Phoebe:
"So can you make dinner tonight?" Adam asked as I took a seat next to him in class.
This was the first time that we had talked all weekend since he mysteriously disappeared from our texting conversation and I had to admit I was slightly annoyed that he was acting as if nothing had happened.
"What's the rush?" I asked and he shrugged.
"There is no rush it is just that tonight is one of the few nights my mom has off of work so dinner wouldn't have to be really late, that is all." Adam said and I sighed knowing that there was no way to stay mad at him.
"I would have to let my parents know but I think I can make it work."
"Great, so you never sent me a picture of your car." Adam said and I rolled my eyes at his ignorance of bring up the conversation that he had left prematurely.
"You really want to go there? We were texting and then all of a sudden your mom comes home and you vanish acting like she is more important than me." I said diving into the anger that I had let go moments before.
"I told you I had to go..."
"But you could have texted me later, or at least have let me know you were alive." I snapped and Adam sighed.
"I'm sorry, it's just that my mom doesn't like it when I divide my attention. She isn't home that often and when she is home she likes to make family time a priority. I'll talk to her though, I don't want to make you feel like you aren't important." Adam said as he leaned over and grabbed my hand and I sighed.
"I'm sorry I overreacted, I understand how important family time can be." I said feeling bad for the way I snapped at him.
"Yeah, so here is the project." He said as he pulled a red folder out of his bag and handed it to me. "I have everything saved on my computer so just let me know if you think we need to change something."
"Alright I will look it over this afternoon and let you know what I think at dinner."
"So we are on for dinner?" He asked and I nodded.
"Like I told you I will make it work, but just fair warning I will have a security guard with me and my dad will be making the reservations." I said and he smiled.
"And I thought my mom was overbearing." He teased as I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to the front of the class as our teacher walked in.
At lunch I called my mom and asked if it was okay to go out to dinner with Adam and she told me she would check with my dad but she was okay with it and she would more than likely be home when I got there to help me get ready. In other words she was now in the process of rushing home to try to find the background check that Teddy hid before my dad finds out she didn't read it before she let me go.
I just smiled as I put my phone away and I enjoyed the rest of my lunch with Adam, Ava, and Tyler.
After school I carefully drove home and walked through the door to where my mother was frantically searching through a stack of manuscripts that were on the table.
"Hey mom, looking for something?" I asked as I shut the door behind me and she stopped what she was doing and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Hey baby, are you done with school already?" She asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, so dad was okay with me going out right?" I asked and my mom paused for a second before she nodded.
"He is, he made a reservation at Cravings and Sawyer is going with you." She said and I nodded.
"Alright. I am going to go do some homework so I will be ready to go later. What time is the reservation?" I asked and my mom ran a hand through her hair.
"Six, but I have a lot of work to do honey..."
"Alright I get the hint mom, I'll leave you alone." I said as I walked out of the room and into the kitchen where Mrs. Jones was busy cooking a meal that she would freeze so my dad could heat it up later in the week.
"Mrs. Jones can I please have a glass of water?" I asked and she turned to me and smiled as I sent off a quick text to Adam to let him know about the reservation.
"Of course, do you need something to eat?" She asked and I shook my head.
"No thanks your sandwich was fantastic and you cut the crust off." I said and she smiled.
"I take notes Miss Grey. So you are going on your date tonight?" She asked and I sighed.
"It's not a date, I am just going out to dinner with Adam and his mother." I said and she smiled.
"If that's all." She chided as she handed me a glass of water and I rolled my eyes.
"Thank you, I'll be in my room if anyone asks." I said as I turned with my water and headed up to my room.
I finished up my homework relatively quickly so I wasn't too bothered when Teddy came in and flopped down on my bed.
"Well I have a pen name." He said and I nodded as I finished up my last math problem.
"And do you have a copy of your novel?" I asked and he sighed.
"That's the thing, there is no way for me to print it without raising red flags with dad. I mean he knows how many times the toilets flush in this house let alone how much ink the printers have." Teddy said and I put my pencil down.
