Author's Note: Thank you for all your comments. Most of them are very encouraging, and I appreciate it. I'm glad you liked the action in the last chapter... well, except for that one person who complained that the chapters are so long you get bored before the end. Really? I mean, if you were bored in that last chapter, you should probably just stop reading now. LOL. For those wondering about Elena... let's just ponder it a bit more, who could it have been? I haven't forgotten, but Christian and Ana aren't talking about it, and very few other people even know about it, so you might not hear about it again for a while.

We turn now to the tenacious Ms. Kavanagh... and find out who won that bet between Christian and Ana.

Chapter 22: Kate's Fate (Christian's POV)

Monday, November 28, 2016

"Christian, I promise, I'm OK now!" Mia assured me once again.

She'd said it about a dozen times in the past hour, but I still wasn't convinced. We'd eaten lunch, and then Elliot had left to get some work done at Grey Construction. Gail had prepared us a delicious lunch, but none of us except Elliot were able to eat much, especially not Mia. She was still too keyed up, understandably. Mom had made an appointment with a colleague to examine Mia, just as a precaution. Mom herself had already examined her, and she seemed fine, physically. We all knew she wasn't OK mentally, herself included. She'd agreed that she needed to talk to a therapist. Mom had made that appointment already, too, for tomorrow.

Ana and I were getting ready to leave for GEH in a few minutes, but I was worried about leaving Mia even though Mom and Dad were both still here, and neither of them was going to leave Mia alone for the rest of the day. Mom was off work for the rest of the year, and Dad had taken the rest of the day off. Well, he was planning to work from home, as they were all three about to leave to return to Grey Manor after first stopping by the hospital to have Mom's colleague examine Mia, which they didn't expect to take long. After lunch, Mia had given her statement to the police, and the officers had just left a few minutes ago. Mom said after Mia had a long nap, which Mia agreed that she needed because she hadn't gotten any sleep at all last night, then Mom and Mia were going to do some online shopping therapy, followed by a movie or two. Mia perked up at the idea of online shopping. And I knew she loved watching old movies with Mom, which they rarely had time to do these days.

"Seriously, Chrissy! I'm going home, and I'm going to sleep. Mom's going to take good care of me." Mia's smile was fake, and she knew that I knew it.

"You don't need to pretend with me, Meems," I told her. "I'm going to take care of you, just like Mom, Dad, and Elliot all will. You're going to be OK."

"Of course, I'm going to be OK," she agreed, and I could see that she meant it. "I mean, you've already gotten my exams taken care of. I still think you worked a miracle there, no matter how much you're paying them."

Nah, a miracle wasn't needed in the case of Mia's culinary school. Just a generous donation. They'd be able to build a new facility now. And Mia would still take her exams in January, when a couple of her professors would spend a week here in Seattle. It all worked out well for everyone.

After a few more assurances from Mom, Dad, and Mia herself, we were all on our way. We all took the elevator down together, and I walked with Mia to Mom and Dad's car, surrounded by all our security. Then, Ana and I got into another Audi while our security drove us to Grey House.

Our new CFO, Sebastian Song, was deeply immersed in his work when we stopped by his office. Ros said he hadn't even taken a lunch break.

"Mr. Song, you're going to burn out before the week is over if you don't take lunch breaks," I warned him.

"Would you call me Sebastian?" he asked as he glanced up from one of his three computer monitors. "Mr. Song is my grandfather. Professionally, everyone calls me Sebastian."

"Very well, but only if you call me Christian. Not many people around here do, but you're in my inner circle now, so it's only right. How are things going here? Ros said you haven't taken a breather since you arrived at work at 8:00 a.m."

"No, but it's my first day," he replied. "I'm sure things will level off once I've been here a few days. There's always that learning curve at the beginning, really getting to know how the company operates. I think I've figured out Jack Hyde's scheme enough to straighten out the biggest part of it. It'll take a few days to get there, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I'll need to do a lot of checks over the next few weeks just to make sure I'm not overlooking anything."

"How's the hunt for an assistant going?" I asked.

He looked a little surprised. "You want me to find my own assistant?" he asked. "I just assumed you'd assign me someone suitable."

I glanced at Ana, and she nodded at me. Sometimes, we could communicate without words, in matters like this. My girl already had someone in mind, I could see. An internal move. That made things a bit easier, even though we'd need to hire someone to fill the person's previous position.

"Don't worry about it, Sebastian, I'll get Ana on it, and we'll have an assistant for you by the end of the week," I assured him.

Of course, with Ana being Ana, it didn't take until the end of the week. It didn't even take until the end of the day, and we only worked a half day. Ana knew immediately, being the queen of organization and knowing her colleagues and their strengths and weaknesses as she did, who would be perfect for the job.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

The next day, Holly Steiner reported directly to Sebastian's office, and then Andrea had her set up at Elizabeth Morgan's old workspace in no time at all. My executive team was coming together, finally, and things were beginning to look healthy again.

