Dear Christian,

I wish I were writing you for other reasons, but I just can't continue our relationship feeling the way I feel right now. I'm writing you this letter instead of talking to you face-to-face because I have so much to tell you and this seems like the best way to express it.

Should I start by telling you how I love you? Or that the time I've spent with you has been some of the most amazing times in my life? Or that in the all this time I've known you, I was confident that you and I were meant to be together? I could write all those things and pretend they were true, but deep down inside of me, something I'm constantly reminded of is the quote from 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' about the danger of relationships, which you wrote on the card when you gave me the book.

I will always remember our first meeting when I stepped in for Kate to interview you. I never believed the stories about love at first sight, but sure enough, I allowed myself to succumb to the fantasy. Our relationship started immediately and I didn't even notice how love twisted my heart. I lost any sense of reality I ever had. Don't get me wrong...I've enjoyed the time we spent together and I regret to make such decisions. You're the only person on earth who has taught me how to feel confident and how it's okay to be vulnerable. You are understanding, attentive, intelligent, gentle and possess so many other wonderful qualities only a real man has.

After you proposed to me, I tried at first to believe that this was destiny, but inside my mind, I kept on replaying one of those early moments in our relationship when you confessed to me in the coffee shop that you were not the man for me. I so wanted to believe that you were wrong that day, but now I know without a doubt that you were absolutely right. Truly, you deserve much better than me.

As much as it pains me to admit this, Elena was absolutely right that night at your birthday party when she accused me of being a gold digger. When I first heard that your helicopter went down and everyone was searching for you, I was sure I'd never see you again. It seemed like it took forever for the search crews to find you, but during that time, I had to come to the acceptance of the very real possibility that I'd have to go on without you. I honestly must confess that the hardest thing for me to accept was the thought of going back to my old lifestyle. Thoughts of my days working for minimum wage at the hardware store and living paycheck to paycheck was all that consumed my mind.

In other words, I'm a very selfish person. So I don't want to disturb you anymore – I only want you to be happy.

In the future, I know I'll relive our time together a thousand times. I'll hear your voice, see your face, and feel your arms around me. I'm going to miss all of that, more than you can ever imagine.

My love, I've lost hope, and if hope is lost, then I fear we too will be lost forever. My decision is final as I have been battling the best solution ever since your proposal. I hope you'll understand me and I sincerely wish you luck with everything.

With my sincerest care and love,

Ana

Ana was fighting back tears, yet trying to maintain her bravery when she finished writing the letter to Christian. After folding the letter, she placed it down onto the kitchen table in front of her.

"You have no idea how incredibly difficult that was for me, do you?" Ana said while sitting at the kitchen table, as Elena Lincoln stood right behind her holding the gun. Elena was Christian's longtime friend and business partner, and although Ana and Elena had never seen eye to eye, Ana never imagined in her wildest dreams that Elena would go so far as to kidnap her like this.

"Ana, you know damned well that everything I just told you to write in that letter is true," declared Elena. "I guess the truth hurts. Doesn't it, Ana?"

"Go to Hell," Ana shot back.

"You and I can continue this chat later, but for now, I have to make sure this letter gets delivered to Christian," said Elena, as she placed her gun and the letter into her purse. When Ana turned her head around to see what Elena was doing, she saw her pulling out two pieces of thick white rope from a nearby kitchen drawer. Elena then returned to the back of where Ana was seated, and she ordered Ana to place her wrists together behind the back of her chair. After reluctantly complying with Elena's command, Ana could now feel Elena tightly wrapping the braided nylon rope around her delicate wrists.

"OUCH!" Ana exclaimed, as Elena began tying the knots to the rope that would now keep Ana's hands tied behind the back of the chair.

"Ooops. Is that too tight?" Elena asked sarcastically, as she finished tying the rope around Ana's wrists. Elena then walked from the back of Ana's chair to the front of it, where she crouched down in front of Ana with the other piece of rope in hand. Ana looked down at Elena and watched her, as Elena placed both of Ana's feet as close together as possible so that she could begin tying them together as well.

"Look at you... You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Ana protested, as she sat there helplessly watching Elena wrap the rope around her ankles.

