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25thSeptember, Spook’s Island.
“Are you coming over to the studio?” Dani asked, breezing past Ginny in a floaty spider-print summer dress. Now that Dani, Xane, and Luthor had figured things out between them, Dani had started filling her days by eavesdropping on the creation of the new Black Halo album.
“Soon,” Ginny promised. “I just have a couple of things to do first.”
Operation Ann ought to have progressed by now, but instead the response to her near daily enquires was an unchanging “No news.”
“Okay, I’ll save you a spot.”
Dani meant on the stairs, as the guys didn’t allow anyone not directly involved in the production access to the inner sanctum of the recording studio while they were working.
“Thanks,” Ginny waved her friend off across the lawn, then headed out of the building via the side door. There was a little well she’d discovered not far from the northern tip of the building on the edge of the woods that had surprisingly good phone reception. It was from there she now made most of her phone calls.
“Any developments?” she enquired, expecting the usual response, and hence having only half an ear to the phone.
“Yes and no. We’re over the statutory time limits allocated for a response, even allowing for overseas residency.”
The butterflies she’d been watching, suddenly took flight, as flutters filled her gullet too. “What does that actually mean?”
“It means that as there’s no way of establishing whether the documents have been received, they’ll have to be re-sent.”
This was a delaying tactic on the part of the recipient, she had no doubt about that. Sure, post sometimes went astray, but she’d put money on hers having arrived just fine, and simply having been ignored. “So we sit for another thirty days, and then what happens, another copy and another thirty days? He could stretch this out for eternity, and would. This can’t be our only recourse.”
“Of course not. This is why the best option at this point would be to have a court bailiff serve him the papers.”
Shit! Ginny clamped her phone tighter to her ear, curling her other arm across her body to support her elbow. That sounded more serious than she liked. “I don’t want this to blow up and turn into something.” Having him served was exactly the sort of provocation likely to escalate things, which was something she was desperately keen to avoid. “Is that really the only way?”
“It’s not a huge deal, Ginny. It won’t cause a big scene, if that’s what you’re imagining. The documents will simply be handed to him in person by an official.”
“He won’t like it.”
“Do you enjoy being messed about? Controlled in this fashion?”
“Of course not.”
“Then this is the way forward. Otherwise, you’re handing him control of the narrative, and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll still be in this same position a year from now.”
Damn. Talk about being trapped between a rock and a hard place. If she did nothing, nothing would change, there’d be no resolution down the line, and if she served him with those papers, the prospect of everything blowing up in her face increased dramatically.
“Ginny, are you still there?”
She sucked a breath in through her nose, the back of her hand pressed tight to her lips to stop them trembling. “I’m still here, yes. I get what you’re saying, absolutely.”
“But? What do you want to do? Shall I proceed?”
A lump formed in her throat that she struggled to swallow around. This might be the only way forward, but that didn’t make it a wise move. He’d retaliate. She knew it, could anticipate it. He’d make her suffer. “Okay, do it,” she croaked, and crossed her fingers on both hands, before repeating the instruction more firmly.
No matter the repercussions, she couldn’t exist in limbo forever, and backing down wasn’t an option. Therefore, the only thing to do was push for a resolution. Not for the first time, she wondered yet again why she hadn’t done this years ago. The answer was surprisingly straightforward. There’d been no call for it, no pressing need to do any more than put some distance between them, no one she loved enough for it to matter. Whereas now… She was doing this for Ash, for them both.
“I’ll get on this today. If he is genuinely abroad, it may take a little while, but be assured, the people who do this job are used to wily customers. I’ll let you know when it’s done. Meanwhile, sit tight, and don’t fret.”
Don’t fret! Yeah, that was easier said than done, they were talking about a tin pot dictator after all, and protecting her emotionally squishy boyfriend. The one ten weeks on, she was still keeping secrets from.
Ginny shook her head at herself. If anyone else had come to her with the current dilemma, she’d have been the first to tell them that growing some balls and ‘fessing up was the best option. But passing on that wisdom to someone else and enacting it were two different things. Apart from that one moment when she might have said something back in July, there’d never been a good opportunity to raise her dirt. In fact, the wisest option did seem to be to keep it entirely to herself given that Ash was a volatile mess. Handing him any sort of explosives would only result in a deafening bang, and she didn’t want to destroy their love.
Dani was sitting in her usual spot on the wrought iron staircase up to the studio five steps from the top of the spiral. It being the closest she could get to the studio without being visible to those in the room above.
