So I feel awful not being able to update as frequently as I wanted, but work has been chaotic. But hopefully it'll die down a bit this upcoming week.

Anyway, here is chapter 19. There will be more to come and since my birthday is actually five days away, I'll be writing something special on that day.

Hope you guys and gals likes this chapter which serves as a filler. Thanks again for the Favorites, Follows, and Reviews.

I don't own this characters, I'm just having some fun with them!

- Jackie

Anastasia

Throwing the contract for the publishing company I have just acquired, on top of the desk, I feel the anger in me wanting to erupt. He should've done his fucken job and I wouldn't be here wasting my time doing it!

Thinking back to four days ago, when Kate and I had lunch over at the Grey's home, I had decided to answer a call from Robert. I knew immediately it was important, since he doesn't tend to call me on the weekends.

Robert informed me of the deal we had on the publishing company in Florida, and how it wasn't moving forward at the speed he wanted.

As soon as the words were spoken, I knew one of us would have to travel to Florida and set the assholes straight. Luckily for us, they already signed the contract, but I was more interested in finding out the, 'Why'. So when I told Robert I would go, he sounded nervous. Now I fucken know why and to say I'm angry is an understatement.

When I finished our call, I walked back to the dining room and gave my sincere apologies to every single one of Grey's. Only to promise Grace, I'd come back and have dinner with them when I returned. I smiled, promised, and drove Kate's car back home to where I packed a small dufflebag and then drove my car to the airport.

Four exhausting hours later, I arrived via my own personal jet, to Florida.

The asshole, who Robert had been dealing with for the past six months, disagreed with my ideas, something down the line of, 'never trust a woman with c-cup breasts and a tight ass.' Lets just say he found his ass on the sidewalk the moment I stepped into the conference room. I don't fuck around, especially when it comes to my business.

Two hours later, three different department heads fired, and I finally got to the root of the problem. Apparently, Mr. Now-I'm-Sitting-On-The-Sidewalk, didn't inform the employees of the changes, and what was expected of them. Now because of his lack of leadership, he caused me to fire three people who are great at there job, but who decided to fuck around instead of getting down to business. Now my dilemma is, who do I hire to take over their jobs?

Rubbing my temples with the tips of my fingers, I try I really try, to push everything away. I just want to be able to clear my head for a minute.

But it's not working and everything from the past two weeks come crashing down on my thoughts.

Christian at my home. The unannounced meeting. The almost kiss. The club. The drinks. Kate and Elliot. Waking up in my nightwear. Work. Lunch at Grey's. The kiss. Saying yes. The talk. Work. Florida. Here.

I squeeze my eyes shut, as I see everything playing out before my eyes I know there is more, but I just don't want to remember.

Taking a deep breath to relax my racing heart, I begin to feel sick, running to my personal restroom in my office, just in time to spill my late breakfast in the toilet. I shake my head from all the crowded thoughts, but one comes back with so much force, I feel the air leave my lungs.

I remember, I remember I spoke to him about my past. Or whom I thought was a hallucination of sorts.

My brows furrow as I try to understand why the fuck would I do that. So he knows, but he's never mentioned it, why would he hide it from me?

After swishing my mouth with water and washing my hands, I head back to my office chair. I need to talk to someone, I need reassurance, and I know just who can give it to me.

Picking up my phone to dial the one number that I had memorized since I was 6 years old, he answers after the third ring.

"Annie?"

"Dad, I think I fucked up." I sadly say as I have tears running down my face.

"What's wrong baby girl? What happened?"

Ten minutes later I finish getting him up to speed on what has been my life so far, which was followed by his 'mmhm, really, you don't say, wow.'

"Dad can't you say anything else?" I grit through my teeth with annoyance.

"Don't take that tone with me Anastasia. I am your father, first and foremost. What would you like for me to say?" Silence all I hear is silence.

