I'm pregnant.
While she waits for her doctor's appointment, Maria decides to have a cigarette. There's no way she's pregnant - she's late, but there's no way (she tells herself).

Maria comes home. She's found out she is, indeed, pregnant with a he shouldn't smoke, she knows she shouldn't - but she's too nervous, too stressed out and a cigarette will surely help with that... It always does. Just one little cigarette. Maria lights up, her chest rising as her lungs expand, and decides to prepare herself a drink. Just one little drink before quitting cold turkey. Tomorrow.

A few months later and Maria is still smoking her cigarettes and indulging in her addiction. She hesitates before pulling out one of her favorite red, before pressing it between full lips... She knows it's wrong but she can't resist - and she has tried to and failed miserably! A relaxed step-mom is a happy step-mom. The stress can't be good for the baby anyway - so why not have another cigarette, if that's what her lungs are craving?

Maria is round, her belly much much bigger since we last saw her. She is, as is expected, smoking a Marlboro with fast, hungry drags - and not even a pesky smoker's cough seems to bother nor worry her. She's made peace with the fact that her baby is an addict already, with little black heart and a pair of little black lungs, full of tar - just like step-mommy's! x