Where the Streets Have No Name
Chapter 49
As the months progressed, morning sickness finally relented its iron grip over Carmen's body. Edward exhaled a breath of relief, hoping it would finally bring some much needed reprieve for Carmen.
For a week or two, she did seem less distraught. She slept better through the night, she ate to her heart's content for the first time in months, and she even ventured outside the house a few times to meet up with her friend, Kate.
Edward was beginning to feel optimistic.
Sadly, his hopes were short lived.
As her pregnancy progressed and her body shifted and grew to accommodate the baby inside, Carmen began to get frantically wary of any increase in her weight that couldn't be accounted for by the weight of the baby.
The pain and distress Carmen suffered as a result of morning sickness paled in comparison to her new affliction.
She plunged into depression and refused to eat every time the scale registered a spike. She cried and sobbed as her wardrobe failed to meet the need of her growing girth.
Edward tried to stop her from weighing herself everyday. He told her how beautiful she looked. But nothing could reach the dark depths of her psyche. As the days passed, she grew more and more obsessed with her weight.
Even the combined efforts of Dr. de Luzlow and Dr. Miller bore limited results.
Edward was scared. He knew how great a risk Carmen was at of suffering a psychotic break. He couldn't stay home with her everyday, yet he was afraid to leave her in the house by herself.
Carmen had a few friends, but he couldn't expect any of them to give up their life to keep his wife company all day.
He thought of Elvira. Even though he didn't particularly like the woman and suspected that much of Carmen's emotional problems could be directly attributed to Elvira's rigid style of parenting, he had to consider that she was after all Carmen's mother. Perhaps her presence would help in some way.
He pitched the idea to Carmen of inviting her mother to stay with them for a few months, maybe until the baby was born. Carmen rejected it vehemently. She had never told her mother about her illness, and she wasn't ready to confide in her now.
She also vetoed Edward's proposal to hire a private nurse, insisting that she had a good handle over things on her own.
She wouldn't hear of having Edward's mother come and stay with them either.
As the narrow pool of ideas began to dry, Edward's anxiety grew manifold. The pressure began to take its toll on him as well. The long hours spent in school and even longer hours waiting on Carmen left him zapped of energy and patience.
Edward helplessly realized that he was rapidly reaching his own breaking point, yet the end was nowhere in sight.
Thank you Lulabelle98, HeidiJoVT, and Dinx.