Voluntary Surrender of Rights Ch. 06

"This is the proposed legislation that will be brought to the State Legislator by the State Supreme Court. The Advised and Adjudicated Marriages Bill. " The Honorable Justice Ettienne Benadi said to Greg and Veronica.

It had been a busy three months since the Battle of The Country Club, as it was now known. It had been widely discussed, the developments in the BDSM community and in mainstream society openly harkened back to that fight between Angelica and Gwendolyn. The judge was the third member of the panel to adjudicate Greg and Veronica's proposed marriage.

Even the judge was surprised at the Supreme Court's response to Gwendolyn's appeal for legal opinion on Greg's ideas. The judges found that under certain conditions there was no legal reason an individual could not cede civil and individual rights to another. The consensus was that Greg and Veronica had come up with a few very good ideas. He had been appointed by the judges to look into this in more detail and to take an active part in the precedent.

He was a judge with a conservative decision base but also had a D/s relationship with his wife of twenty two years. She was a sociologist and fascinated by the idea and how it would affect the society. She was sitting in as observer. She had studied the processes happening in the BDSM community in regard to this with interest and followed Angelica's channels closely.

"This bill allows for several marriage models. From out of community of property with and without accrual of profits, to voluntary transfer of assets and rights."

Everybody in the room was stunned. Nobody had thought that Greg's romantic idea would be entertained let alone sustained. Angelica considered this in terms of BDSM D/s relationships, it was the basic intention of every such relationship.

Gwendolyn sat back and thought about the more fundamentalist church groups she had traction in and what this meant for her support in the upcoming election cycle. Her polling numbers had soared since the fight, and right now she was way ahead of the incumbent state governor. Her party was endorsing her to run for the governor's post. She was obviously going to be for this bill. She considered Greg and Veronica and how much of the election would depend on them.

Veronica felt terrible at the news. This would put her in the spotlight. She wanted to avoid that at all costs. She had spent the time since the battle in awe of Greg and his ability to improvise. She had seen the vast impact his decisions had, not only at the golf club but also with his income sources. Roughly seven thousand families lived on his financial decisions; that was just his family's businesses in Britain and did not include the brewery. His personal income was three times bigger without his art or royalties from his books. She couldn't even handle the royalties that got paid directly to an account she had sole control over.

Greg was surprised, and worried. He knew Veronica was unhappy, he knew that he and she would immediately be in the spotlight when this marriage model came out. He didn't like being in the spotlight, neither did Veronica, this was going to be bad. They had started it, and they would be scrutinized intensely by a lot more than a panel of people adept at keeping confidences.

"Now in the Voluntary Transfer of Assets and Right marriage; the transfer needs to be a court order. Nothing else, in the state's constitution or the US constitution, could be accepted. Thus such a marriage becomes a trial and evidence becomes crucial. The marriage partners must prove that they are already in a de facto relationship of what can best be described as owner and slave. The owner needs to prove ability to sustain the slave without the slave's assets from the start of the relationship moving into that of owner and slave. The owner must prove the ability to manage the slave and the slave's assets, and the slave's liabilities. from the day of moving in an owner and slave relationship the owning spouse becomes the first respondent in any legal matter concerning the owned or prospectively owned spouse. To this end the start of such a relationship needs to be firm and witnessed by parties other than family."

the judge looked up at Veronica and spoke to her more than Greg.

"The opinion about this clause is moving to the idea of the community being made aware. That means it will need to be witnessed in a by a church congregation, a social club, a workplace and must have a documentary trail."

Veronica went pale at that measure. there would be no hiding it away. the judge looked down and resumed reading.

"There must be full disclosure of their past by both owner and slave to be investigated. this is for the protection of both parties, should either party be in a position of suspected or accused in any criminal matter no progress can be made until the criminal matter is resolved. The said court order, all actions of the slave become the culpability of the owner. As such the owner can be prosecuted for something the slave does. On the other as the slave becomes property the owner who cannot be prosecuted for murder if the owned puts the slave to death. Those are the important parts. There is more like what happens if the owning spouse dies first. health care falls away and becomes the sole responsibility of the owning spouse. There are protocols for endorsements on driver's licenses identity documents, how the population registry will be adapted, the transfer of voting right on a precedent of a power of attorney. the important parts are here, and you will need a provision in your will to transfer ownership of your spouse, should that not be in pace he may well become property of the state."

