19 April, LY Studio, City K

Steven looked at Lexi who was stunned and could only utter "What! What! What!"

"You heard me Lexi, Abigail and I are getting married."

Lexi stood and slapped Steven before saying "You b*stard.?You are going to hurt that girl."

"Hey, you know me better than that.?The problem is there is no way out of it.?You know the trust my parents set up when they divorced?"

"I remember hearing something about it.?Rather than a property settlement it provides your parents an income for life, but when they both die the income goes to their children."

"Correct.?Apparently, Kevin Mo when everything went down when Monica married put most of the assets in a trust.?He and the witch that is his wife gets an income unless they divorce when she has the option of a lump sum amount or a set income stream.?As to their children, they get an income stream while they are single or marry someone who is approved, meaning Monica gets no income from it.?Everything is split between the children when they are both dead.?But, unlike my parent's trust there is the ability to change the income stream for the children by one of then agreeing with the independent administrator of the trust."

"And the witch wants to stop Abigail getting anything through removing her or punishing her for what she sees as going against her in getting the order of protection and reporting matters to the police.?That was easy to figure out based on what Monica was saying."?Shaking her head, Lexi added "How does marriage prevent that??Why sacrifice yourself."

Steven, despite Lexi's initial anger could not understand how calm she was.?"There is a catch, If one of the children have married someone acceptable to both Kevin and the witch, the provisions impacting the income streams cannot be changed.?The witch forgets she was pushing Monica and I together before she left and married her soldier and she tried six months ago to convince me to marry Abigail.."

Steven could see the light globe go on for Lexi "So you could not now be deemed as unsuitable, but that does not.."

"Kevin Mo found out the witch had the doc.u.ments prepared by the trust lawyers yesterday but they delayed them being ready until today.?The Trust requires when it is amended the doc.u.ments to be filed, but they will not take effect until noon the business day after filing so.."

"If Abigail is married today, then the changes cannot take effect.?But you still have not answered the key question, why?"

"I started this in motion through crashing into Abigail last week.?While you might think it is me rushing to hide my hurt, it is not.?Yes, there is some guilt, but I have taken real stock of things during the last week.?One thing was realising that in being stuck on Sally for over eight years has ensured that I have missed opportunities to find the person for me.?All I can say is Abigail intrigues me, why I do not know, but being able to help her means that I have the option to explore what that is all about."

"That is a stupid reason to get married."

"You can talk.?While you and Matthew have not really spoken about your marriage, I have figured enough to know that you two married for reasons other than love.?And you married Richard for the sake of Dominic."

Steven paused and said "Monica does not know this, but you need to.?Apparently during your ill-fated marriage to Richard, he was sleeping with the witch, and Abigail saw the two of them together.?Abigail said her mother attached her, breaking her arm, and causing her to fall down the stairs at their villa.?Bad enough, but Richard threatened to kill her.?She will admit something scared her about that so she kept quiet until she saw Richard's photo in the paper this morning.?In talking today with her father and mine, we figured out that threat was combined with Richard killing her pet cat in front of her and telling her that if she said anything the pets fate would be her fate."

"That b*stard.?He terrified and did what he did to me in our marriage.?Abigail would have been what nine or ten years old."

As Lexi was shaking her head, Steven continued "For me, I think what pushed me to want to protect her is the attitude that the witch showed to me when I took her injured daughter home after getting her medical treatment.?I know Monica knows only part of what abuse the witch put Abigail through so when she opened up about this today enough was enough."

Sensing the seriousness from Steven, Lexi knew that she would not be able to change his mind.?"I can see that what any of us will say will not change your mind. But you hurt that girl.."

"She is legally a woman and will be my wife so do not insult her by calling her a girl."

"Fine, you hurt the woman that will become your wife , and I will make you pay."

"Lexi, I think you might be behind her sister and brother-in-law.?But I will do my best not to hurt her.?Abigail made it clear, that we will re-consider if being married is what we want in two years and we also agreed that neither of us would stand in the other's way if we met a person we fell in love with."

"Steven she is going in with start in her eyes, so be careful."

"I know that Lexi, but.."

"No buts."

"Got it.?Can I ask you please not to say anything to anyone until tonight.?We are going to invite close friends and a select few family members to the Family Villa tonight for a simple celebration and a religious blessing.?I need your help to get the gang there, plus Abigail's sister and brother-in-law and their children."

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