Hey there, people. I know many of you have read my story and know it was unfinished; now I'm reuploading it with some major changes. I had to stop writing it because I got a job, moved from my hometown, then started my own business, I'm almost done with my MBA and my mental health is better now. I hope you like these changes, this means the story is getting a little bit longer. So, English is not my first language sorry :(

Chapter 1.

Not everyone has one, but the ones who have a soul mark sometimes feel like is a curse; it had to do with the type of soul mark as they are different for the bearers. Some people were lucky to have some sort of color blindness, imprinted coordinates with dates, telepathic communication, or a countdown tattoo.

Despite of being one of the lucky ones to know someone out there was their other half, Anastasia Steele belonged to those who thought their mark was a curse while growing up; and Christian thought it was a cruel joke from life.

September 10, 1989

Montesano, Washington.

"Frank!" Carla screamed from the bathroom across the room where her husband, after a long week of military training, was taking a nap. Her legs were trembling and soaking wet, it meant that their daughter was ready to come to the world.

"Frank! Help, Annie is ready!" Carla kept screaming for her husband, she started to feel the contractions. "Frank!"

When Frank reached the bathroom, he took her in his arms and carried her to the car as fast as he could.

"Carla, you need to breathe," he whispered and began rubbing her back. Carla whimpered, gasping for breath as the pain felt almost unbearable. "Breathe, darling. Annie needs you to remain calm."

It took fifteen long minutes to arrive to the hospital. Their house was in the middle of a forested area, a little bit far from the small town of Montesano.

"Mrs. Lambert, you need to push harder." The doctor said.

"I can't, I'm tired." She breathed, exhaustion and pain were all she felt.

"Carla, do it for Annie." She heard her husband and pressed his hand harder while pushing the hardest she could.

"That's it, yeah the baby is…"

The cry was the signal Annie was well and alive.

"Oh, what a beautiful girl, welcome!" The doctor took her in arms and observed her. "OMG, lucky baby she got a soul mark!"

Carla and Frank got excited; her little baby already had someone waiting for her.

"What kind of mark she has?" Carla asked; if she was born with birth mark, she had to be careful with people taking picture of it, but if it was something like a clock it could be stressfull. Oh the soulmarks were a blessing and a course, she really hoped that this one was a blessing.

"A rare kind," the doctor replied, "she has a matching injury mark and it seems that also writing on skin."

Carla and Franklin were confused, her daughter was so lucky to have a soul mark that allowed her to communicate with their soulmate; but the injury part wasn't good, what if her other half wasn't careful or had an accident. They had a feeling it was going to be complicated.

"I will let you take her, and we're going to come back for her in an hour. Congratulations!"

"Thanks," both replied.

Carla looked for the mark and saw tiny red dots in her chest and back, they seemed like smallpox or chicken pox scar. She then saw, in her tiny fingers, marks of pen and markers.

"I'm pretty sure her soulmate loves to draw and it's still a kid," Franklin said, and smiled to her little daughter.

"I bet that they're a very cute." Carla was holding Ana when she noticed two marks on her back. "Frank, look at this…"

"OMG, that's a tiny scar but it looks like a…"

"Like a whip from a belt, I hope it was an accident."

Carla got a little bit worried but Ana's cry distracted her from her thoughts and started to feed her; the girl immediately attached herself to her mother's breast and started to suck. Frank's mind was not worried at all, it could be the soulmate was playing or he was from a different culture. It was common knowledge some cultures still believed in physical punishment.

"she's hungry." Frank and Karla saw the little girl with such concentration that when a nurse came a few minutes later, who told them that she had to take Ana to the nursery, they were still entranced with their little miracle.

"Can you take us a picture please?"

Franklin gave her his camera, a canon, the nurse took a few pictures of them and gave him the camera. The three of them finally were together after months of waiting, and it felt incredible.

"Thanks." He took again his camera and smiled, "bye Annie!" he said when the nurse took the baby from her mom's arms.

"Well, I won't have another one." She laughed, "it's hard to deliver a baby."

"But is fun to do them." Franklin looked at her naughtily.

"Frank!"

The next day, Frank was running to his training. He didn't want to leave his family, but he had to supervise some operations.

"I just want to say hi to my little girl." He looked to her nurse, who gladly let him take Ana in his arms.

"Oh, hey sweetie, daddy has to go; but he loves you very much." He held ana's little finger and gave her a tiny kiss.

Ana didn't cry but looked at her dad for the last time in her life.

Hours later a scream from Carla's room came. The two military officers left the room, nervous about how Carla took the news.

"Please take care of her, she is fragile." One of them said to a nurse, who looked angrily at them.

"You should've told her when she was with someone, she may lose the milk thanks to that new."

The officers left the building with guilt, informing Carla that Frank died early on an accident was a little bit harsh but they had to do it.

