The Rival

Chapter Seventeen

Since I arrived back home in Monaco I hadn't been able to get out of bed. Each morning I would find myself hovering over the toilet with my hair tied back and the entirety of the previous days meals sitting in a soggy pile before me. It got so frequent it permanently flavoured by mouth and my throat underwent excruciating pain. By Friday I had enough and did the worst thing I could possibly do - google my symptoms. The most persistent answers were that I was pregnant - surely not?

But I couldn't get it off my mind, it lingered there for hours on end without disappearing even for a second. Eventually I had to do something, so I walked to my local pharmacy. It was a small old fashioned building that camouflaged with the surrounding shops. I walked inside and walked up to the counter.

"Un test de grossesse " the woman turned and grabbed one test off the shelf behind her. I paid and hurried off before anyone saw me, stuffing the box into my coat pocket. I was popular with the paparazzi for being the daughter of the billionaire and the headlines "billionaires daughter seen walking out of local pharmacy with pregnancy tests" was not what I was looking for. 

The instructions were simple - piss on the stick. I made the mistake of using the toilet before I left for the shops so to quicken the process I chugged two glasses of water. Within no time I was ready to. 

I wasn't sure what I would do if it was positive so I prayed and prayed that it would come up negative. The instructions on the box claimed that within 3 minutes there would be a result, but it took 5 before I even had the courage to look at it let alone pick it up and read it.

"I can do this" I whispered to myself. "I can do this"

I picked the stick up and flipped it over.

It was positive.

Tears flooded my eyes as I realised what this meant. What would I do? I had to tell Max but I had no way of doing so - unless I went to tomorrows race.

Almost perfectly, my phone began to ring as my dad tried to FaceTime me. When I answered he hit me with the question.

"Will you come to Sundays race?" He asked, he seemed happy and positive. It took me a moment to gather me words.

"Yea sure" It was hard to hold back the tears. My father could not know.

"You sound hurt are you okay?" He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Yea I'm fine dad I was just... watching this really sad tv show" I lied - and he bought it.

"Ah ok love. Lewis says hi!" The camera flipped to Lewis who was on some form of driving simulator. "I better get going. Catch a flight tomorrow will you"

"I will, bye dad" I waved at the screen and ended the call.

I was overwhelmed by my emotions. Was I supposed to be happy? I certainly could not sense it within me. I didn't want this to happen - not this early on.

It was a mistake.