Fav, follow and review. Tell me what you think and please keep the comments coming they ground me and remind me to write lol! I am suffering from serious writers block in terms of Taylor any thoughts or ideas are welcomed via DM.

Guest: It is not about Teddy choosing a woman over his family it is about him becoming his own man and making his own decisions despite his past shortcomings.

Christian

Four weeks ago

"This girl has woven herself into the life of both my children and you are telling me that we don't have any information on her?" I ask Taylor. It has been a week since our disastrous dinner with Teddy and that girl.

"It is her father sir" Taylor explains. "He has gone through a lot of trouble to protect the personal information regarding his daughter. He is a Colonel Marine Raider he is more than capable of burying things on his family."

"Have you been able to use any of your contacts?" I ask at the end of my rope.

"I have been in contact with men that I served with and they have nothing, but respect for him and aww for his wife" he says before pulling out a thick folder. "She on the other hand is a very public figure. She has been in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Discover… you name a publication that features anthropological culture studies and she has been in them. She featured her daughter quite frequently, but only pictured from behind." "So this 'student of the world' belief is not just an act?" I ask wishing he had come up even a small amount of information I could use.

"From what I can see Alisa Ivanovna Townes is a highly decorated writer who had immersed herself in various cultures in an effort to preserve languages and oral histories" Taylor says as he places article after article on my desk along with pictures. There are pictures of a toddler standing naked facing a bon fire another of a little girl in a kimono and holding the hand of a man who looked loving even as he scowled at the camera.

"I need more" I say wiping the stacks of paper off. "I need to know that she won't hurt him and use him like last year." Taylor nods his head once before leaving the office.

Thanksgiving Night

"I think I would love you if you were bald, but let's not test it so soon" Ana says pulling my hands away from my hair as I try my best to pull it out.

"She is going to hurt him" I sigh falling back on to our bed. "How can he not see that?"

"There is a chance that she won't" she argues climbing into bed next to me. "Your father thought I was a gold digger when we first got engaged."

"That was because he did not know you" I argue.

"And you don't know her Christian" she says softly. She kisses my cheek before reaching to turn off the lamp signaling the end to our night and conversation. I lay awake for a few hours before falling into a restless sleep. I wake with the sun and decide to get a drink. I head to the kitchen in my robe as I am greeted with Teddy's girlfriend meditating in the middle of the kitchen floor I realize the robe was a good decision.

She does not move as I enter or when I pour myself a glass of orange juice. I walk softly around her until I am standing in front of her. She seems peaceful almost as if she is asleep.

"The girls are sleeping in my room" she says softly making me jump slightly. "I am not just creepily sitting in the dark in your kitchen for no reason. I know you already think I am a threat against Teddy, I don't want you to also think I am a creep lurking around your house."

"Joanna, it isn't you specifically…" I start.

"My name is Joni" she interrupts me. "I know that you know I know you know my name. I don't know what type of show of dominance it is for you to pretend you don't, but I worked in a monkey sanctuary while I was in Peru so I can recognize dominance declarations."

"Let me explain something to you…" I say.

"No, let me" she says finally opening her eyes. "I am deeply in love with your son. It is that mushy, sappy first time type of love, that if he isn't going to be there I don't want to go type of love. It may not seem like much to you, but that is everything to me. He is everything to me. I know he has been hurt before and I cannot imagine the affect that had on you, but I am not her and I refuse to allow you to treat as if I am."

I stare at her for a moment wondering exactly how much Teddy has told her about last year.

"Now, if you will excuse me I will be leading Ava and Phoebe through a yoga session in the living room" she says rising to her full height. "I am happy we were able to talk."

Joni

"You have five minutes" I say walking around the table, is trying to keep space between us.

"I have somethings to tell you" he says sitting away from me. "I just ask that you let me finish before you…"

"Is it about the girl you thought you got pregnant last year?" I ask happy that he finally told me himself.

"How do you know about that?" he asks.

"Your sister and I talk everyday" I say rolling my eyes. "Of course I used her to gain information about you."

"What else has she told you about that situation?" he asks slowly. I sigh, sitting down next to him.

"You thought you got your high school girlfriend pregnant, you proposed to her, she said yes, your dad disowned you, the baby was Asian and therefore not yours" I say casually.

"Wow" he says shaking his head. "She really told you everything."

"In her defense, she thought I already knew and I did not dissuade her of that thought" I admit. "Her telling me isn't the problem, you not telling me is the problem."

"How long have you known?" he asks guiltily.

"She told me a week after we met."

"She barely knew you then" he argues.

"I have a very loyal disposition" I say stoically.

"If you have known all this time then why haven't you spoken to me about it?"

"I wanted you to come to me" I ask rhetorically. "Do you really think I would willingly go two weeks barely seeing you? The second week was because I had to figure out how I felt about the news and what I wanted to do with the information. When I first found out about it I was pissed, but I meditated and called my mom. She helped me realize that you are a herring under a fur coat."

"I am a what?" he asks incredulously.

"You are a herring under a fur coat, it's a Russian cake" I explain. "You are comprised of layers and the more I dig into you the greater the variety, but I have to accept all your layers."

"You could have just called me an onion" he grumbles.

"An onion is the same layer over and over again" she says shaking her head. "You are a complex of layers all different all, all special and all you."

"I wanted to hate you or be angry with you" I tell him honestly. "I should be angry with you, but I only felt extremely sad."

"Sad" he asks on a whisper.

"Yes, sad" I say looking at him in the eye. "You thought you would have a family, you prepared for a family and instead you got a literal representation of betrayal. I find that to be really sad."

"No one understood that" he says softly looking away from me. "When it happened everyone was so busy being angry at her and relieved that the baby wasn't mine that they didn't get it. I wanted that dream, the dream of having someone love you that you love back creating a new life, a family."

"Something that was mine" he says hitting his chest. "All my life I have been Christian Grey's son. His shadow is so big sometimes I felt like I would go days at a time without seeing the sun. All that darkness attracts fake people; fake friends, fake teachers, fake everyone, but she wasn't fake, at least I didn't think she was until she was."

I rise to my feet cradling his head against my chest.

"It's going to be okay" I whisper. "I just wish you would have told me instead of Phoebe."

"When I met you I thought 'wow this is what real looks like'" he says tilting his head up to look in my eyes. "Then we started dating and it was like ''wow this is what love feels like'. Everything that came before it was to prepare me for you, being with her, thinking I loved her it prepared me to love you."

I truly love this boy…