Carla was destroyed, Franklin was gone, and the only thing left was Ana. She wanted to see her daughter and hold her until she couldn't do it anymore; she was emotionally unstable. A few hours later her mom and dad arrived, but the moment was too much bittersweet.

Carla's mom met the little girl and was surprised to find out the girl had already a soulmate, the thought of someone made for that little bean was comforting in those times of sadness. Carla's dad, however, was worried because he knew that those marks were like cigarette burns.

"Carla, darling." Her dad tried to wake her without success.

"She's sleeping, leave her," his wife said, she was holding little Ana in her arms.

"I know but I'm worried, darling I'm quite sure those marks are burn marks."

"Maybe you're right, but I'm sure her soulmate isn't a bad person"

The man sighed, "Maybe you're right. Anyways, Carla and the girl need somewhere to live. Franklin's family don't like Carla, and they didn't want to meet the baby." He was, a little, sad about Ana not having any interaction with his dad's family.

"And they can come to live with us, they won't be alone." Her mother took her hand and sighed; it was going to be difficult.


September 10, 1989.

Seattle, Washington.

"Christian, darling it's time to wake up; I know it's Sunday, but we must go to church," his mom was touching his copper hair. He liked when his mom did that because it was the closest thing to a hug; yet he didn't like the fact she was doing it to go to church. He loathed it, too much people and noise.

He just sighed and woke to find Grace looking at him like he was broken; maybe he was and that made Christian more insecure about his new mom's love for him. He quietly obeyed his mom to take a shower and change; certainly, he did it just for her.

Christian and his family now were at the church, Mia was beside him holding some color pens that Elliot brought with him to entertain her. It was funny watching his sister trying to color his fingers, it tickled it and he enjoyed the sensation. The priest was talking about the bad things people do and how God see them as lost souls; Christian thought in that moment about his lost soul, a soul he lost because he was a bad boy.

He smiled sadly to his little sister, who had made a disaster his fingertips; all blue and red mixed and certainly making it look like a canvas. He refrained a laugh; he was sure that at the end of the service his mom would look at it and realize Elliot brought again markers and gave them to Mia just to keep her quiet or at least not crying.

The service finished earlier than usual, but the priest always asked the people to stay for a few minutes to give community announcements; Christian and Elliot rolled their eyes at the same time to show their dislike for them. It was always the "on Friday this group will do this, on Thursday we're going to celebrate…" For Christian it was pointless and boring to say the less, he didn't like those events because everyone looked at him weird.

"Oh, and final announcement, we congratulate Joshua and Karlie on their engagement. We already knew they would end up together," he laughed, "as they're soulmates."

The word soulmates caught Christian's attention, what was a soulmate?

On the way home, Christian asked his parents about it, "Mom, what's a soulmate?"

Grace smiled, "well, a soulmate is someone you are similar too. Your other half, the love of your life."

Christian then asked, "so you and dad are soulmates?"

Carrick and Grace smiled at each other, "oh yes, we are."

Elliot, who was older than Christian and already knew about this, grinned, "Mom, dad, show Christian your soulmark, it's amazing." He was jumping on his seat like a little kid with a brand-new toy.

"Okay Carrick hold my hand." He did what his wife said, and a little red dot came from their hands.

"See Christian, when they hold hands, some light comes from it. It's so cool!"

"Elliot do you have a soulmate?" Christian asked, and Elliot grinned, "yeah, but I don't know who she is; I have this countdown that tells me when I'm going to meet her."

"and Mia?" Christian looked at his little sister.

"Oh, we don't know darling, she didn't show any sign of it." Grace sadly smiled, she expected little Mia to show something by now.

A silence was palpable in the car, Carrick looked at Grace worried; they were wondering why Christian didn't ask about his soul mark, maybe he knew or suspected a little bit about it. But Grace knew that his marks were not product of his soulmate, and Christian knew that.

"Christian, darling. Why you didn't ask about yours?"

"Because I don't deserve one."

"Darling, don't say such things. You deserve one, and maybe if you don't have one that doesn't mean you won't find any." Grace smiled to him, but still Christian showed no interest about it. His eyes were like absent, and his breathing was very noticeable now, he was avoiding tears forming.

Elliot was going to show Christian his countdown but one stare from Grace made him cover his mark. He loved his brother, but he was a very sad kid and Elliot was tired of it; he wanted to play with his brother, but it felt like he will always have an invisible wall between them.

The rest of the car ride was silent, even with Mia being a baby. By the afternoon Christian barely noticed that he had on his ankle little dots made by a sharpie that, if you took the time to make a pattern, said "Anastasia."


November 1989

Montesano, WA.