That was a good fucking thing, because work was not slowing down. So far, GEH had only taken a minor hit from the clusterfuck that was Jack Hyde. Nobody knew about my own mental health crisis, and we would keep things that way. The story of Mia's kidnapping had only just hit the press, so we were, as usual, being hounded by the paparazzi. The gossip sites were still all abuzz over my relationship with Ana. But business was nearly back to normal. I had about a half dozen potential acquisitions in the works, and I needed to be able to focus on that, not the financial mess that Jack Hyde had created. Sebastian Song was a godsend… as long as he kept doing his job as well as it appeared he was doing it. And I felt confident that he was.

Ana liked him, which was a good sign. My girl never missed the mark when it came to sizing up other people. I was usually a good judge of character, but I got it wrong sometimes, as was evident by my relations with that woman who will remain nameless (and who most of the world still didn't know was no longer breathing the same air we were, and I wasn't talking, nor was Ana.)

And also… I had hired Jack Hyde. It had been early on, when GEH was still getting off the ground, before our name was known. He'd been a great accountant, or so I thought, for the past five years or so. We hadn't interacted all that much, but he'd never given off bad vibes. He'd impressed both Ros and myself enough to have been the most obvious candidate to promote to CFO when we needed one. I had certainly been shocked to find out all the shit I'd learned about him over the past month. To think that he'd blamed me for something that happened when I was just a neglected, abused toddler, "stealing his family," something that I had absolutely no memory of… was simply insane. The man was completely "batshit crazy," in my brother's eloquent words. But the lunatic was in jail now, hopefully to stay.

Ana and I had lunch in my office. My girl had been busy the entire morning working on projects I'd assigned her, researching three of the companies I was hoping to acquire in the coming weeks. One of them was in Dubai, and she didn't know it yet, but I was planning to take her with me in January for a site visit. If I had my way, it would become the GEH headquarters for the Middle East. I had already established a headquarters in Paris for Europe. We had several offices in Asia, and I didn't see one of them emerging as our headquarters there, although Singapore had potential, if I could straighten out the issues there.

But I didn't really want to talk shop over lunch. I was curious about something, though. I asked Ana, "Do you remember the first time you met Jack Hyde?"

She nodded. "Not the exact date, but I remember the encounter. I'd probably been working for you… maybe two months? It was before you gave me my new job. Andrea was still on maternity leave."

"What were your first impressions?" I asked her curiously.

She picked at her salad as she replied bluntly, "He was a royal jackass."

Well, that didn't surprise me. Like I said, my girl never got it wrong when it came to people's character. But I needed more. "What happened to make you so sure of that right off the bat?" I asked her.

"Well, first, I noticed his wandering eyes. He knew that I saw him looking at my tits and ass, and it didn't bother him. That's not a new thing, for men to act that way, so I ignored him. But then he always spoke to me in a… I don't know… a belittling way. Anytime he needed me to give you a message, he sounded sleazy about it. And that was before you promoted him. I'm not sure why he couldn't just send you an email like everyone else, but he would come up to our floor and ask me to write down a message for you, and he stood over my shoulder as I wrote it. Creepy."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" I asked.

"It wasn't my place to say anything," she replied. "Then, when you promoted him and he moved up to our floor… I noticed how he spoke to Elizabeth. Granted, she's not a nice person either, but she let him walk all over her. He snapped at Andrea more than once, too. And Olivia… He made her cry at least once, maybe more. He's just an awful human being, and that's before all the shit he did to you and your family."

This was all news to me. I needed to pay more attention to the dynamics of my office staff.

Just as we were finishing lunch, Ana's cell phone rang. I recognized the annoying ring tone immediately. The awful music had awakened us at 6:00 a.m. on her first morning back in the country. The Kavanagh girl.

The way Ana answered, it was obvious she'd been expecting the call. "Kate, are you OK? No, don't answer that. Stupid question. I know you're not OK. But you're going to be OK. That bastard has no idea just how strong you are. You don't have to bend to his will this time, Kate. You're going to be OK. I'm here, and I'm going to help you figure it all out. Do you need me to come get you?"

I couldn't hear her response, and I tried my best because I was very curious about what was happening. Ana hadn't told me a thing, and I'd forgotten about our fight last Friday after Ana felt I'd been rude to her friend. Ana had been so convinced that she was right about Katherine quitting Kavanagh Media that she'd agreed to let me buy her a car if she was wrong. It had been obvious at the time that she had no intentions of actually letting me buy her a car. She was so convinced that she was right that it was a non-issue for her. I wasn't looking forward to being right because I knew she'd be hurt when she found out the Kavanagh girl wasn't as innocent as she thought she was. She was her father's daughter, and I didn't trust her.

