She's My Sleeping Pill

His heart ached for her but he didn’t know when the enemies would retaliate to them. All he could do was to prepare and reinforce the security around his family. He was also stressed with these seemingly unending problems. “Sweetheart, let me talk to Jill. I’ll coordinate with them.”

The New Year that she was looking forward to didn’t cheer Cayenne at all. Her mind kept wandering back to the incident earlier and her imagination was going wild with Napoleone getting into the picture. Without saying a word, she handed the phone to Stefan and let him speak with Jillyanna.

She tried eating the food he brought for her but she felt nauseous. In the end, she just drank the fruit shake that was given to her earlier.

“I’ll go upstairs first.” She stated and slowly lifted Luiz’s head and placed a pillow in exchange for her lap. “I want to rest. I feel dizzy.”

“You won’t eat?” Stefan questioned while covering the mouthpiece of the phone. “You should at least have something to fill your stomach.”

“I feel like throwing up right now.”

.....

“Alright. I’ll ask Lucia to prepare some easy-to-heat food for you later just in case you’d get hungry. I’ll be there soon.” He kissed her forehead and without saying a word, Cayenne left to get inside her room.

Dominic followed her with his gaze and sighed. He thought that was able to distract her but another news came to disturb her mind again. ‘Rich people have rich problems. Now that she’s married to my cousin, she will have to deal with his enemies, too. That means we’re also in the same shoes as her since we’re family, right?’ Dominic was so busy with his own thoughts that he didn’t notice the changes in Stefan’s expression.

Inside the master’s room, Cayenne saw the unopened gift boxes that they received during Christmas. She was planning to open them on Christmas day but she didn’t know that her husband has a different plan for them. Now, they were still occupying a lot of space in their room but she wasn’t in the mood to open them.

Right after taking a shower, she changed into another set of comfortable clothes and stayed on the balcony. The sky was dark and starless but her property has many lights installed giving her a bright view of her surroundings. She could see some of the guards roaming around – patrolling the area and checking the biosensors.

Looking at her, one would think she was deep in thought but in truth, her mind was blank. She was just staring into space with nothing in her mind. She was still shaking as if she was feeling cold but it was her lingering fear that caused her to tremble.

Stefan got inside their bedroom and found Cayenne right away. His footfalls can be heard clearly but when he approached her, she shrieked loudly and jumped to the side from fear.

“Ayen! Ayen?” Stefan pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. “It’s me. Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you okay?”

“I...I...” It took her a long time to organize her thoughts and realize where she was. She was quivering but the words she spouted didn’t match how she feels. “I’m fine.” She finally uttered and looked into his eyes but Stefan saw something different there. He could see her anxiety and fear.

“Do you want to sleep? Maybe you’d feel better after some sleep?” She nodded her head and he led her back to bed. He wanted to deny it and just go along with her but Stefan was very familiar with the expressions she was showing. She may have done her best to hide it but once you’re traumatized, the symptoms will always show up and he could see them in Cayenne.

Inside the bathroom, he punched the wall from the helplessness he felt. He promised to keep her safe but time and time again, they were thrown into a danger zone. He was sad for her and he couldn’t stop blaming himself.

‘Useless! Unreliable! Idiot!’ Stefan thought and with every word, his punch came along which caused his knuckles to bleed.

If it was a normal day, Cayenne would surely notice his bleeding hand but when Stefan came out of the shower, he found his wife staring into space once again. Her eyes were blank and she didn’t even turn her head to him. Stefan wiped the tears which were threatening to roll down his face as he got closer to her. She needed him. He needs to be strong for her.

“Hon,” Stefan called out while twirling some strands of her hair with his index finger. “Hon, let’s go somewhere tomorrow? Your family can come with us.” He intertwined their fingers and he kissed her knuckles which brought her back to him. “Class is about to start again.”

“Oh! Yeah. It’s about to start.” Cayenne stated in response and moved closer to him.

“Let’s go somewhere tomorrow? Travis told me that we can use Hacienda Amore for the time being since his father left the country for vacation. He wants us to stay there while we deal with some issues.”

“Okay.”

“Tomorrow, a friend of mine will come here. Can you stay with him while I attend the conference meeting?”

“Hn.” She has no idea that this ‘friend’ wasn’t just a simple friend but Stefan has no plan of telling her the real identity of this person at the moment. “Stefan.” She whispered with her eyes closed.

“I’m here.”

“Can you sing me a song?”

“My voice will probably keep you awake. I’ll hum a song for you instead.” Gently patting her back and caressing her head, Stefan started humming slowly to help her sleep.

The sound was very familiar to her and as she continued to listen, the lyrics of the song finally come to mind.

‘Just close your eyes, the sun is going down

You’ll be alright, no one can hurt you now

Come morning light, you and I’ll be safe and sound’

Cayenne sang the song in her mind, accompanying the sound he was making as she tightened her hold on him. She was afraid of letting go. She was afraid that he’d be gone the moment she woke up.

Stefan lost track of time and has fallen asleep with her in his arms but he knew he needed to be mentally prepared for the worse. And just as he expected, he was jolted awake when Cayenne screamed at the top of her lungs in the middle of the night.