"Get me a flash drive with it on it. Jeeze, I have to take care of everything for you don't I? I am going to have to ask for ten percent of the profit that is to come from this." I joked and Ted rolled his eyes as he handed me a flash drive.
"Thanks for this, and I will forward the emails from dad to you." Teddy said as he left the room and I sighed as thought about how much shit I had gotten myself into.
I called in a favor with a guy from the tech club at school and he promised to have Teddy's stuff printed, bound, and ready for me to pick up tomorrow. After that I went ahead and read through the emails that dad had sent Teddy and I could see why he wasn't keen on becoming the next Christian Grey, but it was nothing that I couldn't handle.
I quickly worked on some of the basic paperwork that dad had sent to Teddy and got that all sent out to dad through Ted's account, which I hacked, and then I got up and started to rummage through my closet trying to find something acceptable for tonight. I had finally settled on a plum colored dress aunt Kate had bought for me when there was a knock on my door and I turned to see my dad standing there.
"Are you ready to go out?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yeah, I just have to change and then I will be ready." I said as I picked up a pair of heels to go with the dress.
"Do I need to go through the rules with you or do you think you know them?" My dad asked and I smiled.
"I know your rules dad, all of them, I just like giving you a hard time." I said and he nodded as he took a few more steps into my room.
"No hard times tonight, and I mean that Phoebe."
"Alright dad." I said as I walked over to the bathroom so I could change. "Anything else?" I asked as I paused in the doorway and he was silent for a moment before he shook his head.
"Just be careful." He said and I smiled.
"I will be, now let me get ready so I can be on time." I said and he laughed as he pivoted and left the room.
It didn't take me long to get dressed. All I had to do was slip on the dress, run a brush through my hair, fix my makeup, and then slip on my shoes before I headed downstairs to go grab Sawyer so we could leave.
"Call if anything happens." My dad said blocking the door so I couldn't leave just yet.
"I will, but seriously nothing is going to happen." I said and he sighed as he gave me one last hug.
"Be good." He whispered into my ear and I smirked.
"I always am." I said and he just laughed as our hug ended and he stepped aside so I could leave as my mom came out of my dad's office.
"Christian-"
"Ah, Ana you are just in time, Phoebe is about to leave."
"Christian-"
"Bye mom." I said as I gave her a quick hug and then bolted out the door so that there was no way my parents could change their minds about me going.
There was no phone call from my dad on the fifteen minute journey to Crave, so either my mom didn't tell him yet, or he didn't care, more then likely though she hadn't told him.
It was just before six when Sawyer pulled into a parking spot and I got out and followed him into the building where we were led back into a small private dining room. Seated at the table was an older woman with striking platinum blonde hair, I could only guess that this was Adam's mother, but Adam was no where to be seen.
"Sawyer I think I can take it from here." I said as I stopped at the door and Sawyer looked at my guest and then shook his head.
"Phoebe I think it would be best if I went in with you..."
"Stay here." I said in a matter of fact tone and I closed the door as I walked inside the room leaving Sawyer out in the main dining room.
"You must be Phoebe, Adam had to run home to get something but he should be right back, I'm Elena." The woman said as she stood up and offered her hand to me. "You're much prettier than I imagined, especially since you seemed to favor your mother." She said as we were seated.
"You know my mother?" I asked and she sighed.
"Your father too, actually I know your father better than your mother, a lot better, but we don't have a lot of time to get into that. I am actually surprised that they let you come tonight." She said and I nodded being as I was surprised as well.
"Well they don't know you are Adam's mom and what do you mean by we don't have a lot of time?" I asked slightly confused as she took a sip of wine from her glass.
"So you and Adam are dating?" She asked changing the subject with a smile.
"Adam and I are just friends." I assured her and her smile widened.
"For now. You know once your father finds out who I am he isn't going to let you see Adam." She said and I cocked my head to the side.
"And why not?" I asked and she shrugged.
"Your father and I had a disagreement in the past and he, well he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. Although if I can be honest your father is a very dark man with some dirty secrets that he should be more concerned about than he is." She said as she wiped away some condensation that had built up on her glass. "That isn't the point though is it? We are here because you and Adam fancy each other isn't that right?" She asked and I slowly nodded.
