CHAPTER 4
(ANA)
I look at my watch as I push another manuscript into the discard tray with a frustrated sigh. That is the fourth one today. I despair at the lack of quality in some of these novels. Some authors blatantly rip off other published stories and tread so close to the plagiarism line that no publishing house in their right mind would consider publishing them, and others are just plain bad.
I have only had one possible one today which has triggered my interest and that was a story about a man who faked his own death. I pull another towards me and read the front page, 'A Witness to his Crimes'. Hmmm, that is a promising title. I quickly read the introduction which outlines the story to come and I smile. Now this is more like it, the author has classified it as a psychological thriller. I know that these are quite popular at the moment, and this one has certainly captured my attention. I pull a pencil out of the pot on my desk and make a note of the name of the author and the title on my notepad before I start to read. In this digital age I still prefer the old-fashioned approach. Christian laughs at me because I prefer a notepad and pencil to write my notes on, rather than a tablet. But as I told him, I don't have to charge up a pencil and paper before I use it.
I am really getting into this story when I hear my phone ringing. I reach into my bag and look at the screen. It's not a number I recognise so I reject the call. Christian has always told me not to pick up unsolicited calls from numbers that I don't recognise. He told me that if they were genuine and wanted to speak to me, they would leave a voicemail. I place my phone on my desk and a moment later it pings with the notification that someone has indeed left me a voicemail. I pick up my phone again and access my voicemail and listen to the recorded message.
"Hello Mrs Grey, this is Miranda Bennett from Finding Family. I am just calling you as a matter of courtesy as I have received your email. I would like to discuss your concerns personally so if you could return my call, I can be contacted on..."
I tune out the rest of the conversation as I am too surprised by who it is and as I pull myself together, I realise I missed the number and I listen to the message again. When I have the number, I compare it to the one which is listed in my call log as a missed call and happy that it is identical, I quickly call the person back.
It rings out for a moment and then I hear the same voice which was on my voicemail.
"Miranda Bennett speaking" is the efficient greeting.
I clear my throat, "Hello, this is Ana Grey returning your call, I apologise for not picking up but I didn't recognise the number" I say and then cringe as I realise that I am rambling.
"Mrs Grey, thank you for returning my call. There is no need to apologise, I am also quite cautious of unfamiliar numbers when I get them" the woman says kindly.
There is a brief pause and then she continues. "Mrs Grey, I can appreciate that receiving my email must have come as a bolt from the blue. I apologise for using your business email to introduce myself, but at that point in time it was my only means of contacting you when we had initially traced you. So, thank you for providing me with your cell phone number". She pauses and I quickly jump in.
"That's alright. I am happy to help your client as much as I can, but as I said in my email I really don't think I can offer any real information on Frank Lambert as I didn't know him. You see he died shortly after I was born. But should it be proven that we are biologically related, my step father has agreed to accompany me on the initial meeting. He was my biological father's best friend and so as such can offer your client more of a background to the man than what I can," I say and then I pause, waiting for some kind of response to this.
"That is absolutely fine and I'm sure my client will appreciate whatever you can tell her" Miranda says.
Her… I caught that immediately, so it appears that I have a potential sister?
"Is your client… is she agreeable to participating in a DNA test before we take this any further?" I ask warily.
There is a brief silence, "I have contacted my client this morning after I read your email and informed her that this was the direction in which you wanted to proceed, and I am now awaiting her reply. I would like to reassure you that this is quite common, in most searches we undertake the majority are confirmed by DNA tests before the prospective family members meet for the first time".
She pauses a moment and then continues, "I would also like to take this opportunity to reassure you in relation to your concerns over privacy. I can totally understand your concerns with relation to who your husband is and how if this information was to reach the media what repercussions could occur. I would like to say my client has similar concerns… and for similar reasons as to yours. I want to reassure you as I did her, that we take those concerns very seriously and we are honoured that she chose and trusts us with this investigation. It is also why I am personally conducting and overseeing this particular investigation and unlike our usual practice of having a large team involved in the search and intermediary process, this one has been severely restricted and conducted on a need to know basis. Not I hasten to add, because we don't trust our employees; and I assure you that we do have strict confidentiality rules and procedures in place for every investigation. All our staff are fully aware that should those rules be breached, the penalty for the person concerned is immediate and severe. However, there is always the concern that sensitive information such as what we are dealing with, along with the status of the individuals involved in this case… could be too great a temptation for the possible remuneration from the media".
As I listen to all this I wonder once again who on earth we are dealing with, but it does reassure me that our privacy will be respected and won't make its way to the media.
"Do you have any further questions for me Mrs Grey?" Miranda asks politely.
