BACK TO LOVE.

0⃣8⃣

If the kidnapping of Amber did not break their marriage, her death caused it to fall completely apart. On the day of the funeral Ayanda locked herself in one of the guest bedrooms and Axel trashed her daughter's room and broke down to the point where he was inconsolable. The two people who needed to support each other deal with their loss avoided each other.

The couple had not seen each other in almost a month now. Ayanda would take showers in the main bedroom during the day when Axel was not around and change before locking herself up in the guest bedroom again. Both parents had tried to get her out of the room but failed and so did her friends. Axel took the children to his parents home, where they have been since the funeral.

Axel spent most of his days at work and only came home around midnight.  He found his house exactly how he left it every day. He had to rely on takeaway or food from his parents or in-laws when he went to check on the kids since Ayanda was basically a shell of her former self. Today he was shocked to find her infront of the television watching the funeral.

' Your food is in the microwave.'

' I am good thanks, had a takeaway at work. Just like I have been doing for the past four weeks.'

' okay.'

She simply said and turned her attention back to the television. He stood by the living room entrance watching her, he noticed that she had no makeup on and her usually neat and well done hair was a bit messy and needed some professional help. He noticed her bag on the table nearest to the door in the hallway and smiled. She had finally left the house.

' Why are you watching that?'

' The therapist asked me to watch it. Since I couldn't remember much of that day but can remember everything from the night of her memorial.'

' How when you weren't even present?'

Ayanda wiped dapped on her tears with a tissue and sighed out loud.

' I was present, sat on the top stairs and came down to see her just before they took her away. '

There was a moment of silence between them before she stood up, turned the television off and walked upstairs into the guest bedroom. Axel sighed and walked towards the main bedroom but stopped when he heard her talking to someone. Since he could not make out what he was saying, he went into the bedroom.

' Hey when did you get here?'

Axel asked his now eight months old daughter who had woken him up with her cries. He did not realize his wife had fetched the children till then. Ayanda walked in just as he sat down to feed her her bottle.

' No don't give her that. I'll breastfeed.'

' Do you think that's safe? I mean after all you haven't been breastfeeding her for a month now.'

' Actually I have been pumping for the past month and Emily took her the containers. So it's safe as she has been getting my breast milk.'

Axel nodded, understanding now.

"Oh, I didn't realize you had been pumping. That's great then, she's still been getting your milk. Thank you for clarifying."

He handed the bottle back to her, relieved that their daughter had been receiving breast milk all along.

Ayanda took the bottle from Axel.

"I know it wasn't intentional, but I did my best to make sure she got what she needed. I'm glad you're relieved now."

She gently cradled the bottle and looked down at their daughter, who was peacefully sleeping.