"Nope."

"Don't argue with me", he threatens.

"Or what?", I look him in the eye and say this.

"Or else i'll shove it down your mouth."

"Good luck doing that", I encourage sarcastically.

He sighs. "Six years and you haven't changed one bit. Why do defy me all the fu- damn time?!", Christian growls.

"Why do you always want everyone to follow your order?", I shoot back. "Its my life, I can do whatever I want."

"You said yes to help you. Now that i'm doing it, you make excuses and defy me, as usual. I think I shouldn't be surprised."

"Christian I am not having this gooey green liquid", I say, eyeing the horrible looking green liquid in front of me in the bowl.

"First of all its not 'liquid'. Its a spinach puree. And if you see the consistency", he stops and picks up a spoon and takes a spoonful of his so called 'puree' and shows it to me, "i've made it thick enough like said on internet."

I look at him like he has grown horns on his head. Is he kidding me? He wants me to consume this and then keep it inside my stomach? I'm sure i'll hurl the minute I put one spoon in my mouth.

"Umm, no, i'd very much like to keep my appetite intact. Give me a sandwich and i'll be good to go."

"Anastasia Steele, you have to eat it", he says slowly like he is talking to a child. But i'm no child and neither is he my parent.

I look at Mila who is looking at me with amusement and munches on her omelette silently. I eye her omelette, instantly jealous that even a child gets to eat better than me.

"But why?", I whine.

"Because I talked with Mila yesterday and I found out you diet consists of sandwiches and pizzas and only junk. Did you guys eat anything other than junk?", he scowls.

I look at him with my mouth open and then narrow my eyes at Mila who smiles at me smugly. She is already a daddy's girl.

"Well that wasn't the 'only' thing we had. That was just during weekends, okay? And besides we had vegetarian sandwiches you know? With just salad in between so technically its healthy..", I blabber but realize how stupid I sound and so I shut up. I'd do anything to not eat this gooey thing.

He looks at me with a bored expression and hovers above me and then says, "You want a sandwich right?"

"Right", I nod.

"Fine", he says and goes into the pantry. He takes one or two things and comes out. I see that he has a packet of bread in one hand and butter knife in another.

He walks towards me, puts the packet of bread down, removes 2 slices of bread from it. I eye him carefully to see what does he do. Did he really agree to what all I said?

"If its not my wish, then definitely not yours. We'll stay on the middle ground", he says and I look at him in confusion.

And then I see what did he mean by that. Are you actually kidding me?

He scoops the green goo and dumps it on the bread. He then spreads it with a butter knife as if he is applying jam on bread. He puts the other slice on top and offers me the so called 'sandwich'.

"Do I look like a kid?", I scowl.

"Well, you act line one. I can't see much of a difference", he smirks.

"Why are you doing this to me?", I whine.

"Because you need to eat healthy and nutritious food."

"I will. But at least make the dish more.. appealing!", I eye the bowl once again in disgust.

"Healthy food is never appealing. But it tastes good trust me. I would never let you eat food that isn't edible", he says softly.

I sigh and take the bowl instead of the bread. The last thing I want is to hate bread permanently henceforth.

I take a spoonful on the puree and hover it over my mouth. From the corner of my eye, I see Mila and Christian eyeing me keenly. I shake my head a little and eat it.

He wasn't kidding when he said it doesn't taste bad. Though I would never eat it again.. it is at least.. edible and I thank my stars that today is not the day I'll throw up.

"So?", he asks, expectantly.

I don't want to boost his already sky high ego and so I say, "Well its edible..?" which came more like a question than answer but he got the gist.

He beams at me and fist-bumps Mila who gladly reciprocates. It is like they are a team! That too against me.

"What are you doing today?", he asks as I finish my breakfast, all the while Christian eyeing me as if i'd run for the hills if he even glances in other direction.

I shrug. "Not much, probably read a book. I see you stocked you library with books that I wanted to read for such a long time!"

"Well.. I wanted to check something with you..", he trails off.

"What?"

His eyes trails towards Mila who was talking with Gail now. I'm so happy that she is back. It kind of got lonely without her company. She and Taylor went to California, a trip sponsored by Christian. If it wasn't for Gail, i'd never know about this. He usually keeps these kind of stuff to himself. She said they tried to deny it but he insisted that they needed a vacation and hence they had to accept it.

I get the hint that he wants to talk somewhere alone so I get up and we move to the balcony.