"I don't know dad." I whisper quietly through the phone with my head lowered feeling truly chastised and embarrassed.

Sighing he continues, "Annie, you're my daughter and I love you as if you were my own. I will forever regret not fighting for you harder..."

"Dad don't..." I interrupt, but he cuts me off.

"No Annie, let me finish..." I know what he's going to say to me and I can already feel my eyes fill with new tears.

"Annie, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not protecting you. I'm sorry for not being there to stop it. I'm sorry I didn't fight harder for you. I'm sorry for letting you down." He stops to take a deep breath, while I am a silent crying mess.

"I'm sorry for what they did to you. I'm sorry for the way they treated you. But I will never apologize for the person you have become." I smile and nod my head as if he could see me.

"You are a smart, beautiful, young woman, who had gone through hell when you were a child, but you MY daughter, bounced back. You became who you are now, because of what you went through then. It's okay to remember, because it reminds you of the places you never want to be in again. So what if you told him? It doesn't make you a weak person. On the contrary, it makes you a stronger woman." I can feel him smile.

"I love you daddy." I sniff and try to compose myself, which I know if someone walked in at this moment they would most definitely be shocked to the core.

"I love you too, Annie. I'll always be here, you know? No matter what time."

Thirty minutes later, I feel more relaxed and not on the verge of a breakdown, I say farewell to my dad and promise to call him more frequently. I begin once more, with a clearer head, and look over the contracts of all the employees here at the Publishing house, who are qualified to take over the three, now vacant, seats as department heads.

Scanning as I go I come up with ten employees who have seniority and are qualified for the job, but one that I find quite odd to be in the publishing world, to be honest.

Pulling out their portfolios and having a thorough insight of their job description I decide to speak with six of them about this opportunity.

"Ms. Holmes please come to the 16th floor in thirty minutes." I speak through the company phone to one of the six. I continue to do this for the next ten minutes, and before I know it I have all six in the waiting area outside this office.

"Good afternoon, my name is Anastasia Steele, and I am the owner of this company as of today." My voice holds a certain authority to it and I can feel my back straighten when I hear the slight gasps coming from the employees.

"I have summoned you six for one purpose and one purpose only. It's your decision if you want it or not, but do keep in mind this is just a meeting." I take a moment to look at a every single one of their faces. Some have written fear, shock, and admiration across their faces as they eye me up and done. Ironically, it's the three men who have admiration written on their face.

"Ms. Holmes I'll start with you." I say as my gaze lands on the woman who's in her late forties with blond hair.

"Yes Ms. Steele." She nods standing and follows behind me as we walk inside the office.

"So Ms. Holmes. Do tell me about yourself." I begin as I walk behind the desk and take a seat.

"Well I've worked for this publishing company for over ten years." She speaks once she's taken a seat on the chair in front of the desk.

"Do you like working here?" I smile kindly towards her and I can see her relax immediately.

"Yes Ma'am." I don't miss the tone of pride in her voice when she answered my question.

"I'm going to be straightforward with you." I say as I cross my right leg over my left knee, and inch closer to the desk. "I've read your file and I'm impressed."

"Why thank you." She blushes and looks down. My smile grows even more as I remember I used to be like that. Yeah right, I still am.

"What would you do if I told you two authors were making a riot, one threatened to pull out of his contract, while the other, had a difficult time writing a new book."

"I would cancel everything." She says without thinking and I can feel myself deflate. I look down at her file and she's amazing, nine authors who she's signed in the ten years she's worked here, six of which are writing five to nine books for a continuation of the series. But her approach, is to threaten them. That's not good.

"Thank you Ms. Holmes for your time." I extend my arm out for her to shake, which she does after her look of confusion wares off.

"Thank you, Ms. Steele." She speaks as I walk her out to the lobby, turning my directions towards the five, but not before I see her shake her head softly, no doubt she'll be kicking herself later when she finds out why summoned her.