There was complete silence as the judge finished reading from the paper on top of all the files in front of him. Everybody knew that if this case went to court now the court order would not be granted. Angelica doubted very much that it would ever be granted between Veronica and Greg. He loved her and was trying, but she was never going to be able to handle him.

Both Angelica and Gwendolyn had discussed this at length, Veronica had been right at the club after the fight; she loved the idea of him. The reality of Greg was very different. He wasn't just a loose cannon, he was a nuclear power station and the cooling system gave trouble. What Greg was going to do when Veronica broke up was what kept both Gwendolyn and Angelica awake at night.

"Nothing in the legislation proposed prevents an unadvised marriage becoming an advised and adjudicated marriage. However the voluntary transfer marriage has no divorce protocol. If you are owned by your spouse you are stuck. Your spouse can give you to another spouse, with some conditions being met. We will not permit a trade in owned spouses for instance. There are some occupations not permitted for owned spouses. These include law enforcement officers, emergency medical practitioners, disaster management service, financial management, or of course business proprietors." The judge said next.

Veronica and Greg both heard the unspoken suggestion that they not go for this. But rather just get married. The trouble was that Greg was not going to go for that now; Veronica knew that. Greg knew that Veronica would not go for anything else too, the trouble was that he knew she could not do it with him because the last thing they had discussed was that he managed the money. The amounts and impacts frightened her.

"I can't do this now!" Veronica said and ran out bursting into tears as she ran.

"STAY GREG!" Gwendolyn shouted surprising herself.

Greg sat down after a few heartbeats of half standing. There was not point going after Veronica now, they heard the car start and rush away.

"Bummer, we came to Raleigh together." Greg said mildly.

"You're that cool about her running out?" The judge asked.

"No your honor, I'm not." Greg replied just as mildly as before.

Angelina had a look at Greg, he was far from cool. Veronica had managed one thing with him, he was accessing his emotions. She could tell he was furious. His shoulders were stiff, and he was tapping the chair arm with his fingers. That was new.

"Can you convince her to come back and work from here?" The judge's wife asked.

"Yes I could. But would it be her or me through her? The uncomfortable self-examination now is whether I manipulated her or not. Did my desire to belong drive her to agree to this idea? Did I harm her? I am very, very good Mrs. Benade." Greg assured her.

"Greg... before you try to salvage anything, talk to me. Please?" Angelica asked.

"Alright."

"At least that blew up now." Gwen said.

Greg looked at the judge. He watched the judge blow a tiny sigh of relief and smiled to himself.

"What are you smiling about Greg?" Gwendolyn asked.

"His honor Gwen, he's rooting for you. For himself and his wife too. He worked for this result because he does not want it to blow up in mid campaign. If you lose this bill is dead. Rather go into this campaign without this voluntary transfer model than with one that's going to crash and burn."

"Whisper a word of that outside this room and I'll see you in prison." He said.

"You mean the two of you want this?" Gwen asked.

Complete silence from the judge and his wife was all the answer anybody needed. Greg reserved a hotel room in a different hotel to where he and Veronica had booked. He finished the coffee the judge's wife had made and thanked everybody. He looked around and went to the door.

"Gwen; this wasn't a failure you know? It was a success for adjudicated marriage, without tonight's challenge Ronnie and I might have fooled ourselves and ended up very unhappy in five or ten years with children to make it worse." Greg said and left.

It took a month for Veronica to get out of Greg's affairs by her own insistence. She had learned a huge amount from him, she did have her own mansion and a much better idea of how to handle money and people. She managed to convince Cecilia to not pursue a romance with her, one achievement she had doubted possible. Cecilia's older brother was a different story. They started dating just after Veronica was out of Greg's affairs.

