Chapter 15

Christian

Having an ally has proven to be almost even more of a pain in the ass than simply being in the dark about Ana's well-being, especially when said ally is completely absent. Since we last spoke on Friday, I haven't heard from Kate, and it's now Monday. I'm going mad wondering if she's intentionally keeping anything from me, and if I should have even entertained her questions. So once again, I'm expected to focus on work even though I'm being driven to distraction.

The only reason to even come in today was my follow-up meeting with Riedel. I've shown them a great honor by making my way down to their floor for this discussion rather than having them meet me upstairs in my office. Without knocking, I enter right on time.

A few heads snap up from the open folders that are spread across the table of the conference room. Rookies. They should have been ready five minutes before I got here. "Mr. Grey," Riedel says, standing up straight. He gives two of the men across the table from him a pointed look, and they greet me as well, seeming chastened.

I nod. "Riedel. Are we ready?"

"Yes, sir." He gestures to one of his henchmen – they might as well be, for how they're responding to his leadership – and he slides one of the folders across the table to him. "My team, in collaboration with legal, has done some more investigative work into the nature of Westerley's misuse of funds. The findings are quite interesting."

"Continue."

"It hasn't made a lot of sense that Westerley would be embezzling, unless he's solely driven by money hunger. He's well on track to become a billionaire before the year is out. We've discovered that while he is embezzling, it doesn't appear to be for personal use. We traced the money to a Swedish bank account. The ultimate beneficial owner of that account is a young man named Daniel Moreno. He and Westerley went to Harvard together, and they collaborated on some of his early projects."

"Why would he be doing it under the table? If they're collaborators, why would he not just employ him?"

"That's unclear. Our working theory based on both parties' social media is that they've had a falling out. In this case, it's possible that this is… hush money."

"Are you saying that Westerley stole ideas?"

"We're not 100% sure, but it's the theory that currently has legs."

"I believe it." That pathetic little worm. It tracks completely. And it would explain why he was so desperate to get into my good graces. If we merged, I might be the only one on this side of the world with the resources to dig him out of this hole he's made for himself. "What's next?"

Riedel and his team spend the next half hour exploring different legal options for us in this case. The consensus seems to be to continue following the evidence and begin quietly working on a proper exposure. It will be good for our business, especially our developing AI side of things, if we're involved with the story breaking. Say what you want about Grey House, but we do things by the book.

I'm relieved that it's not yet full steam ahead, given that I still need to figure out how the hell Ana fits into this and what I can do for damage control for her.

And I'm exasperated again.

"Great work, Riedel. Keep me updated." He really was a good find.

"Thank you, sir. Will do."

I head back towards the elevator, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at the way my employees cower and simper when I'm near. This is why I stay in my fucking office.

"Mr. Grey?" Andrea calls softly as I walk past. "My apologies, but Elliot Grey is on the line for you. He says it's urgent."

Oh, for fuck's sake. "Thank you." I settle in my chair and try to mentally prepare myself for some bullshit. "Elliot. Why are you bothering my assistant?"

"It's not my fault you don't answer your phone! And I need some answers, dude, because my wife is talking nonsense."

"I'm afraid I surely can't help you there."

"Then why did she show up at my work just to stalk Ana? She said she didn't have time to explain but you would understand?"

What the ever loving fuck? Not one part of that sentence made sense. "What the hell does Ana have to do with your work?"

"Did no one tell you? She's contracting me. I'm remodeling her new fancy tea place."

Naturally, no one told me. Why would my own family tell me things? "When did this happen?"

"Mia sort of engineered it. We had someone totally flake on a project and she sent us straight to Ana's place. Anyway, Kate barged in today on the hunt for her. Barely stopped to say hello to me, love of her life, father of her children."

"Yes, tragic. What has she said? Is she worried about her?"

"I don't know, women are weird sometimes. Ana does look a little off, maybe. I don't see her super often, but, well, but maybe she's sick or something? She just looks pretty run down. Do you know anything about this?"

"It appears that your wife knows a lot more."

"The fuck, dude? Since when do you two talk? This is weird."

"I know as much as you do." And that's infuriating. "Do you know anything about Westerley?"

"Like what? He's Ana's fiancé. They've bene together for ages. We've hung out with them here and there. Why? Jealous?"

I should have known better than to turn to Elliot for information. Even if he has any, it's not worth the assholery. "No. He's a competitor. Is he well-respected, well-liked by his employees?"

"I don't know him like that. I always thought he was a nice, down to earth guy before."

"Before?"

"Before the money. From what I can tell, kinda seems like it's gone to his head. Are he and Ana having issues? Is that what you and Kate talk about? And why you're always cornering her at events?"

"I don't corner her. We're friends, we talk."

"Then can't you ask her about Cam? Or is that a conflict of interest?"

"Is Kate still there?"

"I would assume. She just went to talk to Ana a minute ago."

"Tell her to call me."

"So weird. You gonna ask to babysit next?"

"Ha, ha, very funny. Just tell her."

"Fine, dude. Keep your mysterious little secrets."

"I have to work. Goodbye, Elliot."

"See ya, freak."

Running a multi-billion dollar company is far from enough to keep me from obsessing about this. Yes, let's be honest, I'm obsessing. It's not like me to wait by the phone, but it looks like that's what I'll keep doing.

When you have allies like this, who needs enemies?

After waiting the entire rest of the work day for Kate to call, I've called her myself at least five times now and still nothing. So it looks like that alliance was pointless. For the last hour, I've been pacing and trying to work up the balls to call Ana herself.