"Carla darling, you must relax and take a moment for yourself. Annie will be okay with us" her mom and she were sitting in the kitchen cooking the meal for that day. It was common for Carla to help her just as she arrived from her work at the store and some of her classes at community college.

"Mom, I won't leave Anastasia alone. She needs me…"

"But she needs you well and rested. Honey, I know that Frank's death is affecting you, but you should go and take a rest from all this." She stopped peeling the potato and looked at her daughter. "Is not okay for you to be like this, Anastasia is your daughter but if you continue this depressive path believe me the girl will feel it. Is not normal that at her age she barely laughs, she's a little bit serious just because she feels your sadness."

"Mom.. I c-"she sobbed, "I miss him so much, he was the nearest thing to a soulmate I could ever find."

"Darling, I know it's difficult. But you're young and you know, many men are looking for someone just like you." She held her daughter's hand and smiled.

"thanks mom," she replied with a little bit of kindness.

They continued to prepare the meal, meanwhile Anastasia was sitting on her chair observing everything. But she was still too young to realize why her hands suddenly were painted with lots of colors and weird scribbles made by a young kid. Anastasia just liked to see the colors and remained silent while they appeared; it was like magic.

"I'm home." Mr. Wilks arrived home usually after 5, it was usual for him to go with friends to play some cards when office hours were over. However, he enjoyed more to spend time with his new granddaughter.

Montesano was, and still is, a small city so there's not much to see. Anastasia was a novelty because in all the city she was one of the few with a soul mark. The other twenty who had it were now teenagers or adults, and everybody just waited for them to find their soulmate; also, their soul marks were not rare as Ana's.

At first the novelty wasn't her soul mark; it was due to the fact her father was dead and the Lambert's moved out from the city a few months ago. Later, Ana's soul mark made the local news when someone from the hospital sold the story and talked about her having two instead of one; Carla's dad asked for privacy, he didn't want his family to be a topic to talk about.

"Hi dad," Carla shouted from the kitchen, "how was the office today?"

His dad walked into the kitchen and ignored her daughter, "Oh look at it, it seems your soulmate loves to draw." Ana's grandad had discovered that her soulmate was still a little kid because the drawings were mostly unreadable scribbles, he still didn't have any idea if the kid was a girl or a boy; he didn't care as long as they made Ana happy.

"He loves to ignore me," Carla said in a sing-song voice. She was glad that her family was supporting her in such a hard time; however, she wondered what was going to happen the day Ana knew the truth about her paternal family leaving the town.

"I don't ignore you darling, but this cutie has messy hands." He kissed Ana's little hands.

"I know, her soul mark is making me crazy. Yesterday she had painted lines all over her face, it was such a spectacle at the market."

Anastasia kept looking at her hands and opened her eyes every time some line appeared, of course sometimes it still made her feel scared, but it was part of the experience. Her other type of soul mark was other thing, Carla freaked out when she saw Ana's little hand with scratches; but when they saw Ana didn't feel any pain, they knew it had to be her soul mate.

December 1989

Detroit, MI

Christian was sitting again in the same hospital room where he met his new mom, feeling anxious and nervous about it. His mind was a current storm of intrusive thoughts, but all of them said the same "Your new mom doesn't want you; this is why are you here."

He was observing his surroundings trying to find a place to hide the food he had asked for a few minutes ago; if he was going back, he was at least ready and with something to eat later. Meanwhile, without his knowledge, Elliot and Mia were with Carrick at the house packing the last stuff they had to for the moving; that made Christian think that Carrick didn't want him anymore and that he wanted him out of his family. yeah, maybe it was because he never played like Elliot, or he couldn't be touched like Mia. Christian was sure they deserved a better kid.

Grace was angry, the hospital staff was taking to long to give her the last documents she needed to her full transference to Seattle; it had been months since she asked for them but with many changes in the city until that day, she was able to have them. When she decided to bring Christian with her was because she knew Christian still had nightmares and Carrick couldn't calm him down like she did; sadly, she never imagined that the hospital was going to keep him in the waiting room and take her to the administrative area.

Of course, Grace knew Christian was going to imagine the worst, and for that she wanted to leave everything behind and ran to her kid; he swore to her he wasn't going to move from there, but what if someone who knew him recognized him or worst, he saw the man who hurt him. Her patience was almost over when finally, she received the documents.

Christian still was sitting there when Grace came back, as soon as he saw her, he ran towards her.

"Please don't leave me, I promise I'll be good," he said sadly, his voice almost breaking. Grace hugged him and whispered, "You're my son Christian, I'll never leave you. I love you so much."

His eyes were with tears, and his tiny arms around her legs; Grace wanted to hug him but knew about his touching fear, so she caressed his hair. After a few minutes Grace took his hand, covering the smiley faces painted on the tip of his fingers and the name of his soulmate.

