GRACE POV

"Carrick, we have to tell Christian maybe knowing she will be coming will convince him to come as well. I miss my boy so much" I tell my husband trying to stop my tears, but I can't

"Darling, please don't cry" he says hugging me

"I want to be strong, but after seeing my son so broken for all these years it's just too much"

"I know, but we tried Gracie to talk to her. But every time Kate would talk to Anastasia about it she would flatly decline remember"

"Carri I just have this feeling that maybe we should have tried to talk to Ray or hire a private detective to find her. We know how much Katherine has always hated Christian and maybe, just maybe helping him was not her priority"

"Gracie, remember she is Elliot's wife which makes her our daughter, we cannot doubt her specially not now. We need to keep the rest of the family together"

"You're right, please forgive me. But I am still letting Christian know that Anastasia is coming to the Gala and if he chooses to come or not it's his own decision. Regardless, I would like to keep it quiet from the rest of the family just in case"

He kisses me softly "Ok my love, I like that idea"

CHRISTIAN POV

"Andrea, please get me a couple of aspirins and cancel the rest of my meetings for today"

I feel my head splitting in half, after mom's call letting me know, Anastasia will be attending the Coping Together Gala this weekend I've been through all possible emotions, from happiness, hope, unsure, and currently afraid, to see her happy with someone else. I know is selfish to think like that, after all I pushed her away from me which now, I know was a monumental mistake. I am now able to reflect how much damage Flynn, and Elena did to my state of mind from my teenage years to early adulthood. I am so grateful to my family that supported me even in my darkest times and help me find the right psychiatrist after we discovered Flynn and Elena had been lovers and partners in crime for almost the entire time, he was my psychiatrist which is why he kept feeding me the idea that I was not made to be a husband or a father. When I rebelled against his and Elena's advises not only by marrying Anastasia but starting a family with her, they saw their money-making machine escaping, so they found another way to pull me back into their twisted world and finally securing my money and in Elena's case my sexperties as Ana called it. It wasn't easy to discover all the dirty tricks they use to try to break my marriage. Finally, Flynn was able to convince me that my friendship with Elena was not a bad thing since our sexual relationship had ended years before I met my wife and she would only help me see everything from a female's perspective and advise me to make it clear to her that trying to set me up with a new sub was a hard limit for me, his continuous advise on that matter and my self-hatred lead me to accept Elena's "friendship" believing no one will ever find out and even if someone did I was not doing anything wrong just by being friends with her. I provided them with more than enough opportunities to achieve their goal. I had been so brainwashed by both that I wasn't even aware of how they kept me focusing on the trauma I suffer in the first 4 years of my life that fucked me up and made me a monster incapable of love by pointing out my Haphephobia which seemed to be a problem only when I was near either of them. I started to feel uncomfortable even with Ana and Teddy touching me the longer my communication with Elena and Flynn went on. I had basically allowed my mind to go back to where I was before I met my wife specially if I was fighting with her at home, only when she and I were happy I was able to get out of that headspace I had been since the time I turned 15 years old and Elena conditioned me to not only accept but defend her mental, physical and sexually abuse of me for years. When Anastasia began to notice me pulling away from her, she made herself available to me anytime I needed her not knowing I was cheating on her by then.

Even when I had convinced myself that hurting Anastasia was for her and our children's own good, I did not expect her to disappear with the children. I was desperately looking for her until the day that Kate came to my apartment only to inform me that Anastasia had contacted her demanding that all of us leave her be. Especially me, she said she wasn't going to come back, and if I kept looking for her and insisted on having any visitation with our children, she would file for divorce stating every single thing I have done to her, starting with how I abused her through BDSM from the start to the affair and will go to the media to expose how my parents had allowed a pedophile to abuse me. Resulting in me becoming an abuser later on. To say I was shocked is an understatement, at first, I didn't believe her. Anastasia wasn't a vindictive person to even involve my parents in something they were not responsible for. I pleaded with Kate to help me talk to Ana just once, but she declined every single time.

While talking with my mother I got the sense she doesn't trust Kate either because she pointed out more than once that it was better if she didn't know of Ana's possible attendance which meant we needed to keep it to ourselves. I hope I can get a chance to talk to her, I need her to know how much I've miss them, and how sorry I am for letting my demons to hurt her and drive her away with our children.

COPING TOGHETER GALA

I'm at my parents home desperate to see her, the love of my life. This is the first time I've arrive this early, I am usually one of the last ones to arrive and the first one to leave but just the possibility of seeing my wife got me here since morning to my mothers delight.

It's almost time for my father to make his welcome speech to officially start the event and Anastasia still not here, I guess she thought about it and decided not to come. Giving up, I walk away from the entrance towards my parents table looking for them, I will give my mother the check with my donation and excuse myself, I feel so stupid for believing she will come when she wanted nothing to do with us.

"Mom, I think I'll…" before I am able to finish my sentence my mom looks behind me and gasps

"O my, she is here"