CHAPTER 5

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

He took one of the divorce papers, glanced through it, put it down into his black briefcase, and shut his briefcase closed. He went into his bathroom to bathe. He decided to prepare for office work, thinking to read the divorce paper in his office.

***

Meanwhile, Jessica rushed downstairs into the living room and saw her two kids 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.

Jessica saw the living room wall clock showed 8:35 a.m., and she knew that her two kids were already 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, aren't we going to school today?"

Jessica knew that her two kids were late for school, and she knew that if their former maid was around, the maid would have helped her prepare her two kids for school and bathed them before she woke up, and also prepared their breakfasts.

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

Jessica had thought that the young maid tried to seduce her husband in her absence, but after the maid left, Jessica didn't receive any complaint of such report from the maid's parents.

The housemaid was even crying to be sent away without doing anything wrong to offend Jessica.

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

The young maid, Florence Gregson was very smart and nice and did all her house chores alone even before Jessica would wake up or send her on an errand.

Florence was a 15-year-old girl, 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 go and prepare your bath afterwards," Jessica told her son as she smiled at him and squatted to meet his height and her little daughter's height.

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

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

She resumed mopping the kitchen floor since she didn't have any maid.

After Jessica was through with cleaning the kitchen floor and cabinet top, she proceeded to prepare her kids' breakfast.

She made noodles and fried eggs for them and stepped out to the dining table to serve their breakfast.

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

Nina was too small and unable to climb the dining chair by herself. She cried out and reached out to Jessica to carry her up, as her third attempt to climb the dining chair by herself ended with her little bottom crashing to the tiled floor. She cried out, "Mummy!"

"Wait, Nina, I'm 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.

Jessica placed Nina to sit on her thighs and proceeded to feed her the food.

Nina continued to stretch her small hand to collect 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 kids were happy children, and she didn't 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 Jessica, as he noticed that she was crying silently, tears freely rolling down from her eyes.

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

Just then, Jessica heard footsteps from behind her back. She quickly sniffled and plastered a fake smile on her face as she replied to Caleb, "I'm not crying, I'm just overwhelmed."

"Over what?" Caleb tried to ask, as he didn't understand the big grammar his mother had used, but Dylan quickly cut the mother-to-son conversation short with his sharp deep voice and replied to his son, "That's enough, Caleb. Now eat your food. You should know that talking isn't allowed when eating."

"Okay, Dad," Caleb smiled 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, wearing an off-white undershirt.

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 won't be any need for that, as I cannot wait to eat again."

Jessica had already stood up from the dining table and saw that Dylan didn't want to wait for his breakfast, as he finished adjusting his suit and cufflinks.

Dylan placed some money on the coffee table for them and left the house.

"Mummy!" Nina cried out as she was unable to reach the dining table by herself. Her little hands couldn't 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 on her thighs and resumed feeding her little daughter at the dining table.

Jessica knew that Dylan wasn't joking about divorcing her, and she silently thought of what she would do to appease him as she continued to feed her daughter in her hands.

After Jessica was through with feeding Nina, and Caleb was also through with his meal, Jessica cleared the plates to the kitchen and knew that Dylan only left the security man at the gate to lock and open it for him whenever he was leaving the house to his office in the morning, and returning home in the evening. Dylan had sacked all the domestic staff.

Jessica heard the sound of Dylan's car starting in their garage. She peered through the open window and saw him driving out of their compound. She knew he was leaving for the office.

Jessica went to her kids' room downstairs to prepare their bath. After she was through bathing them, she dressed them in new clothes and brought them back to the living room with their toys to play.

She switched on the television and put it on a cartoon channel for her kids to watch, before she went back upstairs to her bedroom.