Veronica did watch Greg very carefully and discussed him with Angelica. He had not come back for counseling after he returned from Raleigh. It had taken him five days to return though and what he did in those five days was a scary thing to speculate. In watching him she noted the changes since she and he had got involved. He really smiled now, not just with a movement of his lips, but with his eyes too. He did not react intellectually with laughter when somebody told a joke but would laugh before the punchline as his mind raced ahead. He was still crazy, unpredictable in what he was going to do next; and incredibly inventive in how he did things.

He got the tennis courts going and hosted a crocket tournament on them with a BDSM theme to celebrate. He got more ponies and horses and had cross country races for the kids. He was laying out a second golf course and building a yacht club when Gwendolyn asked him for help with her election campaign. Greg asked the club openly whether it should be available for Gwen, and she was voted an honorary member immediately and then the club facilities were available.

Veronica was there that night. It amazed her that she was still a member, Greg treated her exactly as he always had at the club, which was just like any other member. Her dad was furious about her running out on him. Between her dad and him there was still the same relationship, two friends who enjoyed each other's company, who both happened to have a nasty sense of humor.

She had learned from her dad that Greg had started an international horse racing security company sending under cover operators into dodgy situations to gather evidence. Her dad was going into it, running communications with the Jockey Club locally. His first case was the horses Greg had bought from Angelica.

Watching the club slut trying to get Greg to bed her Veronica thought about what she felt about that. She was surprised at the complexity of her feelings. She was upset that the woman was trying. But not upset to think of Greg screwing her. She realized that had Greg been doing the seducing she would not have minded at all.

She had missed Greg, he still scared the crap out of her. But he had shown her so much; had handled things for her she had not thought possible. He had been incredible in bed. He had changed her mind about a lot more than just relationships. But he had scared her more often through him just doing what he did. She understood that losing Greg had never frightened her and that had been the deciding factor in why she ran out.

Sadly she watched Greg tell the slut to find another guy. She knew he still loved her as he glanced at her between sending the slut away and dealing with one of Gwendolyn's staffers. Then Veronica made a decision. She would never be able to last long in any capacity with him and he needed to move on. She had a solution to that. She had another guy willing to take her on and she could tell he was very interested in the idea of being owned; he never stopped asking about it.

Angelica, Gwendolyn, Ettiene, and Greg sat down at a nearby table and started talking quietly. Veronica came and asked if she could join them. Ettiene's wife was the one with objections but she was overruled and sent to get everybody drinks.

"I think the reason all of you took Ronnie and I so hard is the emotional investment all of you had. An adjudication panel should probably not have the counselor involved in it." Greg said to the three.

"I think you might be right Greg." Angelica said.

"Oh, you asked about relocating here, I nearly forgot. I have a proposition for you Angelica. The farm next door, it's going on auction, the asshole who had this place just got folded up by his wife who is divorcing him. Oh and the IRS. I'll go half in with you if you need the cash to buy it. I want the club to have access though, increase the area for the picnics and carts and horses. You get the deed we get first use."

"Who is putting the farm on auction?"

"IRS."

"How much tax does he owe?"

"Two point two million."

"I'll have the farm by Friday. I want access and a training area for... just a training area. And we'll need to produce something."

"We can work that in."

"Ronnie, how are you doing?" Gwendolyn asked.

"Well... there is a guy nearby me who is sort of asking about this AAM bill... Greg don't go and kill him, or do anything... mind you just leave him alone." Veronica said as a spasm of pain and anger crossed his face.

"Alright." Greg said biting the word out.

"I have something for you Greg, from Cecilia." Veronica took an envelope out.

Veronica had managed to let Cecilia see that a three way relationship with Greg in between was never a good idea. She was a patient and that made it illegal to start with. The jockey had taken the breakup more badly than Greg had though. Cecilia was working at the pony club now. It was the off season and she was teaching children to ride. Greg opened the envelope and read the letter. It didn't take long there weren't many words, but they said it all. Greg put the letter down and left the clubhouse.

