Chapter 20

"And this is Daddy," the female voice cooed, showing the little baby a man on a hospital bed. Matthew opened his eyes groggily and squinted, his hand massaging his head.

"Katherine?"

The girl bit her lip. "Yeah, and ummm, Evie," she replied softly.

Matthew blinked and went to sit up, but had a searing pain down his back so lay back down again. "What happened?"

Katherine sighed. "You and Dad were fighting, and you smacked your head against a passing car, got knocked out."

Matthew's hand felt a large bump at the back of his head and focused on Katherine. "It hurts."

Katherine sighed. "It will do. You were knocked out." Matthew grunted and groaned.

"How long have you been there for?"

"Four hours," Katherine admitted. "I had to tell them I was your girlfriend." Matthew smiled and Katherine squeezed Matthew's hand. "I ... ummm ... I just want to say that you can have as much access to Evie as you want, and I do want you to get involved in her life."

Matthew smiled at her and licked his lips before yawning. "I, I, um, I want that."

Katherine gave a grin. "It kicked off after the ambulance left. Mum spoke to Sarah who confessed all, and Dad shouted at Mum about warts. It's all got messy so I came here."

"I'm sorry," Matthew said sincerely. "It wasn't meant to happen like that."

"I know," Katherine said softly. "But I've had four hours to think and if I had to choose a guy out of Callum, an Australian backpacker and yourself to get me pregnant, I would have picked you."

Matthew gave a titter and even Katherine grinned, squeezing his hand. Matthew looked at Evie asleep in Katherine's arms and felt his bottom lip wobble. "She's lovely," he told her.

Katherine looked down. "Yes she is. But I bet she doesn't know how much trouble she's caused."

"No. And I will help you look after Evie. And I'll give it straight to you not your Mum."

Katherine smiled. "Thank you." Katherine turned her head at the sound of raised voices outside of Matthew's room, and Matthew groaned, he recognised that sound.

"You," barked the voice of his Aunt Lynn as she barged into the room and looked straight at her nephew. "Brawling in the street with another man, it's shameful." There was a muted expression of concern from his mother who appeared in the doorway and glanced at her sister striding into the small room and then of surprise when the older woman caught sight of Katherine sat by his bed. "Who's this?"

"This is Katherine," Matthew said instinctively. "A friend."

"She's a bit young for you, must only be fifteen." Matthew looked apologetically at Katherine but before he could respond his Aunt had pulled the top of the bed and raised the head section of the mattress so Matthew was half sat up.

"Ow," he cried as she unexpectedly pulled him up and he scowled at her. "Careful, it hurts."

"Well it's your own bloody fault," she barked. "And you won't get better slouching in bed."

"How are you feeling, love?" His mother asked, speaking for the first time and Matthew wiped his eyes.

"OK, I think. Tired. Everything aches." Suzanne smiled as her son spoke and they both ignored a huff from Lynn who had seated herself next to Katherine.

"Is that your baby?" Lynn asked the teenager who nodded and gazed into the peaceful eyes of sleeping Evie.

"Ahh yes," Matthew said with a start. "This is Evie, your grand-daughter Mum and my daughter." There was a silence in the room as everyone turned to face Matthew and then the baby.

"What? You got a fifteen year old pregnant?" Lynn barked. "And you aren't even married."

"We aren't even dating," Matthew replied and wiped his eyes again. "And Katherine is not fifteen, she is nineteen in a few weeks." Matthew looked at his Aunt staring at the girl in shock. "Well you wanted me to settle down and have kids," he told her and Katherine fidgeted, she felt uncomfortable and uneasy. Why did Matthew have to break the news to his family so tactlessly? They were staring at her, and she felt like a freak show.

Lynn hit the patient on the bed and looked at him angrily. "You get a girl pregnant on a one night stand? How could you be so stupid?"

Katherine wanted to leave as Matthew's family looked accusingly at her and Evie, and she gently squeezed the leg of her baby causing her to squeal. "I better go," she said and got up, putting the crying baby in the buggy and getting her coat.

"Can I come and see you?" Matthew asked and Katherine's smile returned.

"Sure, I'll come and see you later," she promised and waved goodbye to Suzanne and Lynn, trundling through the door with her settling baby. Lynn turned to face him and he felt his heart sink, he wanted to be anywhere else but in the disappointed glare of his aunt and his mother.

Lewis sat down to watch the film and Anna scooted up to him putting her head on his lap and looking up and then at the television. As usual Lewis stroked her hair although Maria, the lady of the house, came in half way through.

"I hear you tried to marry Anna," Maria said with a smile. Lewis went red and shrugged.

"She would have had a British passport," Lewis said defending himself with a coy smile. "It's simpler than going and get a visa."

Maria laughed and then looked at her husband. "Someone who is almost as corrupt as you!"

The man spluttered into his whisky and then looked at Lewis. "I'm an accountant, I am not corrupt."

"He. He tax avoidance specialist," Maria corrected and looked at Anna still nuzzled up against the seventeen year old boy.

