After rain comes the clear sky (Kaoearth)

82.Pregnant

"Madam, there is a girl who is here to visit you. She said her name was Shelly." the maid said respectfully.

The three women in the room paused when they heard that.

"Tell her to come in," Jane said in a flat tone.

"Shelly? Isn't that the girl who cheated on Kao with that Liam guy? Why is she here?" Ann asked.

"How did you know?" Jane wasn't actually surprised that her friend knew more about her son than she did.

"Boun told me." Ann snickered. She had a pretty good relationship with Boun. He was her favorite nephew.

"I didn't know that before. I met her at Alan's wedding. She told me that she was Kao's girlfriend." Jane said feeling shameful that she didn't know that the girl in front of her was the cheap woman who broke her son's trust.

"Is she that girl you introduced to me that day?" Tessa asked thinking back to memory lane.

Jane sighed and nodded. She had indeed introduced Shelly to a handful of people in the wedding as Kao's girlfriend.

Ann snickered "Do you know that Alan was sent to Kenya to dig coal because of her?"

"What?!" Tessa and Jane were shocked at the revelation.

Ann giggled and explained. "Alan invited that girl to his wedding to get back at Kao for removing him from that project of his. When Kao found out about it, he was so mad that he put Alan in charge of discussing the problems in those coal mines in Kenya. you know there have been large-scale protests going on there against the mining and there is no way Alan can come back anytime soon."

"Is that why he had to drop the honeymoon plans halfway?" Tessa only knew that her son had to get back to work because of some emergency and her daughter-in-law came back home alone from the trip. 

She had found her son's attitude very obnoxious and had felt bad on behalf of her new daughter-in-law. She didn't know the backstory of the 'emergency' that caused her son to ditch his wife on their honeymoon.

There was a knock on the door indicating that Shelly was outside. The three friends straightened their backs and put on an aloof demeanor as the young woman walked in.

"Swadee Kha, Khun Mae." Shelly first waied at Jane "Swadee kha Khun Ann, Khun Tessa" 

She had done her own research on the members of the Dechaphatthanakhun family.

"Swadee" Jane responded while the other two just nodded their head slightly, acknowledging her presence. "What brings you here?"

Shelly warily looked at the other two women "Khun Mae, can we talk in private?"

"I don't think I have anything to discuss with you in private," Jane wasn't as friendly as she was before at the wedding.

It was true that she wanted her son to be with a woman but that didn't mean that she would settle for anybody.

Shelly gulped, hesitating a bit. "I am pregnant."

"Oh?" Jane looked uninterested. "Congratulations then." She continued to sip her tea.

"It's Kao's." Shelly said confidentially.

All the three women froze. 

"What did you say?" Jane asked, feeling that she was hearing things.

"I am seven weeks pregnant with Kao's child." Shelly placed the ultrasound image on the coffee table between her and the three women.

Jane picked up the ultrasound with shaky hands.

Ann scoffed. "How are you so sure that the child is Kao's Khun Shelly? I have heard you tales of bravery, cheating behind our child's back. Are you sure that the child inside you isn't the seed of one of them?"

As a woman Ann felt ashamed talking like that. But to a woman who betrayed her nephew, she didn't find it necessary to be civil.

Shelly clenched the hem of her dress. She had expected such questions when she came here. She had been mentally prepared for it. But when it came from Ann, who was an outsider in her eyes, she found it particularly irritating.

"Seven weeks ago, if I have to be more accurate, on the night of Khun Alan's wedding, Kao had spent the night with me. It is true that I did have a relationship with someone else in the past and me and Kao had broken up on a bad note. But I have long ended that relationship. I hadn't been intimate with anyone other than Kao in the past three months." Shelly stated firmly.

This was her golden chance to be the young mistress of the Dechaphatthanakun family. There is no way she was going to mess it up. That was why, ever since she got invited to the wedding by Alan, she had kept herself away from all the 'adventures' she loved to go on. 

"I don't think we can be that sure, Khun Shelly." Tessa said mirroring Ann's attitude. 

She didn't like the aura emitting from the woman in front of her. She felt that the girl wasn't suitable to be Kao's wife.

Jane looked at her friends gratefully. If she had been alone, maybe when Shelly said that the child was Kao's, she would have jumped in joy.

"Do you have any proof, Khun Shelly?" Ann probed. "As far as we know, Kao left for Chiang Mai after the wedding. How are you going to claim that he spent the night with you?"

Shelly was getting more and more annoyed at Ann's presence. She gritted her teeth. She indeed had no evidence to say that Kao was with her that night. 

Initially her plan was to ask for Alan's help. She was sure that Alan had ulterior motives in inviting her to his wedding. She felt that Alan was in the same boat as her.

Then she found out that Alan was in Kenya and wouldn't be back for a while. That meant that she was left on her own devices.

She had tried to revive CCTV footages from the hotel they had stayed that night before coming here. But Kao seemed to be a step ahead of her. All the CCTV footages were gone.

She had no idea that it wasn't Kao who deleted the footages but someone who she didn't even know existed.

"I don't have any proof, Khun Ann. But I can guarantee that this child is Kao's." Shelly wasn't ready to back down. She had to use the child in her belly as her steppingstone to being a rich lady.

Jane frowned. If the child was Kao's, she really wanted the child to grow in the family even though she wasn't really fond of Shelly. "That being said, let me ask you, Khun Shelly. If you are so sure that the child inside your belly is my son's, you wouldn't mind undergoing a prenatal DNA test, would you?"

Shelly was mentally cursing the women in front of her. She still kept a smile on her face and spoke. "Of course not, Khun Mae." 

"Alright, then. We will make arrangements for the test. We will conduct it as soon as possible." Jane said with a straight face.