They watched from their place as Greg went to the lunging corral where Cecilia was sitting on a horse beside a little girl who was learning how to move her weight to get the horse to go forward. They watched as he helped the girl of her horse and because she was tired anyway and realizing that there was more to horse riding that sitting on it. He stood up and jumped up next to Cecilia and plucked her out of the saddle.

She was screaming blue murder as he carried her into the clubhouse over his shoulder. Everybody turned at the noise and looked on as he put her down on a table for everybody to stare at her. She paused her screaming and Greg took the chance.

"This is Cecilia, she is going to be my wife soon. I just need to kidnap her for a while first to make her obedient, and hopefully silent! Let me find one asshole talking crap about her." he said to the clubhouse.

Cecilia stood on the table blushing as the club started applauding. She bowed to everybody and allowed herself to be lifted off the table as she came with her husband to be to the table where Veronica and the panel were sitting.

The letter was simple as the panel read it:

Veronica, can you help me? I need Greg, he keeps me from losing all my shit. I read about this new marriage thing, I'm not exactly stable, and maybe you could help me see if Greg will like just handle me as his wife? You know like in this marriage thing, that last part the one where he takes control of me and I just need to do what he says? I do better when he takes charge.

"I am not counseling this." Angelica said.

"Ronnie is. The three of you adjudicate." Greg answered.

"This bill is still a long way off." Ettiene cautioned.

"We need to be living as owner and owned? For how long? Celia, you're voting for Gwen."

"OK." Cecilia answered meekly.

"Now getting this bill passed, Angelica you'll need to take this seat in the legislature. With Gwen as governor it would be three votes short of passing. I can swing two other seats."

"Greg, I hesitate to ask... how?" Gwen asked.

"I hesitate to tell better than you hesitate to ask." He answered.

Cecilia looked around Greg's house when he took her home. She went into the dungeon and looked around at everything. Then she took her clothes off and stood naked in front of him. She had already been told that all she would be allowed to bring into his house was essential documents. Everything she needed would come from him. She could see his erection before she stripped, it was why she did.

"Do you screw me first and then break me in?" she asked.

She heard the fear in her voice when she spoke. She watched Greg come closer to her and then he kissed her gently. She reached for him and he shook his head, turning her to the cross against the wall he pushed her to the cross and lifted her hand to touch the cross. It was just out of reach, Greg made her lean forward and she put both hands out to rest them against the fantastically well lacquered wood.

"We first address you doubts and fears." He whispered in her ear.

"I don't get it."

"I'm going to whip you. You can stop it any time, just say stop or let go of the cross. Show yourself what you want."

"What do you want?" she asked.

"You give everybody a lot of shit Cecilia. I will not have that in my own house from you. I'm going to whip you until you faint."

Cecilia stood leaning against the wall wondering what this was going to feel like. Greg had used his riding crop on her a few times when she was getting into shape again. It hadn't hurt much but it had told her that he did not accept crap. It was what had started her whole infatuation with him. That and seeing his art in Scotland. She had taken a trip and gone to see, Ronnie having let that slip.

She heard the lash coming and had no time to do anything about it. She arched her back when it landed at the pain that screamed along her back next to her spine from her shoulder blade to the top of her ass. There was a pause as the pain built, she knew Greg was giving her the chance to cry stop or run. She felt fantastic despite the pain when the second whistled and hit her on the other side of her back. She kept leaning on that cross as more strokes hit her until her knees buckled. She tried to say she wasn't asking him to stop. Evidently he understood as the next stroke hit her exactly when she was afraid that he would think she asked him to stop. There were a few more and then she slid and slumped down against the wall.

She vaguely remembered being carried and then her next recollection was smelling tea tree oil. Then sensation returned furiously. With her pain she felt hands massaging her. She opened her eyes to see that she was on a bed. The covers had been putted back and she was on the sheet. Memory hit as she tried to work out where she was. She smiled as she lay feeling the relief of those slow loving hands.