A/N: Thank you all for your continued love and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 21: Finding the Lies

Ana had spent all Friday afternoon thinking about Jack's words to her and wondering if he knew she suspected him. She realized she had to assume he did, and that meant she had to be extra careful around him, as well as pretty much everyone else at the office who may have been in cahoots with him. For all she knew, he was collaborating with other people besides Kate Kavanaugh: that thought filled her with a sort of nervous paranoia, but she also felt a sense of anger and determination – Jack could not get away with what he was doing to Christian. Not if Ana could help it.

That night, Ana lay alone in bed, staring up at the ceiling as a million thoughts ran through her head. She missed Christian – she could hardly deny that to herself. She missed his smile, his snarky comments to her when she walked into work in the mornings, and even his presence only a few feet away from her as she sat at her desk. Over the weeks, she had grown so used to sharing an office with him, and now that he was gone, it felt like something was missing. Like there was a Christian-shaped hole in her life right now.

Ana sighed before closing her eyes, eventually drifting off into a fitful, restless sleep.

~/~

Saturday morning dawned rainy and gray, which fit Ana's mood rather perfectly. She sipped from a mug of tea as she walked into her living room, yawning as she sat down on her couch and tucked her legs underneath her. She thought about watching some TV, but she didn't really feel like it; there wasn't anything she wanted to do other than stare out the window and think about Christian.

God I have it bad.

Ana spotted her laptop sitting on her coffee table, and after a moment's hesitation, she reached over and picked it up, placing it on her lap. She opened up her browser, not quite sure why she decided to Google "Kavanaugh Media," but a part of her wanted to know if the overbilling incident and Christian's subsequent suspension had reached the news at all yet.

Ana scrolled down the search results page, glancing over some of the articles about Kavanaugh Media, but not seeing the overbilling incident or Christian's name pop up anywhere. That was a good sign, obviously, even though a tiny part of her wished she could have some sort of update on Christian. No news was good news, she supposed.

Feeling a little embarrassed about her neediness, Ana clicked onto the team page of the Kavanaugh Media website, where it showcased all the employee headshots along with their job titles. She scrolled down to where all the marketing agents were listed, and she found her own headshot right beside Christian's. She couldn't help but smile at their two pictures, side-by-side, perfectly placed as if they were always meant to be together.

Jeez I really do have it bad.

Ana took another sip of her tea, and her eyes drifted to another headshot that was placed a row away from her and Christian: Jack Hyde, Marketing Intern.

She stared at his picture for a moment. Here, Jack really looked like the guy who Ana had initially thought him to be: charming, likable, and a potential asset to the Kavanaugh Media team. Now, however, she saw him as his true self: a manipulative snake who was trying to tear down the company from the inside out while ruining Christian's life in the process.

Ana scowled to herself. She couldn't let him get away with it.

Setting her tea down on the coffee table, Ana straightened her laptop on her lap and placed her hands on her keyboard, ready to do some research and find out everything she possibly could about Jack Hyde. She navigated back onto Google, and she briefly considered searching Jack Hyde's name there, but figured that that was going to be a dead end. His wasn't exactly an uncommon name, and so she instead decided to go on Facebook to see if he was on there. Ana hardly went on Facebook anymore, but perhaps they had some mutual friends through work.

After a couple minutes of social media searching, Ana managed to find Jack's Facebook page – and sure enough, they had a few mutual friends through Kavanaugh Media. Ana was even able to see some of his posts: his profile picture was of him and Leila at what looked like a party, their arms around each other while smiling brightly at the camera, beers in hand. His cover image was clearly from their engagement photoshoot: the two of them stood outdoors in front of a beautiful oak tree, embracing while smiling lovingly at one another.

Well, it doesn't look like he's lying about being engaged.

Ana couldn't help but wonder what his relationship was to Kate, however. Was she just a friend, or were they having an affair? Ana remembered Jack mentioning someone named "L" in his correspondence with Kate, and she figured he was talking about Leila. Did Jack, Kate, and Leila all know each other then?

Ana scrolled down Jack's feed, looking over some of his posts and pictures: friends tagging him in random photos, articles about Cornell, him announcing his internship at Kavanaugh Media… it all looked pretty normal.

Ana scrolled down to some photos taken a few months ago of Jack and Leila at an outdoor concert. Jack had made the post with the caption:

Finally going to Panorama with this lovely lady! – with Leila Williams

Leila was tagged in his post, so Ana clicked on her name to go to her personal Facebook page. Ana and Leila had no mutual friends, so Ana wasn't able to see anything other than her profile picture and cover photo.

Those two things seemed to be more than enough, however: Leila's cover photo was her with a group of about twenty other young women at what looked like her own bachelorette party. All of them were at a nightclub, wearing short tight bandage dresses with their hair and makeup done to perfection; Leila had on a sash that said Bride-To-Be as well as a tiara on her head.