"Mr. Jacobs. Follow me please." He stands and walks behind me.

"What is your job description?" I ask as I sit once more behind my desk.

"I'm part of the editorial department, Ma'am." He says as he sits on the chair in front of me.

"What do you?" I ask, even though I have his file in my hands.

"I help Mr. Cooper, who's head of the department with editing books, making sure they go through publication, I also deal with the literary agents and authors, as well Ma'am." I smile as I see him shift in his seat.

"What would happen if I told you the book you're about to publish has a flaw, what steps would you take to fix it?" I ask genuinely interested to know his answer.

"Nothing." He answers and I once again feel deflated. Are you fucken kidding me?

"Why?"

"It wouldn't happen Ma'am." My eyebrows shoot to the top, but motion for him to continue.

"I always double check the corrections and even go to the extreme of reading the book twice. To make sure it's near perfection." I'm thrown back my his response momentarily and I even believe there might be hope for the employees here after all.

"Thank you for your time Mr. Jacobs." I extend my arm out to shake his, which he does without hesitation.

My meetings continue as so, until the last one is out of the office. Taking a deep breath I come to the decision of hiring Mr. Jacobs for the head of the editorial department, Ms. Jewels for the head of the sales department, and Mrs. Shaneski, for the head of the creative department.

Looking at my watch I see it's already past four in the afternoon and all the employees have gone already. I'll just tell them tomorrow, I say to myself as I shrug on my suit jacket and make my way out the door of the office, just in time to run into the last person I had summoned earlier today.

"What are you still doing here?" I ask with annoyance in my voice.

"I'm sorry Ma'am. I was stuck in the IT department." He says sounding out of breath. Rolling my eyes, I tell him to follow me back to the office.

"Why are you here?" I ask, not bothering to take a seat this time.

"I'm sorry?" He asks confused.

"You're over qualified, so why are you here?" I ask once again annoyed, as I walk behind the desk, pulling his file out of the filing cabinet and place it opened in front of him.

"I won't ask again." I say crossing my arms under my chest.

"It's a job. And clearly I needed one." He says not bothering to look at the file.

"Why? I mean with a background like yours you should be a private security guard." I furrow my eyebrows as I try to understand him.

"Ma'am with all due respect..."

"Call me Ana." I interrupt.

"Ana," he says slightly uncomfortable. "After I came here I tried but no one would hire me, so this is the only thing I could get at the time." He shrugs as if it's nothing.

I eye him curiously. He's good looking, straight I would presume, broad shoulders, about 6'4 in height light brown hair, and the most beautiful green eyes I've ever seen. It's a shade between jade and olive green. Perfect chiseled face, with cute light freckles on his cheekbones. I can already tell he must work out, due to his arms and legs.

He clears his throat, no doubt having felt awkward as I eyed him from head to feet.

"I have a proposition for you, but you have to decide in the next 12 hours." He sits in attention on the chair and I release the breath I was holding.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I know dad will be ecstatic, since he's always mentioning it to me.

"Yes Ana?"

"I need a CPO and since you have military training and I believe you know how to handle a firearm," I say which he nods his head. "I want to hire you."

"When do I start?" He ask, as he stands and takes, what I'm assuming is out of habit, military stance, arms behind his back, legs spread shoulder width apart.

"When will you be able to?" I ask as I lift my face, but it's no use. I'm 5'4 while he's standing at 6'4. The man towers over me. Yeah dad will be ecstatic!

"Now." He says and I smile extending my hand to shake his.

"Congratulations Sawyer. But I will warn you, I'm not always this pleasant." I say, and he smirks.

"I'll still be giving you 12 hours to do what you have to do to get ready. After that meet me here tomorrow morning say," I look at my watch. "9 am, we will be leaving Florida at 4pm and will be arriving in Seattle at 8pm hopefully."

"Yes Ana." He nods his head in understanding and waits for me as I gather my things once more, and we make our way to the elevator.