Chapter 1839 Carsten’s Autism
The snow was falling heavily. Jepherson put away the phone and took Raeleigh back into the house. The two stood inside and watched the snow. Meanwhile, Hadrian and Scarlette were busy in the kitchen, not daring to make a sound.
The Richards family manor remained quiet when winter was approaching. None of the family members returned even on New Year’s Day. Raeleigh went to the yard and waited for them in advance, but no one came back.
After New Year’s Day, Raeleigh returned to her home with Jepherson. Her family members were all surprised to see her pregnant when she got home. They did not expect Raeleigh to be pregnant after being missing for several months. Moreover, she was almost due.
Everyone in the Osteen family knew that Raeleigh stayed because of the baby inside her belly.
Undoubtedly, the baby was Jepherson’s. However, they wondered where Santiago went.
Since Raeleigh said nothing, no one dared to ask about it. They all ignored the incident and silently forgot about it.
After staying at Raeleigh’s home for a month, Jepherson decided to take Raeleigh back with the excuse of solving the company’s matters. At this time, the Osteen family was not willing to let Raeleigh leave.
However, Novalie wanted Raeleigh to return to Waverly Village to deliver her child because she hoped that the child would be born there.
When Raeleigh left, Jazelle offered to follow her back. She was worried that no one would take care of her.
But Raeleigh refused as she had her own plan.
Despite that, Raeleigh realized that she couldn’t go anywhere even after giving birth.
Jepherson was watching over her even more strictly than before.
When the child was one month old, Raeleigh thought that Santiago would come back. But he did not.
Jepherson believed that he and Raeleigh should get married as they already had two children together. Therefore, although Raeleigh was still young at that time, he went to the Osteen family to retrieve the necessary documents and applied for their marriage certificate in Capital City.
This time, they were remarried.
After collecting their marriage certificate, Jepherson tore it into pieces and threw it into the fire in front of Raeleigh as she stood there holding the baby with a look of disbelief in her eyes.
“You can’t divorce me without a marriage certificate, and no one in the law dares to judge me,” he said.
Raeleigh adjusted the baby in her arms. “You are despicable!”
“I truly am. This is not the first time already.”
After that day, Jepherson began to prepare for the wedding. Of course, Raeleigh was unwilling to marry him nor cooperate with him, but she was still forced to take the wedding photos.
When Raeleigh saw the wedding photos, she smiled. She thought Jepherson looked silly when holding their child.
Now, Raeleigh no longer needed to do any house chores. Jepherson took care of their child himself. Since Raeleigh could not produce any breast milk, the baby only drank formula.
Jepherson hired someone to take care of their child, so Raeleigh did not need to clean up or cook. He also hired professional chefs to cook for her. She only needed to order what she wanted to eat.
The only thing Raeleigh did was exercise every day. Sometimes, her children came to see her, but they were not close to her at all.
Raeleigh felt that she failed as a mother as her children were not close to her.
One day, when Carsten came to visit Raeleigh, he hugged her thigh tightly, as if he did not want to leave her side. Raeleigh stared at him and realized that he had already grown up and could walk. However, they had not come back yet.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Raeleigh pinched Carsten’s chubby cheek and he chuckled and stayed in her arms, unwilling to leave.
After finishing his work, Jepherson put down his glasses, then walked to Carsten and picked him up.
“You are as fat as a meatball. Why do you keep throwing yourself into your mother’s arms?”
He patted Carsten’s buttocks as if he was teaching him a lesson, then put him on his shoulder and looked at Raeleigh. “Take a rest.”
Raeleigh looked at him. “I want to rest with Carsten.”
“I didn’t forbid you from doing that. You’ve been isolating yourself.”
He turned around and returned to the room with Carsten in his arms. Raeleigh had already lost track of when she began sleeping alone. ‘Perhaps after we got married.’
Raeleigh and Jepherson’s extravagant wedding had become the talk of Capital City.
But from that night on, they slept in separate rooms. Jepherson had taken their child and slept upstairs, while she slept downstairs alone.
Jepherson did not ask her to join him upstairs, so she had been living downstairs until now.
At this moment, Raeleigh realized that she was the one who did not want to be with them all the time.
She followed them upstairs and found Carsten lying on the bed like a prince. Jepherson doted on Carsten immensely. Although Carsten was already over one year old, he was still dependent on Jepherson. He moved to lie on the floor with his legs up as he waited for Jepherson to serve him.
Jepherson took off his clothes one by one and asked Carsten if he wanted to take a shower. Carsten shook his head, and Jepherson helped him change into his pyjamas. Raeleigh sat down aside and shook her head in disappointment when she saw Carsten’s attitude.
“You’re not a baby anymore. Do what you can do yourself.” With that, Carsten stared at her with his clear eyes but did not answer.
After changing his clothes, Carsten sat down and played with a pile of toys, unwilling to go to bed. Raeleigh felt frustrated at his response.
“Why doesn’t he respond to my words at all?”
Jepherson replied, “He can’t talk yet. What do you want him to do?”
Raeleigh froze for a moment. “He can already walk. Why can’t he talk?”
“Have you ever heard him talk?” Jepherson frowned.
Raeleigh asked worriedly, “He can’t hear too?”
“He can hear.”
Afraid that Raeleigh would worry, Jepherson raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Carsten turned around and looked at them, then continued to play.
Raeleigh frowned. “Why?”
“He’s still a child, after all, and he lacks maternal love. He doesn’t like to talk because he is autistic. Only sometimes, when he’s happy, he might approach others like a normal child.”
Raeleigh was stunned and did not respond. She stared at Jepherson. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“You didn’t want to talk to me and only stared blankly at the photos all day. What do you want me to say? The doctor said that you had postpartum depression.”
Raeleigh stared at him. “How is this possible?”
“How is it not possible?”
…
The two of them fell into silence for a long time and none of them spoke.
After a long while, Jepherson walked over to Carsten and lifted him like a baby chick. Then, he put him in Raeleigh’s arms.
“He always felt overjoyed when you hugged him, but every time, you ignored him. Perhaps he has gradually gotten used to your attitude and began mimicking you, or perhaps he was born this way. That’s why he became like this.”
Raeleigh held Carsten in her arms and cried all night.
The next morning, Raeleigh followed Jepherson to the hospital to treat Carsten. There was a specialist in Waverly Village. However, it was not Carsten’s first time seeing him. This time, the doctor said, “Please go back. We have no other way to treat him now. Let’s see if he’s willing to talk in the future. If he’s willing to speak, then it’ll be easy for him to recover.”
From that day on, Raeleigh began to talk to Carsten and spent most of her time with him. However, despite being four years old, Carsten still could not talk.
Raeleigh and Jepherson were at a loss of what to do.
However, Raeleigh refused to teach Carsten sign language. She kept talking to him and hid her frustrations when he did not talk.