I think for a moment and then realise I do, "Erm… yes, the DNA test, how will that be conducted?" I ask.
"Aah yes, a very good question. As soon as I get the go ahead from my client, a sealed DNA swab test will be sent to you and my client. Normally this would be done by courier and we rely on the honesty of the individuals concerned to return the completed tests to us via courier or by the mail system. Due to the sensitivity of this particular case, a member of staff from our Seattle office will personally deliver the DNA test and wait until it is completed and return with it to be analysed. Likewise, a member of staff from our New York office will repeat the same procedure with my client, to ensure that nothing untoward happens and the tests don't go astray. I am based at our head office in Chicago and as soon as we get the DNA results from our respective branches our on-site lab will compare the results and as soon as we have them, I will personally inform you and my client and arrange for an initial meeting".
"So, my potential sister lives in New York?" I say.
There is another silence and then Miranda confirms this. "Yes, that is correct" she says.
"Does she know about me?" I ask.
"No, she doesn't, she is aware that you are female but not your location" she says.
"Ok, well I'm ready to go when you are" I say.
"Thank you very much Mrs Grey, can I ask would you prefer our member of staff to meet you at your residence or place of work?" she asks.
I think for a moment, "Actually if it would be possible I would prefer to meet at my husband's place of work, Grey Enterprise Holdings at Grey House here in Seattle, if an appointment time could be arranged I think I would prefer that" I say, as I know Christian will want to be involved and also put in place our own security measures and get the Finding Family employee to sign an NDA. I think I would also feel happier with Christian at Grey House rather than anywhere else.
"That is absolutely fine, I will make a note of your preferences and as soon as I hear from my client I will call you to arrange a suitable appointment, I take it if I call you on this number that would be agreeable?" she asks.
"Yes, that's fine" I say.
I end the call and immediately call Christian to tell him the latest developments.
"Hey baby" he says as soon as he picks up and I smile at the seductive tone he is using.
"Hi, are you busy can you talk for a few moments?" I ask as I don't want to disturb him if he is in a meeting.
"No, I'm all alone in my office, what's wrong baby?" he asks now on full alert.
"Nothing is wrong, I just wanted to let you know, Miranda Bennett called me this morning to reassure me about our privacy and to walk me through what was going to happen next and from what she told me I just wonder who the hell we are dealing with" I say.
There is a pause then Christian speaks again, "What makes you say that?" he asks.
I sigh, "Well to start off with, she made a massive point about how she is honoured that her client chose them and trusts them with this and she said that they had the same privacy concerns as us and for similar reasons. So, either she is a high-profile individual or she is married to a high-profile individual. Miranda also reassured me; she said this particular investigation was not being conducted like usual investigations with a large number of people involved. This one was on a need to know basis in case anyone at Finding Family was too tempted by the information not to sell it; but she stressed that there were strict safeguards in place and anyone found breaching them were dealt with severely. She said someone was coming with a DNA test for me to do, but she was just waiting for her client to give her permission to go ahead with that. However, from what she said she didn't think there would be a problem. She asked where the appointment was to be held, to do the DNA… and I asked if it could happen at Grey House… you don't mind do you? I just felt I wanted to be with you when it was done and also, I thought we can get the person who comes to sign an NDA" I stop and wait for Christian to respond to all that.
"Of course I don't mind baby, and that was very smart of you to say that as I would obviously want to be present when the DNA test was done, how will it be done?" he asks.
"She said something about a swab test, so I am assuming it will be one of those wand things that I put in my mouth and rub against my cheek" I say.
"I see, did you get any more information?" he asks.
"I did… I have a potential sister as Miranda said 'her' and 'she' a couple of times and I discovered that she lives in New York, but I don't think I was meant to find that out. However, when I asked how the DNA test was going to be conducted she said a representative from the Seattle office would come to us with the test and someone from the New York office would go to her. That led me to assume she lives in New York so I asked Miranda outright and she confirmed it, but this person doesn't know whereabouts I am in the country but she does know I am female" I say.
"I see, so when will all this happen?" he asks.
"I don't know, I assume as soon as she gets the go ahead from her client, we will get a call to arrange an appointment. Then when they have the results Miranda said she hopes to bring us together for the initial meeting at the Finding Family head office in Chicago, which obviously isn't a problem for us and the way she spoke it appeared that she didn't think it would be a problem for her client, so that also tells me she is someone with resources".
I pause and realise that I need to make sure Christian is free when they call me to make the appointment, and I wonder how I will go about that as I don't want to mess up his busy schedule. So, I voice my concerns.
"So, what shall I do about the appointment? They will call me and obviously, I need to know your schedule if it's all going to happen at Grey House?" I say.
