A/N: I'm sorry that it has been so long since an update. I will keep this short so that you can get to it. It will be a few more weeks though before anything else is posted for this story. In two weeks I'm moving, I have my children home on spring break, and then I have prep for NaNoWriMo. Good news is though, I'm going to have a blog up and running at the end of the month. My NaNoWriMo project will be featured there and will eventually be published to Amazon as an original story. Don't worry though, you'll get Ana and Christian to begin with, but only for a short time.

Anyway, I don't own FSoG, no copyright infringement intended. No beta, I own my mistakes.

Laters

Grey Vitals

Chapter 11: Oh Sister, Where Art Thou?

Last time on Grey Vitals:

"Mrs. Steele, your other guests have arrived. Would you like for us to set their places now?" I'm confused. What other guests? I thought this was a get to know you dinner so Ana and Carla could officially introduce their boyfriends one another, not that we needed introductions apparently.

"Certainly Brigit. Thank you." I watch Carla stand and get up to move her chair closer to Evan when I hear the door to the dining room opening again. Ana and I both look up to see who is entering, and I immediately hear her gasp of surprise.

Well fuck. I shouldn't have said this was going good earlier. I jinxed it. Why the hell would Carla invite the two of them here. Shit, I, shit. Ana said she was up to something. Looks like she was right. Now to figure out what it is. I need to find the waiter. Ana and I are going to need stronger drinks.

Ana's POV

I should have known my mother was up to something. Never, has she been so cordial. Never has she been so involved sounding. I thought helping give ideas for their Gala would help with our relationship, but she was just lulling me into a false sense of security. I love my mother. However, since I became a teenager, I've seen her for what she is. My mother is a social climber. She's concerned about appearances and making sure her station in life is secure. I once thought that she saw me as competition for my father's attention. I know she absolutely hated the fact that I wanted to be a surgeon like him. I had hoped that my return to Seattle would bring us closer together with Dad having passed. Instead, it seems like it will be what drives us apart for good.

I watch as Kate waits for Dr. Jack Hyde to pull her chair out and then she takes the seat next to my mother. Jack sits next to me. He reaches toward me, to touch me somehow I assume, but I flinch away. "Soon enough." He whispers in my ear and I do my best to hide the chill those two words send up my spine. I scoot my chair as close as I can toward Christian's and reach for his hand. A gentle squeeze and a reassuring smile helps to calm the climbing anxiety I'm feeling.

"Don't worry baby. We can leave anytime, but I think you should stay and hear what the hell is going on." Christian always knows what to say. He's quick to grab the bottle of wine from the center of the table and refills my glass without asking if I need it. Yeah, my man is that damn good. I smile at him sweetly and I'm about to lean in to kiss whim when Kate's scoff gets my attention.

"Don't you want to know why we're here?" She's looking better than she did the last time we had dinner together. This time she's in a bright royal blue bandage dress with wide shoulder straps. It's classic Kate attire. The cut of the fabric accentuates her figure, while the neckline shows just enough cleavage to toe the line between sexy and slutty. She looks amazing. Her hair is tousled in loose shiny blonde curls. Her make up is heavy around her eyes, making them look greener than ever.

Before I can answer, Dr. Peter's pager goes off. He looks at it and then pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at it. "I'm sorry everyone, but I'm being called back to the hospital. You all enjoy the rest of your dinner." I watch him stand from the table and rebutton his jacket before leaning down to kiss my mother's cheek. "I'll call a car service to take you home, love."

Kate waits till Dr. Peters is out of the dining room before she prompts me again. "Well…"

"Not really Kate. I made my feelings known the last time you called me." I did eventually answer after I kicked her out. I only wanted to tell her she was a crazy bitch, but I might have been a little more aggressive than that. The bitch did cut up my favorite pillow.

"Well that's too bad. I've been getting to know your mother quite well the last few months and well family is just so important that I couldn't stay away from you any longer." I don't know what the hell she's talking about, but I want her to stop talking.

"Katherine, that is not what tonight is about." My mother tries to stop whatever Kate is doing, but I know Kate. There is no stopping whatever it is that she wants to say.

"No Carla, family takes care of one another, and that is what this dinner is about. It's time for Ana to take care of her sister." WHAT THE FUCK did she just say? I was in the middle of taking a drink of my wine and now it's stuck in my chest. "You see, dear sister, it's time for you to start taking care of me. Unless of course you want the world to know that Raymond Steele really isn't your father. Then you'll lose all claim to his legacy as well."

"What is she talking about Mom?" I look across the table to my mother imploring her to tell me what the hell is going on.

"Well, I'm not sure how to say this." My mother looks like a deer in the headlights and for the first time in my life, she's speechless.

"Oh, I'll tell her for you Carla." Kate looks at me with an evil smirk smearing her perfect face. "My father had many affairs over the years. Apparently, your mother was the first, and the one he wanted the others to be. You and I share a father." I don't need confirmation to know the truth in her words. I've my suspicions on the matter since my father's death. I just didn't know who my mom I had messed around with.

