Chapter three
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Christian took another step forward as Ana fidgeted in her heeled sandals.
She nodded her head and looked down, tucking her hair behind her ear again.
"It has," she breathed.
Christian moved closer to her until he was standing a foot in front of her. Neither one of them noticed Elsa moving over to the back of the room and surveying all of Christian's things.
"We have a lot to discuss," he said, his eyes taking in all of her face.
"We do."
Christian nodded his head and turned on his heel, strutting back to his desk and pressing the red button that connected to his assistant's phone.
"Mr. Grey?"
"I'd like for you to reschedule all of my appointments today, Andrea. I have a special . . . family matter to attend to."
"Yes, sir."
Christian turned back toward Ana. "I have a private conference room we can go to here or we can go somewhere else?" he offered.
She shook her head. "No, here's fine."
He nodded his head. "Okay. Have you had something to eat? I can get my assistant to order you something?"
Ana was about to decline when Elsa spoke from behind Christian's desk.
"I'm hungry."
Christian turned around and looked at her, noting with a smirk how she was sitting in his seat again. "What would you like?"
She shrugged. "I'll eat anything as long as it's edible."
Christian glanced at Ana, and when she nodded her head in agreement, he turned back to their daughter.
"Burger with fries?"
Elsa smiled and nodded eagerly. "Sounds great. Can I stay in here while you two talk? Or whatever you'll be doing?" She looked at them with laughing eyes.
Ana choked and coughed. "Elsa!"
"What?" Elsa looked at Ana with innocent eyes.
"Watch it. That wasn't funny."
Elsa laughed and turned back around in Christian's chair to look back out the windows.
Christian looked at Ana, a small smile on his face. She rolled her eyes at him but couldn't keep her own smile from pulling at her lips.
"Well your mother and I will be in conference room B if you need anything. I'll tell my assistant to order your food when we leave. Feel free to get on my computer if you want but just make sure you don't delete or send anything."
"Okay," she said, turning the chair forward to face the computer and grabbing the wireless mouse.
Christian looked at Ana then, held his hand out for her to go through the doors first. She took one last look at their daughter before she opened the door, stopping when they got into the lobby and let Christian lead the way.
"This way." Christian put his hand on the small of her back, touching her again for the first time in fifteen years. He glanced down his nose at her and smiled when she looked up at him at the same time. She quickly looked away and looked forward, though he could see a hint of a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
He opened the door for her when they stood in front of the conference room. She walked in and took a seat at the far end of the table, facing the windows. Christian sat at the head, sitting adjacent to her.
Her head was down and she fidgeted with the silver bracelet on her wrist. He assumed she wasn't going to be the first to say anything, so he spoke first.
"Why didn't you tell me about her?"
Ana looked up at him, a frown marring her face and confusion in her eyes. "I did."
He placed his folded arms on the table and leaned forward. "No, you didn't. I can honestly tell you that if you told me we had a child I would have been by your side the entire time."
Ana stared at him. "Christian, I did tell you. I had no reason to keep her away from you. You're the one who didn't want to be in her life."
"What gave you that idea?" Christian asked, his voice irritated.
She shrugged and looked down, her expression exasperated. "You never responded to the letters. What else was I supposed to think? I sent you pictures and told you about how well or how bad I was doing and how she was, but you never responded once." She looked up at him again. "What did you expect me to do when you showed no interest?"
Christian shook his head and ran both of his hands through his hair. "What are you talking about, Ana? You never sent any letters."
"Are you calling me a liar?" she snapped. "Like I said before I had absolutely no reason to keep her away from you. I wanted you to be in her life, I wanted her to know her father but you're the one who stayed away. My dad even bought you a plane ticket to come see her after she was born, but you never responded."
Christian stared deep into her eyes and saw that she was telling the truth, and what she was saying made sense. What reason would she have had to keep him away? They never parted with any ill-will towards each other. They were as much as in love when she left as when they were during their summer affair. But even with all that information that doesn't explain why she never answered his calls.
"I'm not the only one to blame. I called you months after you left, but you stopped answering and then one day your phone got disconnected. How was I supposed to know what was going on if you never answered the phone?" Christian demanded, his anger ringing loud and clear through the room.
Ana ran her fingers through her hair and looked down. "I'm sorry about that," she said with a drawn out sigh. "After I found out I was pregnant everything just kind of fell apart. Ray even moved in with me and Mom to try and pick up the pieces."
Christian frowned. "What do you mean by 'everything just fell apart'?"
Ana shrugged and looked out the window with a sigh. "I was fifteen just starting my sophomore year and it was just me and my mom. I was terrified and I could see the disappointment in her eyes every time she looked at me." She stopped and shook her head, her fingers toying with her bracelet again.