There is another pause as Christian is thinking this over, "Just make the appointment baby, make it to suit you and I will work around you, let me know as soon as you have it and I can rearrange my schedule with Andrea to accommodate it" he says and my heart nearly bursts as I hear this. That he is prepared to rearrange his day completely for me at short notice. That is massive and I know it, knowing what a control freak he is.
"Ok" I say, then I hesitate a moment before I let him know once more just how much he means to me, "You know I really love you" I add.
I hear him take a sharp breath in and when he responds his voice is hoarse with emotion. "I love you too baby" he replies.
Meanwhile in New York…
(EVA)
I keep reading and re-reading the email; eventually I take a deep breath and pick up my phone. I glance at Gideon who is watching me closely and as I pick up my phone he reaches for my free hand.
"This is really happening? As soon as I make this call it is all going to happen" I say as I look at Gideon.
He smiles at me and slides closer to me, wrapping his arm around me. We are sitting in the underground car park at The Crossfire, we have just come back from lunch and I am running out of time as I have to be back at work shortly.
"If you need more time to think don't do it" Gideon says and he presses a kiss to my temple.
I shake my head, "No, I need to do this but it just feels a bit like opening Pandora's Box" I say.
I stop over thinking it and place the call to Miranda Bennett. I wait as it rings out, then after a couple of rings she answers.
"Miranda Bennett speaking" she says.
I take a deep breath as I take the plunge. "Hello this is Eva Cross, thank you for your email, and I'm just calling to let you know that I'm happy to go ahead with the DNA test" I say.
"Oh, hello Mrs Cross that's wonderful news. I have just been speaking to the other person involved in this case and I have briefed her on what will happen next. I think I have managed to reassure her regarding her privacy concerns. Would you like me to go through what will happen next?" she says.
I lick my lips, "Yes please" I say.
I wait and listen to what will happen now, and I decide immediately that I want to be with Gideon when the test is done and we quickly arrange a time and ask that it is brought to Cross Industries in the Crossfire at 5.15pm today. That way it gives me chance to get upstairs to Gideon after I finish.
When everything is arranged I hang up and look up at my husband, "You don't mind me doing it with you at Cross Industries do you?" I ask.
Gideon shakes his head, "No, this is about you Angel so wherever you feel most comfortable and I am glad you chose to be with me when you did it" he says.
"I haven't messed up your schedule have I?" I ask warily.
Gideon shakes his head and laughs, "No, not at all and you should know by now that you come first Angel. Nothing is more important than you" he says adamantly.
(MIRANDA)
I sit back in my seat and sigh. I have just finished talking to Jeremy who runs our New York office and advised him about the appointment with Mrs Cross at 5.15 this evening. He assured me that he was undertaking the task personally and that he had his best people on standby to gather results from the DNA test and I should have the results by this time tomorrow.
I have not been a part of an investigation at this stage for years and whilst it's hard work, especially in this case where we are working with a very limited team but it is also very rewarding and until now, I had forgotten just how rewarding and special the service this company offers actually is.
My father started this company before the advent of the internet and grew it with the reputation of being one of the best tracing companies not only in the United States but the world, and our reputation for accuracy and discretion is so good that even when the internet came along and took out a lot of similar companies, ours not only survived but grew as we embraced the technology and used it to our advantage.
I look at the papers in front of me. I have to admit I was astounded when Gideon Cross called me a few weeks ago. I had first met him at Columbia and we became friends. I was in a relationship at the time and so was he, so there was never a question of anything more happening between us. We had similar world views and opinions and liked the same sorts of things, right down to little things like music and colours and we just clicked and got along, we were genuinely just good friends. I followed his meteoric rise and success in the business world and it didn't surprise me as that man was so driven even back at university. His intensity and drive was apparent right back then and it was scary. It was almost as if he was searching for something and he found it in building his company. Sadly, I had lost personal direct touch with him after we graduated and left Columbia. I went my way and he went his. I assumed he would settle down and marry Corinne our mutual friend who he was seeing at the time as I heard he had got engaged to her, but then I heard she had broken the engagement and married a Frenchman. Then it all came out in the media that he had a whirlwind romance with someone and married her after only knowing her for about a month. I had sent him a message of congratulations at the time but never received any reply, so I was surprised when he contacted me out of the blue recently asking for my help.