"Well, I'm sorry that your mom wasn't more helpful, but at least you have your clothes," Ana said consolingly. "I can meet you at my apartment and help you move in. My security can help us."

Well, shit. That only meant one thing. Ana had been right. But how was that possible? She paused while her friend spoke, and then she looked at me questioningly. She said into the phone, "I'm not sure, Kate. That's a good question. Let me ask Christian." She then asked me, "Did my furniture get moved out of my apartment, and my dishes and stuff, or is it all still there?"

I answered, "That tiny room that you called your apartment is completely empty now, Ana. All your stuff has been moved to my storage facility in the basement of Escala, where it's more secure."

She didn't respond to me or show any emotion. She spoke into the phone, "It's empty, Kate. Christian had my apartment cleaned, and he moved my stuff into storage. But don't worry, we can get it moved back over there. You won't be sleeping on the floor tonight."

Could it be that Eamon Kavanagh had really kicked his beloved daughter out on her ass? My mind was reeling.

"Can I speak to her?" I asked Ana.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Christian," Ana responded protectively. "She's… not doing so great right now. Talking to you will only make matters worse. I love you, but no. After the way you treated her last Friday, I'm not letting you talk to her right now."

"Invite her for dinner at Escala," I said to buy some time. I wasn't sure if Ana would go for it, but I wanted to get to the bottom of things, to find out the truth of the situation, and make sure Ana wasn't being hoodwinked in the process. But if Ana was right, and this was playing out just like she said it would, then I had some groveling to do. Shit! I never groveled, but I'd made a deal with her, and I am a man of my word.

Ana watched my face carefully and seemed to have made up her mind about something. To her friend, she said, "OK, how about this? Meet me at Escala, at Christian's penthouse at 6:30. I'm going to take off a little early and beat you there. We will figure things out from there. But one thing I can promise you, Kate. You will have a roof over your head and a comfortable bed to sleep in tonight. Your dad hasn't won, and he won't win. You're smarter than he is, and you will figure out where to go from here. I know you, so I know you will."

She paused again and listened to Kate. Then she responded, "I don't know yet if Christian will be there, but yes, I can assure you, he knows you're coming, and he doesn't have any problems with your being there. It was actually his idea for me to invite you to dinner at Escala. And I happen to know that Gail is making her famous lasagna that is the best thing I've ever eaten. Stop worrying, Kate. This is going to turn out for the better, I just know it is."

Apparently, Kate agreed. A minute later, Ana ended the call, and I just stared at her waiting for her to tell me "I told you so." She didn't. Instead, she walked around my desk and brought up a browser on my laptop. After a moment, a news video began to play. Eamon Kavanagh was speaking, and he sounded very disturbed and distressed. He had dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept in several days. He looked directly into the camera as he spoke.

"It pains me greatly to have to announce that as of 8:00 this morning, my daughter, Katherine Kavanagh, is no longer employed or associated with Kavanagh Media. I unfortunately had no other choice, as her actions were life threatening not only to myself but to all of her coworkers. My daughter, to put it plainly, needs serious psychological help. She is deeply troubled over events that occurred in her childhood, and my family have done our best to get her the help she needs, but she has resisted our efforts at every turn. I had hoped once she finished her education and began working back home here in Seattle, that her issues would resolve themselves, given the ongoing therapy that I believed she was receiving. It turns out that she has not been attending her therapy sessions for several months, and she has also gone off her medication. She is now a danger to all of us, and especially to herself. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, she is banned from all Kavanagh Media properties. I have advised her mother and brother to also use extreme caution when communicating with her. I would extend that caution to all of you, the general public. Katherine is a very troubled young woman."

Ana was seething when she stopped the video. "Bastard! Lies, all lies! And did you see his face? He got his makeup artist to create those dark circles under this eyes. They weren't real! He's milking this for all it's worth, destroying his daughter in the process. What an evil, sorry excuse for a human being!"

I spoke slowly and carefully as I asked her, "Ana… are you certain… absolutely certain… that everything he said was a lie?"

She huffed, "No, Christian. The part about Kate no longer being employed or associated with Kavanagh Media was true. But all that shit about therapy and quitting her medication and being deeply troubled? Yeah, she's deeply troubled, alright because she has such a jackass for a father! It's all lies, Christian, I promise. I would know if Kate had psychological issues. She doesn't. He makes her sound psychotic. She graduated summa cum laude, and she was a double fucking major!"

"What was her other major, besides journalism?" I asked, just out of curiosity.

