Chapter 115: How Was The Test?
After a pause, she went through all her thoughts and calmed down quickly.
"Oh," Victoria Riley replied, "Is it Keith's?"
The answer was rather unexpected. Cathryn nodded and replied, "Yes."
"I see," Victoria hastily asked, "When is the expected date?"
"Before September."
"So when are you going to get married?" asked Victoria again.
Although Cathryn had not introduced Keith to her seriously, since she was pregnant with his child, their relationship should be certain. As a mother and a respected teacher, a daughter's marriage was a big thing for her, something she couldn't ignore. Relatives and friends needed to be invited, as were colleagues...
She was quite satisfied with Keith, though. She had met her niece's boyfriend Renz, a young man with the arrogance and hypercriticism of a spoiled boy. But Keith seemed much more restrained, cultivated and elegant, and most of all modest. With him taking Cathryn, she wouldn't feel worried.
"We are... not, that kind of relationship," Cathryn replied carefully before explaining everything to her mom. She didn't want to upset her mom, so she skipped that night when she was too sad about the divorce and went to the Gravity Bar.
She could hear her mother sighing, this information took a while for her to digest. The mother simply hummed as Cathryn went on, and after she had finished, Victoria only returned one sentence that she saw. She added to Cathryn that the teacher's qualification test should take place in June in Jonathan City, and she shall go back home at that time.
Hanging up the phone, Cathryn took a long sigh of relief and went back to the books.
****
June arrived quickly. Cathryn's lower abdomen was already showing enough. Clothes could no longer cover her, and she had become a standard pregnant woman. During the exam, Keith asked Jane to accompany her the whole time. He was fully occupied with the acquisition, and Cathryn could rarely see him.
Cathryn was happy and confident after weeks of careful review. The test went all smoothly as she expected. After the test, she walked out of the test room cheerfully, got in the car with Jane, and went home.
As soon as Cathryn told her about her pregnancy, Victoria told her husband Clement, who was pleased for a while and worried for longer. Finally, he decided to feel normal about it and let it go with relief.
Now, seeing his daughter returned home with a round belly, Clement couldn't help staring and felt all excited about it. He anxiously grabbed his wife's hand and finally said, "I'm going to be a grandfather." His wife, smashing his hand away, replied with a cold, "What's wrong with you?"
Cathryn planned to stay home for a few days, and Jane was asking the driver to bring her luggage upstairs. The faculty apartment was narrow without an elevator, the driver was sweating all over after he had brought everything from the stairs. The Rileys insisted on having the two for dinner, but Jane and the driver refused and went downstairs.
Before leaving, Jane and Cathryn made a date when to pick her up. Jane told her to contact her if something happened since it was inconvenient for her to stay in her home. Jane left for the local branch of the Stark Industries.
Clement happily went to the kitchen to cook while his wife and daughter went to settle her luggage in the bedroom. Although Victoria was not a good talker, she had always taken good care of Cathryn's room.
"How was the test?" The mother asked.
"I got it," Cathryn replied in confidence.
Victoria glanced at her daughter's self-boasting. Instead of remarking or showing her face, she quietly went to fetch a small gift box on the desk, taking a pair of pearl earrings out of it.
The design of the earrings was simple and rather rough. Attached to the pearl was a flat oxidized silver ring, whose surface was not smooth but embossed with some faint faded patterns, adding to its mystery.
Seeing the earrings, Cathryn felt down.
These earrings were Grandma's favorite until her death. It was a gift from Victoria, which made Cathryn melancholy.
She remembered that night before she died, their conversation rang in her ears as if it had happened just now. Cathryn's eyes went red, and she put the earrings back. Hoping not to upset her mom, Cathryn switched the subject.
"About my pregnancy, Grandma had known it first in the family," She didn't mention that they also discussed at the time that Victoria shouldn't know, fearing she would ask her to abort it. Rubbing her eyes, Cathryn asked, "Mom, do I have your blessing to have this child?"
"Six months old fetus is already formed. It is too late to take it out." Victoria replied.
Cathryn was scared to a cringe.
Victoria saw her glaring eyes and looked at her with an "I knew it!" face. She regained her indifference and added.
"Even if it's not too late, of course, I won't stop you if it's what you want."
For a moment, Cathryn turned to look at her mother, and her eyes were far away from her puzzled face.
Instead of staring back, Victoria continued anyway, "I said it last time I quarreled with your cousin. However, you'd like to live, as long as you are happy about it, we support it all. This is my greatest love for you. In the future, if you want to live alone, you can live alone; if you want to live with someone, you live with someone. You have a look and the temperament. They'd love to live with you for the rest of your life. If no one does, anyway, you shouldn't be afraid. Your father and I will always be on your back."
When she said this on the phone, Cathryn was moved to tears. But now that they are together after Victoria had finished, they both felt nothing but a slight embarrassment.
Cathryn was proud to have such a mother, she held Victoria's arms and leaned her head against her shoulder, enjoying the reliance.
After two seconds, a cold voice rang over her head.
"Get off, it's hot."
Cathryn pouted her lips yet didn't speak. "..."