She's My Sleeping Pill

Cayenne was quick to place her thing inside her bag and arrange her books on top of the other as soon as she heard that it was class dismissal. She wanted to leave as soon as she can.

Martin took Cayenne’s bag and handed the books to another bodyguard to carry. With her in the middle, they walked out of the campus and found Stefan’s car right away.

“How’s class today?” Stefan inquired and at the same time, fastened her seatbelt.

“It was the same as usual,” she said while cupping his face and kissing him several times before she let go of him. “Anyway, is your mom home now?”

“Mn. They just arrived and Kyle is currently taking care of them.”

This visit was for Cayenne to gouge the truth from his mother’s mouth, to know what she really wanted, and not just because she was being considerate to everyone.

THREE HOURS LATER; after dinner.

Cayenne and Latticia were standing on the balcony of the master’s bedroom which was overlooking the view of the beautiful garden. On the balcony, there were potted plants as well and most of them were flowers that Stefan gifted to his wife. Instead of giving bouquets of flowers that were cut off from its stem, the couple made it a habit to give each other a potted flower instead. Something that they can look after and admire in the long run. So far, none of the flowers they have gifted to each other have died yet. They were all striving to live.

.....

Latticia was sitting in her wheelchair and Cayenne was sitting on the wooden bench. Both women had thick blankets around them to shield them from the wind.

“Ma,” Cayenne called out softly while keeping her eyes on the distant sky. She always likes to watch the stars and right now, she has a vantage view of the sky once again. “Ma, I am so happy for you and Stefan. Especially my husband. I know how much he struggled every time people mention their mothers. He always wanted to have one.”

Silence.

“Ma, I won’t force you on anything because I know it must have been hard on you as well. I could not even imagine the pain you felt when you got separated from him. As someone who’s entering motherhood, I also didn’t want my child to be away from me.”

Silence.

Cayenne decided to move the wheelchair and turned it around so that the woman would be facing her. She needed to do what she ought to do for her husband. No matter what would be his mother’s decision, they already talked about it and planned to support her no matter what.

“Ma, as your daughter-in-law, I am not sure if you acknowledge me or not, but anyway, I only want to make my husband happy. Ma, do you want to stay with us? Or even if you won’t stay with us in this house, would you like to stay in the city so that we could come and visit you from time to time?” Cayenne pulled the pot of tulips as well as the pot of sunflowers that Stefan gave her and placed YES and NO on the two pots respectively. “Ma, these are the choices you have, can you tell me what it is you really feel? I promise I will do my best to fulfill it for the sake of my husband.”

Latticia stared at the pot of sunflower for a long time before shifting her gaze back to Cayenne. Her eyes didn’t even waver when she made the choice.

“Then, would you like Stefan to tell your parents about your well-being?”

She looked at the sunflower once again.

“How about telling your brother about it?”

Latticia didn’t look at any of the flowers but chose to stare at Cayenne’s face. This led Cayenne to another question. “You are not sure whether we should tell him about you. Are you worried that he would tell your parents and cause them discomfort?”

Stefan’s mom shifted her gaze to the tulips.

One after another, Cayenne asked the questions she wanted to ask and told Latticia a lot of things about Stefan. She wanted the woman to be informed of her son and even though she wasn’t really saying any words, Cayenne could tell that the woman was happy from her the way her eyes sparkled.

“Ma, since it has come to this point, Stefan and I will do our best to keep this matter a secret. At the same time, we hope that you could stay in the city. It would be easier for us to visit you, help you, talk with you and bring you good news. I am sure that Stefan would want the same thing.”

After half an hour, Stefan came to check on them and found his wife holding his mother’s hand while pressing it on her stomach. It was evident that she wanted the older lady to feel the life of her unborn grandchild. She wanted her to stay for the baby, at least.

“Will you stay for your grandchild?”

Latticia finally shifted her gaze to the tulip flowers before shifting it back to Cayenne’s stomach. She was really excited about the life that slowly formed inside her daughter-in-law.

Witnessing this moment, Stefan snapped a picture quickly. This would be one of the proofs that his mother once visited them and felt her grandchild inside Cayenne’s stomach. When the day comes and their child would ask about their grandmother, he has a photo of her that shows she was alive when they were developing inside their mom’s womb.

Since she decided to stay for the grandchild, Stefan and Cayenne discussed this matter with Dr. Albert. No matter what happened, they couldn’t deny the fact that Latticia wanted to spend her time with this man now. They weren’t sure if it was to repay his kindness but they knew that they didn’t have the right to decide on this thing.

Thankfully, Dr. Albert agreed.

Now, for his mother, they have several goals. One, they should tell Stanley about her being alive but they needed to make sure that her parents wouldn’t find out about it because they were already old. She was afraid that they would shock them to death. Second, they needed to find a house close to them where she could stay with the doctor without anyone knowing that she was related to Stefan at all. Third, they must hide her from Magnus at all costs.

“How about we make a log cabin near the man-made lake?” Cayenne suggested before going to sleep. Even though she still needed to go to Xena University the next day to attend her class, she couldn’t seem to fall asleep. She was just so happy for Stefan that his mother chose to stay. “You said that she was staying in a log cabin with the doctor while they were in City D. Maybe both of them are comfortable in that kind of house. Why don’t we make one for them? If ever someone asks who owns the place, we can just say that it is our resting place when we go fishing in the lake.”

“That sounds good. I’ll ask them tomorrow. For now, you have to go to sleep because you still have class.”

“O-okay. Fine. Fine. Let’s talk about this tomorrow with them.”

However, when tomorrow came, Cayenne was not able to discuss this matter with Dr. Albert and Latticia. She got occupied with the interior room design that Stefan showed her. It was the design of their baby’s room which Solomon’s team has spent so much time measuring last time since Stefan wanted a lot of things for the child. There were several designs that she could choose from depending on the gender of their baby which they will find out in the next few weeks.

“You are really looking forward to being a dad, huh,” Cayenne commented while checking the designs. Instead of answering her or giving her a reply, Stefan only smiled. He was afraid she would flip up if he tells her the truth – that she only cared for the baby because he didn’t want her to be worried all the time.

All in all, he was doing these things for her sake.

[Am I a bad father in a sense?] Stefan thought to himself at this point. [It’s not that I won’t love our child, I just love their mother even more.]

As the saying goes, don’t speak of something if you haven’t experienced yet because you don’t know what your future has in store for you. Like Stefan, he has no idea that his children will steal his heart someday. But this would be a story in the future.

For now, what he needed to solve was how to hide his mother. They just talked that they have to hide the truth from Magnus no matter what but Magnus has come marching because of worry about what happened in the last few days. He was already at the foyer taking off his shoes.