She's My Sleeping Pill

[I've got to delete some of these later.] She reminded herself before borrowing her husband's phone.

After a few minutes of crawling, Zeki sat on the mat and looked toward his mother. He crawled back to her and raised the crumpled animal cards he was holding.

"Do you want me to read these to you?" Cayenne asked and Zeki let out some gibberish noises which she took as affirmation. "Come here little guy," she said as he handed the phone back to Stefan and picked her child up. She nestled him on her lap and let him lean on her chest so he could see the animal pictures. She tried to straighten the crumpled cards and showed the first animal to her son.

"This is a tiger. The tiger is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus Panthera. It is most recognizable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside." Zeki nodded his head which made Cayenne smile. She wasn't sure if her son was understanding what she just said, but he seemed really interested in them. "Next, we have a zebra."

She would introduce the animal first and give a brief description of it. Every time she showed him another animal card, he would wave his hands cheerfully.

Stefan took a short video of his wife and son, and he uploaded It on his social media account, unedited. It immediately caught the attention of the netizens and received different reactions from them. However, since he was spending time with his family, he didn't read the comments that people posted right below his post.

While playing, Cayenne noticed the gathering of dark clouds over them and told her husband about it. "Let's go home. We've played enough for today. Let's visit him again when we have time."

Stefan hummed his answer with no hesitation. He silently bid farewell to his brother and went back to the car with Cayenne and the children.

A few minutes after they left, it started raining cats and dogs. Stefan told the driver to drive slowly and carefully. It didn't matter if they would arrive at night or the next day as long as his family was fine.

Cayenne and Stefan chatted about Julia and Celestine while the kids played on their own with alphabetical blocks between their parents.

Perhaps it was the sound of the pitter-patter of the rain; Aziel fell asleep effortlessly. Cayenne moved him up a little to have a pillow and placed a hotdog pillow to separate him from the other children. He was sleeping peacefully as if he wasn't riding a van.

The rain continued to pour and Cayenne's brothers started calling her out of worry. By the time they arrived home, it was almost 8:00 PM yet no one had their dinner yet, except for the helpers and the bodyguards who were told to eat first and make sure they'd be ready to assist should there be a need. They were worried sick for the whole family who left to visit the deceased.

"Thank God you are home," Kyle expressed and took Aziel who just woke up in the bodyguard's arms. "The torrential rain got me really worried for all of you."

"I told you I was fine," Cayenne retorted while flicking Kyle's forehead. "Stop being a worrywart. Besides, Stefan was with me the whole time. You know how obsessed he is with my safety. Nothing would go wrong when he is with me."

"It was Luiz who made me overthink," Kyle said and blamed his younger brother who was in the kitchen setting up the table.

"I can hear you from here!" Luiz yelled at the top of his lungs. "I only asked 'What could have taken them so long?' I didn't know you would be overthinking."

"You can't blame me," Kyle responded while kissing his nephew's forehead. "Some people out there are still holding grudges. A lot of things could happen."

Hearing his statement, Stefan approached Kyle and gently patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. I will be taking care of that tomorrow."

Kyle nodded his head knowing that his brother-in-law would keep his word. Now that his worry was gone, Stefan and Cayenne decided to take a quick shower first. With Kyle's supervision, Stefan called out the two helpers who were possible candidates to become the children's nannies. They were told to clean the triplets and keep them warm.

They already drank their milk on their way home, so there was no need to feed them again.

"I'll leave the kids in your care," Cayenne told her brother and went upstairs to change her clothes.

"Come back soon to have dinner!" Luiz shouted from the kitchen again.

Stefan replied 'We will' and left with his wife.

Left alone in the kitchen with the helpers and bodyguards around him, Luiz put his hands on his waist and looked at them. "Those who have taken their dinner already, please exchanged your posts with the others so those who haven't eaten yet would be able to do so." Then, he turned to Carla and instructed her as well. "See to it that they have a proper meal."

"Yes, sir... I mean... yes, Luiz."

"Good."

***

"Where have you been?" Celestine questioned her daughter when she came home late at night. She hadn't seen her the whole day and she was worried that she did something stupid again. "Elliot said that you left early this morning. What are you busying yourself with?"

Julia was already on her way up to the second floor when her mother came out of the kitchen and questioned her. She rolled her eyes before facing his mother and responded haughtily, "I am old enough to take care of myself. Do I have to ask for your permission every single time I'd like to go out?"

"Can you blame me?" Celestine retorted with her hands crossed over her chest. "I'm your mother. I know very well what kind of woman you are. I am afraid that you are going to do something you would regret."

"Regret? Ha!" Julia scoffed and went downstairs to face her mother properly. "What kind of regret Mom? Like what you are feeling right now?"

Celestine frowned and put down her hands on her side, "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come on! Are you going to pretend in front of me? Your daughter? I know you've gone all soft and guilty of all the things that happened. Why? Tell me why!"

"Honey, it's not what you think it is. Well, maybe a little, but can we talk this out? There's something I need to tell you."

"Yeah. Sure. I'll hear you out. I'll listen to how coward you are, and maybe - "

Pak!

Celestine couldn't take it anymore and slapped her daughter. "Don't. You. Dare. Talk. To.

Me. Like. That. I am still your mother! And if you think I'm sorry for slapping you, well, I'm not. It's either you listen to me or you go back to Italy and forget I'm your mother.

You're big enough to take care of yourself anyway."

Right after saying her piece, Celestine left Julia in the living room without looking back. The latter was crying in silence while pressing her hand on her. It was the first time that her mother ever slapped her. Never in her wildest dream did she think that she would be hurt this way.

"I hate you, Mom! I hate you! I hate all of you!"