Most of the characters belong to E. L. James

Christian was zapping the local news channels while Violet was on his lap playing with a plastic keychain, his face and Jessica's were in several of them, if it wasn't theirs, was Kate's.

The family had lunch at Escala, Christian one hundred per cent refused to go to bed and lay down. He wanted to see his daughter and be with her the more he could. Things will change, and he didn't know the kind of arrangement they would make about her.

He avoided his phone because he didn't want Elliott questioning him, he didn't even know where it was, but he wondered if Ana was okay. He started to feel a lot of pain in his arm now, which sucked, because he knew he would have to take a sedative and rest. He looked at Violet and she seemed sleepy too. "How about we go have a nap?" he said to her tenderly and quietly as if she would understand.

"Hey Mia," he said to her sister who was seated on the other couch texting. "Can you help me? We are going to take a nap," he said.

"Sure." Mia took the baby in her arms. Christian walked to his bedroom and she followed him.

"I'll just go to the bathroom and be right back," he said to Mia. He found the bag with the medicine there. He read the prescription and took one of the pills.

He went out and found Violet already sleeping and Mia making a fort with pillows.

"Thank you," he said.

"Are you okay?" Asked Mia worried. She was the one who hurt the most for his brother, he was her everything. Every time she needed him, he was there for her. When her dad told her she needed to study something that would pay the bills Christian stepped up and he took care of her studies as an actress so she wouldn't get nagged by their father. And when she needed advice with guys Christian would always give her the best.

"Yeah… just a little sore, but don't tell anybody, please."

"I won't" she replied going to his closet and grabbing two blankets. "Come on," she ordered, "lay down." He obeyed and she covered them both and left.

Christian felt the effect of the sedative very soon, and soon enough he fell asleep too.

Elliott and Kate were arriving home, because Elliot left his car at Christian's earlier, they were driving separately. Everything went as planned with Christian, she was proud of herself, but now Kate was tense. Elliott said they needed to talk and that was very early, they haven't had a chance until now.

She got home first and went to the kitchen and lit on the kettle, she hoped she wouldn't need anything stronger than tea.

Elliott finally got in and sat on one of the stools of their kitchen island. He was calm, he knew nothing he could say could change things between them after all, it wasn't about them.

Kate served tea for them while he went on and on telling her everything about Christian and Ana's story.

"Carrick, you will have to admit that they are better off. They have been unhappy for a while, if they ever were indeed happy. You need to accept that you were wrong."

He sigh loudly before speaking.

"I know. I did so many things wrong. I should have never made her sign that contract, perhaps I could have saved my son so much unnecessary suffering. And I know he will ask her why she didn't end it, and she won't be able to lie."

Grace looked at him with compassion. "Doing it was a risk, you took it, and I didn't stop you, and here we are. I just hope he keeps talking to us."

Carrick caressed her wife's hand. "I hope by the end of the day I still have my son." He said sad and regretful.

"You have kept all that story from me?!" Elliot had been talking for two hours. Kate was half astonished, half in disbelief and a percent was also mad at Elliott for faking he didn't know Ana.

"It's been ten years and is quite the story." He added justifying himself.

"Everything makes so much sense now." Said Kate. "I'm really sorry for them."

"Me too. You know what Christian told me today?"

"What?" She asked him at the edge of her seat.

"That he is sure Ana loves them both, but she hasn't realized it yet."

"Oh wow," said Kate. "Poor Christian. How does he know?"

"I don't know. That's his thing though, isn't it? He can read people very well. And he knows Ana too."

"John is a very nice guy; I think he really looks up to Christian. I hope they make things right and don't hurt him."

"Me too. I don't know him, but ma'am! He is competing against my brother, and he doesn't even know it."

Christian woke up suddenly, he opened his eyes a little bit and was looking for Violet with his arm and couldn't find her, his eyes were heavy, he was trying to fully wake up and get up. "She is ok," said Jessica. Christian looked at the blurry image of her who was coming out of the closet.

"How are you?" She asked him softly.

"Those pills are awful" Christian replied, "I think I can't even open my eyes." He mumbled the words.

"Keep resting." You need it and Violet is fine.

Christian's mind wanted to be alive and start taking action, but he couldn't keep his eyes open. He fell asleep again.

"Should I talk to her?" Asked Kate. "Tell her you are sorry, perhaps?"

"May be. I kind of wanted to scare her, I'll admit it, but I thought things were worse, I thought they were about to run away, and would never know of Christian again."

Kate laughed at him. "You have a very dramatic imagination for a big man, you know." Elliott rolled his eyes.

Kate grabbed her phone and called Ana… she waited until it went to voicemail. She hung up.

"She didn't answer, do you think she is avoiding me?"

"How could I know? Why don't you leave her a message?" Kate sigh, she hoped she wouldn't lose Ana's friendship. After a few minutes she called again.

This time Ana answered. "Kate," she said her voice was weird, as if she was crying.

"Ana, are you ok?"

"Yeah, but I'm in the middle of something right now," she said, breathing heavily. "Can we talk later?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sorry to bother you." Kate had anguished in her voice; something must have happened to Ana.

"It's fine. I'll call you," she added before hanging out.

Christian finally could get up. He went to the bathroom and washed his face. He would take half that pill next time, he thought. The sun was setting. He went out of the room looking for food.

Jessica had the table ready for dinner. Dinner for two.

"Hey," he said.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, those things are not a joke."

"Violet is already fed and showered, Gale is making her sleep, I thought you and I could have dinner alone today."

"Yeah. Good idea," he said.

It has been a long time since they ate together, just the two of them. The last time was probably when she told him they were expecting and that didn't go as well as he would like to say. It took him a few months to accept the fact that he was going to be a father, but without a doubt his daughter was the best thing that has happened to him.

