A few days later, an official looking man in an official looking suit drove up to our house in an official looking car, and handed Dad an official looking bit of paper before driving away in his official looking car. And what was that official looking bit of paper?49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDHKsBQReMm
Well, I never got to see the contents - Dad immediately put it through the shredder - but Sally coldly told me it was a ruling from the courts overturning Dad's court order on Mum, and it also granted Mum a week of unsupervised custody during each of the school holiday periods.
And wouldn't you know it - I had two weeks left to go before the new school year ended. 49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUHlqFbwPUB
Sally, as usual, burst my bubble - not that I dared show much enthusiasm about the prospect of finally getting out of this house of horrors, not if I wanted to keep my final year of school safe - by telling me they had no intention of following this new order, and they'd take it right up to the highest court if necessary. 49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaCnBNIvM0f
Unfortunately, this new order had come from the highest court, and therefore, no challenge to a higher court was possible. But Dad and Sally dug their heels in and challenged the ruling anyway - deciding that the best form of offence was ... to do nothing at all, and let their challenge sit till the new year started, therefore spitefully denying me a chance at freedom.
The courts didn't take too kindly to this - a few days later, a second official looking man in an official looking suit drove up to our house in an official looking car, and handed Dad a second official looking bit of paper. This time, there was no putting it through the shredder - Dad was being charged with contempt of court, and he risked a hefty fine, if not outright jail time for defying the new ruling. Since vaguely official looking people were already giving him the hairy eyeball at work, Dad conceded with bad grace, dropped his challenge, and told me frostily that I'd "better not let her deceive me into ditching" him. He still had custody of me until I turned 18, and until then, he still had a say in my welfare.
I told him I had no plans on letting anyone deceive me into ditching him - all I had to do was wait until I turned 18, and then I could tell him to fuck off. I didn't say that second part, of course, but I did hint that when I hit my age of majority, I was ready to up sticks and move the hell out of the house. Sally sniffed.
"You might become a legal adult at 18," she told me, "but that doesn't mean you know how to function in the real world. And believe me, I'll make sure it stays that way."49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU5716bEd88
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?" I asked bluntly.
Sally met me glare for glare. "Count on it," she said. "I might as well tell you - I plan to have you declared incompetent, and I have plenty of evidence to use against you. You watch your tone and your attitude with me, young lady, otherwise I'll go ahead and file the motion tomorrow. I wouldn't even let you go to St Albans, but since the court is ready to charge your father for no reason at all, I can't risk this witch hunt. But Oliver will be going with you, and he'll be reporting everything you say and do back to me."
Oliver told me, as we set out for St Albans the following afternoon, that he had no intentions of doing anything his mother said - and as it turned out, she was his stepmother as well. "Dad had an affair with an old flame a couple of years before he met Sally," he said, as he negotiated the tight streets, the Kombi's nose pointed towards the motorway. "Naturally, Sally - who'd had a rather large crush on him - was rather Displeased, and she made it very clear that I was to be left forgotten in some backwards country village to be raised in obscurity. Dad refused, and she made his life a living hell. That was one of the reasons he ditched her in the end - well, that and she was cheating on him with your dad for several years - and she's never forgiven him for it."49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt2BEM94BgD
"Now I know where Fanny gets it from," I said. Fanny had been Most Displeased, not at my getting away from her for a week, but at Oliver being away from her for a week. Dad had very nearly sent her with us, but George - my stepfather - had made it clear he wasn't having his daughter under the same roof as his son and stepdaughter, and he'd threatened Dad with legal action should such an attempt be made. The two had never gotten along, and now they had even more cause to be angry at each other. There were times when I felt like a bone caught between two vicious dogs, and when I added this observation, Oliver winced in sympathy.
"I know the feeling," he said. "I felt the same way when I was growing up. But you'll turn 18 next year, and then you can fuck them all off if you want. I can get you set up with some friends of mine in Preston, and they'll be able to teach you everything you need to know about getting on in the world."49Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRTdZwYsjkX
I put a hand on his knee and squeezed. "That sounds like a wonderful idea," I said.
Oliver smiled and put his hand over mine and, barring the requisite gear changes, he never took it away for the entire trip
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