I'm more than just the second wife

Epilogue

Yanda's POV
5 years later

"I can't with these kids! I can't!" Zanda muttered and I knew we'd be called on any minute from now. "They're your kids." Zonke muttered cocooning herself into the covers. That's how we deciphered who dealt with the morning chaos. "Koki!" "Baba!" They yelled simultaneously before they raced down the passage to our room and began knocking. "Come in."
"You couldn't have taken it outside our room Hadebe?" Zonke muttered covering her head with a pillow as the kids stomped in. "They drew on my iPad case and this was my favourite one!" Zanda all but yelled. I guess we're skipping through the greetings this morning. She's 11 now. She grows to resemble her mother more and more each day it's scary yet  comforting too but it cannot be denied she's a beauty.Still argues her way through everything. Still larger than life but now she wears bras although she doesn't need to yet, too cool for dolls and yells at her brothers when they go into her room and she's not even a teenager yet. I'm panicking and Khaya and Sim's boy is still a thing. She shares every little change with him. They talk on the phone at least once a day. Who says you can't secretly orchestrate the disappearance of your friends' son to keep him away from your daughter? Because Zonke has to stop Zanokusa and I from carrying out that elaborate plan at least twice a month but Zanda is none the wiser and I doubt even supernatural forces could tear them apart. The nightmares and bed wetting stopped several months after Simphiwe was arrested. It took a lot of therapy ,startled wails in the middle of the night, loads of weekends partaking in activities that rebuilt her self confidence and time spent with her dad to whip the sunshine, as Zonke often fondly refers to her, back to her larger than life shape.

Each time we announced she's becoming a big sister she welcomed the announcement with glee and still told anyone willing to listen she was a big sister and still loves to crawl into the baby's crib in the mornings and watch over them. She never showed jealousy which surprised us since she's been alone for a good 5 years but she was secure in the love she had.

She'd visited her paternal family twice now. The first was only a weekend long and the following one a week and both were a success. Zanokusa has thankfully toned it down with the overcompensation for his absence and the abuse and we coparent pretty well with him now and he visits with us at least twice a month and everyone enjoys having him over. It's a tough feat getting the children to bed the first night he's over. He always has a child hanging from each limb but he seems to love every minute of it. We've absorbed him into our family not only because he's Zanda's dad but he's also become another uncle to the kids , he simply adores them. He falls seamlessly into our routine when he's over.

My boys stood by the door with their heads lowered. Asimbonge had dark green, I'm assuming 'tattoos', on his arms and stomach. He's 5 now and just lost his first tooth, his left upper jaw incisor. He has questions about everything. Protective of his siblings, loved to laugh and oh so curious. He's taken apart every remote controlled toy he owns because he simply had to see how they all worked. His toy box was filled with more  undone cars and remotes than functioning toys. He was sadly starting to become aware of the ways in which he was different from other children. His ophthalmologist said he'd need eye surgery in 2 years to ease the tension in his left eye to avoid future complications and that'd also mean they could put off getting him on prescription glasses for a few years although it was inevitable. The questions hadn't been mean so far just curious as children often are and we ensured we taught him about his skin condition and ensured he knew how to care for it Incase he and his mother and I weren't around and he was in someone else's care. Asimbonge is also my little shadow. He follows me everywhere and would watch me closely. I catch him trying to imitate me often. It's humbling to see.

I can't wait until I teach him how to shave, how to drive, take hikes with just him. Baba thrust me behind my first wheel at 12 but Zonke would kill me so I'd wait until they all turned 16 before I teach them how to drive.