Ana replied, "Her first major was Communication and Media Studies. Her second one was Photography. In my opinion, she's a better photographer than Jose was, and it was his only major. They actually met in a photography class. Anyway, Kate also minored in Spanish, but she's fluent in Spanish, French, and Mandarin. And she's not on any medication. She's not a threat to anyone. You know as well as I do what this is really about. She refused to give him what he wanted about us, and she quit. This is him retaliating. He's the one who needs to be on anti-psychotic medication."

It all seemed so farfetched, for a man as well-known as Eamon Kavanagh to fabricate such vicious lies about his own daughter. But I had just spent the better part of the day just admiring my girl's excellent judge of character, and the fact that she never got it wrong about people. It seemed that the only possibility now was that I had misjudged Ms. Kavanagh and this whole situation. If that was true, she wouldn't be moving into Ana's tiny room at all. She would be moving into the furnished apartment on the ninth floor that I had offered her on Friday for her silence. That was my deal with Ana, if I lost our bet.

But I really needed to be certain about all of this. And there was one very simple way to make sure Ana wasn't being hoodwinked by her friend. I picked up my phone and searched my contacts until I found Eamon Kavanagh's personal cell phone number. I put it on speaker so that Ana could hear the call.

"Christian Grey," he answered after only a couple of rings. "To what do I owe this pleasure."

I glanced at Ana and could see from the look on her face that she found it equally creepy, the way he'd said my name. Sleaze ball.

"Mr. Kavanagh," I said smoothly, "I have just watched a very troubling press statement from you concerning your daughter. To be honest…" (OK, I wasn't being honest at all) "I'm concerned for the safety of the general public. Your daughter sounds completely unstable. You make it sound like she was threatening to blow up your building."

"She damn near was," he insisted. "She came in here with a chip on her shoulder, telling me how things were going to be. I'd never heard her take that tone with me. She sounded completely insane."

"Did she really?" I asked in a tone that made it clear that I didn't believe a word of his bullshit. "I'm just curious, Eamon. Did you fire her because she threatened your life, like you made it sound? Or did you fire her because she refused to write the series of articles about me and Anastasia that you ordered her to write?"

"I don't know what you're talking about or where you got that idea," he claimed.

"Of course you don't," I responded. "I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when she told you she'd signed my NDA. But I'm confused, Eamon. I mean, this is your only daughter, the heir to your empire, and you've basically kicked her out on her ass. Why is that, really? I mean, I know it can't possibly be just because she refused to give up the goods on me and my girlfriend."

The bastard sighed and replied without an ounce of regret, "Grey, you have your way of ruling your empire, and I have mine. Don't worry yourself too much over my dear daughter. I seem to recall you had no issues yourself with kicking her out on her ass not that long ago. Yeah, she came crying to daddy over that shit. And she's going to come crying to daddy again before the week is over, mark my words. She can't live without my bank account. That's all that's ever mattered to her."

"What if you're wrong?" I asked.

He snorted. Arrogant son of a bitch. "Where's she gonna go, Grey? Are you gonna give her a job? She's a journalist, and there's not a news agency in the country who will touch her with a ten-foot pole now. I made sure of it. I'm her only option. She'll come crawling back, and I'll make another statement that she's on her meds now and doing better. She'll still have her old job. She'll still get her inheritance. She just has to show me she deserves it, that's all."

"I wouldn't be so sure that you're her only option, Kavanagh. She's a smart girl, from what I've heard. Graduated summa cum laude or some shit. She might just be more resourceful that you give her credit for."

"Bullshit," he spat. "She's a weak little girl."

"I don't know, Kavanagh," I responded. "My money's on the weak little girl." I didn't give him a chance to respond before I ended the call.

I looked at Ana and sighed. "OK," I said. "You were right, and I was wrong. I'll be there at dinner tonight with Kate. Yes, I do know her name. Kate. And I'll grovel, just like you want me to. And she'll get the apartment on the ninth floor for a year for free. That was our deal. You won." I didn't add that I was still going to buy her a car, even though I lost. It could be a Christmas present.

Ana replied, "This is one bet that I'm not happy to have won, Christian. Kate's a mess. She's not only been abandoned by her whole family, but she's also been made a pariah. She's already talked to a lawyer about suing her dad for libel, but he's so much more powerful than she is. She doesn't even have an income now, and even though she has savings, she's afraid he's going to cut off all of her access to her bank account before the week is over. She can't pay a lawyer. He has her exactly where he wants her. Like a bug he wants to squash. He's just so freaking evil."

This was so important to my girl, and I would do absolutely anything for my girl. So I didn't really need to give it much thought before I told her, "Her dad might be more powerful than her, but I'm more powerful than he is, and we're going to help her. If my dad doesn't agree to take her case pro bono, I'll pay for it. She most certainly needs to sue his ass. It's easy for her to prove that he lied about her just to ruin her reputation, if she's really not on medication. All she needs is a doctor's statement."