"I guess." I replied grabbing the water glass that was in front of my and taking a sip to try to clear my thoughts at the moment.
"Well I just want to say that no matter what happens tonight I stand behind you and my son a hundred percent and you are welcome at my house anytime you desire." She said and I half smiled.
"Thanks, I think."
"You know you have your father's eyes, that was one of my favorite things about your dad-"
"Hey sorry I'm late, I forgot these at the house." Adam said as he walked over and handed me a small thing of white roses.
"These are gorgeous, thank you." I said as I stood up and gave him a hug before we both took a seat at the table.
"Innocence, purity, youthfulness, all represented by the white rose, did you know that?" Elena asked and I shook my head.
"I had no idea, they are just really pretty." I said as I laid them down on the table before I heard my dad's voice through the door.
"Where is she?" He bellowed and I pinched the bridge of my nose as I waited for the Christian Grey invasion to start.
Ana:
"I can't believe she is going out tonight to meet with people I didn't look into. It feels, weird." Christian said as he turned back to me after Phoebe all but bolted out the door.
I had tried to tell Christian that she shouldn't be going but each time he interrupted me I looked at Fee's face and in the end I couldn't do it, she deserved to go and have a good time tonight.
"So was there anything interesting on the back ground check?" Christian asked as he took my hand and led me into the living room and I shook my head.
"No." I said knowing that if I went too much into detail I would be caught in a lie, and that was the last thing I wanted.
Well if that is the last thing you wanted then you should just tell the truth! My subconscious screamed at me as my inner diva flipped through Christian's punishment catalogue trying to find something to suit her fancy.
"What was his GPA?" Christian asked and I shrugged.
"I skimmed Christian, I didn't think his GPA was that important." I lied again and he sighed as my subconscious shook her head at me.
"GPA is very important Ana, where is the background check? Now that Phoebe is gone there would be no harm in me just taking a quick look." He said and I knew that there was no way I could keep this charade up.
"I lost it." I stated and he cocked his head to the side.
"Before or after you read it?" He asked sternly.
"After." I squeaked and he raised his eye brow.
"Really? What is his middle name?" He asked and I knew I had been caught.
"Fine I never read it, I lost it before." I said in a small voice knowing that Christian was turing from loving husband into irrational and overly protective father at the moment.
Before I even had a chance to process his mood swing he was on the phone ordering another background check to be sent to him immediately. From there his eyes darkened as he looked at me and I gulped as we waited in silence for the fax to be sent. The next sound that was made was the sound of the printer working and Christian turned from me and walked into his office only returning a few minutes later with the paper in his hand.
"Let's read shall we?" He asked and I took a seat next to him on the couch and read over his shoulder.
Adam William Smith-Lincoln
DOB: Jan 17, 2014, Tacoma, WA
Address: 1678 Nth Haven Rd., Seattle, WA 98888
Mobile No: 360 876 9028
SSN: 945-34-2130
Occupation: Student at Eastwood Private Institution
GPA: 3.2
Prior Education: Home schooled age 7-12
Buck Wood Middle
Seattle Valley High
Father: Richard Howard Smith
DOB: Oct 13, 1985
Deceased: Nov 18, 2015
Mother: Rachel Elizabeth Freeman
DOB: April 2 1989
Adoptive Mother: Elena Lincoln
I didn't have to read any further to know that I was in a shit load of trouble. My daughter, my baby girl, was out with that bitch troll and her adopted son.
"Get Taylor." I said as I hopped up off the couch followed seconds later by Christian who had his phone to his ear and was ordering Taylor to have the car ready and out front now.
I was silently cursing myself as we waited for the car to be pulled around. Had I of just let Christian read the stupid thing none of this would be happening. Our daughter would be upstairs, safe and sound, not out at some restaurant with that bitch troll.
The ride was tense to say the least. Sawyer had called as soon as he saw Elena and Christian assured him that we were already on the way.
"You know this was not how I wanted to spend my night." Christian said and I sighed.
