Chapter 16

Christian walked into the hospital room alone, Taylor staying by the door to allow him a few moments with Ana. Sighing, he took the seat next to her bed, trying not to cringe at the sight of the bruising above her eyebrow. "I'm here, Ana, all you need to do is wake up and show me those beautiful blue eyes. We don't need to talk about us or what has happened these past ten years. Not now. We can talk about anything you want or just sit in silence. Just please come back to me, don't leave me again…"

Kate smiled as she sat with Christopher and his family- well minus his half-brother Gideon. As Ireland prattled on she kept her forced smile in place. Ireland would run her wrong any way you looked at it, but the fact that she reminded her of Mia Grey made all the harder for her to deal with the younger woman. As her purse vibrated for the third time, she made her excuses in reaction to the annoyed looks she received from Mr. Vidal and got up from the table. Once in a nearby vestibule, she took out her phone and looked at the missed call log. As she groaned, a fourth one came through. "What the hell do you want now?" she asked the woman on the other end of the line.

"Now dear, is that anyway to talk to your mother?"

"My mother is Leslie Kavanagh, not you. You are nothing more than the devious accident that happened to carry me till my birth."

"I could've done away with you and your life, Pet."

"Don't call me that, Elena. Now what the hell do you want?"

Elena exhaled: "I had an interesting call from a former associate of mine. It seems our dear Anastasia is in the hospital in CO, with a certain billionaire at her bedside."

"And this affects me how? I finally got rid of Ana!"

"You couldn't do what you were supposed to do when Christian was in NY."

Kate rolled her eyes as she inhaled and exhaled slowly: "I told you he wouldn't fall for that!"

"Well, now you can repay him for his poor choice. You will contact Ana's mother and the two of you will go and be with her in her time of need so that Christian can get back to his real life."

"You really think that will happen? If you haven't gotten him back into your clutches prior to Ana's time of need, how the hell do you think you will when he has seen and spoken to her? Not to mention that one of your henchmen put her into the hospital bed!"

Elena sighed: "you never learn do you? All you need to do is do exactly what I tell you for once and everything will work out. Now, if for some reason it doesn't we will move onto the next phase of my original plans for them."

"I told you then, and I'll tell you again: that isn't going to happen! I will not link my lot in life to his in such an outlandish way. I will also not lose that much time of my own life now that I'm close to getting something approximating what I want in life!" Kate spit out.

"Well, we can always modify the plan… in fact it might be best to.
I'll have Dr. Greene contact you with a name of a specialist in NY."

"Elena, I already told you I will not…"

"Oh, but you won't have to. As you tell me often, some things are only a matter of DNA. I wonder if Christian and Ana will feel the same…"

"What the hell are you playing at?"

"When the time is right I will let you know. For now, do as you're told for once, or Vidal will learn what you're really after!"

"Whatever, Elena…" Kate huffed as she hung-up. Nervously, she headed to the ladies room to make sure that she would be composed and picture perfect when she returned to the table.