"So… you believe me? That she's a good friend, loyal to a fault, and a good person?" The doubt in my girl's eyes nearly broke my heart.

"I believe you, Ana. You're clearly a better judge of character than I am. I don't doubt that she's been a good friend to you. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I like her, but she's your friend, so I'll try harder."

She leaned in and kissed my lips chastely. "Thank you, Christian." The smile she gave me made me want to lock the door and give Matilda some love.

"Don't look at me like that," Ana admonished. "We have a whole afternoon of work to finish before we leave, and I absolutely need to leave by 5:45. I want to be home by 6 so I can talk to Gail before Kate gets there. It's true that Gail's making lasagna, but I know Kate loves tiramisu, and this is a tiramisu kind of night. And chunky monkey ice cream. She needs that for her freezer, wherever she ends up. If it's the ninth floor of Escala, I want to take a look and make sure it's ready for her before she arrives. There will be time if I get home by 6."

"OK, then I guess we're leaving by 5:45. If we push ourselves, we might even make it out of here by 5:30. I have a conference call at 3 that I need you to take notes in. Then, we're meeting with Sebastian and Ros at 4. I think that's it for the day."

"I want to finish the Dubai project today so I can focus on Singapore tomorrow," Ana told me. "I just have a few more details to confirm today, but I expect it'll take a couple of hours to work through it all. Oh, and don't forget to return the call Larry Chambers at Acorn Publishing. Are you thinking of buying another publishing house? You already bought SIP… which we need to talk about sometime this week if possible. Are you trying to be my competition?" She smirked at me, clearly joking. She probably thought I would put her out of business because she still didn't believe in herself enough.

I laughed and told her honestly, "No, Ana. I was thinking of merging them for you. SIP only publishes fiction. Acorn publishes children's literature, both fiction and nonfiction. I thought you might want to venture into classroom textbooks. But yes, it's a conversation for later this week."

Her eyes were big as she told me worriedly, "Christian, I'm already overwhelmed with SIP as it is. It doesn't need to be bigger, at least not yet."

"Don't worry about it, Ana," I told her. "I'm here to help you, and it's going to be healthier by the time you take over. But right now… let's focus on Dubai, OK?" I needed to distract her. Besides, we were both working on limited timelines with the Dubai project.

As hoped, we were able to leave by 5:30 after a long meeting with Ros and Sebastian. He was settling in nicely. Ana had, of course, made a good call by moving Holly Steiner to the position as Sebastian's assistant. They seemed to get along brilliantly, and I knew she was a good accountant. Ros seemed just as happy with Sebastian's work as I was. Things were finally looking up.

Once we got to Escala, Ana and I decided to stop at the ninth floor on our way up to our penthouse. I liked how it sounded to call it "our" penthouse. It just amazed me that my girl had agreed to move in with me.

As we got off the elevator, I told Ana, "That apartment over there, 9B, is Sebastian's. It has a better view. But this one, 9D, has an identical floor plan. And it's furnished. I want to keep A and C empty, for business associates. They're both also furnished. I own the other two on this floor as well, but I haven't bothered to furnish them yet."

Ana nodded. Once Taylor had unlocked the door and checked inside, we went in and looked around.

Ana looked happy as she told me, "This is nicer than her current apartment. It's approximately the same size, but the view here is better, and so are the furnishings. She's going to like it. This is good, Christian. Very good."

"Did you look in the freezer?" I asked her proudly. I'd texted Gail almost immediately after she'd mentioned the desserts she wanted.

"Chunky Monkey! Christian, how did you manage that?" Ana looked delighted, which made my heart do a summersault. I'd do anything to keep that look on her face… for the rest of our lives.

"I have a housekeeper, Ana," I told her simply.

"You're amazing, Christian. Thank you," Ana told me happily. "Kate's going to love this place. It's really going to make up for the shitty day she's had.

Well, I was happy if my Ana was happy. And she was even happier when we got upstairs to find out that Gail had already made the tiramisu that she wanted for her friend. Nothing like a simple text message to take care of the small things. Ice cream in the freezer and tiramisu on the table.

Kate arrived about five minutes early, but Ana and I were already relaxing in the living room drinking Sancerre. We both got up to greet her, and she looked uncomfortable when she saw me. Couldn't blame her for that. Her face was red, and she'd clearly been crying. She wasn't wearing her usual makeup and was dressed more casually than I'd ever seen her.

"Kate," Ana greeted her with a big hug. "God, you must be devastated. I mean, I know you expected it, but still… I'd hoped he would actually be a decent human being for once."

Kate squeezed her eyes shut as she hugged Ana. "That's not possible," she muttered miserably. When she opened her eyes, she glanced at me, then glanced away and back again. "Um, hi, Christian."

