ANA POV

It has been almost 4 years since I left Seattle. After Christian's affair was released by almost all media channels, we were constantly surrounded by paparazzi to the point that it became impossible even to attempt to leave my house, so I contacted my dad, Ray and with his military contacts he was able to get us away without being followed. But I still wanted Christian to be a part of our children's lives so I wrote him a letter to inform him where and how to find us, I asked Kate to personally give it to him, besides my dad she was the only other person I kept in contact with since I left and I knew I could always trust her no matter what her personal opinion of my husband she had. But he never responded or contacted us, and a couple of months after I sent him the letter Kate came to visit us. I could tell she was nervous and after I sat her down and asked her what was going on, she told me Christian was already living with the woman I had caught him with and she was pregnant, she said they looked very happy together. She told me she had confronted him about his responsibility to us, but he told her he had no interest in seeing me or the kids, but he was willing to pay me child support. He would give monthly payments through his lawyers. I wasn't totally surprised at that point he had proven he wasn't the man I thought he was when I met him so a couple of days later when Kate was leaving, I asked her to deliver a final letter to him from me. Even then I secretly hoped he would have a change of heart and come looking for his children at least but he didn't. So, I focus my attention on giving my children the best life possible. I struggled at first, after all, I was in a new place, a single mother of two little children. Thankfully, Ray was there to help me. He almost emptied his savings account getting us settled in a small apartment and covering our bills until I found a job. I ended up working in a restaurant as a server for the first year, it wasn't easy to make ends meet as a single mother of 2 with a server's salary alone, especially in a place like New York. But I didn't want to continue to burden my Daddy with my problems, so I did my best. More than once I had to walk from my apartment to the restaurant because I couldn't afford the bus. Thankfully my neighbor was a retired schoolteacher that had only a married son that lived in Florida with his family, and she had offered to take care of Teddy and Phoebe while I was at work in exchange for me to clean her house, do her laundry and run errands when she needed. Until one night while I was walking home from work I found a women's purse lying on the sidewalk under a tree branch, it seemed like it had flown out of a vehicle or something like that because it didn't seem as if anything was taken from it., So I opened the wallet and found the ID and credit cards belonging to Eva Tramell Cross and I remembered that name from a conversation I had with Christian about a possible meeting we might be attending with a businessman from New York, named Gideon Cross and his wife Eva Tramell Cross a few days before I found him cheating. So I knew Gideon Cross's office was located in the crossfire building he owned. The building was about 40 minutes from where I was, and I was tired, but I also knew that Mrs. Cross will probably need her purse. I didn't know how much but I could see there seemed to be a good amount of cash I didn't even think of keeping the purse because it would be as bad as stealing. So, I went to deliver the purse at the crossfire. I'm not sure if it was a miracle or just a random coincidence but by the time, I finally reached the building it was almost 7:00 p.m., and almost everyone had left so I asked the security if he could check if Mr. Cross was in his office, he flat out laughed at me for attempting to see him without an appointment. I knew it was a long shot after all I was married to a billionaire like Cross so I knew they wouldn't let me go in if I tell him the truth, so without even thinking I asked to inform Mr. Cross that Anastasia Grey, wife of Christian Traveling Grey needed to give him a very important message. After a couple of minutes, a tall guy appeared to escort me to the office of Mr. Gideon Cross, as expected I started to feel nervous the closer we got to Mr. Cross' office, and just as I embarrassed myself in front of Christian the first day we met I ended up falling on my knees in front of Mr. Gideon Cross…

FLASHBACK

"ouch" how embarrassing I want to die

"Mrs. Grey, are you alright?" A handsome tall dark hair Adonis asked me to offer me his hand to help me up

I took his hand and allowed him to help me, I couldn't ignore the way he looked at me. I know he was expecting to find a good dress, a well-groomed beautiful lady, not the unkept tired-looking woman in front of him

"Ms. No offense but are you Mrs. Anastasia Grey? Christian Grey's wife?"

