She's My Sleeping Pill

Julia stared into the drawing she painstakingly made in the past two months. She can't believe that her hard work was meaningless.

Knock. Knock. Knock

She instantly pulled the blueprint and rolled it quickly before stashing it away under her bed. She can't allow anyone to see the item – not even her own mother.

After making sure that the blueprint was hidden properly, she rubbed her eyes to pretend that she had woken up from her sleep. She even yawned upon opening the door.

"Mom," she muttered when she found her mother standing outside her room. "Do you need something from me?"

"Yes. I just finished finalizing the property sales agreement for all our properties in Italy. In the future, they will be yours. Now, I want us to find our own place where you can live for the rest of your life with your husband."

One of Julia's eyebrows perked up when she heard her mother's statement and for a moment, she narrowed her eyes in wonder. "You talked with Stefan about this mansion, right? I thought I heard him say that he will be giving this to us."

Celestine went inside her daughter's room even without any invitation. She felt that there was no need to ask for permission, "Stefan talked to me about it, but I felt that we should not accept the offer. I mean, the house was given to him, and I want us to have our own home – something we can call ours. I don't want us to be indebted to him."

"Is that so? I personally think that we should accept the offer. I mean, Stefan would never ever live in this house again. Most of his memories in this house were horrible and surely, he won't keep this place for long."

Celestine didn't want to voice out her agreement but at the back of her mind, she knew that Julia wasn't wrong. "Anyway, let's find a place of our own. I don't care what Stefan planned for this place. It doesn't matter to me anymore."

Julia didn't argue with her mom again. She didn't want her to get suspicious and thought that she was still harboring ill intentions toward the couple – not that she can deny that fact though.

Celestine talked to her for a few more minutes before leaving her room. The moment she left; Julia's expression changed. She was running out of time. Her husband would be coming over in a couple of months and she wasn't done with all the things that she wanted to do.

*

The next day, Dr. Eliezer Rivera paid the Dumrique family a visit in the name of Zeki's checkup. Cayenne and Stefan were worried about their youngest child, so they asked Dr. Rivera to check on Zeki a month after he was born. At first, Dr.

Rivera suggested bringing the child to the hospital for monthly monitoring and health checkup, but Cayenne didn't want the public to know that Zeki was a little special.

After a lot of persuasion and with the signed agreement between the doctor and the parents, Eli finally agreed to just monitor the child and see if there was anything odd about him.

Today was just one of the usual appointments that Cayenne scheduled for Zeki to be checked by his doctor. However, she reminded the doctor to bring his girlfriend along because she wanted to know her a little as someone who worked for Luiz.

Unfortunately, Isabelle Ignacio was unable to accompany Dr. Rivera this time.

"She needed to visit a place with a friend. It's a very important trip that she can't miss," Dr. Rivera told Cayenne after taking a seat on the couch in the living room while Cayenne placed Zeki on her lap. "If you need her for something important, I will give you her number. Just contact her whenever you have the time."

"O-okay. Thank you," Cayenne muttered and didn't pursue the topic. She didn't want the doctor to feel uncomfortable around her because she was poking her nose into something that she shouldn't bother herself with. "Anyway, let's talk about my child. Stefan will be here soon after putting the other kids to sleep."

"No worries," Dr. Rivera said while taking out Zeki's observation file from his briefcase. "Two months ago, he said his first word which was 'Dada' and based on scientific study and observation from several groups of babies from different races, babies would usually say those words around 8 months old, but they didn't really know what it meant.

However, we could tell that Zeki knows what exactly 'Dada' means. The problem was that there was no progress in his learning after the first word he ever said, right?"

Cayenne nodded solemnly. "We were very happy when he called Stefan 'Dada'. Stefan was delighted and even threw a family gathering because of that. Babies should be able to say a few more words as they continue to grow, right?"

"That is true. Are you sure that he never said anything after that incident?"

"A thousand percent sure," Cayenne answered and sighed. "Stefan wanted to record every word that the kids say, so he installed recording devices in many locations of this house. To our disappointment, after asking several bodyguards to check the audio recordings, there was nothing."

Dr. Rivera shifted his attention from Cayenne to Zeki. He stared into the kid's eyes once again. He had done this so many times already and he was certain that Zeki didn't have any mental issues. Poking his tongue to the inner side of his cheek, Dr. Rivera thought of something.

"Would you allow me to bring your child somewhere? Of course, you can come with us."

"Where are you planning to take him? My husband is obsessed with the children's safety. I know you're a doctor, but something might happen, and you will be held responsible for it."

"Then, how about staying home while I take your son somewhere? I mean, your presence would catch a lot of attention, so I think it's better if I take your son alone. I only plan to bring him to my place."

"Can you bring a bodyguard with you, at least?"

"Sure. Which one would you like me to take?"

Cayenne pulled out her phone immediately and dialed Nikolai's contact number. The latter took a few seconds before answering her call and when he did, he apologized automatically. It was as if he knew what Cayenne was calling him for. "An important trip?" Cayenne muttered and somehow, she had a bad feeling about this. "Where are you going?"

Nikolai answered her question over the phone and since she didn't put the call on a loudspeaker, there was no way for Dr. Rivera to know his answer.

"Alright. Since it's your day off, I won't force you, but Naga City is quite far from here. I hope you'll get back here before I leave for work tomorrow."

In front of her, Cayenne noticed the deep frown on Dr. Rivera's face, but she didn't want to know the reason.