She's My Sleeping Pill

Right now, she could only exercise her body as lightly as she could.

Going downstairs, she found a small box on the coffee table in the living room. She knew she didn’t order anything online and knew that Stefan didn’t do it either because she didn’t get any notice about him spending money on something. Yet, the receiver of the item was certainly her.

“Carla?” She called for their chef at home while carrying the box which was a little heavy. “Carla, do you know who sent this gift?”

Carla looked at the box and remembered who sent it last night after Cayenne and Stefan went to bed to rest the night away. “It was a young man, about Justin’s age. He came with two other men and gave this to the security guard. They assured me that the boy meant well and this box was checked by Autumn already. It has nothing dangerous inside it.”

Cayenne didn’t know who the boy was but she remembered that the bodyguards talk to a boy while she was waiting for Kyle outside the police station last time. When the bodyguards and Kyle came back, they told her that the woman they saved had reunited with her son and realized what she should do best. They didn’t go into detail and Cayenne didn’t dwell on it as well. Who would have thought that she would be receiving a gift from them when could be considered not doing anything?

Going back to the living room, Cayenne pulled the scissors inside the small drawer of the coffee table, opened the wrapped box and the content surprised her even more. Inside the box were two pairs of slippers from a luxurious brand. The size was hers and Stefan’s.

“I thought they were poor?” Cayenne questioned herself based on what she knew. Kyle didn’t really tell her the whole story but she recalled that he said the woman was beaten up by her husband every day. “Why would he beat her if they were rich?”

When Kyle came downstairs to take the dogs for a walk, he saw his sister in the living room, pondering over something with so much confusion showing on her face. “Good morning, sis.” He greeted her and rubbed her head, “What’s gotten you all moody?”

.....

“This one,” Cayenne said while raising the gifts with both hands. “I received them from the boy whose mother you saved the other day. I was wondering where he got the money to buy this.”

“He bought this?” Kyle got intrigued, too. “I thought they were poor?”

“I have another problem aside from this?”

“And that it?”

“I didn’t help so; I don’t deserve this. However, several bodyguards helped us and there was you as well. How should we divide this gift?”

Kyle didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry at his sister’s silliness. He was really worried that something bad has happened early in the morning.

Because of this, Cayenne talked to the bodyguards as well as Kyle about the gift she got. In the end, since the size was perfect for her and Stefan, the employees refused to take it and Kyle didn’t want it either. The slippers were meant for her and her husband.

As soon as Stefan woke up and found his wife doing yoga in the living room, he walked up to her and kissed her lips. “How many minutes have you been doing that?”

“Around quarter an hour? I was supposed to do this earlier but I got distracted because of some gifts. Anyway, my class today will start at 10 o’clock in the morning.”

Stefan’s attention was shifted to the gifts on the table in front of Cayenne and with just one look, he could tell that the sizes were his and hers. “Who sent these gifts?”

“They are from the family that we helped last time. He sent this last night after we went to bed.”

All throughout the day, Cayenne was really bothered about where the boy got the money to spend for that gift he sent. If what the bodyguards said was true, the boy’s family should not be wealthy. Just thinking how much they spent on that gift was already shaking the core of her conscience.

Even during lunch, Stefan noticed her gloominess and no matter how much he tried to cheer her up, she didn’t genuinely smile at him.

Around 3:00 in the afternoon, Elena received a call and the man who was a shareholder of Dumrique’s shipping line. He didn’t have prior appointments with Stefan but Magnus told him that Stefan’s schedule will not be so tightly packed in the afternoon since he will be preparing to go home.

Elena pressed the intercom connecting to Stefan’s office and when he answered, she immediately informed him about the call. “Sir, Mr. Doyle wants to talk to you.”

“Doyle? Which Doyle?”

“Mr. Isaac Doyle. He’s a senior shareholder from Dumrique’s shipping line.”

“Alright. Just transfer the call to me,”

Surprisingly, Isaac Doyle was the father of Margarette Doyle Pachino, the woman who received a hellish beating from her husband and her son was Joven. The woman fell in love with someone against her father’s demand and order. She eloped with the man after stealing a lot of precious pieces of jewelry from her parents and pawned them. Determined to never let her father decides her fate, she married the man and after a year, they had a child.

At first, everything was going well. Her husband loved her so much, he got a new job that offers a great salary and they were just starting a blissful life after marriage. It was perfect.

Three years later, her husband got addicted to gambling and wasted their money in casinos. He suddenly started drinking and developed a horrible habit after getting drunk. Every time he arrives home, he would beat his wife and vent his anger on her for losing in a gamble, telling her that she was his misfortune.

It began with a slap on his face and more slaps the following days. Then, he started punching her arms and kicking her legs, causing her to bruise everywhere. But he was a good husband whenever he won some games. He’d buy them a lot of food and would even buy his son a toy. Seeing her son’s happy smile was the only thing that matters to Margarette at this point.

The beating only stopped when their son turned 5 years old up until he was 8 years old. She really thought her nightmare was over and that she has woken to the reality that her husband was still good to her. Yet, her hopes were shattered once again.

When Joven started going to school, his father found the chance to beat his wife once again without their son knowing anything because he was at school. He knew that his wife wouldn’t say anything either. She was a prideful and headstrong woman. She wouldn’t allow anyone to say that she made the wrong decision to choose him over her father’s choice for her. This went on and on, on and on, to the point that she was already limping and was having a hard time standing straight. When Joven asked her what happened, she made excuses just to keep him from knowing anything.

And that’s until he turned 14. He shouldn’t be coming home early since it was a weekday and classes were going on. However, he had been feeling anxious the whole day and he could not focus on his class. The choice he made that day actually saved his mom from death. She was beaten so hard that she was bleeding on her legs and she was even locked inside the wardrobe since morning. She hadn’t eaten anything yet and she was feeling a little dizzy and a little short of oxygen.

“Mom?” Joven called but the house was dead silent. He knew his mother should be home because she never likes going out; it wasn’t because she didn’t like to go out but because she couldn’t. Her bruises would alarm other people if they knew. “Mom?” he called once again while walking upstairs to the two-story apartment room. He found little drops of blood on the floor and following it, he was led to his parents’ room. Afraid that something bad has happened, he opened the door without knocking and saw the trail ended at the closet. There he found his mother trembling in fear.

She was obviously afraid but when he suggested leaving their father, she was so against the idea. She would rather die than leave him. He could not understand what was so good about his father that his mother couldn’t leave him and that irked him so much. To make sure that this won’t happen again, Joven started coming home as early as he could.

While she was suffering from all of these beatings, her father has been waiting for her to return. He thought that she would give up and come home soon, that she would leave his bastard of a husband – he was wrong! His daughter was the most prideful among his children. Even when she was on the brink of death, she refused to admit she was wrong.

Then, two days later, the police officer who received the report filed by Margarette and her son, noticed her middle name and remembered that a wealthy man in the city once said that his daughter was abducted. It was something they laughed at in the past because one week after he said she was abducted, his daughter married her ‘abductor’. Now, realizing what was happening, her father must have had a gut feeling that this would happen.