AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
Two months later…
It had been exactly eight weeks, two days, and six hours since she’d returned from Greece. And every second that ticked past failed to lessen the vivid image of Nico in Marianna’s head. It was so clear that her hand twitched with the desire to reach out and touch the mirage. It was so real. That glossy black hair, those icy eyes and firm, full lips.
Every night she fell asleep watching TV on her laptop, because the quiet darkness gave her room to think and she couldn’t have that. Because every fantasy was cut short by the memory of Nico’s accusations.
And now…
Now she had bigger concerns. Marianna hurried to the front door of the modest house she shared with two of her brothers. She’d left university early today, hoping to make it home before the boys. Privacy was an absolute requirement right now.
The paper bag from the pharmacy burned a hole through her handbag as she bent her head to the fine mist of rain, pausing at the last second to dig out her keys. She fumbled, her cold, shaking hands struggling as she opened the door.
“Hello?” Marianna shrugged out of her coat. “Anyone home?”
Please be empty. Please be empty. Please be empty.
The rain fell harder outside, pelting the windows with increasing pressure. “Hello?”
When silence greeted her again, she let out a relieved sigh and headed into the main bathroom. Swallowing down the mounting fear in the back of her throat, she pulled the pregnancy test out of the paper bag. Eight weeks, two days, and six hours…and still no period. She scanned the instructions and shimmied out of her trousers.
Please. I’ll never have sex again.
When Nico had stormed off and left her standing half naked beside his pool, she’d refused to cry. Marianna was, despite what her brothers thought, made of strong stuff. She had a resilience that most people would never understand, that most people would never have to experience. She’d grown up without much—only a little money and even less freedom. She’d lost her father young. Then her mother. She’d persevered, persisted, and tried her damnedest to make something of herself. She studied languages, learned about other cultures, taught ESL classes to children and adults who were new to Australia in her spare time.
But she’d reached a point in her life where she needed to start taking control, to chase the things she wanted instead of being passive and letting her brothers make decisions for her. She wanted to be her own woman, someone who would have made her parents proud.
This, however, was not how she had envisaged it going down.
She placed the white plastic stick on top of the box it came in and waited, her breath barely moving in and out of her lungs.
A baby would change everything. It would mean having to confess to her brothers. Having to deal with questions from her work supervisor, her colleagues…everyone who’d known her since she was a baby herself. And even if the pregnancy went well, there would be no loving partner by her side. She could only imagine what Nico would say. He couldn’t have pushed her out of his house fast enough at the time. If she went to him now…
But what choice would she have?
A wave of nausea rolled over Marianna, and she blinked back tears as she fought it down. All she’d wanted was one moment of pleasure. One moment of escape. She was on the pill. Did the universe hate her so much that she was in the point-one percent of people for whom it wasn’t effective as a contraceptive? Or maybe it had been the change in time zones, meaning she’d taken her pill later than she should have?
You will learn from your mistakes, because it’s a lesson, nothing more.
But no matter how much she tried to calm herself, her heart slammed against her ribs as though trying to force its way out.
“Stop it,” she said, her jagged words bouncing off the tiles and echoing back to her.
Sucking in a deep breath, Marianna prayed with all her might that it would be negative. The twin pink lines stared back at her, wrenching a gasp from her chest.
No. No. No!
She picked it up and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that her vision would correct itself. But the twin lines remained.
She was pregnant.
For a moment it felt like she was falling. The bottom had slipped out from under her feet, and she was going to land hard. The room spun around her, and she gripped the edge of the sink. Everything narrowed to a pinpoint.
She was pregnant.
Pregnant.
The word replayed over and over in her head. Should she feel her baby yet? Should she know now that she would be a good mother? That she’d create the best home she could for the life growing inside her?
Marianna’s chest heaved. She knew nothing. Was certain of nothing. Except one thing… She would keep the baby. All her life she’d wanted a child and to be able to give them what she’d been robbed of—a loving, strong, invested family.
This wasn’t how she’d ever imagined it happening, but Marianna would survive. And she would make a life for her baby.
Steeling herself, she pushed up and righted her clothes. Then she flushed the toilet, washed her hands and gathered up the pregnancy test, ready to toss it into the bin in the kitchen. This time when she looked back at the mirror, there was a determined set to her jaw.
She placed a hand over her stomach. “I’m not going to fail you,” she whispered. “I know you probably don’t have ears yet, but I’m going to tell you this every day until you can hear me. And then every day after that. I’m not going to fail you.”
She walked out of the bathroom, her head spinning while she tried to think of how to break it to her brothers. The second she set foot into the hallway, a surprised squeak left her lips. Matthew and Daniel walked in the front door and found her standing there, the test in her hands.