I tried not to show how humiliated I felt at that moment, so I took a small breath and spoke

"Yes, Mr. Cross, my name is Anastasia Rose Grey, and for now at least I am still married to Christian Grey CEO and owner of Grey Enterprises Holdings, but that is not what I am here for. I apologize for using that as an excuse to see you, but I just wanted to return to you what I think is your wife's purse. I found it while I was walking home from work, but the security wouldn't let me in, so I just said the first thing I thought about. But that is all, I'm not here on Christian's behalf and I am sure he wouldn't be happy to know I used his name to get to you"

He was visibly surprised, but he politely asked me to wait 5 minutes for him and he exited his office, I started to get nervous about what was he doing, and I also was beyond late, I needed to pick up my children from Annita's apartment and I am still over an hours walk away I need to go! But as I was about to exit the office, Mr. Cross returned with an extremely beautiful woman by his side.

"Mrs. Grey, I would like to introduce you to my wife and the owner of the purse you graciously brought to us"

With a beaming smile, she shakes my hand

"Eva, nice to meet you"

"Anastasia, nice to meet you too"

"I wanted to personally thank you for bringing my purse back, besides any monetary value that purse held one of my most valuable possessions"

She reaches inside her purse and pulls out a beautiful engagement ring

"This belonged to my mother, she passed away last year. And since then, I carried her ring on a chain around my neck but yesterday I somehow ripped my chain while exiting my vehicle and I simply put my ring inside. Anyway, I am thankful you had the grace to get out of your way to bring it back to me"

"Please it was no problem, but I need to get going now. I need to pick up my children from my next-door neighbor, she babysits them while I work, and I am over 3 hours late now"

"We understand, is your driver waiting up front I can call the lobby security to make sure he's ready for you," Mr. Cross asked

"Umh… no Mr. Cross, I don't have a driver"

"Oh, so you drove yourself?"

"No, I don't have a car either. But please don't trouble yourself, I will be fine"

"Please, allow us to drop you off, we were on our way out actually," Eva said

Shit, what do I do? I guess I have no other option, I need to get home soon, and I cannot afford to call a taxi, nor pay for the bus ticket anyway.

"Oh, well if it's no trouble that would be great"

Before getting in their vehicle, I discreetly gave my address to the driver, and in less than 20 minutes we reached my apartment.

"Thank you so much Mr. and Mrs. Cross, it was a real pleasure to meet you both"

They looked towards my apartment complex and then at each other and then Mr. Cross inquire

"Mrs. Grey I am sorry, but I don't understand. Why do you live here?"

I looked down at my hands and decided I needed to explain, otherwise they may accuse me of pretending to be someone I was not.

"Well, I assume you guys didn't hear about my husband's extramarital relationship some time ago. But to make a long story short, he cheated on me and was pretty public about it so I left Seattle with my kids and haven't heard from him since then. So now I'm solely responsible for my children's support. He offered child support, but I rejected it. I never cared for his money so when he offered money without being part of our children's life I said no"

"I see, Mrs. Grey may I be truly honest with you?"

I nodded

"Christian Grey and I have been on opposite sides of business deals more than once but as a businessman I always respected him. But I never had any social interactions with him until a few months after he married you. We coincided at a Gala in New York, he was a different man, even though you had not accompanied him to that event I witnessed how proud he was of you. And the fact that due to your responsibilities at Grey Publishing you couldn't be there. So, it is kind of surprising to hear you guys separated"

"If you don't mind, can we talk inside? I would like to speak to you regarding your previous position at Grey Publishing. I just started Cross Publishing and we are having some difficulties finding a good lead editor for it. I think we can mutually help each other"

END OF FLASHBACK

I smile remembering how much my life changed from that day, I have a career I love again, I have amazing friends. Yes, I became very close to Eva and Gideon and thanks to them I met Cary, Arnoldo, Shawna, Mark, Steve, Ireland, Megumi, etc.

"Ms. Steel, Mrs. Cross is here to see you, can I send her in?"

"Of course, you know I'm never busy for her"

A few seconds later my exuberant and gorgeous friend walks in along Cary

"Hey Ana, how is your day going?" she exclaims with a huge smile

"Good, and happy to see you both" I answer kissing and hugging them

"Please take a seat, tell me how I can help you"

"Oh, we came because Gideon just received an invitation to The Coping Together Gala and he wants all our friends to come along and of course, that includes you as well"