CH 48
DERMAY
Wil
He was sitting at his desk in his home office compiling everything he had on Marilyn Riddley. He couldn’t do it In the office, where Calvin could, at any time, walk in there and sit down and ask him what he was doing. Though that man was currently on a new mission, which was occupying 80% of his time, which was good for Wil
Because it was allowing him time to investigate Marilyn without Calvin knowing about it, he’d had very stern. words with Calvin about his behaviour and, finally, the man had listened to him with the threats of Wil walking away from him being his lawyer.
He had been going to as well, because if Calvin no longer listened to his advice, then what was the point in him being his lawyer at all? And that was exactly how he had put it to Calvin. Trying to get his point across, and it had actually worked, he thought. That, combined with Marilyn not having Marrin’s birthmark, and Calvin having seen that with his own two eyes, is what he thought had actually been the clinching factor.
Wil was still trying to figure it out and piece it all together, when Annabell strolled into his home office. Having come home for the day, she smiled right at him. She hadn’t expected him to be here, he didn’t think. Her office was closer than his, and he usually got home 20 to 30 minutes after she did.
He watched her lean on the edge of his desk after dropping a soft kiss to his mouth. He liked that, even after all these years, they were still as close as ever, and she always kissed him when he got home, or he did her. Sometimes he just pinned her down to the couch to have his way with her, or she climbed right on him if he
got home before she did.
“What are you doing?” she asked, looking at his attire. He had already showered and changed out of his work
suit, he had been home now for a few hours.
“Research.” He told her and waved his hand to the documents. “You can look it’s not court or client related, Calvin related only. Nothing you don’t already know about.”
She looked at all the papers and read through what he had, while he got up and went and got them both a glass of Tasmania’s Lark Distillery Symphony No.1 in a Lark Distillery glass. It was their go–to after–work drink. Their honeymoon had been in Tasmania, Australia, and they’d not only stayed for a month, but had visited a place called The Still, Lark Whiskey Bar, which was a tasting room by day, and then they had gone back that night when it opened as a whiskey and cocktail lounge.
They’d come home with a few bottles of Lark Whiskey, and he still ordered and shipped it out twice a year. It was a nice reminder every day of the month of the time they’d spent together travelling to the place Anabell had wanted to go and see.
They’d travelled all around Tasmania, from Hobart up the East Coast to Wineglass Bay and then up north to Launceston and then Devonport and then over to Cradle Mountain and down the West Coast to Strahan before making their way back to the East Coast. They’d hiked and biked during their trip; through some of the most beautiful temperate rain forests in the world, and were planning on going back for their 10th wedding anniversary.
Anabell smiled at him and took the glass, breathed it in and then sipped it. She was still leaning on his desk. “So, Marilyn Riddley is actually Marrin, but just doesn’t know it?” she questioned him.
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CH 48
it does look that way.” Wil nodded as he sat down at his desk once more and sipped his whiskey himself. Do you want to help me out? As you can see, I can’t actually do this at the office, with Calvin walking In anytime he likes.”
She nodded at him. That he can, and I believe he would go completely nuts seeing this.”
WII leaned back in his chair as he smiled at her. Her language at home was very different from that of being in the office. He liked how she could just be an everyday girl at home, using words like nuts and bonkers.” You know Anabell, something just occurred to me.”
“Mm?” she asked as her eyes turned back to the papers in her hand as she sipped her whiskey once more.
“You were friends with your favourite author and didn’t even know it.” he smiled as her eyes moved right towards him, a little surprise in them. She’d not thought that far ahead either, it seemed.
“Well, s**t I was, wasn’t I she nodded, then just chuckled softly as she put the papers down on his desk. No wonder she could claim knowing her and get that book signed. The cheeky bloody woman just signed it
herself.
Wil chuckled himself and pulled his wife onto his lap and slipped his arms around her, and she settled back against him. “I don’t know how to fix any of this, Anabell.” He sighed as he dropped his chin onto her
shoulder.
“Fix what exactly?” she asked him right back.
