Chapter 12

Katherine stood in the doorway and looked nervously at her parents, she could feel her heart beating furiously and she closed her eyes and clenched her fists.

"Mum," she called out and her mother looked away from the television and glanced over towards her daughter.

"Oh hi Kat. Shouldn't you be doing revision?"

Katherine pursed her lips and sniffed. "I've got something to tell you," she admitted, her hands shaking. She felt the insides of her cheeks heat up and inhaled sharply.

Joseph turned to look at his daughter anxiously waiting in the doorway and raised his eyebrows. "What is it?"

Katherine sighed and licked her lips. "I'm pregnant," she said quietly and her mother shrieked.

"What?" Joseph asked.

Katherine cocked her head to one side and repeated herself, wiping her eyes with the ball of her hand.

"Well who is the father?" Joseph thundered. "Is it that little runt Sam 'cos I kill the fucker. It's–"

"It's not Sam," Katherine replied instantly. "But I don't know who it is."

"What d'ya mean you don't know who it is?" Joseph shouted and pointed to the chair opposite. "Sit down, young lady."

Katherine came into the room, the eyes of both her parents fixed on her as she nervously walked across to sit on the leather armchair. "I don't know."

"You better explain yourself," Joseph replied, his body language oozing aggression and anger.

Katherine took a deep breath. "I think I had sex at the Christmas Party and my dating scan looks like I conceived that week but I just don't remember it." Katherine burst into tears and Joseph looked at his wife. "I just don't remember, I promise you. I never said anyone could have sex with me, but it must have been that week. That night."

"You danced a bit with that barman," her mother told her. "Was it him?"

Katherine shrugged through the tears. "I don't know. I think my drinks were laced as Matthew had to carry me home. I met someone from school outside and he hit on me but I don't think we did anything. I just don't know. I wish I did, but I don't."

Joseph took a deep breath and stared at his wayward daughter. "Top of the class, you are. Going to University, you were. Why did you have to fuck up your life?"

Charlotte scooted over to put her arms around her daughter quietly sobbing and looked over at Joseph, telling him to be more gentle with his daughter. He grunted and picked out his mobile. "Who are you ringing?"

"The bar," Joseph replied and asked to speak to the manager. Joseph was sharp and cold when he asked for the name and forwarding address of the blonde barman from Christmas, and was told that he was a backpacker from Australia making his way through Europe and apart from his name, Winston, the barman knew nothing about him. Joseph swore and put the phone down.

"Right well if it's Winston, he could be anywhere," Joseph told her after he repeated the story. Charlotte groaned and then looked at Katherine.

"When are you due?"

Katherine took a deep breath and rubbed her face. "Mid August," she told her and Joseph cried out.

"But that's only a few months away. And you should be getting ready to go to Uni then. What are you going to do about that? And how are you going to pay for it?"

"Oh be quiet," Charlotte snapped and wrapped her arms around her daughter who muttered a "I don't know" in a tearful, stressed voice.

"We'll sort it," Charlotte promised and looked over at her husband. "It'll be fine, won't it. We'll be here for you."

Katherine wiped her eyes and then looked at her father. "And I was thinking of adoption," she told him with a steely glare. Charlotte's stomach lurched, she certainly didn't want her first grandchild to be given away and she stared with panicked eyes at her husband, who just grunted and then looked away. "I can't be a mum. I just can't"

"Do you really not remember having sex that night?" Joseph asked aggressively.

Katherine shook her head. "I don't remember much. I remember dancing and kissing the barman when he knocked off, I remember Matthew picking me up outside and helping me to my feet and then walking home."

Both parents glanced at each other but Joseph was the first to speak. "So you may have been raped at the party?"

Katherine looked into her hands and shrugged. "I don't think so, I don't know." Her voice showed a stressed anxiety and she sighed. "I know how emotional I was at the time, I could have said yes when I was drunk or not, I just don't remember. I was stupid, I know but I have been replaying that night again and again, I just can't remember."

"You were a little drunk love," Charlotte told her daughter and then sighed. "It's a bit of a mess."

"I know," Katherine admitted and preceded to explain everything that had happened. Her parents were a little upset that she hadn't approached them earlier, her father was particularly upset with the manner in which she got pregnant but there was little Charlotte and Joseph could do except support their daughter.

Matthew was met with stressed faces in the morning and he even thought twice about stealing a banana. Lewis smiled when he heard the news, "so I am going to be an uncle then, wicked!" His excursion to Scotland had been momentarily forgotten given his sister's predicament and Charlotte glared at him as he looked around the table.

Matthew looked up and then at Katherine just meandering past him. "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes," Joseph snapped, glowering at his son. "We found out yesterday."

"I thought you split with Sam," Matthew asked Katherine who looked up.

"It's not Sam. It happened after we split up."

Charlotte turned to their guest and looked at him. "You didn't see Kat get too close to anyone except the barman at the Christmas Party did you?"

Matthew's heart skipped a beat and he stammered. "Mum, everyone was drunk that night. Bet you can hardly remember it," Katherine answered her parents and Matthew nodded appreciatively, spluttering nothing coherent.

"No, why was that... ? Did it... ? What I mean is... ?"

"Yes," Katherine told him, answering his confused mutterings. "I conceived it that night. Or at least, I think I did."

"Wow. Shit," Matthew replied and looked down at the yellow fruit in his hand, suddenly he realised what had happened and that Katherine genuinely had no knowledge of their liaison. He decided it would be a wise idea to ensure that neither Joseph nor Charlotte had any idea that he might be the father until he had thought it through.

Suddenly, he felt very very sick.

A black leather hand came over Charlotte's face and she squealed and kicked out. Ethan pulled her into the alleyway and put his hand over her mouth. She glared at his angry eyes and a hand smacked into her stomach to push her against the wall. "You stood me up yesterday. Now, where's my money."