"Christian-"
"Not now, we can talk about it later." He snapped and I just turned and looked out the window as the car sped in the direction of the restaurant.
Taylor dropped us off in the front of the restaurant and Christian took off towards the private dining room with me hot on his tail being as I knew this was going to lead to a huge confrontation.
"Where is she?" Christian asked and Sawyer pointed to the doors.
Within seconds Christian was through the doors and I sighed as I followed behind him. Elena was seated across from Phoebe, her hair was in her normal blonde bob, and the smirk that was planted across her face made me want to kick her teeth in.
"Phoebe lets go." Christian snarled not breaking eye contact with Elena.
"Dad-"
"NOW!" He said and Phoebe looked to me to do something but I just shook my head letting her know that she needed to go.
"I'm not going." Phoebe said and I felt my breath hitch as she locked eyes with Christian.
"Phoebe go out to the car now, this is the last time that I am going to ask." He said and she shook her head refusing to move.
"What are you going to do to make me leave?" She asked and Christian turned to me with burning eyes.
"Deal with her." He said in a low voice and I sent Phoebe a pleading look to just do as he said.
"Phoebe-" I said and she shook her head as she stormed out of the room and I followed after her to make sure she made it to the car alright.
"You promised, you and dad both promised," Phoebe said stopping short of the SUV. "but apparently promises mean nothing to you!" Phoebe screamed as she finished and I tried to rub her arm but she swatted me away. "Don't touch me, you don't get to fix this, it's your fault that everything is so screwed up in the first place." She said as she climbed into the car and then slammed the door shut behind her.
"I'll take her home." Taylor said coming up behind me and I turned to him and gave him a half smile.
"Thank you." I said as I crossed my arms in front of my chest and walked back to the private dining room that Adam was just exiting as I approached.
"Your daughter is quite a character, not at all what I was expecting being as she is Ana's offspring." Elena sneered as she swirled her wine around in he glass.
"That is my wife you are talking about you best watch your words." Christian said in a low growl as I joined him at his side and Elena just shrugged.
"Just making an observation, that's all. Please take a seat, it seems like we have a lot to talk about." She said gesturing to the two vacated seat and Christian shook his head as we remained in place.
"There is nothing to talk about Elena, stay away from my family and that is it." He said and she sighed as she placed her wine glass on the table.
"Christian do you honestly think I had anything to do with our children taking an interest in one another? I mean I can get Adam to do a lot of things but when it comes to matters of the heart you should know that I have no control over it..."
"Well exert some sort of control because the next time I see you or your, your Adam anywhere near my daughter I will ruin you." Christian stated and Elena laughed.
"Such threatening words from someone with dark secrets such as yourself."
"You wouldn't." I said and she turned to me and smiled.
"If I lose everything I would and you can count on that. Now being as there seems to be no sort of discussion bound to take place, I have to attend to my son who is waiting for me. It was nice seeing you both again, we must do it again real soon." Elena said with a fake smile as she got up and left glaring at me as she walked through the room.
"I'm going to kill her." Christian said once we were alone and I shook my head.
"Not if I get to her first." I stated and Christian smirked as he reached out and took my hand as he led us out of the room to where Sawyer was waiting to take us home.
"So how much do you think this is going to cost me?" He asked and I shrugged.
"I have no idea but I am just hoping that Taylor called ahead and had Mrs. Jones remove some of the more valuable breakables this time. I mean last time she got this upset she broke our one of a kind vase from Italy-"
"That still wasn't as bad as when she caused 40,000 dollars worth of damage to my office and then almost succeeded in cracking our marble floor. She just has so much anger sometimes, it scares me." Christian said and I sighed.
"What scares you more, her anger or the fact that Elena has weaseled her way into our daughter's life?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Elena will not have anything to do with Phoebe's life and I am going to make sure of that." Christian said as he looked out the window and I reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
"I'm sorry." I said and he looked over at me and sighed.
"I know you are, but that doesn't mean that I am not angry at you."
"I know." I whispered as I looked away as the car came to a stop in front of our house and I got out to go survey the damage.
