Ana let out a deep breath as the elevator doors closed and the supporting gears shuttered into motion. She fumbled with her purse and dialed Christian's number. After several rings, it went to voicemail and Ana hung up with a huff. That ass is ignoring me!
She leaned back on the rail and closed her eyes, trying to think about where Christian would go alone. The bar, maybe? The elevator dinged and stopped on a lower floor. A gasp made her open her eyes and what she saw made her jaw go slack. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked in a shrill voice, still not believing what she was seeing.
Kate and Mia gawked at her from the threshold of the elevator doors. They stood there for so long that the doors began to close, but luckily Kate caught it with her hand in time.
"What are you doing alone? We were supposed to meet for dinner tonight," Mia responded, put out by the delay in the all-girl party.
Oh, Christian! He must have set this up to surprise her. He knew how important family was to her and he had invited her friends to spend the big day with them. Ana's eyes teared up and both girls rushed to embrace her as the elevator doors closed behind them.
"Guys, I don't know where Christian is and I just gave Sawyer the slip because I have to find him," she admitted between sobs. "I think that he thinks that I have done something wrong, but he won't talk to me. He just accused me of being dishonest but I don't know what he is talking about."
She felt Kate tense and draw away to look her in the eye before speaking in a cautious tone. "Are you sure that you want to even marry him, Ana? What if you are meant to be with someone else?"
Both Ana and Mia gasped at her words. "Kate, I love him so much. I could never be with anyone else." How could she even think that?
Kate's face blanched and it looked as though she, too, would be sick. Both girls gave her a perplexed look, but waited for some kind of an explanation. Finally, Kate leaned forward and whispered to Ana. "I think that I need to talk to you alone."
Mia shook her head. "No one is leaving me out of this. Spill it, Kate."
Kate hung her head, displaying an insecure side that Ana had never seen before. "I think that I have some explaining to do, but it's a long story, so lets go to Mia's room, okay?"
Oh my God, she is really shaken up. Knowing that she would never get a straight explanation any other way, Ana agreed and they started to go back towards the floor they had met on. Several people had gotten onto the elevator at this point and it seemed a little uncomfortable to say anything else in such a public place.
After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived at the room and Kate broke her silence. "The day that the apartment got broken someone left some pictures in my dresser."
Ana groaned, instantly guessing what type of pictures they were. "Ones of me and Ethan?"
Kate nodded slowly. "So you have seen the pictures? I wasn't sure if it was you who left them for me or not." She glanced at Mia, as though unsure of whether they should continue in her presence.
"Why would I leave you pictures? I know that they look sketchy, but I love Christian and Ethan is like a brother to me, you know that. What, did you think that I would leave Christian or something?" Mia continued to remain silent, which was surely a first for her.
Kate gave Ana a perplexed look. "It sure looked as though you wanted to be with Ethan. I mean, Ana, some of those pictures were... kind of intense. What were you doing in bed with him if you didn't like him?"
Ana heard Mia gasp at this revelation and she felt her cheeks blush in embarrassment. "I had been drinking... and Christian and I were fighting... and I think I had a nightmare and we both fell asleep in the same bed, but nothing happened! Have you talked to Ethan about this?"
When Kate shook her head Ana sent up a prayer of thanks; hopefully, this conversation would never be revealed to Ethan because he would never let her live it down. Her relief was short-lived, though, when she saw Kate's expression.
"There is more," she gulped. "After the pictures I received an email from your address at work, saying that you wanted to leave Christian, but that he wouldn't let you. It said that he was trying to force you to marry him... so I sent him a few of the pictures that had been left for me."
Someone sent a bogus email from my account? Ana closed her eyes as she absorbed this last piece of information. Finally, it was starting to make sense. Christian thought that she was having an affair with Ethan and that she was trying to leave him.
When she opened her eyes again she saw that Kate was crying. Ana rushed over to envelop her in a hug. "It is okay Kate. I know that you were just trying to help me. You were just trying to be a good friend," she whispered. She pulled away and looked her friend in the eye. "If Christian had just asked me about Ethan then none of this would have happened. I don't blame you; Christian and I are the idiots."
"Christian will blame me," Kate sniffed. "I will be lucky if I ever get to see you again. And Elliot is going to blow his top. I lost it one night and showed him the photos because I didn't know what to do and he told me to give them to you, but not to show them to Christian. I thought that sounded like a good idea, but then I got the email and it changed everything."
"Since when do you care what Christian thinks? And I know a few ways you can get back into good graces with Elliot." Kate managed to laugh at Ana's astute observation; yes, Kate and Elliot were going to be just fine.
When she was convinced that Kate was stable, Ana withdrew from her and looked at Mia, who remained seated on the bed. "Mia, what is it?"
"I was just thinking about how we can fix this. You said that Christian is not answering your calls and he has not picked up for me either tonight. No offence, Kate, but he likely wouldn't pick up for you on a good day, so it would be pointless to have you try."
Kate just nodded at the truth of the statement. "Elliot's phone has been off all night. He said that he was going to turn it off so he could spend the time with Christian."
Mia thought for another minute before perking up. "Ana, can you call Taylor and find out where they are?"
