She's My Sleeping Pill

Typically, people would think that the majestic house built on top of a mountain in the countryside of City A was Stefan’s and Cayenne’s. Only a few people knew that the house was built by Stefan for Cayenne. The property was named under her and after their honeymoon, she signed the documents of entitlement. She kept telling Stefan that it should be named under both of them but Stefan said that like the house he entrusted to her, he will entrust the rest of his life along with the house.

What else can she do? Just signed it and be done with it. Stefan’s ways of doting on her were just out of this world and she was tired of comprehending them.

Kyle visited this house for a few times already and he still couldn’t keep himself from feeling amazed at the structure. If it was close to City B, where they were staying currently – in Cayenne’s house as well, he would probably visit this place whenever he got the time.

“So, what are the things I should remember for Cayenne?” Kyle asked as soon as they arrived. He wanted to make sure that he won’t mess up since Cayenne was carrying the life of their niece or nephew.

“Take a rest first,” Stefan said while leading his wife upstairs. “You can use whichever room in the west wing. Let’s talk about Ayen’s welfare and some house chores after lunch.”

“I’m not really tired. Can I check the dogs instead?”

“Go for it.”

Kyle carried his suitcase excitedly to the first room in the west wing and without arranging them in the closet, he ran outside and played with the dogs in the backyard, close to the helper’s quarter. Other people kept their dogs inside their homes while others have dog houses outside their homes; just enough for one dog to stay.

.....

In Stefan’s case, before Cayenne got pregnant, the dogs were allowed to stay inside the house, and play as much as they could with their toys since they were still small. As they grew bigger, he could not keep them unleashed because they liked to jump onto Cayenne and it was not good for the baby. So, he asked someone to build a huge dog house in the backyard, which was half the size of the helper’s quarter. In the dog house, there were four rooms with their names painted on them, and they were trained to live in those rooms respectively. After a long period, they already learned which room was theirs and they no longer sleep on the ground.

This huge dog house served as their playpen as well. There were some obstacle courses that they can play with and most of the time when the helpers didn’t have other things to do, they would play with the dogs here. The only thing they were not allowed to do was to take the dogs out of this big house.

When Kyle came into the dog house, the four dogs jumped out of their rooms and wagged their tails at him. Summer and Autumn were circling around him while barking happily. “Ahh, this is heaven.” Kyle moaned happily as he crouched low and hugged the dogs which he couldn’t do in the other house. Jonas didn’t like to keep dogs at home because he was scared it would damage their things.

The helpers checked who was playing with the dogs and when they saw it was Kyle, they greeted him politely and even invited him to have some fruits.

An hour later, Kyle stopped playing with the dogs because he wanted to help in the kitchen. One thing that was common for the three siblings was their love for cooking. They were used to it since they needed to depend on themselves as they grew up and because they will be the ones who will eat their own cooked dishes, they learned to make them taste even better.

Stefan, being the clean freak for Cayenne’s welfare, after playing with the dogs, one cannot enter the house through the front door. They’d have to walk through the back door, remove their shoes and place them inside a plastic, step on the sanitary mat and get themselves sprayed with a disinfectant spray machine. Then you can use the elevator beside the storage room which will bring you to the floor where your room was located. In that way, you don’t have to walk into the living room with possible bacteria and viruses which can be harmful to Cayenne and the unborn baby.

Just how clean freak are you? I bet, no one can topple Stefan’s place as the top 1 on the list.

The same goes for the helpers. If they play with the dogs, they’d have to do the same steps since Stefan installed the same sanitary mat and spray machine in their quarter except for the elevator. Once they got themselves disinfected, they can just go inside the quarter and change their clothes before getting out to do whatever chores they needed to do.

Though it was such a hassle, the helpers and the bodyguards were never tired of following this protocol because they were getting paid better than the other helpers out there. Besides, they’re only doing this whenever they played with the pets and other animals on the small farm close to the house.

As soon as he was done taking a bath and changing his clothes, Kyle went to the kitchen and saw that it was another helper who was cooking. Then, he remembered what happened to Carla, the chef, which was caused by his sister. “Is there anything I can help with? I’m not very good at cooking but I can do it.”