"Kate, I owe you an apology," I jumped right in. I was very sincere as I told her, "I was wrong, and I treated you very badly Friday night."

To say she was shocked would be an understatement. She just stared at me with her mouth gaping open.

I continued, "I'd been informed earlier on Friday that your father had commissioned you to write a series of articles about my personal life, and you know how I feel about sharing information about my personal life. So… to put it plainly, I didn't trust you. Ana did. She insisted I was wrong about you. It turns out, she was right. I was wrong. I'm very sorry, Kate."

As she continued to gape at me in shock, I watched as her eyes filled with tears. And then, she was sobbing. Ana put her arm around her, and Kate put her head on Ana's shoulder. And wept.

I felt completely helpless. Had I been wrong to apologize? Why the fuck would an apology make her lose it like this?

Ana glanced up at me and saw the bewilderment on my face. She stifled a laugh and told me, "Kate's crying because she's happy, Christian. You did the right thing, apologizing like that. She'll be OK; just give her a minute."

"She sure as fuck doesn't look happy, Ana," I told her confusedly.

Kate raised her head and wiped her tears with a tissue Ana handed her. "I just can't believe that you aren't buying the story my dad is telling. You clearly don't believe him if you're apologizing to me like that. You don't think I'm a psychotic lunatic. And you know that I quit because I refused to use my friendship with Ana to invade your private life, right?"

"I do know that now, Kate, and I appreciate it," I told her. "Ana keeps telling me that you're loyal to a fault, and you've proven it through this ordeal. I was shocked by the shit your father said about you. He's the lunatic."

She nodded. "That he is. But he's a powerful lunatic. And I'm screwed."

"I still can't believe that Ethan and your mom are taking his side," Ana lamented.

Kate snorted. "I can. Oh, they know he's lying, of course, but they want to stay in his good graces, so they're refusing to help me. If either of them provides any support to me this week, Dad will know it, and they're both afraid. Mom packed up all my stuff for me today and got it to me, and she gave me a few hundred dollars, but that's all she could do. She'll never leave him, even over something like this. And Ethan is counting on the capital Dad's giving him for his new business. He can't afford to piss Dad off."

Ethan Kavanagh was starting a new business? That was news to me, and I was curious, but there were more important things to focus on at the moment.

"You're not screwed, as you put it," I told Kate. "Ana told me you've already spoken to a lawyer about bringing a libel lawsuit against your father. I'm sure he counseled you that you have a strong case against him."

"She did," Kate responded. "But I can't afford to pay her fees. So that's at a standstill."

"It's not," I informed her. "I talked to my dad this afternoon and told him your story. As soon as I got off the phone with your father early this afternoon, I knew that everything Ana had predicted Friday night was happening. My dad had seen the news, and he'd watched that video of your dad's statement about you. When I told him everything I know, he agreed to take your case pro bono. So your lawsuit can proceed."

She looked shocked again. "Really?"

"Really," I assured her. "Dad's already completed the paperwork for a gag order, so you can stop your father from spreading more lies. All you need to do is talk to Dad in the morning. Carrick Grey." I handed her Dad's business card, which I'd put in my pocket earlier for just this purpose.

Kate took the card, still with a look of disbelief on her face. She clearly was at a loss for words. I didn't know her all that well, but I was pretty sure she was rarely at a loss for words.

I took advantage of her silence and continued, "And also… I understand that your father has kicked you out of your apartment and you need a place to live."

Kate found her words and replied, "Yes, but Ana's letting me move into her studio. I really am OK with that. I know you believe I'm a spoiled princess, and maybe I am, but I'm ready for a change. I don't want to go back to that life…"

I interrupted her, "Kate, what I believed about you before today isn't relevant. And Ana might believe that the security was good at that place, but I don't agree. You need a safer place to live, and I've already told you that I have a two-bedroom available. Now… I know the way I offered it to you was wrong. It was unkind of me to offer it to buy your silence. I didn't realize at the time, as Ana did, that we could already trust you to protect our privacy. So, I think it's only right to make you a new offer. You can move into the apartment tonight. It's already fully furnished, and it was just cleaned today. It's ready for you. And you don't need to pay rent for one full year."

She stared at me, this time with less confusion or shock than before, but she didn't respond. She seemed to be waiting for me to say something else. Finally she asked, "What's the condition? What is it you expect from me?"

I answered, "Nothing. We already have your silence, which with or without the NDA you signed, I'm confident now that you would have kept, so there's no need to buy it."

She nodded, "Yeah, you have my NDA. But I signed it without any expectations. You don't owe me anything."

"I certainly did owe you the apology I gave you earlier," I corrected. "But now that it's out of the way, I agree, I don't owe you anything. This isn't a payment."