"So, what if what you say is true. My mother isn't the first woman to pass a child off as her husband's after an affair. That won't affect me. Ray Steele will always be my father. I don't need or want a relationship with you and your family." I want to leave now, but I know she's got more to say, and I wonder if she knows about the stipulations in Dad's will. Dad was a smart and perceptive man, and now I realize why he stipulated I see the attorney before mom about the strange wording.

"You may not want a relationship with us, but you're going to play along, or you'll lose everything. We're going to be friends again. You're going to help me rebuild my father's company with that fat inheritance you received, otherwise, you'll lose it all." So, they think they know the stipulations of the will. This might be fun, you know if it didn't mean the ruin of what little of a relationship I had with my mother.

"You don't know what you're talking about." I'm trying to bait her into telling me what she knows. My mother is looking at everyone but me. Jack is staring me down, but I try not to let him see how that creeps me out. I look at Christian though, and I realize that I would not still be sitting here if it were not for him.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about. I found your copy of the will not long after Ray passed away. If it becomes common knowledge that your mother had an affair and that you are proof of that, his will reverts back to the terms of his pre-nup with your mother. That means she only gets the house, that you currently live in, and a million dollars. Any child that was a result of her affair receives nothing from him and no claim to his estate upon his death."

Christian tugs at my hand and I know that he's thinking that she's holding me over the barrel right now. I'm smiling at him, and I know it's unnerving my mother a bit. What Kate says is true. My mother's claims to my father's estate reverts to the terms of her pre-nup if she's proven to have violated it in the ten years after his death.

"You probably should have had a lawyer review it for you Kate. Is this all you came here for, was to try and shake me down?" I'm doing everything I can to stay calm. I want to slap my mother for the mess she's created, and I want to throat punch Kate for being the bitch she is, and I swear Jack Hyde will get a very well placed knee to his itty bitty balls if he thinks I'm going to even so much as look his way.

"No, it's not the only reason that I am here. You see, there is more to this reputation building scheme of mine. Not only will you invest in my family company and help supplement my salary in the meantime, you're going to be seen with our family. You're going to help elevate our status in Seattle society once again. But there's more to that as well. My dear little sister, you're going to need to dump your boyfriend here. His part in all this is to marry me. You will be marrying Jack in six months, without a prenup of course. You two may have fun in private after the weddings, but only after Jack gets you pregnant and Christian does the same for me." And now I laugh. I laugh and laugh. This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard I feel like I'm in an episode of General Hospital. What the fuck does she think she has on me to make all that happen? And why would she believe that Christian would go along with her schemes as well? Oh, this is to funny. I can't stop the laughing and soon they're all looking at me like I've lost my mind.

Christian's POV

I can't wrap my head around what I'm hearing. I knew that Carla Steele didn't like my mother, but I thought it was because of the rumors I heard regarding the friendship between Ray and my mom. I heard the whispers from the doctors of old when I started as an intern. Then I heard more of them when Ray Steele returned to Seattle. However, I know my mother. She'd rather divorce my father and try being a single mom, than to step out on him and dishonor her wedding vows. I could see the friendship between the two of them when he returned. She was devastated when he passed. Dad said losing a friend and confidante that you'd only just regained would do that to you. Dad and Ray were friends too. I never believed the rumors. Raymond Steele was too much of a stand-up guy. He wouldn't be able to look my father in the eye if he'd been going around his back with the man's wife.

I never expected Carla Steele to have been having an affair though. Seemed like it would tarnish her good girl society image if she did. Kate's right, if word got out, this would ruin Carla in everyone of her social circles. Image is everything to the women who lunch.

Why is Ana still laughing though? If they think I'm going to let Ana go and be with that creepy fucker Hyde, they're crazy. I'm sure as hell not touching Kate Kavanagh with another man's dick either, let alone getting her pregnant. This is like some bad soap opera. I squeeze Ana's hand and when she looks at me, her smile is genuine and infectious. She knows something and she's about to blow them out of the water. I can see it. Ana leans over toward me and places a small and simple kiss to my lips. Its short, but it's meaningful.

"I hope you enjoyed that because it's the last time you'll ever kiss him again. Kate may be fine with Christian stepping out on her, but I'm not fine with you doing it." Hyde all but spits the words at Ana and I look at him and if it weren't for my mother's proper raising of me, I'd be lunging for his throat. No matter how good a plastic surgeon he is, there would be no fixing his face when I got done with him.

"Fuck ofF Jack. You're not getting within five feet of me again. If you try and do anything, say anything, or even so much as breath in my direction, I'll file a complaint with the hospital. I'll file one every damn time I catch you looking at me. I'm going nowhere near you and I sure as hell am not going to let you touch me." Ana's voice has turned cold and calculating. Her spine has straightened, and she's taking on a demeanor I've never seen with her.

"Did you forget what you'll lose if you don't do what Kate and I say?" Jack looks triumphant as he takes a sip of his drink and leans back in his chair.

"Carla, you need to put a stop to all of this? You're not really going to let them do this to Ana are you? She's your only daughter." I'm seething. How can this woman claim to love her daughter and let people like this force her into this type of arrangement?

