After Five Years Of Marriage

Chapter 5

Dylan walked toward their bed and saw the divorce papers on the headboard. He had not read them yet, as there were two copies, and they had been given to him when he was already leaving Rosie's house.

Dylan took one of the divorce papers and glanced through it before putting it into his black briefcase and shutting it closed. Then he went into his bathroom to bathe.

He decided to prepare for office work, thinking to read the divorce papers in his office.

*****

Jessica rushed downstairs into the living room and saw her two children sitting on the couch, eating the popcorn from the previous night that she had used to keep herself awake while waiting for Dylan to return home.

She saw that the living room wall clock read 8:35 a.m., and she knew that her two children were already very late for school.

"Mummy! Mummy!" Caleb and Nina both rushed up to hug Jessica's legs as soon as she stepped down into the living room.

Caleb asked: "Mummy, are we not going to school today?"

Jessica knew that her two children were already late for school, and she knew that if their former maid had been around, the maid would have helped her prepare the two children for school, bathed them before she woke up from sleep, and prepared their breakfasts too.

The maid would even have assisted Caleb and Nina in having their breakfasts on the dining table, but now Jessica had to do it all alone, as Dylan was now strongly against them having any maid.

Jessica had thought that the young maid had tried to seduce her husband in her absence, but after the maid left,

Jessica had not received any complaint of such a report from the maid's parents, and the housemaid had even cried to be sent away without doing anything wrong to offend Jessica.

Jessica had given the young maid extra money as she told the maid that she would still be going to her school and would not stop paying the maid's school fees, even though the maid was no longer under her care.

The young maid had been very smart and nice, doing all her house chores alone even before Jessica would wake up from sleep or send the maid on an errand to do it.

Florence Gregson was a 15-year-old maid, and Jessica had seen how Florence cared for Caleb and Nina so much and even helped them with their homework like she was their real elder sister. Yet Florence was only a maid and not related to them.

"Time has gone for today, Caleb. Don't worry; I will try to wake up very early tomorrow morning to take you and Nina to school on time. Wait here; let me prepare something for you both to eat first, then I will prepare your bath afterwards," Jessica told her son as she smiled at him and squatted to meet his height along with her little daughter's height too.

Jessica stood up from squatting on the floor in front of her two children and went into the kitchen to prepare their breakfast.

Jessica wondered if Dylan was still serious about divorcing her, and she walked into the kitchen toward her cupboards to check what she would prepare.

She resumed mopping the kitchen floor, since she no longer had any maid.

After she finished cleaning the kitchen floor and cabinet tops, Jessica proceeded to prepare her children's breakfasts. She made noodles and fried eggs for them and stepped out to the dining table to serve their breakfasts.

The aroma of the fried eggs and delicious noodles that Jessica had prepared attracted her two children's nostrils, and they rushed up to meet her at the dining table to take their respective seats too.

Nina was too small and unable to climb the dining chair by herself, and she cried out, requesting for Jessica to carry her up.

On Nina's third attempt to climb the dining chair by herself, her little bottom crashed to the tiled floor, and she cried out: "Mummy!"

"Wait, Nina; I am coming," Jessica quickly rushed to carry Nina up in her arms. She dusted her little daughter's bottom and sat down with Nina on her thighs. She placed Nina to sit on her thighs and proceeded to feed Nina into her small mouth.

Nina continued to stretch her small hand to take the spoon away from Jessica's hand and feed herself, but Jessica refused as she continued to feed her daughter.

Jessica knew that her two children were happy children, and she did not want them to become sad when growing up, seeing that their parents were now quarreling and no longer in love with each other.

"Mummy, why are you crying?" Caleb asked, as he noticed that Jessica was crying silently, with tears freely rolling down from her eyes.

Nina tried to look up at her mother's face, as she was seated on Jessica's thighs and eating her noodles as Jessica fed her small mouth.

Nina tried to look up again at her mother's face to know if her mummy was truly crying, but just then, Jessica heard footsteps from behind her back. She quickly sniffed and plastered a fake smile on her face as she replied to Caleb: "I am not crying; I am just overwhelmed."

"Over what?" Caleb tried to ask, as he did not understand the big words that his mother had used to speak to him. But Dylan quickly cut the mother-to-son conversation short with his deep, sharp voice and replied to his son: "That is enough, Caleb. Now eat your food. You should know that talking is not allowed when eating."

"Okay, Dad," Caleb said, smiling at his father's words. Dylan stood with a strict face, as he had worn a black suit to leave for his company. He adjusted his necktie properly over his inner white-sleeved shirt.

Jessica stared backward at Dylan's face and saw the hardened expression on it.

She wanted to put Nina down on the next chair for Nina to start eating by herself, as she wanted to stand up from the dining chair to go and prepare Dylan's breakfast for him. But Dylan quickly told her coldly: "There will be no need for that, as I cannot wait to eat again."

Jessica had already stood up from the dining table and saw that Dylan did not want to wait for his breakfast. As he finished adjusting his suit and inner white-sleeved shirt, he placed some money on the center table for them and left the house.

"Mummy..." Nina cried, as she was unable to reach the dining table by herself. Her little hands could not reach to carry her spoon and feed herself.

Nina's crying snapped Jessica out of her trance, and she rushed back to her small daughter again after looking back at Nina, who was crying and trying to feed herself.

Jessica carried Nina back onto her thighs and resumed feeding her little daughter at the dining table.

Jessica knew that Dylan was not joking about divorcing her truly, and she silently thought of what she would do to appease him as she continued to feed her daughter in her arms.

After Jessica finished feeding Nina and Caleb was also through with his meal, she cleared the plates to the kitchen.

Jessica knew that Dylan had only left the security man at the gate to lock and open the gate for him whenever he was leaving the house for his office in the morning and returning home in the evening, as Dylan had sacked all the domestic staff.

Jessica heard the sound of Dylan's car starting in their garage, and she peered out of the kicthen window and saw him drove out from their compound. She knew that he was just leaving for the office.

Jessica went to her children's room downstairs to prepare their bath. After she finished bathing them, she dressed them in new clothes and brought them back to the living room with their toys to play, as she switched on the television and put it to a cartoon channel for her children to watch, before she went back upstairs to her bedroom.