He sat down while Jessica grabbed the plates from the kitchen and took them to the dining table.

Christian was serving orange juice in their glasses. It sucked that he couldn't drink alcohol while taking the medicine.

"It smells amazing, Jessica"

"Thank you. I cooked."

"Did you? Good job."

She smiled.

They started to eat quietly.

"So…" she said, breaking the silence.

Christian took a deep breath.

"So…" replied Christian before continuing. "You are a wonderful person Jessica, you are a great mother to our daughter, you run the house, you run charities, you have put out with me." Said Christian.

"But…" Jessica added looking at him not judging, just prepared.

"But you know we are only married on paper by now. You deserve better. I think we can make things work with Violet, but I don't think we should keep pretending."

"I'm not going to argue with you. It's true, you are right." She drank a sip of her juice. "I just want to know, why now?"

"Don't you think it is time?"

"I think the time was way earlier than now" she said resigned.

"You could've ended things too if you wanted to." He said, she had plenty of opportunities, he thought.

"Christian…"

"What?" he said, raising his eyebrow.

"I couldn't. I wasn't allowed, it needed to come from you."

"I'm not following you." He was confused now. What did she mean?

"I asked something first and you haven't answered." She said looking at him waiting for answers too.

Christian grabbed a bite of food before speaking. He didn't know how to really give her an answer.

"I kind of met someone" he finally replied.

Jessica opened her eyes wide. "I knew it!"

"What?" he questioned her.

"You were cheating on me."

"Well not really, I could have but I didn't. I wanted to come clean with you first."

"Who is she?"

"I'm not answering any more questions if you don't give me at least one answer."

"Shoot."

"Why weren't you supposed to end it?"

Jessica took a deep breath. "When I decided to go out with you, I signed a contract, a very detailed one that didn't allow me to discuss the topic of divorce before you. A very threatening contract I must say. The only way for me to end our marriage was if I gave you an heir, and then I couldn't do that to you. You were so happy when Violet was born."

Christian was shocked. His blood was racing, he didn't need anymore information, he knew it was his father who was behind it. "I think I'm going to need another pill after this." He was starting to get a headache, he asked anyway. "Who were the parts of that contract?"

"Christian…"

"Jessica, just tell me."

"It was between your father and I."

Christian swallowed.

"Listen, I don't think your father ever thought things would get this far."

"Why did you allow it, why didn't you tell me?" He was very frustrated.

"Answer one of my questions now." She was regretting telling him, she knew how things between Carrick and Christian were getting harder and harder with the years. This situation was not going to help their relationship.

"Who is she?" she asked again.

"I'm not telling you that." He said coldly. She sigh, he was being cold again.

They were finally being honest with each other; he could give her something without being too clear, he thought, he didn't need to be mad at her right now. "It's an ex-girlfriend." He replied.

"You have an ex-girlfriend?"

"I have a few but all of them before this one I'm telling you, after her, nothing was the same. Then dad made me meet you." He said sharp.

"Do I know her?"

"May be." He replied.

"Does she know you are married and have a daughter?"

"Yes"

"Is she okay with that?"

"Well, she knows we aren't ok. I haven't really asked about Violet."

"Jessica, why would you sign a contract like that?"

"You are a charming guy Christian; I really think you wanted to like me when we met, you remember we used to talk a lot about many things, we had fun and I fell in love. I knew you didn't love me as much, but I hoped you would by the time I signed that contract. I thought it was unnecessary because we were going to be happy."

"Jessica, that means you got pregnant on purpose."

"I did." She replied with sorrow.

"You wanted to end it too."

"I did." She replied again.

"Is she…"

"She is yours," she answered him, looking at him in the eyes. "You can run a DNA test if you prefer. I have been faithful to you."

"So, I guess I was a horrible husband, wasn't I?" He knew he hadn't been the best.

"Not at the beginning as I say, we had fun together. But after a few months you would be so cold towards me. Like everything changed, I was never enough for you, I knew it. You would get drunk and ignore me for a few days. I wasn't happy either, Violet was the way out and she helped, you were still cold with me, but we stopped arguing that much. I wish we could have found a way of getting along better and made things work, I know you tried at the beginning but if people love each other, it shouldn't be that hard, for us it seemed like a lot of work."

"I'm sorry for everything I did wrong but thank you for our daughter. She changed things for the better for sure. I really need to talk to my father though, he went too far."

"So, I have been packing, we will leave tomorrow," said Jessica.

"You are not leaving Jessica; this is your home and Violet's. I'll stay in a hotel or with Elliott, I'll see."

"You can't move, you need to heal first."

"Let's think this trough," said Christian. "We have a huge apartment. I can move upstairs for a while until my arm gets better and we can think of a statement for Kate, but let's wait. I don't think it would hurt that we live under the same roof for a while. What do you think?"

"It seems fair," she replied. "Stay downstairs tonight I'll take upstairs; you already have slept there. Tomorrow we can move everything around."

"Ok."

Jessica got up and started to clean up. "Go rest, I'll be there in a minute just to pick up my pajamas and some clothes for tomorrow."

"Have you seen my phone?" he said. He needed to check on Ana.

"Taylor has it, I believe."

Christian went to the camera room, Taylor and Gale were eating there. They had all the screens set up on the monitors except the dining room, they were giving them privacy.

"Hey T, have you seen my phone?"

"Yes sir," Taylor got up and gave it to him.

Christian said goodbye and went back to bed. He was going to try to sleep without a pill, then he checked his phone full of hope and was disappointed. There were no messages from Ana. He couldn't fall back to sleep, he was worried, why she hadn't said anything? Did she really believe in Elliot's words? And he thought half of a pill wouldn't hurt, he wanted to rest and not to think he was losing her.

Thank you for reading.