Christian and David were staring at each other intently before David mentioned he could see Christian's mother in him. With that one sentence, my heart soared! If David could see a resemblance, it suggested Christian's mom was more than a one-night stand to him.
"Please come in and take a seat," I said, gesturing to the seating area in our suite. At Wendy's suggestion, I was playing the part of hostess for the first few minutes.
David and Aisling sat on one sofa, leaving the loveseat for Christian and me. Wendy sat in an armchair with her back to the window.
"I have the non-disclosure agreement you requested here," Aisling said, fishing the document out of her oversized purse. "Although it seems unnecessary since you obviously know so much more about us than we go about you! I mean – we don't even know your name!" She wasn't exactly rude, but there was a level of recrimination in her words.
She dropped the signed agreement on the table in front of her.
"You don't know my name?" Christian asked, looking at David, not Aisling. "I didn't know that."
"Mr. Welch has only referred to you as Mr. G," he explained.
"Then let me introduce myself. I am Christian Grey, and this is my wife Anastasia. We live in Seattle, and we also have a son Theodore who is coming up on six months old."
Wendy nodded approvingly, smiling to let me know she'd take over from here.
"Christian? Can you start by outlining why you looked into your biological parentage and the steps that led to today's meeting?" she requested.
"Carrick and Grace Grey adopted me when I was four. I have some memories of my birth mother, but I knew nothing of my biological father and nothing of my birth mother's background. Becoming a father made me curious about my background, so I set the wheels in motion to find out more about my mother's history. It was dead end after dead end until I had a copy of my DNA compared to various online repositories. Your sister and brother were registered on a genealogy site and came up as close matches. After further analysis, the specialists could determine they were almost certainly my full-blood aunt and uncle. After checking out the family tree, they identified you as the most likely person to be my father."
Wendy nodded, watching David and Aisling carefully. "David? Do you want to respond to this?"
"Yes," he said, giving Aisling an apologetic look. "Now I have seen you, there's no doubt in my mind you're my son. The resemblance between us is obvious, however, you also resemble your mother. You have her eyes, and also her lips."
"You knew my mother?" Christian asked, hope written all over his face.
David seemed confused. "Since I believe I'm your father, of course I knew your mother. I had no idea about you, though."
Wendy looked around the room at us all. "Christian? Can you explain to David and Aisling why you could not track down anything about your birth mother?"
My darling man nodded, running his hands through his copper locks.
"My birth certificate lists my mother as Ella Riley. Despite conducting numerous searches for her name and birthdate amongst every available database, there were no matches. The people I had searching believe she gave a fake name at the hospital to avoid having to pay for my delivery."
"Eleanor Murphy," David replied without pause. "She grew up three doors down from where I did, and she was my girlfriend at high school."
I looked at Christian and could tell he needed a moment.
"Would anyone like tea or coffee?" I asked. "Or some refreshments?"
"I'd murder a cup of tea right now," Aisling said with a tight smile. It was obvious she was confronted by what she was hearing.
"Me too," I replied. Taking everyone's orders, I picked up the hotel phone dialing housekeeping. Christian stood up and walked over to the window, staring down onto the street below. David was watching him, but we all decided to give him time to digest this information.
When tea, coffee plus scones with jam and cream arrived, Christian returned to sit beside me. I could see he'd been crying, but I didn't mention it.
"David? Are you prepared to discuss your relationship with Eleanor? You need to understand; Christian has never known the real name of his birth mother or anything to do with her background or his paternity. As you can imagine, he has a lot of blanks to fill."
"Um, sure," David replied, taking a nervous sip of his coffee.
It was funny looking at him. While he looked so similar to my husband, in bearing he was more like my father, Ray. Perhaps it was the similar age, and background, but I could see David and Ray getting on together. David came across as a no-nonsense man that rarely showed his emotions; however if the way Aisling kept looking at her Dad was any indication, this was every bit as emotional for him as it was for Christian.
"Eleanor grew up three doors down from me. She was two years below me at high school, and I saw her as the 'girl next door' until my sophomore year when we started dating. She was sweet and funny, and I cared for her very much."
Christian was staring at David intently, obviously hoping for more.
"Eleanor was halfway through her junior year when I joined the army. We had it all planned out. I'd join the army and do basic training, do my first tour and we'd get married soon after she graduated. You have to understand; she grew up with her grandparents and they were very old fashioned. There was no way they'd let me court or marry her until I had a way to support her, so we'd snuck around behind their back for years."
