So she was stuffed either way, and Miles would get to ruin her life all over again. “I don’t want anything of his.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean that the law agrees with you. Miles is a wealthy man, and you’ve had to resort to legal aid for help with the costs. If you want to know why I think he’s embroiled Ash in this, the answer is money. He’ll be looking to prove that you’re far from destitute and that you’re the one being unreasonable. Legally, you’re entitled to a cut, Ginny.”
“Fuck the money. All I want is to be free of him. I need to be free of him. Tell him I’ll sign the papers but he has to remove Ash from the equation.”
“He’s already named him.”
“But I’m sure there’s a way of amending that.”
She could almost hear her solicitor’s frown through the handset.
“I’ll draft a letter and have it sent. Meanwhile, I really think you should talk to your friends… family… If it gets ugly, you’re going to need their support.”
Ifit got ugly… Ha! It was already. Goddammit, she ought to have stuck to the original plan. If she had, it wouldn’t have mattered whether Miles agreed or not.
She hung up and paced the room. How could she have been so foolish to have imagined he’d ever allow this to happen without being in control of the narrative? Franny might believe this was about money, she knew otherwise. Miles was vastly materialistic, but what really got him fired up was being able to crush those around him. There had never been a more spiteful, sadistic man. There existed not one iota of love in him.
He’d certainly never loved her. Oh, he’d played the part well enough in order to woo her, but once he had her, she may as well have been a robotic love doll.
Well, you couldn’t set people to turn on like a thermostat.Hi honey, you’re home. Did you have a nice day destroying people’s futures? I’ve cooked dinner. Would you like a shag before or after you’ve eaten it? Oh, up against the counter right now. Yes, of course I’ll bend over. Grunt. Grunt. Grunt. Mumble. Yes, honey, of course I’ve come. Yes, we can eat now.
Crap husband. Crap lover. The only reason he was doing any of this was because she’d had the guts to walk away, and there hadn’t been a damn thing he’d been able to do about it.
For the first two years after she’d left him, she’d deliberately hidden herself. She’d worked cash in hand jobs, or for places that were prepared to provide board in return for labour. She’d avoided doing anything that would highlight her identity or make her easy to find. The flat share with Dani had been the next step forward from that. Her sticking her head above the ramparts to get a sense of the terrain, and she’d needed a more stable base in order to properly start living again.
It had worked. Dani had secrets of her own, so she didn’t pry. They’d been well suited as flatmates. Then the Black Halo gig changed everything. Ginny had run headlong into Ash that night.
“I’m not going to let you take him from me.”
Miles had already taken enough. She’d lost her family and people she’d called friends for years thanks to him. They all thought the sun shone out of perfect Miles’s perfectly moneyed arse. So what if she didn’t love him? Love was for children and idiots. It had nothing to do with marriage. That…that was a business arrangement. Miles provided the money. All she had to do was look presentable and open her legs now and then. It was hardly an extensive list of rules to follow. Oh, and her gymnastics… Yeah, she could forget about that. It wasn’t as if she was about to make the Olympics, and in any case, it’d be unseemly for her to draw all that attention to herself.
No, one must never upstage one’s husband.
The door knob to the room twisted, then a knock rattled the wood. “Hey, Ginny, are you going to let me in? I’m ready to keel over here.” Ash called.
“Just a moment.”
They wouldn’t be having a talk, because the talk would never end well. She was doing all this so they could be together. If he saw these documents, everything was going to blow up in her face, so she was going to have to make sure he didn’t. Miles had used that ploy to buy time, and so could she. Suddenly she regretted mentioning their existence to Franny, but if she needed to, she’d bare-faced lie about them. In any case, hopefully she could convince Miles to see sense and agree to her proviso.
“Ginny?”
“Coming.” She lifted the mattress and slid both envelopes underneath so they rested on the solid base.
Ash stumbled into the room the moment she opened the door. He wrapped his arms around her and smacked a kiss on her lips that turned into a softer, more sensual smooch.
“Are you done for the day?”
“Yeah, got the tracks forLockdownandCatatoniadown. They’re going to capture Paul’s base next. Phew, knackered!” He waltzed them backward and toppled them both onto the bed. “How was your day, anything interesting happen?”
“Yeah, some rock star dude just threw me onto his bed.”
A grin stretched wide across his lips, and crinkled up the corners of his eyes. “Do you think his intent is wicked?”
She grabbed a handful of his arse. “I sincerely hope so. I hope all the licking he’s been doing hasn’t left him too tired for licking.”
“Honestly, Gin, the amount of time I spend down there, I might as well wear your thighs as ear-warmers.”
She smacked his arse. “You do not spend all your time down there.”