Ana gave the idea a moment of thought before nodding slowly. "I guess I can try to call Taylor, but Sawyer was supposed to keep me in the hotel room all night, so no way should we agree to meet up with security somewhere. In fact, I am going to ditch my phone in here, if that is okay Mia, because they probably have it bugged or something."
Mia nodded and handed Ana her phone to make the call. Ana switched her phone off and dialed Taylor's number. He answered after the first ring.
"Taylor? I need to speak to Christian. Is he there with you?"
There was a slight pause on the other end. "Ms. Steele, Mr. Grey instructed Sawyer to keep you in the hotel room until the ceremony tomorrow. Please return so that he can perform his duties."
Ana prickled at the way Taylor evaded her question. "Just put Christian on, Taylor, please."
Again, another pause. "Mr. Grey is not with me, Ms. Steele. He left with his brother and said that he would be meeting you at the ceremony tomorrow at 6 pm. He had intended for Sawyer to escort you there. Your dress, as well as the other dresses, are in the hotel room now."
Ana felt her head spin at the news. Our wedding is tomorrow? "Are you sure that he still wants to go through with the wedding, Taylor?" she asked in a small voice.
This time there was no hesitation on the other end. "Yes, ma'am. When I spoke with him he was very adamant about keeping to the schedule."
Ana had to smile at that. Her Fifty was a control freak, but that suited her just fine. "If you speak to Christian again please tell him that I love him and that I will see him at six. Goodbye, Taylor."
"Very good, Ms. Steele," he said, a little uncertain.
Ana hung up and turned to face her friends, slightly distraught. "Crap, I didn't ask him where the wedding was going to be!"
Mia laughed at her plight. "I bet you never would have thought you would have to ask where your own wedding was going to be, did you?" Ana shook her head, smiling back. "It is at the Bellagio."
Kate stood up and joined the two of them. "Well then girls, lets go and have some fun. This is Ana's last night as a single woman and if we find Christian along the way, that will just be a bonus."
"I bet you never thought that you would be saying that, now did you?" Ana asked, grinning broadly. They all giggled in agreement and collected their purses to leave.
The next thing that Christian knew, he was at a table in a casino lobby. The game was blackjack and he was doing pretty good for not having a clear head. Normally, Christian had the ability to count cards, which he believed gave him an unfair advantage and usually he avoided participating for that reason, but since he still had several drinks in him it was turning out to be a pretty even playing field.
Elliot, always the charmer, was chatting with a few cocktail waitresses, so Christian returned his attention to the game. He knew that it was unlikely that Elliot would wind up sleeping with either of the girls since he was with Kate, but that didn't mean that he had to watch his brother flirt shamelessly.
One of the girls looked over at Christian and blushed. It had been happening all night and Christian could not prevent himself from rolling his eyes. This time tomorrow he would have a gold band on his hand and maybe then the women of the world would get a clue and leave him alone.
Another round won, Christian held up his hand, indicating that he was finished playing. He gather his chips and gave Elliot a nod to follow him back to the bar. Elliot said goodbye to his new friends and caught up with Christian.
"Thirsty already? You just started sobering up." Elliot gave him a teasing look and reached for his back pocket. "You really should answer some of your calls. You dropped this a while ago and it has been going crazy."
Elliot turned to visit the restroom and Christian settled back into his seat and shoved the phone in his pocket. He did not want to have to deal with Ana whinning about being left in the room or one of his staff giving him grief about leaving her to their devices. Why can't people just follow orders?
He motioned for a few whiskeys from the bartender and was served instantly. He took both double shots down without wincing and called for two others. By the time Elliot had returned, Christian was feeling pretty good again.
"I see you were enjoying yourself," Elliot nodded to the empty glasses and order a few drinks of his own. The bar was starting to get less crowded as couples retreated back to their rooms and the gamblers hit the tables again. After a long pause, Elliot spoke. "So, you want to tell me what is eating you? You never drink hard alcohol and here you are, several drinks into the night."
Christian smiled at the question, his mind fuzzy enough to not mind the intrusion into his personal life. "Ana. Do you want the long story or the short story?"
"It looks like you could do with telling the long story," Elliot said, not taking his eyes off of Christian.
"Trick question, they are really the same length." Christian threw back another shot before continuing in a more somber tone. "She is cheating on me."
It was the first time he had said it out loud and even in his drunken state it ripped his heart out. Elliot remained silent for a minute. "I know," he responded quietly.
Christian was floored. "How would you know?" he asked sharply.
Elliot scratched the back of his head and averted his gaze. "The week that you and Ana were split up, Ethan was there for her. He took her out, made her laugh, just acted like a good friend. Kate was happy that Ana wasn't just sitting at home rotting, so I took it as a good thing, too. Then the morning that Ethan left for California, Kate and I woke up to find them alone in the living room. I guess that they had been there all night and at first it didn't seem that weird to me, but then Kate showed me these pictures that someone had left in her dresser. They were pictures of the two of them in... compromising situations. I wasn't sure how much you knew, but I was going to tell you tonight anyway so that you wouldn't get married without knowing."
Elliot looked up to meet Christian's stare, as though trying to determine how Christian taking the news. Instead of lashing out, Christian's Adam's apple bobbed and he closed his eyes. Elliot stiffened. He had never seen Christian cry before.
"I still love her, Elliot. It doesn't matter who she has been with, I still want her to be my wife."