"What is it, then?" Kate asked confusedly. "I mean… I know your reputation, Christian. I'm sorry for my skepticism, but I don't believe you'd offer me a free apartment unless you were getting something in return."

Well, she had a good point. Normally, I wouldn't even consider it. It was the Ana effect, and that was the only explantation.

Ana answered for me, but she told Kate more than I would have preferred. "He's giving you the apartment because he lost a bet to me, and it's what I won. He was so sure he couldn't trust you, Kate. But now he knows he was wrong, and I won. It's a nice apartment, better than the one your dad owns. And it's here in Escala, so we'll be neighbors."

Kate took a minute to process that. And then, she cracked her first smile of the evening. And then, her smile turned into a giggle. Through her giggles, she said, "God, Ana! You made a bet against Christian Grey, and you won! Why didn't you demand more? Hell, you should have at least gotten yourself a car out of the deal."

Ana didn't hesitate. "No, I would have gotten the car if I'd lost. A Mercedes SUV. Now, he's not allowed to buy me a car."

I objected. "I never agreed to that. If I want to buy you a car, I'll buy you a car."

Ana rolled her eyes. "I don't need a car," she insisted.

Kate was smiling widely now. "Take the car, Ana," she encouraged her.

The ice was broken, and dinner was ready, so we moved into the dining area. Gail had outdone herself on the lasagna, which Ana couldn't stop complementing her on. I had to agree, it was truly delicious. So was the garlic bread, which I knew Gail made herself. It was this bread that she used to make her croutons that Ana loved.

Over dinner, I learned a few things about the tenacious Katherine Kavanagh. She surprised me by being a tolerable person to have a conversation with. She asked a lot of questions about Ana's dad's health, which Ana was happy to answer. She then moved to the topic of Mia and her kidnapping yesterday. Even though Kate seemed sincere in her concern, I didn't feel comfortable telling her too much. I'd spoken with Mia this morning, and she admitted that she was still freaked out and afraid to leave the house. I didn't tell this personal information to Kate, though, as it was none of her business. Ana didn't share my attitude, and she revealed to Kate that Mia was struggling just as much as she would have been, had it happened to her. Kate seemed to empathize. Yeah, girl talk. Whatever. Kate also asked how Elliot was doing, which I didn't give a straight answer to, and she knew it. But we spent the majority of the time learning what she wanted to do now that she'd quit her father's company. And yes, she had quit, not gotten fired, as he'd made it seem.

Ana started off the discussion about Kate's future by asking her, "Do you still have that fashion blog you started when we were in college?"

Kate nodded, "Yeah, and I've kept it current, just as a hobby. But yeah, I know where you're going with that question. It's what I want to do. Fashion was always my first love, before my asshole father forced me to change my major. And since I bent to his will and became a journalist, I never thought I'd be able to focus on it full time."

"I'm sure you've already got a great portfolio from the stuff you've posted there over the years," Ana commented.

"I do," Kate agreed. "But seriously, Ana, who's going to hire me, even in the fashion industry? Our name is famous, and Dad has completely destroyed my reputation. Everyone thinks I'm mentally unstable."

"Not everyone," Ana argued. "And besides… why don't you build your blog and start earning an income through it? You wouldn't even need to use your real name, if you're worried about that."

I continued to eat my lasagna in silence as Ana and Kate spent the next few minutes brainstorming about how to make money by blogging. It wasn't how I would have chosen to earn an income, but to each their own. The thought of giving Kate a job at GEH had occurred to me, but I already had a full publicity team. There wasn't a position for her, and I would have needed to create one. It was still a possibility, but first, I wanted to see what she would figure out for herself. She seemed to perk up as she and Ana discussed her fashion blog, so maybe she'd find something there that suited her interests.

And then, it was tiramisu time. Kate looked like she was going to cry again when Gail brought it out. "Ana, you did this, didn't you? You asked her to make it because you knew it was my favorite."

Ana smiled and replied, "Well, technically, Christian asked for it."

Kate smiled at me, and I didn't feel annoyed by her smile. There was nothing flirtatious about it, so there was nothing to feel annoyed about. She was appreciative. That's all. "Thank you," she told me sincerely.

"You're welcome," I replied. And that was that. Yes, she was surprisingly tolerable. Not at all as annoying as I remembered her being.

After our meal was over, Ana and I took Kate down to the ninth floor to see her new apartment. She was thrilled and couldn't stop thanking me and Ana. I have to admit, it was a far sight better than the tiny room she had expected to end up in tonight. There was actually a full size refrigerator with a freezer with her favorite ice cream, and normal sized stove in the kitchen. And instead of one tiny multi-purpose room, there were two nice-sized bedrooms, both fully furnished, and a living room with a television mounted on the wall over a gas log fireplace.

"Where are all your clothes?" Ana asked her.

