Back to thier date. He was telling Cindy his dream for his future. He had worked for ten years of his life and studied for four of those. But that system was not something that felt right and He had consciously decided to step away from it. He did not want to engage in money. This was not how humans are meant to live. He wanted to go back to living more naturally. He told her that mother nature provides all that they need. Water is free and abundant. He didn’t want electricity. They could have internet, but no wifi. Would she be okay with a cabled connection? She said yes. Fair compromise. But their phones always had to be off or on flight mode. He wanted to live in a cob house just like people had lived for centuries. Thier food would be provided by mother earth: they would eat what they planted and plant what they ate. Would she be okay with all of this? She said that she would. He told her to really consider this seriously because it really wouldn’t work if she asked him to mo

Gerard changed all of sudden,should she call it “ Husbands regret” What do you mean, you are pregnant. We were going to wait, Cindy, remember? Just tell me you’re joking?” Cindy felt her husband’s furious words strike her like boulders. She stared up into his livid face and didn’t recognize the man standing in front of her. He was shocked, that was all. He was thrown by her news. Her words would sink in soon enough and he’d go back to being the man she adored, the wonderful man to whom she had entrusted her heart. She just needed to give him time to get over his shock. The more she tried to rationalize his inexplicable reaction to what should have been joyous news, the more the insidious little voice in the back of her mind kept telling her that she was lying to herself. This was a side of Gerard that she had never seen before—one that he had never allowed her to see—and she was terrified of what that said about their two-year marriage.“I know that it’s sooner than we’d planned,” sh

He had never once during their two-year-long marriage said that he loved her, but he had shown her in so many ways that she had believed that was enough. In the face of his abandonment, she had come to question that love and had been forced to acknowledge that the words would have meant more; the words would have meant everything. They would have set his love in stone.Now he was standing here telling her that he had wanted Kayla after all? What was she supposed to believe? Why was he treating her like the villain for leaving, when he was the one who had driven her away? In the midst of her turmoil, she heard an unmistakable sound—the familiar irrepressible chatter and giggle of a toddler.Of a particular toddler. Cindy’s panicked gaze swung to the open door and she was horrified to see the babysitter leading her beautiful daughter toward the room. Her anxious gaze swung toward Gerard but he seemed oblivious. He was watching her intently, still wanting an answer to his previous questi

Kayla decided that she didn’t like scary and noisy helicopters and cried during the entire short, chartered flight from Plettenberg Bay to Camps Bay. Her beleaguered father, who was figuring out that parenthood may not be as fabulous as he had first imagined, battled to keep her calm while Cindy, who was feeling the effects of some pretty powerful medication, remained mostly oblivious to it all. Cindy was vaguely aware of Gerard frantically trying to shush the child. He made funny faces and played silly little games but Kayla refused to be comforted by someone who was a total stranger to her. She was too small to be belted in but she stubbornly refused to stay in Gerard’s lap. Instead she kept trying to crawl over onto her mother’s lap, and Cindy tried her best to soothe the little girl, but Kayla wasn’t too impressed with her limp hugs either.“ Do something,” Gerard eventually entreated, when Kayla slid from his grasp like a greased pig and melted to the floor in a boneless heap. On

“ You look much better,” he observed, his eyes continuing to run over her face and form. “Not as gaunt, and you’re getting some color in your cheeks. How do you feel?”“Better.” She nodded. “Bored.” He shocked her by gracing her with the smallest of smiles.“ Yes, you were never one for long periods of inactivity.” He nodded. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do once you’ve recovered?” She stared at him in dismay, having no clue how to answer that question. She hadn’t dared think about the future; she had no idea what Gerard wanted from her. Did he expect them to just continue to live together in the same soulless fashion for the next fifty years or so? Because Cindy couldn’t do that. She absolutely refused to live like this for much longer; she would rather get a divorce. Did he want a divorce? For that matter, were they divorced already? She was certain of only two things; he wanted his daughter but he did not want Cindy. I don’t . . . what do you mean?”He frowned. “