the coffee table and straightened out the throw blanket on the back of the couch. I smile through my tears about this. He truly is the full package. Now we just have to figure out how to get him out of this mess. I have a feeling that Sasha is behind this.
I decide to turn on the television while I'm waiting for Taylor to return to talk to me. I am shocked when I turn it to the news and immediately, I hear them talking about Christian. I turn it up.
"Today we have an exclusive interview only here at KCPQ with Miss Sasha Bennett, the former fiancé of Seattle's billionaire entrepreneur, Christian Grey. She will be filling us in regarding some shocking information regarding the billionaire. The exclusive interview will be airing right here at 9 o clock. You won't want to miss this."
I gasp. That bitch is going to try and ruin Christian just because he doesn't want to be with her and he never really has.
I'm lost in thought and don't even hear when Taylor comes back into the room. He clears his throat to get my attention and I look up at him and nod and turn off the television so that I can give him my full attention. He points to the chair, "May I?"
I nod. "Of course. Have a seat, Taylor." He sits down after nodding and he looks at me. "Give it to me straight, Taylor."
He nods again. He clears his throat before he begins. "Last night, I brought Miss Bennett to the penthouse because she said that she wanted to get her stuff by herself." I nod. "When we got there, she headed upstairs and I checked in with Sawyer to see if anything happened while I was gone. After I did that, I left him in the security room and I went to my apartment to check in with my wife." I don't know why he is giving me all these details. I nod anyways.
"I was startled about 20 minutes later, whenever Sawyer was knocking on our door frantically. He stated that Miss Bennett came back downstairs, she went into Mr. Grey's office. Whenever she came back out, she was holding some kind of stick and started to destroy the place. He said he tried to stop her but she hit him with the object so he came to get me to help diffuse the situation.
We ran back into the penthouse and together we managed to get her under control after taking the object from her. As soon as she was calm, or so we thought, she took off running to the elevator and she got on. The doors closed before we got there. By the time we got to the garage on the staff elevator she was speeding off in Mr. Grey's car." Wow. This woman is insane. I nod again, shocked by what he is telling me.
He continues. "We went back upstairs to assess the damage and found that she had completely destroyed everything upstairs, except the room that she stayed in. The downstairs was all wrecked as well. We didn't notify the authorities because we wanted Mr. Grey to have the final say on that. We knew that he didn't want to be disrupted in the middle of the night so we decided that it could wait until morning. There wasn't really anything more that could be done overnight anyways. We changed the codes to the elevator so that she couldn't get back in and we stood down for the night. I stayed up in the security office and relieved Sawyer to go and get some rest because we knew that today was going to be a busy day."
He clears his throat before continuing. "I sent another man out to look for Miss Bennett, but he couldn't locate her. In the middle of the night, I got a notification that she had, apparently, went to the press about her relationship with Mr. Grey. She had, apparently, also went to the police and showed them several photographs of his BDSM 'playroom' as he calls it. She claims that he tied her up and beat her and fucked her whenever he found out that she was pregnant with their child." I gasp. This is unbelievable. "That is why the police showed up right after I came here to warn Mr. Grey this morning to arrest him. I tried to object and tell this that this was a misunderstanding but they obviously did not believe me.
I see that you just saw that she is going to be interviewed at 9 so that she can sell her bullshit to the public. We have absolutely no way to know the extent of what this woman will tell them because she is apparently unhinged at this point and extremely upset about what happened at the dinner last night."
"Wow. This woman is trying to ruin him, isn't she?"
"Apparently so. I have to go down to the police station and help the attorneys to squash this and we can hopefully bring Mr. Grey home. I know this information most likely has you upset so go take a shower and collect yourself and then spend some time with your son before this interview goes on the air. Maybe you should call someone to come and be with you while you watch it so that you're not alone in the event that we haven't returned. If you would like, my wife can come down and keep your son occupied in his room while the show is on so that he doesn't know too much about what is going on."
