Chapter 335: Pregnancy Test (GT Bonus - )

The days that followed that week were the darkest Mary had lived through in a long time.

Little by little she stopped caring about anything around her and ended up shutting herself almost completely in her room, where she spent hours lying on the bed staring at the ceiling without really thinking about anything.

She barely ate, slept poorly, and lost any clear sense of time.

The days began blending together until they became indistinguishable, and with them, the few routines she still had left disappeared too.

She stopped fixing herself up, stopped caring about her clothes, even her own hygiene, as if none of it mattered to her anymore.

Mary got so bad that she seriously considered killing herself.

The guilt over what she’d done to Rebecca, the certainty of having destroyed with her own hands the one good thing that had ever happened to her, and the emptiness of knowing she would never get close to Mark again, dug into her chest like stakes that wouldn’t let her breathe.

But in the end, as had always happened before, she managed to stay afloat thanks to the one thing that had never abandoned her.

The internet and video games, specifically, Eternal Conquest Online.

That virtual world had been her refuge for years, the only place where she could escape her reality, forget about her mother, the beatings, everything, and be someone else for a while, somewhere things didn’t hurt as much.

And now, sunk as low as she was, she went back to it looking for that same lifeline.

At first, though, she hesitated.

Because she remembered adding herself to Mark’s friends list from his own account.

That had now become a problem.

Mary knew perfectly well that if she logged in, there was a chance she’d find him online.

That she’d see him, even if only as an avatar moving around on the other side of a screen.

Just imagining it was enough to turn her stomach and send her anxiety spiking.

She wasn’t sure she could handle it.

But in the end, her need to escape won out over the fear.

Mary steeled herself, took a deep breath, turned on the computer, and logged in.

And to her surprise, the moment she got in, she saw him.

Mark was online.

For a few seconds, Mary just stared at his name on the screen.

She’d spent so long imagining that seeing him would hurt that she didn’t expect to feel the exact opposite.

Relief.

If Mark had gone back to playing, then he probably wasn’t drowning himself in alcohol every night anymore.

Maybe he was still hurting, maybe he still had a lot to work through, but at least he was getting some piece of his life back.

Mary didn’t know why, but seeing that made her think that maybe she wasn’t as lost as she believed either.

’If he could get back up, then so can I,’ she thought.

It didn’t happen overnight, but little by little she started recovering certain routines.

She began eating somewhat regularly again, managed to sleep better, and started taking care of herself again, even if only just enough to stop neglecting herself completely.

She never worked up the courage to actually talk to Mark directly in the game.

Still, seeing him online every so often, knowing he kept trying to move forward, became a strange kind of comfort for her.

They didn’t need to talk. For now, knowing he was still out there was enough.

And so a whole month passed.

Until one day, Mary realized something wasn’t right.

Her period was late.

At first she didn’t think much of it. But as the days kept passing and it still hadn’t come, unease began settling in, and no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, she couldn’t.

That afternoon, lying in bed staring at the ceiling like she had so many times before, Mary tried to convince herself it was nothing.

’You can’t get pregnant like that, on the very first time, right? That doesn’t happen,’ she told herself, arms crossed over her chest. ’It’s impossible... There are couples who try for months and don’t manage it... There’s no way it happened to me from just one night.’

Mary clung to that logic with everything she had.

’Besides, I’ve been a mess for weeks now,’ she continued, desperately searching for another explanation. ’Everyone knows that throws your body out of whack... That’s probably all it is... Stress, not taking care of myself. That’s the most logical explanation. There’s no other reason.’

Mary closed her eyes, trying to calm herself and believe her own excuses.

But then, without her being able to stop it, an image slipped into her mind.

She saw herself, belly swollen, sitting out in a field, leaning against the trunk of a great tree.

And beside her was Mark, an arm around her, her head resting on his shoulder, the two of them watching in silence as a beautiful sunset painted the sky in orange and gold.

A warm scene, peaceful, happy. A future she’d never believed possible for someone like her.

And Mary’s heart filled with a warmth so painful it made it hard to breathe.

"No..." she murmured, burying her face in her hands. "No, no, no... That’s not possible... That’s never going to happen."

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to chase away that image, that longing she recognized as her own no matter how much she wanted to deny it.

Because deep down, she knew.

She knew that was exactly what she wanted with everything she had. A different life. A family.

Someone to love, and who would love her back.

And that was precisely why it hurt so much, because she was convinced it was something the world would never let her have.

Mary stayed like that for a while, hands pressed to her face, breathing slowly until she managed to calm down a little.

And once she did, she made a decision.

’There’s no point sitting here imagining things and making myself more anxious,’ Mary thought as she sat up. ’Best thing to do is buy a pregnancy test and find out for sure.’

For a few seconds she sat there in silence, trying to gather her thoughts.

’It’s definitely going to come back negative... Yeah, obviously I can’t be pregnant... I just need to confirm it so I can stop worrying and move on.’

With that resolve, she got up, tidied herself up a little, and grabbed her bag.

Crossing the living room, her mother, sprawled on the couch with the TV blaring, barely spared her a glance.

"Where the hell do you think you’re going, brat?" she said, glaring at her.

"To buy beer," Mary answered naturally, reaching for the perfect excuse. "We’re almost out. I’ll be back in a bit."

The mention of alcohol was enough to make her mother lose all interest in asking further.

"Ah... Fine. Bring the good stuff," she grunted, turning her attention back to the screen. "And if you can, grab me some lottery tickets while you’re at it... got a feeling luck’s on my side today, hehehe."

And with that, Mary opened the door and left the apartment, her heart pounding harder than she wanted to admit.