I sigh as I take in the view. Winds gush pass me and I notice it's chilly here, marking the start of winter.

"I'm going to make an appointment with the doctor for tomorrow", he states as he leans over, his elbows on the railing as he looks ahead at the Seattle skyline.

I take a deep breath. I still can't process this news that I have.. cancer. Jeez, it's difficult to even think of the word.

"Oh.. kay?", I say, unsure of what should be a proper response to this situation.

He sighs and looks at me. "Anastasia, we need to communicate if we are doing this."

"Stop making it sound like it's a business! This isn't one of your business deals where everything goes right as you want. It's hard to talk, okay?"

He looks taken aback by my sudden out burst but says nothing. I blame my hormones. I've missed my period.. again.

"How do you expect me to know everything magically? We need to communicate", he says but not in anger. His voice is calm, like he is actually trying to have a decent conversation.

"What.. do you want to know?", I give in. If he is ready to do this, then so should I try too.

"Everything. Like when did you first find out?"

"Well..", This is going to be tough. I take a deep breath and say, "It was two months ago. After Mila was born, my periods were highly irregular so I didn't really mind it. But two months ago, something just felt off. Of course missing period has a lot of effects, first being the body starting to bloat, but something was off, I could feel it. I made an appointment with the doctor and she suggested I get an ultrasound." I glance at Christian to see if he is listening and continue when I find his sole focus is on me.

"Of course at the mention of getting an ultrasound, I was nervous. It took me almost half a month to prepare myself to do the test. When I did take the test, the doctor said there is a chance I can have ovarian cancer but she can only confirm after thoroughly examining the reports. I got the reports back after 2-3 days and guess what?", I snort at the last part.

I heard a sharp intake of breath and see Christian looking away. "How many people know about this?", he asks.

"Ray and you", I shrug. "Oh also Luke and Gail and maybe Taylor."

And I regret giving the last three names.

"Why the fuck do my staff know about this?", he looks at me incredulously.

"Umm.. uh.."

"Because?", he offers.

"I met them here before I met you. I couldn't just drop here saying 'hey i'm back'.. I needed someone. And stop scoffing because I know you wouldn't have met me back then.", I glare at him.

"So little faith you have in me", he says, holding a hand over the left side of his chest, feigning hurt.

I roll my eyes at him. "Get over it."

"Haven't you talked with your mother about this?", he suddenly says, changing the mood from happy to grim in a heartbeat.

"My mother doesn't really like me after I left you. Seriously, I sometimes forget if she is your mother or mine."

"Well in her defense you did hurt her son."

"In law", I add.

"You should talk to your mother. Ask if this runs in the family or something. So we know how exactly did you get it."

"It doesn't. Or else my mother would've told me or God forbid she would've got it."

"Talk to her at least", he insists.

I don't see a harm in that. Now that I fulfilled her wish of me 'stop being a coward and let Mila meet Christian', I don't see what problem talking to my mother can create. I'll call her, she is my mother after all, I have to one day. Better soon.

"You know, Christian, for the first time today, I realize that what I got can pass on to Mila too."

He stiffens. I see the look of horror on his face before he composes himself and says, "Now that you point it out.."

"I'm scared for her. I really don't care about myself right now", I say, earning a scowl from him, "but thinking about the future. What if she gets it? What if she suffers through this? It seems like i'll be the one to blame", I say as tears well up my eyes. God damn my hormones are all over the place.

"Hey", he shifts a little closer but doesn't touch me. "Lets not talk about future. My main aim is to cure you right now and I will do that no matter what."

"I love this optimism. Who are you and what have you done to the mercurial Christian I know?", I say jokingly, getting a chuckle in response from him.

He checks his watch. "I should get going, I have a meeting in an hour."

As he was about to leave, I say, "Do you realize that after we met like a month ago, this was the first time we had a decent conversation that didn't involve screaming, shouting, crying and words dripping in sarcasm?"

He chuckles in response, "That's new, Miss Steele."

"Still Ana for you", I sigh as he I see his retreating figure.

~*~*~*~

Can we get this chapter to 20 votes? I know y'all can do it and as soon as it gets 20 votes, i'll update the next one!

You can also read my other book Scribbled Notes which is basically a story written in 20-30 words! There is a set of different type of stories in it so do check it out! The book is on my profile :)

Until we meet again, xoxo ~ Ava❤