I nod. "Thank you for telling me, Taylor. I would like if your wife could come and help with Liam. I'm going to go and take a shower after checking in on him. You go and find a way to bring him home, please."
"I will do everything that I can, Miss Steele. Sawyer is stationed in the hall so that if she, or anyone else that may be upset with Mr. Grey or you, shows up, he will take care of the situation."
"Okay." He stands up and I stand as well. "May I give you a hug, Taylor?"
He contemplates this for a moment. "It is against protocol, but yes you may." I nod and smile and give him a nice, friendly hug. I let go and see him out. I decide to give this Sawyer that I haven't met, a key to my apartment in case anyone that I want to see, shows up.
I peek out into the hallway. I see a tall, bulky man with dark hair standing stoically nearby. "Sawyer?"
He looks in my direction. "Yes, Miss Steele?"
I walk out into the hallway. "I am going to give you a key to my apartment for in the event that Mr. Grey or Taylor shows back up because I'm going to lock the door while I go and shower."
"Yes, Miss Steele." I hand him the key and he puts it into his pocket.
"Thank you, Sawyer."
"Just doing my job, Miss Steele."
I nod and smile and go back into my apartment and I lock the door and I check in with my son and let him know that everything is being work and that Daddy will be back soon. I let him know that I am going to shower and to only leave his room to go and get a drink and he agrees to do this.
I go and take a shower and think over everything that has happened over the last 24 hours. The good, the bad and the ugly. I wish that there was some way that I could help Christian out of this mess. Then, suddenly, I get a bright idea. I am going to contact Miss Lisa and see if she can help me out this last time. Surely, she knows what BDSM entails and that it is NOT abuse. It is contractual relationship between two consenting adults. Maybe she can help to get these charges dropped.
I get out of the shower and dry off before going to my closet and getting dressed in simple blue jeans and a t-shirt. I go to the makeshift foyer and get my phone out of my purse and turn it on. After the MANY notifications stop coming, I clear everything off for now and I go back and sit on the bed and call Miss Lisa.
"Lieutenant Carter" she answers.
"Hi, Miss Lisa. This is Anastasia Steele."
"Miss Steele. How are your new car and apartment working out for you?"
"They are going great. Thank you all so much for them. We love them. I'm calling about something else, though, and I was wondering if I could ask you one last favor."
"I'm glad that they are to you and little Liam's liking. What is it that you need help with?"
"Do you know what BDSM is and what it entails?"
"I do. We've had to deal with several cases of disgruntled women claiming assault after a contract is terminated."
I sigh, relieved that she has dealt with this before and just hoping that she can help me. "Well, my boyfriend is involved in BDSM and he got engaged to a submissive and he left her the other day for me. Now, she is claiming abuse and she is even going on the news to probably try and destroy his name. He was arrested earlier on charges of sexual assault and regular assault because of her false accusations. I was wondering if you could help to get this situation squashed with your resources and power? I wouldn't ask, but I know that he would never do what she is accusing him of doing."
"Hmm. I will look into this. Can you give me his name and information and the information on the jail that he was brought to? I will try to assist in this because I believe what you are saying."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Oh, thank you, Miss Lisa. I will owe you one."
"Think nothing of it, Ana. I have grown to care about you and your family. Just give me that information really quick and I will do what I can."
I give her the information requested. "I will contact you whenever I know more. Take care of yourself and little Liam."
"Thank you again. I will. Talk to you later."
"Hopefully under better circumstances."
"I agree."
"I'll talk to you later, Ana."
I hang up, smiling. I have hope that everything is going to be okay. I get up and go check on my son again. "You can come out now, if you want to. You can watch the dragon movie again." He looks up at me with an unmistakable smile on his face. He jumps up and runs past me to the living room. I follow him and turn on the dragon movie. It's still only 8 so we have an hour before the dreaded bullshit interview comes on.
I go and clean up the little mess that him and Christian made this morning with their little breakfast while he settles on the couch and gets into his movie. I am still pretty concerned about Christian and hoping that he makes his way back home soon. I decide to go and grab my phone and check out what kind of messages I have on my phone.