That's not what Ana noticed, however… what she did notice was Kate Kavanaugh amongst the group of women in the photo. She was standing slightly off to the side and partially hidden by another woman in front of her, but it was definitely her, smiling at the camera.

So Kate and Leila are friends, Ana mused as she examined the photo. That explained why Kate and Jack were on such familiar terms with each other. Was Kate the reason Jack got the internship at Kavanaugh Media? Or was that just a coincidence? Was Leila also involved with what Jack was doing at Kavanaugh Media?

Ana's mind was filled with questions as she navigated back to Jack's Facebook page. She continued to scroll through his posts for awhile, going all the way back to three years ago, but didn't find anything else of note.

Ana eventually noticed a random tagged photo of Jack and Leila from over three years ago with a group of people hanging out on the deck of a boat. The two of them somehow looked even younger than they did now, considering how they were probably barely eighteen at this point, and the rest of the people around them looked about the same age. All of them were wearing bathing suits and holding drinks while grinning widely at the camera, squinting in the sun while looking suntanned and carefree. Ana read the caption:

Party off the Cali coast! Rimmel crew starting the summer off right :) – with Jack Hyde, Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky and 8 others

Ana frowned. Who was Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky? Surely, that wasn't the same Leila as Leila Williams, right? Ana clicked on her name to go to her Facebook page.

Ana could tell immediately that this Leila was the same Leila as Jack's fiance, but something was definitely different about her. This was clearly a Facebook page for a public figure: the pictures Ana scrolled through looked airbrushed and photoshopped to perfection. There were tons of pictures and videos of Leila at movie premieres and red carpet events, posing for selfies with social media influencers while modeling the latest fashions. All of her posts had thousands of likes, but it also didn't look like the page had been updated for at least three years.

What the hell was all of this? Did Leila have a supermodel alter ego or something? Ana was very confused and curious as to who this Leila really was, so she went back on Google to search the name "Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky" to see if anything came up.

On the first page of Google alone, several news stories immediately jumped out at Ana:

"...Social Media Influencer and Makeup Heiress Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky in Hot Water Again After Screaming at a Fan in London..."

"...Fans are Upset as Makeup Guru Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky was a No-Show for Her Own Fan Meetup. For the Third Time..."

"…'Rude and Entitled': More and More People Expose the Harsh Truth About Influencer Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky..."

"...Broke and Destitute? New Evidence Comes Out that Famed Makeup Heiress Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky Has Been Cut Off by Her Own Family..."

"...These Big Brands No Longer Want to Associate with Social Media Influencers like Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky. Here's Why..."

Ana read over these article titles with an increasing sense of shock and disbelief. This was the last thing she expected to find: Leila was a former social media influencer? These articles also called her a 'makeup heiress', which made sense if part of her last name was Rimmel. It sounded like Leila came from old money, but in the past few years, got embroiled in some controversies that caused her to lose everything.

Ana continued Googling Leila, trying to find out everything she possibly could about her, but there didn't seem to be any more information about her other than what was revealed in these tabloid pieces. It also seemed as if nothing new had been written about her for the past three years, apart from the occasional article speculating as to where she was now – no one seemed to know the answer to that, but Ana knew that Leila Rimmel-Karinovsky was now living under the pseudonym Leila Williams.

What does all of this mean?

Ana set her laptop aside and began to pace the length of her apartment, thinking. Leila seemed to have lost everything three years ago: her social media fame, her brand deals, and even her family money. So where did Jack come in? That picture of the two of them on the boat three years ago indicated that they knew each other back when she was still an influencer, so Jack was clearly aware of her past. And Kate Kavanaugh must have been aware too – she and Leila pretty much ran in the same circles, so it made sense that the two of them would be friends.

If had Leila lost all her money, though, how was she making a living now? Ana racked her brain, trying to remember that time when she and her coworkers met Leila, but couldn't recall her saying where she worked. Maybe Jack was the one supporting her? Interns didn't exactly make a lot of money, though, and if he was telling the truth about going to Cornell, he probably had student loans to pay off too.

Which explained why he was trying to steal from the company.

Ana stopped pacing as the realization hit her: Jack was stealing the money for Leila.

If Jack truly loved Leila (which, by what Ana could tell, he really did), and Leila was used to a certain glamorous lifestyle, Jack would probably feel pressured to provide her with that. He needed a lot of money quickly, and the most efficient way to get that money would be to steal it… and he had the perfect opportunity to steal it from Kavanaugh Media with the help of the CEO's daughter who he happened to be friends with.

It was all starting to make sense, and Ana instinctively rushed to her phone to call Christian with what she just figured out. She stopped herself, though, when she remembered that Christian couldn't be in contact with her while all of this was going on.