"I'm sorry, Ana, but you've left me with no other choice," said Elena, as she started to tie the knots to the rope that would now keep Ana's feet tightly bound together. "I'm doing this for Christian. By removing you from the equation, I am saving him from a lifetime of misery."

"What kind of sick person are you" shouted Ana after Elena finished tying to the wooden chair. "You lure me here to your house under false pretenses. You make me write this phony Dear John letter to Christian, and now you tie me up!? You do know that this is kidnapping, right? What makes you think you can get away with this? As soon as you leave, I'm going to scream my head off!"

"Do you really think I'm foolish enough to not take all necessary precautions?" Elena asked rhetorically, as Ana watched her remove a red bandanna from her purse.

"Elena, please don't do this," Ana said, as she watched Elena rolling up the red bandanna. Elena then walked from the front to the back of Ana's chair, while holding the stretched out bandanna in her hands. "You'll never get away with this," Ana said, just as Elena was about to gag her.

Ana's lips and tongue could then feel the cool fabric of the red bandanna, as Elena stuffed the middle of it deep inside Ana's mouth. Elena then tightly pulled back on both ends of the bandanna so that she could tie them together behind Ana's head. While Elena was tying Ana's gag into place, Ana could feel her heart pounding in her chest, as her beautiful green eyes displayed the look of fear and desperation from everything that Elena was putting her through right now.

After Elena had gagged Ana, she remained standing for another moment behind Ana's chair, before she bent down and callously removed Ana's engagement ring from her finger. When Ana could feel her beautiful diamond ring being taken away by Elena, a single tear streamed down her beautiful cheek. Ana watched helplessly, as Elena walked over to the table in front of her, where she picked up a white envelope. After placing the letter and Ana's engagement ring inside, Elena licked the envelope and sealed it shut.

"Christian is going to be absolutely crushed when he receives this, but thankfully, I'll be there for him every second of the way to help him pick up the pieces," Elena said to a bound and gagged Ana.

After Elena double-checked the knots to Ana's bindings to make sure that they were tight enough, she stood in front of Ana's chair for a moment while gazing down at her helpless captive. "I'll be back for you soon, Ana," said Elena, as Ana glared daggers back at her from behind her gag. "Don't try try to struggle while I'm gone, because I tied you up pretty nice and tight, as I'm sure you can tell. You'll only make those knots of yours that much tighter."

As soon as Ana was alone, she immediately tested the tightness of her bindings to see if she had any hope of getting herself loose. First, she tried shifting her arms up and down in opposite directions, trying to see if she could get her hands free. However, the harder and harder she struggled, the tighter and tighter the coarse rope felt against the soft skin of her wrists. Looking down at her bound ankles, Ana then tried to see if she could get her feet loose by wiggling her legs back and forth as much as the rope would allow, but this too proved to be hopeless.

Finally, Ana tried screaming at the top of her lungs as loud as she could. However, upon hearing the muffled sounds of her own feminine voice, Ana knew that nobody beyond the four walls of Elena's house would ever hear her desperate calls for help. Frustrated at her inability to escape, Ana continued to squirm against her bonds, but it was no use. The knots were simply too well tied. Ana knew she wasn't going anywhere for a while.

While trembling over the possibility of her own fate, Ana then thought of Christian. Would he believe the Dear John letter? Would he come to her apartment to get a better explanation from Ana after reading the letter? What would happen when Christian didn't find her there? Would he come looking for her when she turned up missing?

Ana then thought about Elena. How did she expect to get away with this? Certainly, she couldn't keep Ana tied up here in her house forever. What was she planning to do with her? Would she kill her? Was Elena really capable of going that far?

As Ana helplessly strained against the ropes keeping her so tightly bound, she knew very well that there was no limit to what Elena might do next. Feeling resigned to her own fate, Ana sighed into her gag, which by now had become moist from her own saliva. All it seemed that Ana could do now was to wait for Elena to return and reveal whatever she was ultimately planning to do with her. As she once again thought about her fiancée and all the amazing times that the two of them had experienced together since they had first met, Ana began to consider the very real possibility that she would never, ever see Christian again.