I find messages from Kate first. At first, she is asking about what happened last night and then insisting I spill the details. Then she calls more panicked and says she saw the news and that she is sorry that this is happening and to contact her if I need her because she will ALWAYS be there for me. I smile because I love my friend.
I keep scrolling through my messages and I also find quite a few from my Dad. He was just asking about my day at first and then more concerned messages about why my phone is off. In one of the last messages he is angry and concerned, wondering if Christian hurt me, because he had found a small article about him being into BDSM on his phone. In the very last message, he says that if he doesn't hear from me soon that he is coming to Seattle and that he was going to beat Christian's ass if he finds out that he has hurt me. Oh shit. Daddy is MAD. I need to call and squash this with him before he does something drastic. I move back into the bedroom to call him.
"Ray Steele" he says sounding more terse than usual so he must not know that it is me.
"Daddy.."
He cuts me off, "Annie, are you okay? Did that bastard hurt you? I saw online on something called the Seattle Nooz that he supposedly beats women. Has he done that to you, Annie? Don't you dare lie to me to protect him either."
"I'm great, all things considered. Christian has never hurt me, I swear to you. The woman who put all of that shit out is just trying to ruin him. It is mostly bullshit. Just trust me that he is absolutely amazing with me and Liam and he would NEVER hurt us."
He sighs sounding relieved. "Good, but I am coming to Seattle today. I want to see you for myself."
"Okay, Daddy. You can come if you want, but I swear that we are fine. Better than fine, actually. Other than all of this bullshit, everything is going great with Christian and I couldn't be happier."
"I'm glad to hear that, Annie. I will see you and Liam later. Give him my love."
"I will Daddy. We will see you later."
I hang up and put my phone on the charger and go back out to the living room, relieved that I calmed down Daddy. Just as I am about to sit on the couch next to Liam to relax as much as I can, there is a knock at the door. I get up to answer it, hoping that maybe it is Christian, even though I left the key with Sawyer to give to him so that he can come right in.
I open the door and there stands an older blonde woman with a smile on her face. "Miss Steele, I presume?"
"Yes. Who are you?"
"Oh. I'm sorry." She puts her hand out to me. "I am Gail Taylor. I understand that you met with my husband earlier. I'm here to help with your son, if that is okay with you?"
I smile once I remember the conversation with Taylor. I take her soft hand in mine and shake it. "It's nice to meet you, Gail. And please, call me Ana. Please, come in."
She smiles and nods and walks past me and waits for me as I close the door. "Can I get you a drink?" I ask her.
"Oh, no thank you, Ana. I'm fine. Can I meet your son?"
I smile and nod. "Of course." I walk her through to the living room and as we approach my son, who is deeply concentrating on his movie, I announce our presence. "Liam, someone has come to see you." He sits up and turns around with wide eyes. He smiles when he sees the nice woman. I look to Gail. "Gail, this is Liam. Liam, this is a friend, Gail. She wants to spend some time with you today if that is okay with you?"
"Yes, Mommy." He jumps off the couch and stands in front of her and offers his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Gail."
"It's nice to meet you too, Liam."
He smiles and I notice that it is 8:45 and that the interview is coming on soon. "Liam, why don't you show Gail to your room and make sure to show her all of your toys. She may even play a game with you if you are good."
He smiles back up at me. He looks back at Gail. "Do you want to see my room?"
"Yes, I would love to see your room and I absolutely love to play games."
He smiles wider and he takes her hand again and leads her down the hall to his bedroom. I keep a smile on my face until they are safely inside the room and then it falters as the nervousness of what I'm about to listen to washes over me. I sigh and I sit down and switch the television back to the news. I decide to get a glass of wine to calm my nerves. I go to the kitchen and decide to just bring the bottle with me. I get a glass as well and I walk back out into the living room as commercials keep showing on the television. I pour myself a glass and then I sit back and get comfortable and start to drink as slowly as I can manage. I feel like chugging it at this point so I have to refrain from doing that.