My father always assumed I would join him at Finding Family with a view to taking over when he retired and yet I refused a position at the top when I first joined. Choosing instead to start at the bottom with an entry level position, learn the business and work my way up on merit. I was involved in a large number of investigations doing the grunt work and sometimes working well into the evening on the more difficult cases. I admit I loved that part of the job, knowing I was responsible for helping reunite people, you could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices when you told them that the person they had been searching for sometimes for decades had finally been found, that profound joy and relief that their search was finally over and it gave me a rush like no other. But unlike many companies which only offer the initial finding service and then just close the case we offer so much more which is what sets us head and shoulders above our competitors. We stay on board for as long as the client wants us to. My father quickly realised that the initial meeting is only the start and these people who are essentially strangers need support and in some cases counselling to help build successful relationships. After the euphoria of the initial meeting, real life quickly becomes apparent and that is when the cracks start to show and relationships can break down and further estrangement occur, if the support and help isn't there to nurture the fledgling relationships. So, we also have a team of therapists on board to offer assistance, should the clients wish.
We also found in some cases, the people involved wanted to discover more about the people who had caused the separation and also wanted to delve further back into their ancestry to find out more about where they came from. So our ancestry department was formed, where a team of specialists went through archives and helped to build comprehensive family trees for their clients.
I had long since left the lower levels of the company and worked my way up to the position my father had always wanted for me and that is his second in command, in his absence I run this company and make the tough decisions which keep it moving forward.
So when Gideon contacted me out of the blue with a query regarding a very sensitive situation that had arisen with his wife and asked if our company could help I was all over it. Not only on a personal level as I was delighted to hear from my old college friend again, but by the fact this really was so sensitive because of who he was and the fact the media were interested in anything to do with him. Not only that, but also the situation his wife was in was potentially explosive as far as the media were concerned. With her background as the step daughter of the prominent financier Richard Stanton, even though he was nothing to do with this it would be embarrassing for him and the repercussions could be catastrophic, should the news get out that his step daughter had been lied to all her life about who her biological father was. The media would have a field day with that one. When the poor girl had married Gideon the press had gone into meltdown when they had dug and discovered her father was just an ordinary street cop based in San Diego, California. So, taking all that into consideration I knew I needed to have complete control over who had access to this case and to do that I realised quite quickly I needed to be involved with the groundwork.
Imagine my shock when I discovered that not only was I dealing with Gideon Cross multi billionaire but also linked to the case was another Forbes list businessman in the shape of Christian Grey in Seattle. When it became apparent that his wife was the prime candidate to approach, when she was identified as also being linked to Mrs Cross's potential biological father. Quickly realising this case was unique and had the potential to either make or destroy the company, I put in place every possible safeguard so that nobody would be tempted to run to the media with the information we had managed to uncover. Nobody would believe it, but this case is only being run by very senior members of the company who all have a vested interest in it being a total success.
I pick up my phone and call Mrs Grey. My initial gut feelings about this lady are that she is wary which is understandable, but also a very compassionate person and she wants to try and help if she can. She has made it clear she doesn't know much but is willing to bring on board people around her who may be able to offer more information. This tells me she is a kind person who is willing to go the extra mile for people if it will help them, but she is also very shrewd and isn't blindly walking into this. She has ensured that her family's privacy is fully respected and protected, and she wants concrete evidence that she is linked to Mrs Cross before she even contemplates meeting her.
The phone rings out and then I hear her quiet polite voice.
"Hello, Ana Grey speaking" she says.
"Hello Mrs Grey, this is Miranda Bennett from Finding Family" I begin. I pull my notes in front of me. "I am just calling to let you know that my client has agreed to participate in a DNA test and that will be completed by the end of today. So, I am ringing to arrange for a representative from our Seattle office to come to you to complete your DNA test" I say and I wait for her to respond to that.
"I see, well… I didn't realise the appointment would happen quite so soon, but I can see the advantages of moving so quickly" she says. She is clearly taken aback by the point Mrs Cross has agreed and the test is being done on the same day, and I quickly jump in to reassure her.
"Please don't feel pressurised, if you need more time to consider this that is absolutely fine" I say.
"No, no I was just surprised that's all… erm… could we arrange something for first thing tomorrow morning, that way my day and my husband's day won't be too disrupted?" she asks.
"That is absolutely fine, what time were you looking at?" I ask.
"Would… would 8am be too early?" she asks nervously.
"Not at all. I will call the Seattle office and get that sorted for you. The person you will be seeing tomorrow will be Stephanie Barnard, and she runs our Seattle office. She is aware of the sensitivity of this case and she will be discrete" I say in the hope that I can further reassure her.
"Alright, thank you. So that is 8am tomorrow morning at Grey House" she says.
"That is correct and thank you for your co-operation in this case Mrs Grey" I say politely.
"Oh don't mention it, I just hope I can help her… as everyone should know where they come from" she says, and I smile at her words. Yes, she is a very genuinely nice lady.