“Calvin, attacking Marrin, Who is now, as you’re aware, in the hospital because of Calvin himself.” Wil sighed. “The man still loves her, Anabell, as stupid and crazy as his actions are, he still loves Marrin. Only now he’s actually harmed her and doesn’t yet know it.”
“Well, if he wasn’t so obsessed with her, he wouldn’t have. He’s only got himself to blame for that one.” Anabell sighed.
“She’s got kids, two of them, I heard, that will also bother him. Considering his reason for divorcing her was to get them out of the contract marriage, and have a proper marriage with love and children, have a family with her, something he knew she wanted from him.” This was, he knew, turning into a full nightmare, and he was going to have to be the one to tell Calvin everything as well. It wasn’t going to go down so well and Wil
knew it.
Anabell looked at him now. “Difficult it will be for him. But he’ll have to deal with it, accept the consequences and the fallout of his own actions. She moved on from him, and that was his own doing… Though…” she
murmured as an afterthought.
“Hmm…” he prompted when she didn’t finish her train of thought.
“Whose children are they? She has amnesia, right, she might not even know herself… Have you laid eyes on them yet?” she tapped him on the nose, “Could well be Calvin’s you don’t know. I don’t know, and if they are,
she sure as hell doesn’t know.”
He was staring right at Anabell now, and he put his drink down as he realised she was actually right. “I don’t know, I’ve not seen them, I don’t even know how old they are. Not their names, nothing. She’s kept them out of all of this, as have her lawyers. His brain was ticking now.
The amnesia is going to be a problem for Calvin, Anabell interrupted his thoughts.
“Agreed,” he nodded and then sighed. “He’s likely to accuse her of faking it. I Imagine. Calvin had a hang–up
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CCHAB
about women claiming to have suffered It and recovered from it.
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“Eight years of faking it, now that’s some dedication for a single lie.” Anabell shook her head. “Not many would have the ability to do that and stick to it. I swear she didn’t know who I was, you yourself said she didn’t recognise you in that mediation.”
“She didn’t. The detective in Virginia stated she was diagnosed with amnesia in the hospital after the car accident. It was expected with her injuries.” he sighed heavily. “She’s covered in scars from that accident.”
“So, when are you going to tell Calvin?” she asked him now.
“When and only when, I have 100% proof and not before. He isn’t going to handle it so well, likely to have a complete melt–down, like he did at the police station, after the first time he encountered her. I couldn’t even
make sense out of him that night.” He muttered and looked at her. “you’ll help me?” he asked.
“Mm, I will. What do you want from me?” she asked.
“Apart from the obvious,” he grinned and slid his hands over her body caressively and saw her chuckle, but she didn’t stop him. “Can you find out when Marrin became Marilyn officially? She’s got a birth certificate as Marilyn Riddley, produced it to prove she wasn’t Marrin, to try and get Calvin off her case, I think. Though it
all lines up with Marrin, something she wouldn’t recall.”
“If she did recall, she would never have produced it and put it in front of Calvin. She would have been aiming
to avoid that at all costs,” Anabell nodded. “So, she legally changed her name, in other words.”
“I believe so, but she couldn’t have done it until after the divorce was official,” Wil nodded, but then picked up
the newspaper article about the car accident and pointed out the date. That accident happened… only a day
and a half later. That doesn’t make sense to me. No one can change their name that quickly.”
“She could have set it all into motion ahead of time, she had what? Six weeks for the divorce to settle,” Anabell nodded as she thought about it. “That is plenty of time to organise everything, just had to present herself to the court in that day and a half was all. That could have been pre–arranged… but that would also mean she had no intention of getting on that flight to Italy at the same time.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he agreed. “She was never getting on the plane, just let Calvin believe that.” Wil sighed, he was not going to like hearing that either.
“Again, his own stupid fault,” Anabell stated with a shrug. “Who divorces the woman they love? I get why, but he should have just told her why in the first place, and none of this would be happening.”
He couldn’t argue with that, it was always what his own opinion had been as well.
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