"You say visa not only reason for marriage," Anna muttered in her Russian accent, peering up at him.

Lewis blushed and shifted in his seat. "Yeah well, I didn't want you to go back to Russia," he said with a smile and Anna giggled. "I sort of like having you around."

They turned their attention back to the film and Maria poured a couple of glasses of wine, and passed them to the couple on the sofa who eagerly took them and thanked her.

Lewis liked being with Anna, he had spent more time with her since his parents had split, and what with the acrimony in the house and constant rows between them. Katherine had been preoccupied and confused since she had found out about Matthew; Anna had been the only happy person he could spend time with.

Anna yawned as the film finished and buried her head into Lewis's chest.

"I go to bed," Anna announced with another yawn.

"So, are you staying the night?" Maria asked and Anna squeezed Lewis.

"Yes, yes he is," she replied with a firm voice and looked into the lustful eyes of her friend, reaching up and kissing him on the cheek.

"But I thought..." Lewis started and Anna grinned.

"Yeah, but I have visa now. I stay so we date, da?"

Lewis smiled. "Da."

Katie took Gareth's wrists and fastened them to the top of the bed before taking his trousers off and similar restrained his ankles. They had talked and come to an agreement.

Katie would, once a week act out his fantasies to a pre-agreed limit and in return Gareth would try and help keep the house tidy. Furthermore, if he lost his job there would be no further kinkiness until he was gainfully employed and the pornography would be kept locked away in a cupboard in the spare bedroom.

This was a far better compromise than Gareth had hoped for and grunted as Katie pulled a blindfold down over his eyes. He felt her cool breath all over him, it felt sensual and wonderful.

Katie surveyed the sight in front of her, naked overweight man lying face down and tied to the bed. It felt like a dodgy cliché of bondage as she tugged her corset away from her skin around her middle. She picked up the first implement that Gareth had suggested, a cane and circled the bed.

"You've been a very naughty boy, haven't you?"

"Yes," Gareth muttered and Katie flicked the cane across his rump. Gareth grunted and sighed at the same time, pain flashed through his skin as the cane left a red mark across his posterior and he clenched his fists.

"Yes what?"

"Yes Mistress?" Gareth suggested, awaiting the dreaded cane again but Katie smiled. She had "researched" the acts Gareth had suggested on the Internet at pornography video sites and while she had a very clichéd view, she guessed Gareth would enjoy it.

Gareth was very much enjoying himself and awaited for Katie to continue. "What have you been up to? Have you been wanking to nasty porn?"

"Yes mistress." Katie smiled and brought the cane down hard again, and heard the distressed voice of her husband crying out. She wondered if she could make a gag and but decided against it and brought the weapon down for a third time, and a fourth.

Katie punished Gareth repeatedly over the following hour – for his pornography obsession, his lack of domestic abilities, his laziness, his weight and his drinking habits. Each time, she would bring the rigid cane down on his bottom, allow him to call out in pain and savour the red mark left behind.

For Katie it was a little therapeutic, she had longed to discipline her husband and bring him into line before, but the act of doing it in the bedroom was something she had never considered. Instead, her husband lay there, a quivering wreck as she had free rein to discipline him and exact promises as to his behaviour over the following week.

Tired of the cane, Katie slipped a small butt plug out of the drawer and covered it in lubricant before holding it to the cheeks of her new "slave."

"Please mistress," Gareth begged the moment he realised what was happening. "Please not back there."

"But I must, pathetic weakling," Katie roared with a smile. "You see you love to stick your weak cock back there for me, I must share with you what it feels like." Gareth sniffed and closed his eyes behind the blindfold as the abused rear felt a rubber point press against his ring.

"No, please mistress. Anything but that."

Katie giggled. "Then utter the safe word," she taunted him and not hearing the name "Stonehenge" come out of Gareth's mouth, pushed the rubber tip further into the rear of her husband who squealed and gave a satisfied moan.

Katie gently pushed and pulled the small plug in and out of her husbands rear, grinning as she did before burying it up to the hilt and slapping his cheeks as hard as she could.

Katie turned her husband over, leaving the butt-plug in his ass and then retied him, noting his burgeoning erection: she had started playing with him as a "top" very apprehensively but could see the effect that she was having on him, and with the wonderful reactions he was having was starting to appreciate the appeal of being a dominant.

Gareth trusted her implicitly, not to really hurt him or subject him to anything was beyond his limits. He willing submitted himself to her, allowing her to lovingly assume a role controlling him. She bit her lip and swung her hips over the bed, she suddenly felt the urge to have his manhood inside her.

It took Katie a further hour to be "finished" with Gareth, eagerly riding him to an orgasm, and then "forcing" her husband to eat her semen-covered slit to another climax, before allowing his tongue to run along her slit to her back passage.

For Katie to orgasm during their sexual games was unusual, she normally found it impossible to climax, but in controlling their sex suddenly had the urge to, and found it possible to orgasm twice; she could quite enjoy this!

Gareth could certainly have Dominatrix Katie again, but just not every time, once a week was perfect, for both of them.

