Fifty Shades Freed

Plot

After a long honeymoon in Europe, Anastasia "Ana" Steele and Christian Grey return to Seattle where Christian admits he is upset that Ana has kept her maiden name, Steele, at work. After some resistance, Ana yields when she finds out how important taking his name is to Christian. Christian gives Seattle Independent Publishing as a late wedding present to Ana, who plans to rename it Grey Publishing.

Christian leaves for a business trip in New York and against his overprotective wishes, Ana sneaks out for a drink with longtime friend, Kate Kavanagh. When she returns home, she finds her former boss Jack Hyde inside, knocked unconscious by one of her many security staff. The duct tape in his pocket suggests he intended to kidnap her and he is arrested. After a fight with Christian about her sneaking out to see Kate, Ana berates him for being too controlling and possessive of her, and says she needs to have some freedom. Soon after, Christian surprises her with a trip to Aspen, with Kate, Elliot, Mia, and Kate's brother, Ethan. After seeing Elliot Grey exit a jewelry shop with an ex-girlfriend, Ana fears he is cheating on Kate. She later finds out she is mistaken when Elliot proposes to Kate and she accepts.

Shortly after returning to work, Ana's father, Ray Steele, is in a car accident and placed into a medically induced coma. Ana and Christian stay by his side in Portland until, a few days later, he wakes and is moved to Seattle to recover. This is also Ana's birthday weekend where Christian surprises her with all her family and friends at a dinner. He gives her a charm bracelet with charms representing all their "firsts" including an ice cream cone to represent their "vanilla" relationship. Christian also gifts her an Audi R8 which she asked for a couple weeks earlier. While visiting Ray at the hospital, Ana finds out she is pregnant after her gynecologist confronts her about missing four of her contraception injection appointments. When she tells Christian, he angrily accuses her of getting pregnant on purpose and leaves. He returns early the next morning drunk, stating that Ana will choose their new baby over him. While undressing him in his drunken state, Ana is furious to see a text message on Christian's phone from Elena Lincoln, his mother's friend who seduced him when he was fifteen and introduced him to the BDSM lifestyle. The message indicates that he was out drinking with her.

The next two mornings Ana and Christian barely speak out of anger: Christian because of the unplanned pregnancy; and Ana because of his late night visit with Mrs. Lincoln. Christian sees nothing wrong with him meeting with Elena, even though he tries to explain to a skeptical Ana that his relationship with her is long-since over. While at work, Ana receives an email from Christian stating he will be in Portland on business for a few days when she is called by Jack Hyde. He has kidnapped Mia Grey and wants $5 million in two hours. He warns her not to tell anyone or he will kill Mia.

Ana feigns an illness and returns home to escape her bodyguard Sawyer. At home, she takes Leila Williams' loaded gun and makes her way to the bank. While collecting the money, the suspicious bank manager calls Christian who thinks Ana is leaving him. Ana lies that she is leaving him and going to raise the baby alone so Christian won't interfere and endanger Mia's life. Hyde tells Ana to leave her phone but she tricks him by taking the bank manager's phone instead and dropping it in the trash. She leaves via the back entrance to a waiting car, shocked that Hyde's accomplice is Elizabeth Morgan, her co-worker, who helped Jack to kidnap Mia in their gym. When handing over the money, Hyde attacks her out of vengeance for losing his job. While bruised on the ground, Ana shoots Hyde in the leg and when Ana starts to black out she hears her name being called by Christian.

Ana wakes three days later in the hospital with Christian at her side. Though he is angry at Ana for being reckless and still anxious about being a father, he now realizes how important their baby is to her and they reconcile. Ana returns home the next day. Christian finds out from his private investigator Welch that he and Hyde were in the same family while in foster care. He also decides to be more open with Ana by telling her how he met and was seduced by Mrs. Lincoln, and his memories of his mother. The next day, a furious Christian discovers that Mr. Lincoln bailed Jack out of jail out of spite for Christian's affair with Elena. Christian decides to get payback by buying out Mr. Lincoln's logging company and selling it off to the highest bidders. It was also learned Elizabeth was blackmailed by Hyde to be his accomplice, and spilled her guts to the police about it. (However, her ultimate fate remains a mystery.)

Two years later, Ana and Christian have a son named Theodore Raymond Grey, nicknamed Teddy, and Ana is six months pregnant with their second child, a daughter. Elliot and Kate have gotten married and have a two month old daughter named Ava. At the end, Ana and Christian are getting ready to celebrate Teddy's second birthday with their family and friends.

Reception

Fifty Shades Freed entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number three. In the UK the novel sold over two million copies.

Film adaptation

Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of the film adaptation of the first installment of the book series, Fifty Shades of Grey, confirmed on 6 February 2015 that both Fifty Shades Freed and the second book in the trilogy, Fifty Shades Darker, will also be adapted for film. The film is scheduled to be released on 9 February 2018. In November 2015, Universal Studios announced that both films will be shot back-to-back with principal photography scheduled to commence in early 2016.