It should be easy. She doesn't bite. But for some reason, the thought of reaching out and being ignored by her just feels worse than anything. At least some part of it is in my control now, since neither of us has tried. But I'm running out of options. I know she wasn't doing well today, and I know nothing else. And that's more intolerable.

This is pathetic.

"Can I get you anything else, Mr. Grey?" Gail asks gently.

"No. You can go."

"Alright. Goodnight, sir." She surreptitiously looks me over one more time. God, I'm even stressing my staff out.

I pick up my phone for the hundredth time, flipping over to my contacts. I stare at her name for a few moments, then feel the need to pace. I decide to go outside. Maybe fresh air will get me to just fucking do it. I busy myself looking over the skyline, now fading into twilight, when I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I'm irritated before I even take it out, knowing it's most likely more bullshit. But I nearly jump out of my skin when I see who's calling.

"Ana."

"Hey," she says softly. "Bad time?"

"Not at all."

"Good…" I think I hear a smile in her voice. "I talked to Kate today. She said you two had been worried."

Oh, so she mentioned me, and still continues to ignore me. "We had briefly discussed that last week sometime."

"I didn't know if you'd want to talk to me after… that night. I feel horrible. And you were so… closed off at the end. I mean, rightfully so. But I was trying to give you space."

I sigh heavily, like someone's lifted a brick off of my chest. "I don't need space." She doesn't answer for a beat. "Elliot said you looked sick today."

"Oh." Her tone changes dramatically, from shy and lighthearted to dejected. "Um… I haven't been feeling my best. I'll… probably be out of commission for a while, honestly. But it's nothing serious. I'm just… that's why I'm calling. In case you were still worrying, to tell you that it's nothing serious."

"So, you are sick?" Why is she beating around the bush? "Ana, what's going on?"

"Nothing. Nothing… I'm rambling. The point is that I'm okay."

"Would you tell me if you weren't?"

My uneasiness with this conversation grows the longer her silence stretches. "I would want to," she finally says.

"What the hell does that mean? I feel like you're speaking in riddles."

"I'm fine, Christian. Honestly. I appreciate your concern."

I don't believe her, but I feel her shutting down and I fear more pushing will end this whole line of communication. I need to figure out how to see her. "Are you coming to the gala?"

"What gala?"

"The one for my parents' charity, Coping Together."

"Oh. Yes, I think we are."

We. Ugh. "So I'll see you on Friday then?"

"If you'll be there, I suppose we might run into each other."

"Is that all?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, is that our only chance of seeing one another in the foreseeable future?"

"I don't know…I think, uh, I'm just going to be a lot more busy with the remodel and planning my wedding…"

The record scratch in my brain is painful. "Wedding planning?"

"It's about time, isn't it?" Her tone is strange. Halfhearted. Tired.

"Ana… if there's something you're not telling me… please remember what I said to you before. If you need anything—"

"Christian, you are more than generous. More than anyone would ever know. Probably more than I even know. I'm not going to take advantage of that. I… I'm not your problem. I feel like what we've been doing, the way we've been playing with fire having each other in our lives again… it's not sustainable. Maybe it's better if we don't talk much."

My stomach churns, acid creeping up my mid-chest, this sudden rush of feeling burning me from the inside out. "Ana, you don't mean this. Why has everything changed so fast? Why has Kate dropped off the face of the earth? What's really going on?"

"Nothing, I just can't make any more mistakes." Her voice is unsteady.

"Like what? Kissing me? As if you really don't remember?" The words tumble out, and once they're through, there's no taking them back.

"What?" she gasps.

Now I'm committed. "Come on, Ana. The night you stayed here. The elevator. You threw yourself to me, and I admit, I let you. But then the next morning, your memory was completely wiped? Really? Just that part?"

"I didn't… I…" she stammers incoherently for another few seconds. "I didn't know. I swear I didn't. I remembered something, but I thought it was a dream. I had… dreams that night. I'm sorry, Christian. I…" Her voice is beginning to turn tearful, then she abruptly stops. "Just kissing?"

"What? Of course, just kissing."

"You're absolutely sure? Nothing more than kissing?"

"Fuck, Ana, of course I'm sure. I would never touch you without your consent. You kissed me, I kissed you back, I pulled away and tried to talk some sense into you, then I brought you to your bedroom and you undressed yourself, I looked away, and you went to sleep. That's the complete timeline of events. Hell, I can show you the elevator footage if you want."

"No, that's okay." She inhales sharply. "Jesus. All the more reason to stay away. This can't continue. I'm so sorry. I never meant to come back and mess with your life like this. It won't happen anymore."

"That's not at all the point, Ana, slow down."

"I have to go."

"Don't go. Please."

"I'm sorry," she says tearfully, and then the call ends.

I stare at the phone screen for a second, then grip the railing and hurl the phone out into the dusky sky.

A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews and messages with the last chapter, I'm so grateful when you share your thoughts! I know you're all hungry for answers, and I promise you'll get them all in due time.

I did want to address Ana not feeling very connected to the baby. I think in the original books, she knew she was in love with Christian and was happy to be having his child even though it was a bumpy road, so she felt an instant connection. Ana in this story does not feel comfortable with Cam at all and doesn't see a future, so this feels a lot more personally devastating to her, and she also doesn't want to subject a child to their failing relationship. Another layer is that I personally had a pregnancy scare when I was 20 and in a bad relationship and I feel like I was a lot more amenable to a pregnancy then than I would be now that I'm a similar age to Ana in this story. I think when you're older you just have more perspective on how much responsibility and massive change a baby brings to your life, more so than when you're basically still a child yourself, so her reaction is more reflective of that.

Next chapter will be the gala!