"It was just hard. She didn't know what to do; I didn't know what to do. She had just gotten a new job that required a lot of her time and I didn't want to go to that prep school and have all of those snotty kids look down on me. She told Ray a few days after I found out. He didn't want to be away from me and wanted to do as much as possible to help so he moved to London with us. My mom and I were living in a two room apartment then so we had to get a new one to accommodate Ray. My mom said that the home phone I was using to call you came with the apartment and we left it there."
She looked up at him with contrite eyes. "I sent the first letter and when I didn't get a response I got scared. I thought I was going to have to raise our daughter on my own—well with my parents help, of course. But I wanted you there, I have no idea how we would have made it work, but I did want you by my side. And I would have called you, I even asked to use a strangers phone but for the life of me I couldn't remember your number, just the address," she added with a shrug.
"You seem to have done fine without me there though," Christian told her. He stared intensely at her as he tried to figure everything out in his head.
Ana couldn't meet his eyes. "It wasn't easy, Christian. You don't know how much I wanted to fly back and let you meet your daughter but I was scared. You never responded to one of my letters. I just assumed you didn't want to meet her. And I didn't want to come here and introduce you only for you to tell us in person that you wanted nothing to do with us, I wasn't going to make her go through that heartbreak. I didn't want her to know what it felt like to be rejected by her own father," Ana finished, her eyes still cast down.
There was a moment of silence. Then Christian spoke. "She told me you told her about my family, just in case she wanted to find us on her own. And you gave her my last name," Christian added as an afterthought.
Ana met his eyes. "I didn't want her to think I was intentionally keeping you guys away. I didn't want her to think that you guys were bad people—whether you knew of her existence or not. I thought she deserved to know about her family, all of her family."
Christian licked his lips and shook his head. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why would you tell her about us but then not come see us?"
Ana sat up straight in her seat. "I told you. I didn't know whether you guys wanted her in your lives or not. And to tell you the truth as I got older and wiser I began to care less about how you might have felt. My number one priority was protecting my child, even if that meant protecting her from you if rejected her."
"But I would have welcomed her with open arms," Christian argued.
"I didn't know that at the time, Christian! I was young and I didn't know anything. How was I supposed to know what you were thinking when I sent you numerous letters telling you about our child and you never even responded once?"
"I didn't get your fucking letters, Ana! I don't even know what letters you're talking about!" Christian yelled at her.
They both deflated into their seats and silence descended upon them. Christian ran his hands through his hair as Ana kept her eyes cast down.
"I'm sorry," Christian whispered. "I didn't mean to lose my temper."
Ana shook her head and looked at him. "I understand why you're upset. I would be furious if the tables were turned."
Christian nodded, then sighed and leaned back in his seat. "I guess there's no real point in arguing about the past, although I'm going to ask my parents about those letters. But I'd like to get her know her better. And I'm sure my family would like to meet her."
"Of course. That's all I ever really wanted—for her to know her family."
Spiteful words were on the tip of Christian's tongue, but he held back knowing they'd just be arguing in circles.
"She told me her birthday's this weekend?" Christian said.
Ana nodded. "It's Sunday."
"My parents are having a summer party Saturday. Would you two like to come? Everyone will be there."
Ana smiled. "Sure. I'm sure Elsa would like that."
Christian nodded and stood up, reaching out his hand to pull her up. They looked into each other's eyes when Ana put her hand in his. She abruptly looked away and then pulled her hand out of his.
"We should probably go see what Ellie is doing. She has a tendency to get into things," Ana admitted with a chuckle.
"Ellie?" Christian asked as he walked beside her as they went back to his office.
"Oh, yeah. It's just a nickname."
"Oh."
Before Ana reached out and opened the door to let her inside, he stopped short and looked down at her. She looked up at him to see what he was doing, but ended up getting lost in his eyes.
Christian lifted his finger and let it tenderly trail down the side of her face.
"Despite all of this, it's really good seeing you again, Ana."
She bit her lip and gazed up at him. "It's good seeing you too," she whispered.
Christian stared at her, his eyes directly on hers as he slowly began to lower his head. Ana stared at him expectantly and even shifted her weight and began leaning in to meet him, but a voice from the end of the lobby made them spring apart.
"Christian, there you are, babe. I've been calling you all afternoon."
Ana and Christian both turned and looked at the woman coming towards them. Ana smoothed down her hair and took a step back. She glanced down the hallway at the long-legged blonde dressed in a tight black dress and took a glance back up at Christian, noting the grimace on his face. She looked away quickly and kept her gaze on everything but the Christian and the woman walking toward them.
Christian took a deep breath, knowing things were about to get complicated.
Thank you guys for supportive and entertaining reviews, it really means a lot! Thank for the follows and favorites, too, it keeps me motivated to write more.
By the way guys, I wrote a few of these chapters before hand so I'm not changing with the length. I'll try to make the chapters more detailed in future but only when necessary. Either way I appreciate the support and can't thank you guys enough.
I've missed you Daytonalay ;)