"You were in love?" Christian whispered, clasping my hand.
"It was young love, but yes. We were crazy about each other." David paused and took another sip of his coffee. "We were first together a few weeks before I left for Fort Benning. Each other's firsts, it was only three times. We were careful, but obviously not careful enough," David said with a sad smile.
"I was gone sixteen weeks, and by the time I returned, Eleanor was gone. When I went to speak with her grandparents, they told me she had dropped out of school and run away to Detroit. I begged them to tell me how to contact her, but they refused to provide any information. I tried to track her through every means possible, but I could never find her. With what I know now if I had to guess I suspect they threw her out when she discovered she was pregnant."
There was silence as we considered David's disclosure.
"Thank you for sharing that," Christian said. "You can't imagine how much it means to me."
"You mentioned you were adopted. Did Eleanor give you up?" David asked.
Christian looked across to Wendy who nodded.
"No. You obviously cared about her, so I'm sorry to tell you she died when I was four. We were in Detroit."
David grimaced and I could see genuine pain in his expression. "Could you share with me what happened?"
"I can, but I should warn you, it isn't pretty. I was born in Detroit, but my earliest memories are of my mother working there as a prostitute. She was drug addicted, and her pimp would supply her with drugs and then rent her out. We lived in a shitty apartment in the worst area of town, and not long after I turned four, she died from an overdose. Eventually, we were discovered, and they took me to the hospital which is where I met my adoptive mother."
"Eventually?" Aisling asked, zeroing in on that word.
Christian shook his head, looking at me plaintively, his eyes begging me to explain.
"Christian was locked in the apartment with his dead mother for three or four days before someone discovered them. After years of neglect, he was severely malnourished and had also suffered long term abuse at the hand of his mother's pimp."
My eyes were on Christian and I could see him slip into terrifying recollections.
"Red!" Christian whispered urgently, his grip almost crushing my hand as he started to panic.
"Go check on Teddy," I suggested, standing as he did. I didn't have the chance to hold or kiss him before he raced out of the room.
"I'm sorry," I said turning to face David and Aisling, both of whom seemed startled by Christian's sudden exit from the suite. "My husband still has the emotional and physical scars from that time of his life. It's not something he often speaks about as it distresses him."
"Teddy ok?" I asked when Christian reappeared much calmer ten minutes later. Wendy had kept light conversation going during his absence.
"He's fine. He's had lunch and is doing tummy time and Taylor is trying to show him how to crawl." Christian was smirking.
"I wish I'd seen that," I said with a giggle, patting the seat next to me.
"Gail took a video," he whispered with a grin.
"Christian? Thanks for rejoining us. Aisling made a good point earlier when she mentioned she and David know next to nothing about you. Would you like to tell them about your life in the years since you were adopted? Perhaps about your adoptive family and your work?"
I had to hand it to Wendy; she knew her stuff! Christian was embarrassed about freaking out and showing his emotions, earlier, so now she was giving him an opportunity to regain face and shine.
"Certainly. I was adopted into the Grey family. My father, Carrick is a lawyer and partner in a large practice. My mother, Grace, was the pediatrician working at the hospital the night they brought me in. I have a brother who is a couple of years older than me. His name is Elliot, and he's crazy and loud and everything I'm not, but he's my best friend. We also have a younger sister, Mia. As the baby of the family, she's spoiled rotten, but I love her anyway. We're all adopted."
I'd refilled Christian's cup of coffee, so he took a sip before continuing.
"My mother's family live in Seattle, so not long after I was adopted, we relocated there. I went to several schools in the Seattle area before being accepted to Harvard. I attended for a year and a half before I dropped out to start my own business. With $100,000 of borrowed capital, I started Grey Enterprises Holdings. It's now one of the largest privately owned companies in the United States."
"So, you're what? A millionaire?" David asked in confusion.
Christian smiled and tried to look modest. "I made my first million before I turned twenty-one. Since then the business has grown exponentially. We have offices in Seattle, New York, and London, and worldwide we have around forty-thousand employees working in a diverse range of industries across twenty countries."
"Oh my God! That's why you look so familiar! It's not just that you look like Da – you were interviewed by Oprah, weren't you?! Your wife and son were abducted!" Aisling said. "You remember, Da? It was all over the news about a new mother and her child being kidnapped and driven across to Michigan?"