Dammit

Ana grit her teeth, clutching her phone in her hand and wanting to cry out in frustration. This whole situation sucked so much that she wanted to chuck her phone at the wall in anger, but knew that that wouldn't solve anything. She just wanted to tell Christian what she found out about Jack and Leila today, but at this rate, she had no idea the next time she and Christian could even be in the same room together.

Feeling significantly more depressed than she did a moment ago, Ana walked over to her couch and sat back down, setting her phone down on the coffee table. She took a deep breath, trying to center herself. As much as she wanted to talk to Christian right now, she didn't really have a lot of new information to share with him: she had learned about who Leila really was, but apart from that, she just had speculation and assumptions. She needed to find something more concrete before she brought anything to him.

Trying not to think about how long it would be before she could see Christian again, Ana now picked up her laptop and typed Leila's name into Google once again, hoping against hope to find something more that could be used to prove her theory.

~Monday~

"Good morning, Ana."

Ana grimaced at Nadia as she walked into work for the day. It definitely did not feel like a good morning – after having spent the whole weekend trying to find any additional information about Jack and Leila, all she felt today was tired and frustrated. And with nothing new to show for it.

"'Morning Nadia," Ana said, stifling a yawn as she began to make her way toward her office.

"Ana, there was a message on my phone this morning from someone named Burt Whalen, who was asking for you," Nadia said, and Ana stopped in her tracks. "He wants you to call him back at this number."

Heart pounding, Ana turned to face Nadia, who was holding a post-it note out for her to take. "Oh, thank you," Ana said, trying to sound casual as she walked over and took the post-it from her. Ana then turned and headed toward her office, trying her hardest not to break into a run.

Burt Whalen was Christian's lawyer, she remembered, so either Mr. Whalen had an update about Christian, or Christian was trying to contact her through him. Either way, Ana could not get to her office fast enough to return his call.

Once safely alone in her office, Ana whipped out her cell phone and dialed Burt Whalen's number. It rang for a moment or two before someone picked up: "Burt Whalen speaking," an unfamiliar male voice answered.

"Yes, hello Mr. Whalen," Ana said, her heart pounding in her throat. "This is Anastasia Steele, returning your call."

"Ah yes. Ms. Steele," Mr. Whalen said in understanding. "I'm glad we could connect. As I'm sure you know, I'm Burt Whalen, Christian's lawyer."

"I know. How is he?" Ana asked immediately. "Is he okay? Does he need help?"

"He's fine, Ms. Steele," Mr. Whalen said, and she could hear him smiling. "He would like to see you, though. That's why I wanted to speak with you this morning."

"Yes," Ana said immediately. "I mean, yes I would like to see him too. Can we arrange that?"

"We can, but it would need to be in public, and I would need to be present," Mr. Whalen explained. "If you're free for lunch today, the three of us can meet at a diner a few blocks away from Kavanaugh Media. Do you know EJ's?"

"I've heard of it," Ana said, hurrying to her desk to jot down the name. "What time?"

"Let's shoot for 12:30," Mr. Whalen said. "Does that work for you?"

"Yeah, that works," Ana said immediately, knowing that if she had any conflicts at that time, she would just reschedule them. This was too important.

"Excellent. We look forward to seeing you, Ms. Steele," Mr. Whalen said sincerely.

"You too. And Mr. Whalen?" Ana quickly asked. "Can you tell Christian…" she hesitated, trying to verbalize what she felt. "Um, just tell him that I'm thinking about him."

And that I love him and I miss him, and I can't wait for all of this to be over.

"Of course, Ms. Steele," Mr. Whalen said kindly. "We'll see you soon."

"See you soon," Ana said, and they hung up.

Ana had to fight the large smile from breaking out across her face. She was finally going to see Christian again: in only a few short hours she was going to see him in person, and she could hardly wait. She would be able to share with him and Mr. Whalen everything she found out this weekend about Jack and Leila, and this way they would be one step closer to clearing Christian's name.

But speaking of Jack…

Ana glanced out her office window just as Jack walked down the corridor, and walking beside him was Kate Kavanaugh.

They were talking quietly with one another: anyone else passing by wouldn't think anything of it, but Ana could tell that they were arguing. Jack was saying something to Kate, frowning, and Kate was looking a bit defensive as she shook her head at him. The two of them seemed completely wrapped up in their conversation, until Jack suddenly glanced up and met Ana's eyes through her window.

Jack froze, and Kate looked up too, meeting Ana's eyes as well. Trying to hide her anxiousness upon seeing the two of them, Ana smiled politely and lifted her hand in greeting. Jack grimaced before nodding at her, and he took Kate by the arm before directing them back toward the way they came. They walked down the hallway and out of sight.

Ana simply watched them, trying not to think what that was all about. She sat down behind her desk, focusing her mind on seeing Christian again in a few hours.

A/N: And the plot thickens…

If you enjoyed this chapter, please review! Next chapter, Ana and Christian finally reunite :)