A/N:

This plot bunny was mine initially. However, ALL credit for the plot execution goes to Calicutie77. She's brilliant. Check out her story Fifty Shades- Everything: All she needs is a little nudge to finish it.

I'm NOT making any major changes as this fic follows a similar style as Cali's story. It was originally written in the present tense. I'm used to writing in the third-person past tense, so expect mistakes. Please give me time to continue editing. Don't download this until I post the final chapter.

Chapter two: The secret room.

Ana POV

While Sawyer drives to Escala, I sit back and tell myself everything will be okay. Christian will come around.

My request for more time wasn't unreasonable.

Elena's words keep playing in my head: "He's not capable of marriage." And I keep thinking, what if the bitch-troll has a point? What if I'm not good enough for him? What if I can't please him the way he NEEDS me to?

I desperately need to talk to somebody, so I call the only person I know who will not allow me to sink into the world of never-ending What-ifs.

Kate knows right away something's wrong.

"Okay, Steele, spill the beans. What's going on?"

"It's Christian. Oh, Kate, I don't know what to do. He proposed with a ring...and I told him I needed more time."

There was dead silence on the other end of the line, and I wondered if she was still there. "Kate?"

"You did? But didn't you make it official?!"

I take a deep breath trying to keep the tears at bay. "Yes, I was happy when he made the announcement. But, then, I started thinking about some of the things Elena said." I don't tell her about my doubts about Dr. Flynn. My mind is still pondering about his advice to keep doing what she was already doing. Seriously? What kind of advice was that?

"What did the evil witch have to say for herself?"

"Before or after I drenched her with my martini?"

"You...What?" Kate chuckled.

I smile at the memory. The look of horror on the woman's face was priceless. The best part, however, was when Christian refuted her statement that she'd taught him everything by telling her she'd only taught him how to fuck. The runner-up distinction went to Grace slapping her across the face and calling her a whore.

"Yeah. I'll tell you more about that later. The thing is, I think I messed up," I cry, and Sawyer shoots me a concerned look through the rear-view mirror. "I could have phrased things differently. I should have argued for a long engagement instead. He took things the wrong way. He's convinced I'm breaking up with him. That's the furthest thing from my mind."

"Shoot. Didn't you explain?"

"I did," I sigh. He was too upset to listen."

There's a long pause. "Kate, are you listening to me?"

"Don't panic! Just him time to think things through."

I sigh inwardly. I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place. Christian was a force to reckon with, always pushing forward, making me feel like I was riding a runaway train. If I hadn't asked for a timeout, he would have pushed relentlessly for a quick marriage. As they say, marry in haste and repent at leisure.

Once we arrive at the parking garage, I picture Mr. Mercurial sitting in his favorite armchair giving me the cold shoulder. Perhaps, Kate is right. I should stop feeling guilty and give us both some space. I ask Sawyer to drive me to the immaculate two-story fortress of escape and adventure otherwise known as Barnes & Noble, to pick up an order I had forgotten about. I would rather skip the convenience of having my book orders delivered; nothing beats the excitement of roaming the aisles and discovering new thought-provoking reads firsthand.

As soon as I enter the store, I relish the smell of nonstop brewing coffee. It's too late in the evening for an eye-opening, sinus-draining, headache-clearing rush of caffeine. But I've always enjoyed the rush, even if in the end, I'd rather have a cup of freshly brewed tea.

Narrator POV

Elena punches in the code for the elevator at Escala with only minutes to spare. With any luck, Christian won't be driving straight home. When she left the party, it was still in full swing, but there's always the chance that Christian and his pathetic little wallflower are only one step behind her. She's convinced she'll find something incriminating about Ana or Christian, something that she can later use to blackmail him and prevent him from liquidating the salon business.

If her calculations are correct, the code will grant her instant access to the penthouse and the staff should be in bed except for one person manning the CCTV room. She smiled to herself, visualizing how this would play out. The guy was such an easy target.

Elena smiles brightly as Baby-faced Ryan is there to meet her right as she steps out of the elevator.

"May I help you, ma'am?" He cocks his head quizzically. "Mr. Grey is at Grey Manor tonight."

Elena lets out a light-hearted chuckle. "Oh, Hello, Ryan," she says his name in a sultry tone. "Oh, that's okay…hmm…how are you doing tonight?"

Ryan tugs at his shirt collar and looks uncomfortable. "I'm…huh, fine, thank you."

"Why don't you keep me a little company while I wait for Mr. Grey," she says, dropping her Christian Dior purse on the plush sofa. In one swift stride, she bridges the distance between them and gives him plays with his tie. She's counting on Ryan keeping mum rather than having his secret connections to the lifestyle be exposed. Worst-case scenario, she can always threaten to have him fired by claiming he sexually harassed HER. It would be his word against hers. And before Ryan gets a chance to think, she kisses him fully on the lips.

Ryan steps back, startled, he's turned on, but this is his place of employment. Elena grabs his tie, pulls him closer, and kisses him again. He tries pushing her away. While he's distracted, Elena snakes her hand behind him, grabbing the closest object- heavy cast bronze figurine—and uses it to smack him in the back of the head. Ryan is knocked out cold.

Elena quickly snatches her purse making a beeline to the security room. She'd been in the room a few times before so she's familiar with the recording system. After pocketing the CD, she prances around the apartment grinning like a cat that just caught a mouse, secure in the knowledge none of her activities are being recorded.