"She just needs to look at it as an arranged marriage. Those happen all the time. She won't lose anything and neither will I. Jack even promised to give her children right away." Carla doesn't look as confident as Kate and Jack, but it's easy to see she's already decided what Ana's fate must be.

Ana takes another drink her wine, gently places the near empty goblet on the table once again. "No." It's the only word she says this time.

"You don't really have a choice in the matter Ana." Kate looks so smug, and for the first time in my life, I want to slap a woman. Something about that look makes me nervous though. She's got more to tell, and I know whatever it is, it will devastate Ana.

"You can all go to hell. None of you thought to really read that will after you got to the paragraph on reasons for my father's estate to revert to the terms of his prenuptial agreement with my mother. Didn't any of you find it strange that I was never referred to as a child or daughter in the will. I was listed as an heir to the state only by my name. It didn't say, I leave such and such to my child or my daughter. It just says I leave this to Anastasia Steele. The second paragraph of the will establishes me as his true beneficiary. Who do you all think my mother loses her claim to? It all reverts to me. So, you've got nothing on me." The smugness leaves Jack Hyde's face in an instant. Kate's not so much still. Carla looks like she might throw up. I wonder if Raymond Steele always suspected the true nature of Ana's paternity.

Ana's POV

I really am in a damn soap opera. I think Dad must have some indication of what my mother was doing to word his will the way he did. The day after the funeral, I was called down to the lawyer's office privately so that he could explain to me what that paragraph meant. I was told it wouldn't be explained further after that day, but that I could have my own private lawyer look into it for me. My mom only had to go ten years without it ever being proven that she violated the terms of her prenup, and nothing would change. If I call the lawyer now and prove I'm not my father's daughter, my mother loses just about everything. She gets a million-dollar settlement, and she gets my childhood home, that she's already given to me. The deed is in my name now. Every asset she's obtained since his death, she would have to sell so that she could reimburse the estate.

I look around the table and I can't help but hate each one of them in this moment. I hate my mother for being the spineless social climber she's become. I hate her for dishonoring my dad the way she has. He loved her, you could see it, but I don't think she ever truly loved him. Kate looks like her wine has gone sour, but she's not defeated yet. She's got more in store for me. Jack on the other hand looks positively ready to revolt. He came here on a mission it seems, and he's failing.

"How long have you known Kate?" When did she find out she was my sister? It can't have been a new revelation.

"Six years ago. The summer before sophomore year. I was in Seattle and you were in Europe. I happened to see our father and your mother together. That's when I put it all together. A few conversations with my own mother after she's drunk on wine and I was able to learn the whole story. She and my dad knew about you the entire time. My mom was fine with it as long as dad kept her in diamonds and fur coats. But then you all moved and he found someone younger, someone who needed more. He went through a string of young bimbos and spent more and more of the family's money on them. By the end of that summer, I learned that my trust fund was almost depleted. Dad was living on borrowed time before he'd wind up losing Kavanagh Media." Kate looks at her nails, inspecting every angle of her perfect manicure.

"You could have told me back then. Why wait till now?" I don't understand why she played the long game.

"Don't you see, I want everything that you have. I spent my teenage years unhappy and struggling. I took out loan after loan to pay for college, even following you to Harvard. Do you know how expensive Harvard is when you don't have scholarship offers?" But she didn't have to go with us.

"You didn't have to go to Harvard with me. Hell, if money was all you wanted, you could have just blackmailed my mother. Why do you want to see me suffer?" There is something I am missing.

"Do you know how what it's like living in someone else's shadow? For years I listened to my mother or father tell me I should be more like you. They're the ones that pushed for me to be friends with you when we were younger. But then you moved, and still I heard about how amazing you were and was told how lacking I was. When we made it to college, I thought everything would be great. We'd be best friends again and everything would be aces. Then you got a boyfriend, and all I heard was how I needed to settle down and find a man that would take care of me. Preferably one that took care of the entire family. They wanted me to be you." Kate take a sip from her wine and her eyes narrow into tiny slits before she continues. "No matter I did, it was never good enough. Then Luke asked me to help pick out an engagement ring for you. He said he was going to beg you to transfer to Yale so that you two could stay together. I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't afford an apartment on my own if you moved with him. So, I had to take a few drastic measures."

Oh, no. What did she do? I feel a brick has dropped into my stomach and my heart starts to accelerate. Christian looks at me with concern, tugging my hand so that I stare at him. "You okay?" he mouths the words and I'm not sure if I am or not, but I nod that I am.

"What steps did you take Kate?" My voice betrays me, showing my weakness at the moment. I know that whatever she says, I'm going to hate, but I didn't know how much her words would change my world.

"I waited till the following week, when you went home to visit your parents. I helped get Luke drunk and then proceeded to strip him down and when he woke in the morning with me naked next to him, I convinced him we had wild, passionate sex. I agreed to keep it a secret, a drunken mistake that would never happen again." Now Kate smiles and it reminds me so much of Jafar from Aladdin. You can see the evil in her eyes. "Two months later, when we knew he was going to propose to you, I followed you to the restaurant. I watched him order the champagne and then I sent him a text message. I sent him a picture of a positive pregnancy test saying congratulations Daddy."

Yep, I was right. Everything would change.