"Mr Styles and Miss Grainger please," came the voice over the tannoy and Matthew entered Courtroom number four. It was not how he imagined, there was no wooden panelling or exquisite décor, just a balding man in front of a desk, and a few rows of benches.

Victoria scowled as he entered the room and he sat down at the microphone as the judge directed them. Victoria looked around, her friend sat on the bench next to her and Matthew rubbed his hands with his file.

The judge, a Mr Stephen Hawkins, introduced himself and then told the claimant and respondent that the proceedings were being recorded and that they could apply for a transcript before summarising the case as he saw it from the initial submissions.

"The case, is that Mr Styles and Miss Grainger entered into a joint tenancy for a flat, for six hundred and twenty pounds a month, and that two months into the tenancy, Miss Grainger moved out. Correct?"

Matthew and Victoria nodded and the judge continued.

"So Mr Styles is claiming three thousand one hundred pounds, plus some money for the water rates and council tax, is this right?"

"Yes," Matthew summarised, his heart beating quickly. He had spent five hundred pounds just to take the case to court and the judge asked him to justify the additional money.

"Well, the single persons council tax discount is 25% but we would have split it 50-50 if we both lived there, so for the ten months, I want the 25% extra I have had to pay," he replied and the judge nodded and glanced at the water rates claim. Matthew justified this with the assertion that as there was no water meter in the flat, he had to pay the same amount regardless of how many people lived there, and as such, this should be paid in part by the respondent.

The judge asked to see the tenancy agreement which Matthew took from the file and passed over to him. Victoria twitched nervously, there was no way she could afford to give her ex-boyfriend nearly four thousand pounds, especially as she had just paid for her annual skiing trip with her friends.

The judge turned to her and she wiped her nose. She tried to tell him that she didn't owe Matthew any money as she had left due to his unreasonable behaviour and that it had been "going on for months," at which point the judge enquired as to why she had agreed to move in with him two months prior to them splitting up.

Victoria hummed, and suggested. "Well as I didn't live there, I can't be responsible for it. I moved out."

The judge glanced at her friend who patted her on the arm and nodded, before adding. "He was a proper cock to her, she dain't owe him feck all." The judge barked angrily and threw her out of his courtroom before glancing at the papers and then the two people in front of him.

"While I appreciate that his is a difficult situation, I would like to ask Mr Styles why he did not move out if the property was an excessive financial burden as he suggested in the statement?"

Matthew bit his lip and clenched his fists to stop his hands from shaking. "I tried. I asked the landlord if we could terminate the tenancy but he refused. He said that the rent was still owing, we were both jointly liable, so I had to pay." Matthew hesitated and took a deep breath. "There was no cancellation clause in the tenancy agreement."

"Yeah, but he is still living there," Victoria shouted and the judge warned her as to her conduct, before looking back at Matthew.

"I've had a promotion and a pay rise," he said, not elaborating on the change of employment. "So it is affordable for me now. And I also have someone living with me. But I had to use my savings when Miss Grainger left."

The judge cleared his throat. "Well it is a difficult situation but it is clear that Miss Grainger had responsibilities to pay half and there was no agreement between you two what would happen if one of you did want to leave, and so I would uphold Mr Styles's claim against Miss Grainger."

Victoria swore and threw her arms down. "You bastard," she hissed. "I have to pay for a flat, I ain't lived in?" She was given a final warning and Matthew listened to the summing up of the judge. He asked for interest to be added (it was), twenty hours preparation time at a statutory £9.25/hour (he got ten hours) and the hearing and court costs, which amounted to a final bill of over four thousand pounds.

Victoria was visibly shocked and left the courtroom almost trance-like as the full implications of the County Court Judgement against her hit her, she had been sued, successfully sued, for thousands of pounds she did not have.

"You lost?" Her friend asked as Victoria burst into tears in the lobby. She put her arms around her and cuddled the distraught ex-girlfriend before turning to face Matthew emerging from the courtroom. "What the fuck did you do that for?"

Matthew shrugged. "Because she owes me," he said firmly, although he knew there was a macabre, vengeful enjoyment he got from the court victory that went beyond a normal financial recompense. "And it felt good."

"I can't afford all that," Victoria wailed and Matthew bit his lip.

"I know. And if I am not paid, I will instruct bailiffs," he said with a malevolent smile. "To remove, I don't know, designer handbags, and jewellery and stuff like that." Victoria wailed and her friend stared at him open mouthed. "I'll be in touch," Matthew said with a grin.

"I want a divorce," Charlotte shouted over the angry voice of her husband. They had spent the last two weeks fighting and arguing, she had had enough. She blamed him for his infidelity, but had erroneously admitted that her unwanted liaison with Ethan had led to her having an STD afterwards that required treatment and that she had passed onto Joseph.

The rowing continued, Charlotte blamed Joseph for Lewis's attempted marriage to Anna, and then his drugs, then Katherine getting pregnant and finally of allowing Paul to steal hundreds of thousands of pounds from the company.