She's My Sleeping Pill

750 BABY OR WIFE?

‘Ber’ months, the last quarter of the year and it started with September. When the first day of September comes, you will start hearing a lot of Christmas songs. It is the season of love and giving. Time quickly passed by that Cayenne felt her life was caught in a whirlwind. Looking back, it has been three years since she started living with Stefan. It all started with a mistake that happened in a hotel and from then on, they were inseparable. Who would have thought that they would last until this moment?

Her prayers have been answered and she couldn’t thank God enough for giving her so many blessings. A lot happened that came in their relationship but their bond was a lot stronger than any other external forces in the world.

“Do you want to use this coat or this one?” Stefan asked while showing her two different coats which were given to her by Luna and Manager Kim. It gets a lot colder around this time of the year and Stefan wanted to add another layer of fabric to keep her warm.

“I’ll go for the peach colored.” And as expected, Stefan has a matching coat with whatever she has as well. People have learned that when you gift them something, it has to come in pairs. Stefan will be very happy if that is the case. In all of the things that they owned; you could count on one finger the things that they weren’t matched. “Cheska will probably kick us out the next time she sees us. We are bothering her too much.”

“She’s earning from us,” Stefan responded and Cayenne could only sigh helplessly.

She thought that she’d be the freak one after getting pregnant; that she’d be nagging about her diet, the cleanliness of their house, her nutrition, and whatnot. It was the opposite. Cayenne was chill about it while keeping in mind that she should always be careful. Instead, Stefan was always in constant fear that something will happen to her and their baby.

He monitored her food intake, making sure that she was getting enough nutrients and keeping tabs on the sweets that she eats. Unlike before when she could eat as many sweets as she wants; now she could only eat desserts once a day and that’s during breakfast to get her through the day.

Not only that, he scheduled her to go for a checkup every Saturday. Just imagine how tiring it was for her to wake up and go to the doctor; she already had this premonition that Cheska will pass her to someone else in the future. However, Cayenne didn’t have the heart to tell him ‘No’.

Compared to him, she has it easy even though she was the one carrying the baby. Stefan has to wake up early to personally cook for her and since he didn’t want to entrust her life to someone else, he became her personal driver who sends her to school before going to his company.

.....

During lunch, he has to check the food that his hotel chef prepared for her. He even had to search for healthy food recipes for his pregnant wife and request them for the chef to make.

At night, he could not even get a night of proper sleep because she kept tossing and turning beside him, and when she woke up to use the bathroom, Stefan would wake up as well. He won’t sleep until she does.

Yet, she never heard him complain – not even once.

“Hon,” Cayenne spoke on their way to Senyu Medical Hospital. “I talked to Jill about pregnancy since she experienced it already and she told me to come over if we have time because she wants to give me something. Do you have something scheduled in the afternoon?”

“Weekend is for you.”

“Right. I forgot.” Cayenne expressed and chuckled at his words. “Shall we go somewhere tomorrow? How about getting a foot massage? Oh! You can have a full body.”

“That sounds good. I’ll request a home service. I don’t want you to go outside that often. It’s already bad enough that you’d have to go on trips as part of your subject requirement. I can’t bear it if bad happens to you and the child.”

Sometimes, he can be overdramatic. She didn’t hate it though.

When they arrived at the hospital, they didn’t need to ask which floor or which wing they should go to, they have memorized the way to Cheska’s office already and they can even find it with their eyes closed. That’s how obsessed Stefan was with the health of his wife and their baby.

“Every time I see your face, I want to say something but before I realized that I have earned so much in my profession because of you. Travis wasn’t even as obsessed as you when Jill got pregnant for the first time.”

“Save your sermon,” Stefan told Cheska and sat on the swivel chair next to Cayenne. “No matter what you say, I won’t change my mind.”

“Oh! I won’t bother doing so. I want to be filthy rich like you.”

“Tsk! You have to work hard if that’s what you want.”

Cayenne knew that her checkup schedule was abnormal compared to other pregnant women. In normal pregnancy, as long as there are no complications, women would go for checkups once every four weeks from the first time they learned of their pregnancy until the fetus turned 26 weeks old. Then it would change to once every three weeks; and then once every two weeks until the doctor monitors you for labor, once a week.

Who goes for checkups every weekend from the time they learned of their pregnancy? Only Cayenne does.

Three days ago, in Stefan’s office, Elena was writing down the changes to Stefan’s schedule. All those appointments that were scheduled on Saturdays were moved to weekdays and his working days would start at 9:00 AM (right after dropping off his wife at Xena University) with a lunch break that starts at 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM, and work ends at 5:00 PM. No overtime.

“Boss, I’m not trying to question your authority since Ms. Yen is your wife, but is it necessary to go for a checkup every weekend?” Elena inquired, the very brave employee who dared to ask Stefan about his decision. Even Tristan didn’t raise this when they talked last time.

“I’m not doing this for no reason. I know that most pregnant women won’t do this thing and I understand that. I am just worried for my wife. You know that she had been looking forward to having a baby and now that this blessing has come, I wanted to treasure it and take care of it by taking care of her. I heard that the first three months are very crucial to the development of the baby. Knock on the wood and if, just if something happens to our child, Yen will be devastated. I don’t want to see my wife in tears. I am always afraid of that.”

In short, Stefan was taking care of the child because of his wife. It may sound harsh but his wife matters so much to him. He just hoped that she won’t realize it.

In another country, far from where Cayenne and Stefan were, Dr. Albert arrived in front of a beautiful bungalow. It wasn’t majestic like the mansion that Stefan felt for Cayenne but the house felt warm and homey. Since he helped during the investigation against the Minato family, he was sentenced to one year in jail and another year of probation period. And now, he has finally returned.

Opening the door to the house, he found Latticia in the living room watching the recorded wedding footage of Cayenne and Stefan. Her condition has not improved and she looked thin.

“I’m back.” Dr. Albert announced but of course, with her paralyzed body, she could not turn round to see him. “Have you been watching him? Do you want to meet him?”

Latticia made an incomprehensible sound but Dr. Albert could not understand it. He looked for two different things in the living room and placed them in front of her. “You can move your eyeballs, right? If you want to see him, look at the book in my right hand. If you don’t want to, look at the book in my left hand. So, which is it?”