One Day

one.

Anastasia Grey lay beside her husband, trying to regain her breathing back to a normal pattern after just having the most mind-blowing sex they'd had since Phoebe was born. She could hear Christian breathing heavily beside her, the sweat sticking to their bodies as they came down from their highs. It was 3AM, practically the only time of night that the two of them got to be this intimate with each other before their months old daughter would be screaming the house down through the baby monitor at her side of the bed, most likely needing to be fed, or have her diaper changed.

"Do you ever wish that one day we could visit the dead? Just for one day?" She questions him, glancing over to her right to where he had now tightened his jaw, seeming tense and closed off unlike moments ago. Christian had been working on being more open, and not so domineering when it came to her. Specially when her pregnancy hormones were all over the place and even dropping a fork on the ground made her want to cry.

"No." Christian grumbles, making it short and to the point.

Ana rolls onto her side, pulling the blue bed sheets up to cover her naked breasts as she leans her head against the palm of her hand, eyes locked on him, even though he was too busy now scowling at the ceiling to even notice her presence.

"And why not? You'd get to see your grandpa and grandma again. And I'd finally get to meet my birth father." She tells him, her heart swelling at the thought of getting to meet her father face to face. Not that he could ever replace Raymond Steele. She did carry his name until she married Christian after all, but she would like to know what the man was like that she carried 50% of his DNA inside of her.

Christian tightened his grip on the bed sheets, his blunt nails cutting into the fabric as he turns his scowl to look at her, his teeth clenched together as he practically spat it out.

"She would be there."

That one comment, set Ana's questioning into a complete halt.

How could she have not thought of that? Of course Ella would also be in the after world, after life, if there is one. He wouldn't be able to avoid seeing her either. After all the pain that she put him through, not protecting him and practically spoon feeding him to her pimp, why would he want to go to a world where he'd have the chance of seeing her?

Ana gulps, slowly nodding her head as she gives her husband a sympathetic smile through her tight closed lips. "Of course. I'm sorry, I forgot and didn't even realise." She apologises to him, hearing the slight huff that escapes his lips.

But she is Anastasia Rose Grey, of course she had to push further.

"You managed to visit her grave, and put those beautiful roses down for her... You even bought her a new headstone because you claimed she deserved a better one because the other people in the graveyard had big ones and she didn't. How could it be different if you got to see her?"

The problem that Ana had, was she was too forgiving. And she found herself pitying the birth mother of her husband on numerous occasions. She found herself now cringe when Christian would refer to her as the crack-whore. She didn't understand why she pitied and sympathised with Ella, because she definitely would never defend how she neglected Christian, but she knew deep down, that Ella was just as scared of the pimp as Christian was.

She instantly regretted asking it and making the comment she did, when she saw him practically throw himself out of the bed and storm off out of the bedroom.

Ana knew that Ella was still such a tough topic of conversation for Christian. As much as he liked to put on the front of hating her, and spoke to ill of her, he forgets she watched him breaking down over her grave and whispering how sorry he was for not saving her that day. She slowly picked herself up from the bed, putting the bedsheets with her as she walked off down the hall to look for her husband and where he had disappeared off to.

"Christian?" She quietly calls out for him, not wanting to wake their two children from their slumber. Specially Phoebe.

She heard the piano playing the same sad music she used to hear when they first got together, and instantly made her way towards him, seeing him sat naked on the bench, his fingers gliding over the keys in such an angelic way. But his face was not happy, not at all. But he wasn't angry anymore, more sad.

She walks over and sits down beside him, sighing as she wraps the bedsheet around the both of their naked bodies and holds him close to her, the silence now loud in the large home they lived in.

"I'm not angry. I just- Don't want to know what I'd say to her if I saw her. Because I know it wont be nice. And her sadness is something I don't want to cause."

His sentence catches Ana by surprise, in how soft and actually worried his voice was. She knew that the wish to see the dead and meet her birth father would never happen, but she knew it must be something Christian thought of a lot. What he would say to Ella, if he was to ever come face to face with her again.

"Do you remember her at all?" The question passes her lips before she can even stop herself. "I don't remember Frank at all. But I suppose he did die the day after I was born, so that's explainable."

Christian takes a breath, putting the cover down over the keys again as he runs his fingers over the top of the piano.

"Not much. I only have that picture at my parents house to remember her by. Everything else is... blurry. I remember what she looked like, but not what she sounded like. Apart from her screams. That I remember. I don't remember her laugh, but I maybe have never heard her laugh. I mostly remember him."

The idea of knowing who her father was, but not being able to remember anything about him apart from looks, made Ana's stomach fall, and she knew that it must be hell for Christian to not remember those things about his mother.

"Do you remember anything you two did together? Just you two?"

He nods, a small weak smile forming onto his lips.

"She started my obsession with chocolate cake. It was my fourth birthday, and I remember neighbours came over as well, Susan, the elderly woman across the hall who looked after me when Ella went to work, had offered to help make the cake... But my mom she- she wanted to make it all on her own for me. It wasn't made right, and I got sick as shit after it and I got chocolate cake over the walls and the couch... But it made me happy she did that. And I know she was happy I was happy. She bought me a car toy that day as well, it was all she could afford after paying for the rent... That day was the only day I remember her being sober. She became a different person when she wasn't sober. Vicious... Called me maggot."

Ana had no words to say after having him sharing that with her. That day must be something he held close to him, specially if he was still so obsessed with chocolate cake. She had always guessed it was something that Grace had made for him, not Ella.

She reaches up, pressing a gentle kiss to his cheek, whispering softly. "Thank you for sharing that with me."

He just nods his head, turning his head to look at her before he stands, lifting her up into his arms along with him, giving her that famous grin that always makes her swoon.

"Let's go back to bed. I think we have at least 15 minutes before my princess wakes up."