She rounds the corner to Christian's study. Making a beeline for his desk she rummages through the drawers. She then searches his filing cabinet. She can't believe her luck when she finds the sub contracts. Dear Christian must have forgotten to lock the cabinet. She quickly retrieves her blackberry from her purse and takes a few pictures. She's got this. She was about to head out when her phone battery indicator flashes indicating it was about to die.

Elena's heartbeat quickened. Shit, someone is coming. No. The entire security team actually! Their voices and footsteps drift through the hallway, getting closer. She scampers away like a rat out of a barn and dives behind a couch, her back pressed against the wall-to-ceiling bookcase, clutching her handbag.

She does not dare to breathe until the room is quiet again. Dammit! There could be someone else in the room watching and listening. Should she peek behind the couch and take a look?

Suddenly, the solid panel behind her slides to reveal an opening. Her hand naturally inspects the opening. It's much deeper than she would have expected. Hmm. Maybe there is a nook or something where she could easily hide until security gives up their search. A slight push and she's able to crawl through the wall with a sense of triumph. She soon discovers the space is tall enough for her to stand. Good. Yes, but the lighting is bad. Much to her horror, the small room suddenly plunged into darkness when the panel door swung shut. Elena cries out and attempts to push against it but the door has no interior handle and cannot be opened from the inside. She pulls her phone out of her handbag, hoping it can work as a flashlight, but the stupid thing is dead and refuses to power back on.

Eventually, her eyes adjust to the darkness, and she realizes she's trapped in a room smaller than her walk-in closet at home. Imagine that! If she takes four or five steps in any direction she hits a padded wall. More terrified than ever, she realizes there's no way out. With her phone dead, who will come to her rescue?

"HELP" She yells at the top of her lungs. OH, My GOD! Minutes tick by and nothing happens. Slowly, she realizes the walls are like a fortress, every square inch is heavily padded. OH, GOD! She must stop these awful walls from closing in on her. Her fingers blindly dig into the heavy-weight upholstery fabric. Her fingertips stop to clutch what seemed like machine-sewn buttons. Having nothing else to do, she pulls at the large buttons. Ah ha! She manages to yank one of them off, puts it in her mouth, and bites it. Her teeth continue to bite the large button as if possessed by an uncontrollable nervous energy. She shouldn't have watched so many horror movies, she thinks. She closes her eyes as flashes of The shining fill her nerve-wrecked imagination. She's afraid to open them again, certain she will see Jack Nicholson's face next to hers. She hears a gut-wretched scream and fails to recognize it as her own.

Christian POV

Something's wrong…terribly wrong.

Taylor motions for me to flatten against the elevator door but I refuse. If there is a breach of security, I'm not going to cower like a coward. So I step off the elevator behind Taylor only because he got a head start. Almost immediately, we stumble upon a prone figure on the floor in the middle of the great room. It's Ryan.

While Taylor tends to Ryan, I head for the CVTV room to look at the monitors. They seem to be working in perfect order showing live images of the elevator, the garage, and every single room. Nothing seemed amiss. I press the red emergency button which makes the alarm blast a siren alerting everyone of the security breach. I continue to scan the monitors, but there is no sign of an intruder.

My security guys materialize, some of them still in their pajamas.

"How's he?" I ask Taylor as I head back to the Great Room. While I was gone, Taylor had moved an unconscious Ryan onto the couch.

"He'll be fine. Maybe a concussion. I already called the doctor."

"Show me the footage from everything recorded in the last six hours," I ask Taylor who immediately leads the way back to the security room.

Taylor presses a button on the computer to eject the CD, but nothing comes out. The CD with the recording is missing. We scan the room for clues. We conclude there was no way the perpetrator could have escaped. He must be hiding somewhere on the premises. But where? There are security cameras everywhere except for the master bedroom and the red room.

When we return to the Great Room, Ryan is sitting up on the couch, rubbing the back of his head. He's disoriented.

We ask him general questions such as the time and date and what just happened to assess his cognitive functioning.

"Ryan, Did you see who hit you?" Taylor asks, and Ryan shakes his head no.

I joined Taylor and our security team and searched the entire apartment from top to bottom. I stay in the CCTV room monitoring the live images. While the surveillance cameras moved in different directions, I realize there are a few blind spots outside the camera's line of vision. I shake my head in disbelief, already thinking about possible solutions such as installing a few more overlapping cameras that cover every nook and cranny.

While this is happening, I call Sawyer. He should have been back with Ana by now. Ana! My heart skips when I think about the possibility of Ana being in danger. What if Ana had arrived at Escala before me and encountered the intruder? I shudder at the idea.

I let out a huge sigh of relief when Sawyer picks up and tells me he's taken Ana somewhere else. So Ana never came home.

"What? Where are you?" I snap. I can barely make out what he's saying, he must be in a bad signal area.

Narrator POV

Taylor looks for any signs of the intruder in Christian's study. He checks the drawers and finds the filing cabinet unlocked. Shoot! He should have put on a pair of gloves like Columbo to avoid contaminating the scene, he thinks.

He has no knowledge of the soundproof secret room. Inside the room, Elena pounds on the door until her knuckles bleed. She screams and thrashes not realizing she's trapped in a sealed chamber. Outside the room, her voice is inaudible. Taylor exits the room thinking there is no way she could have vanished into thin air.

A/N: For the Love of Bella: Chapter 20 just posted on A03. I now have the direct link available on my profile page on this site!

Don't forget to check out: Fifty Shades-Everything by Calicutie77.