Free Rotten to the Core by Casey Kelleher Page A

of Jay’s business; if she did , she wouldn’t be sitting at his side. “I doubt very much that you do honey, Jay is a very private man ; this could be down to any number of things . ”
              Kate looked puzzled by Sonia’s matter - of - fact tone, there was an under-current to the reply, like she was hinting at something, but Kate continued regardless . “I think Jay needed some time to get his head around the idea before he told you, but I should tell you now. I’m p regnant Mrs Shaw : Jay and I are having a baby . ”
              It was the last thing that Sonia had expected Kate to say. Jay was not the type to want to settle down and knowing how unfaithful he was to Kate , Sonia couldn’t believe he wanted to stay with her . S he let the enormity of what she had just been told sink in. A baby : she was going to be a n an , bloody hell. This girl was going to need her. T hrilled at the idea of having a baby around, she couldn’t help but wonder whether Jay was going to do right by this girl . S he very much doubted it.
    “ The t hing is, my brother had a real problem with it, said he was go ing to kill Jay . W hat if it was him that did this?” Kate looked at Sonia with such fear and sadness in her eyes that Sonia couldn’t help but think that maybe Kate was right, maybe it was him . S he had heard people talking after Den’s death about Billy being involved, but it had never come to anything ; even when the police had looked into it, rumours were often just that, rumours.
                  “Hey, don’t you be upsetting yourself honey , ” she said , resting a comforting hand on Kate’s arm .
                  “Until Jay comes around and can tell us what happened , we should keep our assumptions to ourselves. ”
    Knowing that people a round here often had nothing better to do than talk about other people’s business, whether it was true or not, Sonia had dismissed it as spiteful gossip and lies . Could there be an element of truth? No doubt she would find out.
    K ate wanted to stay at Jay’s side, but Sonia insisted that she go and get some rest ; if not for her sake, then at least for the baby’s. She fancied a bit of time on her own, to get her head round the fact that she was going to be a grandma, and she also wanted to be there on her own when Jay came round, she knew it was a bit selfish, but she was his mum after all.
    Kate reluctantly agreed to go, she was totally exhausted and could do with some rest, and her pregnancy was making her feel sick and drained all the time, she felt as if she had no energy at all. After making Sonia promise to call her the minute that Jay was awake , she made her way to Emma’s ; she would stay there for a few days, and sor t out what to do about Billy.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    11
     
    Billy was sitting alone in his office at the warehouse. He yawned loudly ; it was only two o ’ clock but he was knackered, what a day it had been. There had been a few shipments in today and it had been a busy one. He wasn’t complaining though ; he smil ed as he reminded himself about the wedge they were earning. This warehouse was just one small part of their empire, and it was a nice little earner.   He took a sip of his tea, which was now as he discovered with distaste , cold. Then he checked his emails on ce again, he hoped that all was going well for Lee and Jonny. They were both   in France sorting a very lucrative business deal out, the guy they were dealing with was working for custom s and excise, he was the ideal answer to a shipping problem they had concerning getting packages that were a bit dodgy to say the least . K eeping this greedy F rog happy was paramount for their business.
    Jonny and Lee had very professional business heads and could basically sell ice-cubes to the Eskimos, so if anyone could strike a deal, these two were the ones to do it. Billy was sure it would go well; after