"Secrets can only lie in the dark for so long..."
Martha Dévolla had always been a fiery, uncontrollable, ambitious girl since she was young. When her teachers told her to sit still, she leaped about. If the rain poured heavily on her picnic plan...
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"HOLY SHIT!" MARTHA exclaimed as she glanced down at the pink, peed on stick in her shaking hand. That certain two line result usually meant one thing.
Martha Dévolla was indeed, pregnant.
And by how prominent those lines were, like they were colored in with two different permanent markers, she was very pregnant.
She hunched over her apartment sink, staring at herself in the mirror with unseeing eyes. Who knew when she told Sam they might meet again, it would be under these circumstances. Definitely not her. She gritted her teeth, teetering on the very fine line of sanity.
It had been two months give or take since that hot and humid, for multiple reasons, night in Seattle. Since then, she was doing show after show, not giving herself much room to think and process her loneliness. Did it make sense that she felt that hole in her heart even more after Sam left? It was unsettling and frightening, if she was honest with herself.
She hadn't had much spare time for anything other than work. Which, was a good thing... until she suddenly threw up after rehearsal and her producer thought it was simply Martha being overworked.
Long, late, sleepless nights and early mornings before the sun peaked out of the horizon. Martha couldn't even contemplate how much colder the bed felt without Sam's warmth. Her throwing up had nothing to do with too many cabrioles.
No, it had to do with a mini Sam Uley swimming around in her uterus.
Of course, she thought there were some subtle changes in her steady and consistent body. Like the slight swelling and tenderness in her breasts and the hormonal freckless she suddenly sprouted on her face and neck. But she didn't think it would be this result of all other possible things.
Martha tossed the test aside as she abruptly burst into tears. The waterworks fell heavily down her cheeks, collecting at the curve of her cleft chin. Mentally, she could see her biggest ambitions and aspirations crumbling before her. The many performances she loved to do. The applause and rushing to curtain calls. Warming up before the big showcase. All of it was in shambles at her feet.
Dancers only have so long before their considered too old for parts in plays, musicals, theatric performances. Being pregnant would not only make her lose precious time, but also potentially inhibit her from being selfish in her future career. She would forever have to put her child first. There was no way she'd do otherwise, being a mother was important to her.
Maybe it had to do with her own mother being everything she could have ever wanted. She slayed for Martha until her last breath and the young Dévolla wouldn't do anything less. Martha was raised catholic, which she practiced in theory, which also meant getting rid of the child was out of the question.