January, 1990

Montesano, WA

"His name is Raymond, he's also in the military; however, he's an engineer there and so he's not on missions but in something related to intelligence." Carla was happy and nervous. Today was the night her parents were going to meet Ray, and he was going to meet her family including Ana.

Carla's mom just saw her with a wry expression all over her face, she had heard that he was transferred from an unit from Texas to an unit near Montesano. She knew both met when Carla was visiting the offices to receive some belongings that her husband left months ago, he expressed his condolences and invited her for a coffee.

A few weeks later he invited her to a New year's party, but she declined and explained she had a daughter. He smiled and told her, "I would love to meet her and bring her a gift."

Now it was almost February and he was finally going to meet her family.

"Carla calm down, everything is okay. If he makes you happy, we would love to meet him."

Carla smiled relieved, having her family's support was important for her in those moments.

The door's bell echoed in all the house; Carla ran towards the door. She fixed her hair and took a deep breath.

"Hi," Ray smiled

"Hi," Carla replied shyly. She observed him, he was wearing a casual attire and below his arm he had three boxes.

"Sorry," she said, "come in, I'm gonna present you my family." She took his hand and smiled.

"So, this is mom and dad."

Ray shook their hands, "pleasure to meet both of you, and thanks for inviting me."

"Oh, you're welcome."

"And this is Anastasia," Carla was now carrying the little baby in her arms, Ana was wearing a pink onesie and a little blue hat; she looked adorable, Ray smiled when he saw her.

"Hi Annie, my name is Ray." He shook her little hand; Ana grinned all enthusiastically. "I brought you something, it's something I made, and I hope you like it." He took the box and opened to show a little baby rattle.

Ana held it and smiled, shaking it and for the first time they heard her laugh and jump with joy. Carla and Ray looked at each other, it seemed that Ana liked Ray and vice versa.

A few months later Ana was riding a wooden horse in her new house, now as Anastasia Rose Steele.

October 1990

Seattle, WA.

A seven-year-old Christian was getting ready for school when he noticed, in the mirror reflection, he had a tiny bruise in her forehead; he was sure he hadn't hit himself with anything. Maybe in his sleep something happened, but he was quite sure nothing happened.

He touched it but he didn't feel any pain, how it was possible that he couldn't feel that. Maybe it was only a bruise, he wanted to ask his mom about it but if it didn't hurt, he couldn't do anything about it.

Christian was sitting beside his annoying brother at breakfast; he was tired of hearing Elliot talking about how incredible his Spanish class was and his school friends. Christian wanted to have friends, but he was afraid they would touch his chest or back; as a consequence many kids ignored him and acted like if he was sort of an alien.

Grace drove her kids to school almost every day, sometimes Carrick joined her when he wasn't busy with a case; today only Grace, Elliot and Christian were in the car. The drive was almost silent except for the music in the background, Elliot and Christian were watching the road pass by the window, it was relaxing to see nature around him before school.

He was about to grab his bag from the seat when he noticed his fingers were red, it was like he just smashed his fingers into something. He was going to ask his mom but decided against it "what if she takes me back because I'm faulty," he thought and hide his hands from her mom. He already knew Grace loved him, but he was still cautious about it; Carrick, well Christian talked with him only, he still was convinced he only loved Elliot.

The day kept going and more bruises appeared, he certainly was worried and decided to ask his mom as soon as he was home.

"Mom, can I ask you something?" he was nervous, he really was scared about Grace's answer.

"yes, honey," she took his hands and sit beside him. "tell me what's wrong?"

"uhmm, bruises have been appearing in my body. I don't feel pain at all, but they appear from the nowhere." Grace was worried but remained calm for Christian.

"Honey, is someone bothering you at school?"

"No, mom." He was desperate, "I discovered this morning a bruise on my forehead, and then other bruises at my hand and then on my knees." He explained it, he just wanted to know why more bruises appeared over his body.

"I believe you darling, we will keep an eye on them and if we see something more; well I'm going to take you to the hospital and check it out." She kissed his forehead and let him go.

Christian hoped it was nothing. A few weeks later he found his hands painted all like if it was made with wood varnish. He wanted it to stop but how you could stop something if you didn't know where it came from?

January 1991

Seattle, WA

Christian was in his grandparent's orchard, there were no apples in that moment, but he enjoyed walking around it. He had been hiding the scars and the casual color splash that appeared all over his body.

He didn't tell his mom because surely, she would take him away, he just decided to keep his secret from everyone in the family and continue as if nothing was happening.

Going back to the house, he decided to test a theory, maybe someone was controlling all this and if he asked it could stop. He ran to his grandpa study, took a pen and wrote in the palm of his hand "stop doing that."

He waited for a response, but nothing came. Maybe he was sick, and he only saw it, if it was the case, he had to hide it.