"Everything I own is in a U-Haul that I rented and parked in a garage on 5th Street," Kate replied. "It's mostly clothes and cosmetics. I didn't own any of my furniture. I had to get everything I could and pack it up while he was busy at work tarnishing my name. I knew my window was closing, and if I'd waited, I wouldn't have had access to any of it. Do you think I can get it all moved in tonight, or is it too late?"

I texted Taylor as I responded to Kate, "My security will take care of it for you."

Kate objected, "Christian, that's too much. I can't accept that on top of everything else you're doing for me."

"Nonsense. This is the kind of thing I pay them for." Well, not really, but I knew they'd do it without complaint. And it wasn't safe for her and Ana, who would have certainly helped her friend, to be out in the Seattle streets this late.

A thought occurred to me, and I texted Sebastian to see if he was at home. I knew if he responded, then he wouldn't mind an intrusion. It would be good for Kate to know one of her new neighbors, just for security reasons. And with Sebastian being new in town, I assumed he could use a new friend. I'm not really sure why that thought occurred to me. I couldn't imagine moving to a new town and seeking out new friends. But Sebastian didn't seem as fucked up as I am. He was unusual, but he was good with people.

When he replied almost immediately, I asked Kate, "Would you like to meet your neighbor? He's the new CFO at GEH, and he just moved in this weekend."

Kate nodded. "Sure, that sounds good."

A couple of minutes later, after Cornwall had cleared the hallway, the three of us stood outside Sebastian's door waiting for him to answer.

"I just thought I'd introduce you to your new neighbor," I explained when he opened the door. "Can we come in?"

"Of course, but it's a mess," he replied. "I haven't finished unpacking yet."

He and Kate got a glimpse of each other at the same time as we were walking in. And they both froze and stared at each other in shock.

"Kate?" he asked surprisedly.

"Sam?" she asked at exactly the same time.

"What are you doing here?" he asked confusedly, but I could also hear the concern in his voice. "I thought a friend was letting you move into her studio."

"She was," Kate replied. "The friend is Ana, but Christian offered me the apartment next door instead."

Sebastian's eyes widened. "Are you saying we're going to be next door neighbors?" he asked incredulously.

"Wait," Ana said. "You called him 'Sam.' Is this THE Sam? Sebastian is Sam?"

Kate nodded at Ana as Sebastian explained, "My friends call me Sam. It's my initials, actually. I only go by Sebastian professionally."

"Your initials are S.A.M.?" I asked. I only remembered his first and last names being on his CV, and in his background report, just the middle name Ming was listed.

"Sebastian Amadeus Ming Song," he replied. "Amadeus isn't on any official documents, thank God, but my mother made sure I always knew I was named after Mozart. She's a music professor at UC Berkeley."

His mother, Professor Lingyu Song, taught music theory, composition, and voice at UC Berkeley. I knew that from his background report. But I hadn't thought about the coincidence of her name until now.

"See, I told you his name sounded musical," Ana reminded me.

"I can't believe we're actually standing here, in the same room," Kate commented. "After this disaster of a day, it's ending much better than I could have imagined it would. You're here, Sam. Here in the flesh."

"I'm here," he agreed. "And you've had a horrible day. I can't believe what your father did. Has he always been that evil?"

Kate laughed humorlessly. "You already know the answer to that."

"You two clearly already know each other, but how is that possible?" I asked curiously.

" ," Sebastian replied without taking his eyes off Kate. "We met a couple of months ago and we've become good friends. We never expected to even be in the same city, and now, here we are, next-door neighbors. Our first date is this coming Friday. I knew I would be too busy this week to have a social life until the weekend."

"Wait," Kate said as she looked at Sebastian with a confused expression. "Christian introduced you as his CFO. Chief Financial Officer. I thought you said you were just an accountant."

Sebastian shrugged. "I was. When we met, I was still working for Northern Trust. I told you when I quit that job, remember?"

Kate nodded. "But you didn't tell me you were interviewing for the job of CFO. That's a really big deal, Sam. You downplayed it. Why?"

"I don't know, I just didn't think it was all that important to mention my new job title," he replied.

"Are you going to want to be seen in public with me, having one of the top jobs in GEH, considering the rumors that my dad is spreading about me?" Kate asked worriedly.

Sebastian took Kate's hand and looked in her eyes. "I know you, Kate. I'm not the least bit concerned about what the public thinks of you, because I know it's all lies. The truth will come out. And yes, I would like very much to be seen in public with you. You are even more beautiful in person, and it would make me very happy if you'd still be my date this Friday."

The next thing we knew, Kate and Sebastian were in each other's arms, kissing passionately. Ana and I quietly left and returned upstairs, agreeing that this change in Kate's circumstances was really quite remarkable.