Drunk In Love (Crushing Hard Series Book 3)

EPILOGUE

Lindiwe stood in the attic, surrounded by the remnants of her parents’ lives. Dust motes floated in the air, caught in the golden light streaming through the small window. She hadn’t been back to the house since her mother’s funeral a few weeks ago. It felt strange, empty, yet full of memories. Every corner of this house held echoes of laughter, the warmth of family dinners, the arguments that had made their love even stronger, and the quiet moments of peace between her parents.

Her dad, Scott James had passed away three years earlier, taken by cancer that he fought valiantly. Lindiwe had been there when he took his final breath, holding her mother’s hand as he whispered his last words. “I told you I’d go first,” he had said, his voice soft but steady, “God knew I couldn’t live without you.” His eyes never left her mother’s face, and her mother had smiled through her tears, knowing the truth in his words. Lindiwe had watched her mother’s heart break that day. She had never been the same after Scott's death. For years, Thandi lived on, but she was a shell of the woman she once was. Yet, she had held on for her children, her love for them giving her the strength to keep going.

Lindiwe had known that her mother’s death was inevitable. Thandi had passed quietly in her sleep, as if finally finding peace. And Lindiwe took comfort in one thing: her parents were together again, just as they had always been. They had loved fiercely, through every storm that life had thrown at them. They had nearly divorced once, back when the house renovation had driven them to the brink. They had fought through mid-life crises, career changes, the loss of loved ones, and the everyday trials that chipped away at the edges of any marriage. But they had always chosen each other. Over and over again.

Now, Lindiwe was left to pack up their belongings, and as she sifted through the attic, she found a stack of her mother’s old diaries. She smiled as she traced the familiar handwriting, a flood of nostalgia washing over her. Thandi had always told her and her siblings the story of how she had met their father. It was Lindiwe’s favorite love story—one filled with stolen glances, playful banter, and a love that had defied all odds.

Sitting cross-legged on the attic floor, Lindiwe picked up the first diary and opened it to the first page.

Dear Diary...

Her mother’s words spilled out, full of youth and hope. Lindiwe could hear her voice in her head as she read on, recounting those early days when her parents were just two young people, unsure of the future but full of love for each other. As she flipped through the pages, the movers downstairs called out to her, but Lindiwe didn’t move. She stayed there, in the attic, cradling her mother’s words as if they were the last piece of her she could hold onto.

As she read, Lindiwe felt the overwhelming sense of love and history that had shaped her life. Her parents’ journey was not perfect, but it was theirs. A life well-lived, full of mess and beauty, laughter and tears. They had built a family on the foundation of that love, and even in death, it carried on.

Lindiwe closed the diary, feeling a mix of sadness and warmth. She knew she wasn’t ready to let go, but she also knew that her parents had left her with a legacy of love that she would carry with her for the rest of her life.

Standing up, she looked around the attic one last time, her heart heavy but full. Scott and Thandi had loved each other with everything they had, and now, they were together once again. In that, Lindiwe found peace.

As she left the house, diaries tucked safely under her arm, she knew her parents’ love story wasn’t over. It would live on in her, in her siblings, in the memories they had built together. A love like theirs never truly ended—it just changed form. And as the door closed behind her, she smiled, knowing that in the pages of those diaries, she would always find them.