I couldn't help the shiver that ran through my body just thinking about Jack seizing Teddy and me and driving us across the country.
"Yes, but that's a story for another time," I replied with a tight smile. Not only did I not want to remember what happened, but I also didn't want to take time away from Christian, David and Aisling bonding.
"David? This has all been a lot to take in. Before we end our first session, are there any thoughts you'd like to share?"
"Just that I am so sorry it's taken nearly thirty years for us to meet. I'm also sorry for what you and Eleanor went through. She was my first love, and if I had found her, I wouldn't have let that happen to either of you. I can't regret my life since it brought me my wife and my daughter. However, I need you to know I am a man of my word, and I intended to marry your mother and spend my life with her. If I had found the two of you, I would have been a father to you and a husband to her."
Christian nodded, as Wendy suggested we wrap it up for now.
"How do you feel about taking a break and resuming in an hour?" she asked the four of us.
"I'd like that. There's a lot more I'd like to know," David immediately volunteered. "More I'd like to share, too."
"Same," Christian said simply, standing alongside Wendy. He reached out and shook his father's hand, before turning to Aisling. "I know we've yet to have the paternity test to confirm it, but it looks like I have another sister." My husband sounded nervous.
"And I have a brother," Aisling replied, every bit as anxious.
"He was absolutely perfect," Gail said with a grin as I guided Teddy to my breast. Sitting on the settee in their suite I was nursing our son and chatting with Gail. As he always did, Taylor left the room when I was breastfeeding. Even though I had a wrap draped over my shoulder so he could not see anything, like my father it was something he'd prefer not to witness. Christian followed Taylor into another part of the suite, leaving Gail and me to talk.
"Christian said Taylor was trying to teach Ted how to crawl?" I said with a titter.
"It was hysterical," Gail confirmed. "He was on his elbows and knees and showing Theodore how to do it!"
"Teddy didn't, did he?" I gasped, suddenly horrified that Theodore might have reached a milestone without me there to witness it.
"Certainly not!" Gail confirmed. "If Master Grey looked even close to crawling for the first time, I would have fetched you!"
"Thank you, Gail. It's just I don't want to miss a thing..."
"I understand. So how did it go?" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper. Like me, Gail had hoped this meeting would go well for Christian.
"Good. There's no doubt David is Christian's birth father."
"What's he like?" Gail asked, wide-eyed.
"Honestly? He reminds me a lot of Ray. I can see the two of them getting on like a house on fire."
"And the sister?"
"She hasn't said much. I feel she's a bit overwhelmed. She's an only child, and her mom died a few years back. She seems close with her dad... I guess they're a lot like Ray and me in that respect."
"And did Mr. Grey learn more about his birth mother?"
"Yes. Her name was Eleanor Murphy. She and David dated in high school and planned to marry."
I could tell Gail wanted to know more, but I didn't think it was my place to disclose anything further. Christian was still coming to terms with all this; he'd share at his own pace.
"How's our little Teddy bear?" Christian asked, coming over just as Ted had finished nursing.
"Wanting his Daddy," I said, holding our son out for Christian to grasp.
No matter how many times I saw it, witnessing Christian hold our son against his chest thrilled me. He was the most attentive father I'd ever seen, and he relished close contact with our boy. Christian sunk onto the sofa, Teddy nuzzled against him.
"So?" he asked. "What did you think?"
"I was just saying to Gail that David and Aisling remind me a lot of Ray and me."
"You're right," Christian said. "Something about their relationship seemed so familiar. They interact in a similar way to you and your dad."
"Maybe I can try to talk to Aisling? I get finding you have a half-brother is different to potentially getting a stepmom, but when it comes down to it it's still about sharing your father and that can be hard, especially if it's been just the two of you for a while. It's taken me time to get used to Diane, but now I can see I lose nothing because she's in Ray's life; I just gain a relationship with someone else who cares about him. Hopefully, Aisling will feel that way about you and David."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Christian cautioned. "David might not want to progress into anything more after this meetup."
My husband sounded cautious, but I didn't believe him. I'm not sure how close Christian and David might become, however, I was certain they would maintain some contact after this.
"Have you thought about what you want to talk about next?" I asked. Wendy no doubt had a plan for the next session; still, it didn't hurt to have an idea.
"I want to know more about Eleanor and her background, as well as David's history. I want to learn about my extended family, too. Oh – and in case David chooses not to keep in touch, I should probably find out about the family medical history."