Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

“We’re not hiding anything from Daddy any longer.
    “I want you to be happy,” she added, “as happy as I am.”
    She spent the rest of the night working on the baby clothes Daddy and Mother had bought for the Asa they had thought was coming. In the morning, she wanted to bring my breakfast up to me as well, but I insisted on going downstairs.
    “Well, you do need to exercise,” she said. “But I want you to be extra careful on the stairway. In fact, always call me before you go up or down, okay?”
    Suddenly, now that my pregnancy was out in the open, she was going to be a real mother hen. It should have made me feel better to know she cared so much, but I knew what she was really worrying about was the baby, not me.

    “Look, Semantha, I’m not going to be looking over your shoulder every minute of the day, but there are many things you should avoid and should not do. Don’t dare sneak any of Daddy’s alcohol or drink any wine with dinner anymore.”
    “I wish I never had,” I said.
    “Before you take anything for anything, check with me. No aspirin. Aspirin can cause bleeding and you remember how Mother hemorrhaged. I don’t want you drinking coffee until after Asa’s born. Caffeine might cause a child to contract diabetes. Be careful when and if you go outside. Avoid insect bites.”
    “I would even if I weren’t pregnant, Cassie.”
    “More so now,” she emphasized. “Don’t go scavenging for food. You’ll eat the wrong things. Just eat what I give you. If you’re still hungry, tell me. Stay away from the microwave. You probably didn’t notice, but I took away your electric blanket. You wouldn’t use it now, anyway, but you have on cold, rainy days. I don’t want you near the cleaning products anymore, and no more long, hot baths.”
    “All this came out of the books you read?”
    “Yes, and they’re all written by experts.”
    “It only makes me feel like more of a prisoner, thank you.”
    “It’s for Asa’s sake. Think only of him now,” she said.
    “I thought you were thinking of me, too.”
    “Of course, I am. If you’re unhealthy, he’s going to be.”
    “That wasn’t what I meant.”

    “What did you mean?”
    “Forget about it, Cassie. I’m tired.”
    “Then go to bed. Always lie down when you’re tired.”
    “How often should I breathe?” I asked under my breath. If she heard me, she ignored it.
    My rage at Cassie didn’t subside over the next few weeks, no matter how much she pampered me. At times, just to see her work harder, I pretended to be in some sort of pain or greater fatigue. I flew into my own little tantrums, rejecting the food she made, complaining about the taste, and forcing her to make me something different. She blamed it on my pregnancy, claiming my emotional ups and downs were typical of a pregnant woman.
    Nevertheless, it did my heart good to hear her running up and down the stairs. I could see that the effort to please me, to make sure I was comfortable and well, was taking a toll on her. She looked more tired at times than I was, and if she hadn’t cared about her appearance before, she looked as if she wanted to destroy it deliberately now. Her hair was straggly. She didn’t change clothes for days. I thought she neglected bathing as well and told her she smelled and it was nauseating.
    Almost daily now, I said and did everything I could to upset her, but nothing stopped her, and she rarely permitted herself to lose her temper or even show any anger for fear it would upset me. After all, as she told me often during the past days, stress was unhealthy for a pregnant woman.
    What did upset me and give me great stress wasto see that Daddy wasn’t in any way forgiving me. He rarely smiled at me, and if I did catch him looking at me, it was always with a face full of disappointment and sadness. It made my heart ache. Where was the miracle Cassie had sworn she would create when it came to him? Not only did that never happen, but one night, I overheard her talking to him in the living room when they both thought I was sleeping upstairs. I was about to join them when I heard Cassie apologizing for not telling him about me sooner.
    “Please don’t be angry at me,” she pleaded. “I didn’t keep her secret to protect her, Daddy. I did it to protect you, to protect our family.”
    “I know,” he said. “It’s just that I’m so deeply disappointed in her.”
    “Don’t you think I am, too? All these years, I tried to be a big