“Sir Kyle. I am fine doing it alone. It’s not really much.”

“What’s on the menu for today’s lunch?” By then, the helper knew that he could do nothing with the insistent brother of his madam. In the end, they work together to prepare lunch, except for Cayenne’s food because Stefan will be preparing it on his own.

Normally, Stefan would be cooking lunch at 11:00 AM during weekends if both of them were at home. However, it was already a quarter after eleven and he was still in their bedroom, coaxing Cayenne to stop crying.

[Why? Why is this happening? She wasn’t like this before?] Stefan thought with Cayenne in his arms. Her hiccups and sobs were breaking his heart and he did not know what to do. The cause of this problem was a withered sunflower. Recently, Cayenne has been reading books about sunflowers and she has been looking into books with sunflowers in them. Thus, he bought her a potted sunflower. In the past few days, it was blooming prettily but now it has withered. Cayenne suddenly cried when she saw it.

[Hormones. It is her hormones.] Stefan told himself over and over again because he couldn’t find any other reason to blame.

“We’ll get a new sunflower. I’ll buy you one. I also heard that we can use the seedlings of the flower to plant more. Shall we try it?”

“Hmph! I don’t like it anymore. It can die however it wants,” she angrily mumbled and after some time, she cried once again. “Hubby, I’m hungry. I am so hungry.”

[Her mood swing during ppregnancy is worse than her mood swings during her menstrual period.]

In Clover Hotel, Dr. Albert went out to buy something for Latticia to eat because solid food was difficult for her to chew. Even though he was staying in Stefan’s hotel, the man had no idea that his mother was also staying in the same place. After all, she was using a different name and no one really knew how Stefan’s mother look. Even he, the son, didn’t know how his mother look right now.

On his way back to the hotel, he met Magnus who came out from the hotel’s restaurant with other businessmen. The man looked handsome even at his age compared to Dr. Albert who started having white hair already. When their eyes met, Magnus showed hostility in her eyes but didn’t say anything. He knew that Dr. Albert has served his time in prison already. He can’t do anything to him no matter how angry he was about what happened in the past.

Dr. Albert passed by him and continued walking to the elevator. Seeing that the man was staying in the hotel, he called Stefan immediately to get rid of him. Sadly, Stefan knew about Dr. Albert’s visit to the city, and Magnus was left defeated by this fact.

“a..at...ssss...king...you...sss...so...long.” (What’s taking you so long?)

It sounded hoarse and most of the syllables couldn’t be properly said but Dr. Albert heard it clearly. His vision turned blurry and his steps were shaking as he walked towards her. Still sitting in the same position as he left her, but now, she had a faint sheepish smile on her face.

His tears raced down her face, gathered on his chin, and fell on the floor. His tears were cold but his heart was warm. “You talked, didn’t you? Or was I imagining it again?”

“ter...ink...wooo...ter.” (Water. I want to drink water.)

“Water? You want to drink water?”

Dr. Albert left to get some water as soon as he could and brought it back to her. Latticia was still smiling as if she was having fun looking at him flustered and tearful.

[Why did I never see this man before? Why did I fall in love with someone who only want me as his second?] She could not help but wonder why he was helping her this much as well. If it was not because of him, she could have died already and she wouldn’t suffer from longing and regret. At the same time, it was also after missing death’s door that she received so much care and unconditional love.

“I saw Magnus earlier.” Dr. Albert confessed since he knew that the woman loved that man even after what happened. “He didn’t know you were here.”

“it...ssnn’t ma...tter..do...not...talk...him” (It doesn’t matter. Do not talk about him.) Latticia looked at his hair and pulled her lips slowly into a smile. [He looks older and haggard compared to other people of his age. I’m probably causing him so much trouble.} “er...you...been...th...this...re..yes.” (Where have you been these three years?)

“You are having trouble speaking since you have not done this in a long time. I’ll write down what happened and just read it. Remember, do not react to the extreme because I am doing fine now.”

“o...k..”