When I walked in Phoebe was no where to be seen but it wasn't hard to guess where she had been. Things were thrown off their shelves, family pictures now laid in ruin on the floor and there was a trail of blood that went from the broken glass table to a smashed picture frame that had contained a photo of Christian and her.
"Gail?" I called out and a few seconds later Mrs. Jones appeared and shook her head.
"She is up in her room, she locked the door and is refusing to come out. From what I saw her hand is in bad shape."
"What did she do?" I asked and Mrs. Jones sighed.
"She went from throwing things off the shelf to punching things and that was when she punched your table in and then put her hand through that picture frame."
"Did you get a good look at her hand?" I asked and she shook her head.
"She wouldn't let me look at it but from the trail of blood I would say it's pretty bad."
"Shit, alright I'll call Grace and get her to come over. Do not let Christian see this until Grace is here. He should be pretty busy with his phone calls for a little while but we need to get this cleaned up, especially the blood." I said and Gail nodded and she rushed off to get something to clean up the mess and I pulled out my phone and made a panicked call to Grace.
"Ana, is everything alright?" Grace asked as she picked up her phone and I sighed.
"No, Phoebe put her hand through a glass table and she is refusing to let me or anyone else look at is but I know it's bleeding." I said and I could hear Grace say something to Carrick.
"I'll be there in ten minutes, but Ana you need to see if she will let you look at it because it sounds bad." Grace said and I nodded.
"I know, but Christian has no idea so just please hurry." I said as Mrs. Jones came back in and started on removing some of the blood from the floor.
"I'm on my way." She said and I sighed as I hung up the phone and then started to help Mrs. Jones collect the bloody glass.
"Mrs. Grey, go check on Phoebe, I can take it from here." Mrs. Jones said a few minutes later after a majority of the evidence had been collected.
"Thank you." I said and she just smiled as I left the room and rushed up the stairs to Phoebe's room. I lightly knocked on her door and then tried to open it to find it locked and I sighed. "Phoebe, it's mom let me in." I said to the solid wood door but there was no reply. "Fee-"
"GO AWAY!" Phoebe screamed and I sighed knowing that this was just the start of this fight.
"Phoebe, open the door. I know about your hand and you need to let me look at it. Your grandmother will be here shortly." I said but there was no movement to open the door. "Fee-"
"Let me." Grace said as she came up next to me and knocked on the door. "Phoebe Grey open this door this instant!" Grace barked and within seconds the door was opened and I saw Phoebe's hand wrapped in a blood soaked towel. "Sit down on the bed." Grace said and Phoebe walked over to the bed and I followed her into the room.
Grace made quick work of unwrapping her hand and then using a pair of tweezers to remove the glass shards from her hand. When that was done she cleaned up the blood from her hand and then numbed it so she could stitch up the cuts that were really deep.
"Is her hand going to be okay?" Christian asked from the doorway causing me to jump a little bit and Grace nodded.
"She might have a few scars but that's about it." She said as she finished the last stitch and then started to pack up her things.
"Thank you for coming over." Christian said and Grace smiled.
"It's my job, if the pain gets to be too much she can take a few Advil but other than that she should be fine." Grace said and Christian nodded.
"Get some sleep Phoebe. Come on Ana." Christian said as he extended his hand to me and I pulled Phoebe into a one sided hug and kissed her temple.
"I love you Phoebe and I know you are mad but we only want to protect you." I whispered and she rolled her eyes as I joined her father at the door and the pair of us walked out of the room.
"I'll keep Ryan and Blake at my house tonight and I will return them to you tomorrow."
"Thanks mom." Christian said again and she sighed.
"It's fine, but I don't know what you did to make my grand baby that upset but please fix it because I can't stand to see her hurt, physically or emotionally." She said as she turned and walked away from us and Christian turned to me.
"Let's talk."
Wait? What wait? I am so sorry about the delay but it's been a rough few days (well more than a few) Anyway I just want to thank Carlie 13, , Lmcarter, and esolo for your reviews! Thank you thank you thank you!