Chapter Fourty Two

"Reckon I knew my daughter Lara was pregnant even before she did," Evelyn went on, leaving no doubt about the subject she was bent on tackling.

Kelly realised it was useless to deny it. "Have you told anyone?" she asked anxiously, alarmed at the thought that maybe her father was aware of her condition and holding to a conspiracy of silence until she was ready to admit it.

"No. But I’ll tell Mr Darcy if you don’t," came the challenging reply.

"You mustn’t do that, Evelyn," Kelly instantly cried, panic welling up at the thought of any premature disclosure. She couldn't even imagine how pissed her father would be. He would feel so... Betrayed.

"No good comes from keeping secrets that shouldn’t be kept," Evelyn bored in with absolute conviction. "Especially from your father.... I know he can be tough but he really loves you very much and he would hate it if you kept this from him for too long. Let's not even talk about the fact that you are also hiding it from the man who fathered the child. It's Mr Dimitri, isn't it? "

"What makes you think Dimitri is the father?" Kelly shot back at her, desperate to raise enough doubt to give herself more time.

Evelyn clucked her contempt for any other possibility. "No-one else it could be. Think I didn’t know what you both have been up to…I don't know if he told you, but I have seen him twice now leaving your house in the morning. I have seen you with him too, you know, coming back home every early in the morning. I see how you are with him, and I don't need anyone to tell me what's been going on."

Humiliation burned through her. Had her feelings been so horribly transparent to everyone? No, they couldn’t have been, she frantically argued to herself. They had been subtle, right? She wasn't even sure anymore. Whenever she was with Dimitri, her brains seemed to go for a walk. Nothing else existed when she was around him.

No one could have guessed that she and Dimitri were more than colleagues at the office....at least she hoped so. Only Evelyn…Evelyn who cared so much about her.

"It’s not his fault that I’m pregnant," Kelly blurted out. "It’s not fair to load it on him."

"Takes two to make a child," came the firm rebuttal from Evelyn. "Accepting the blame for it makes no difference, Miss Kelly. The child belongs to him, as well as you."

"I guess he thought that I was protected," she pleaded. "I’m the one who’s responsible for this pregnancy. He would have ensured it didn’t happen. I was so careless"

Evelyn shook her head, disappointment and disapproval stamped on her expression. "If you wove a web of lies to get Mr Dimitri into your bed, you’ll only make the situation worse with more lies. I'm sure you didn't do that. But it's time you faced up to yourself and to him."

"I don’t want him to feel trapped. That’s not fair, Evelyn," she repeated emphatically, gathering strength to fight any interference with whatever she decided to do.

"You think he’d want his child to be as fatherless? No way, Miss Kelly. No way. I'm sure that he wouldn't. You just pile injustice on top of injustice if you keep this from him." Her eyes narrowed in grim judgement. "You’re thinking of yourself. What you want. But I won’t let you cut Mr Dimitri out of what is rightfully his. That is very wrong. You tell him or I will."

"It’s not your business!" It was a desperate cry of protest. This was between her and Dimitri and she needed time to work out how best to approach the future…what arrangement to make with him. She had heard the way Dimitri spoke of his childhood. The emotion in his voice when he spoke about his father, and she knew that he wouldn't want that for his child. What was he going to do then? And what the hell was she going to tell her father? How the hell was she going to tell him that she had been sleeping with Dimitri of all people? And now she was pregnant for him... Talk about bad timing. This was probably some kind of punishment for sleeping with her father's rival.

Evelyn seemed to puff herself up with even more determination. "Your dear mother’s gone.... For a long time now. Your father whom I admire and respect put you in my hands since you were little." She lifted a hand and shook a finger at Kelly. "He put me with you. He trusted me to get things right. And I'm sure that no matter what, he wouldn't want you to cheat a man out of something like this. He may have his flaws, but I'm sure he wouldn't want that. Do the right thing, Kelly"

Cheat…that was a totally unacceptable word. Kelly recoiled from it. She had been carrying a wretched load of guilt for days. That was nothing new. Yet mixed in with the guilt was an insidious streak of exhilarating pleasure in having Dimitri Collins’s child—a part of him. But cheating him…that didn’t sit at all well.

Evelyn planted her hands on her ample hips. Her big bosom heaved. Her chin was thrust out in belligerent pride. "I’ve lived here in this town all my life. Over Fourty years now. Served your father best I could. Always tried to do the right thing by you. You can sack me if you want, Miss Kelly. You have the right to do that…"

Sacking Evelyn? Shocking thought…even more shocking than cheating, Kelly thought.

"…but as long as I’m here, I won’t stand by and let you pull the wool over Mr Dimitri’s eyes, not on something as important as this will be to him. His child…"

Mine, too, Kelly thought, fiercely possessive.

"You can’t expect me to hit him with the news just like that. I just found out a week ago" she swiftly argued.

"You should have told him already, it's going to be two weeks very soon" came the damning retort. "Every minute you leave it makes it worse. More underhand. More unfair. Just tell him and over with it" she hammered home.