Chapter 5: Avoiding to eat

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

He took one of the divorce papers and glanced through it before putting it into his black briefcase and shutting it closed. Then, he went into the bathroom to bathe and decided to prepare for office work, planning to read the divorce papers at his office.

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.

She saw the living room wall clock; it was already 8:35 am, and she knew that her kids were very late for school.

“Mummy! Mummy!” Caleb and Nina both rushed up to hug her legs as soon as she stepped into the living room.

Caleb asked, “Mummy, aren’t we going to school today?”

Jessica knew that her two kids were already late for school. She knew if their former maid was around, the maid would have helped her prepare her two kids for school, 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 having a maid.

Jessica had thought that the young maid was trying to seduce her husband in her absence, but after the maid left, Jessica didn’t get any complaints from the maid’s parents. The housemaid was even crying when she was 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 that she wouldn’t stop paying the maid’s school fees, even though the maid was no longer under her care.

The young maid was smart and nice and did all her house chores alone, even before Jessica woke up or sent the maid on errands.

Florence Gregson was a 15-year-old maid, and Jessica had seen how Florence cared for Caleb and Nina so much, even helping 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. Not to worry; I will 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 afterward,” Jessica told her son as she smiled at him and squatted to meet his height and her little daughter’s height too.

She finally 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 as she walked into the kitchen and towards her cupboards to check what she would prepare. She resumed mopping the kitchen floor since she didn’t have a maid anymore.

After she 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, 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. After Nina’s 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. She placed Nina to sit on her thighs and proceeded to feed Nina.

Nina continued to stretch her small hand to collect the spoon from Jessica’s hand to feed herself, but Jessica refused and 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 and seeing that their parents were quarreling and no longer in love with each other.

“Mummy, why are you crying?” Caleb asked Jessica, noticing that she was crying silently as tears freely rolled down her face.

Nina tried to look up at her mother’s face while seated on Jessica’s thighs, eating her noodles as Jessica fed her.

Nina tried to look up again at her mother’s face to see if her mummy was truly crying. But just then, Jessica heard footsteps from behind her, and she quickly sniffed 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, not understanding the big word his mother had used. But Dylan quickly cut the mother-son conversation short with his deep sharp voice, “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, already wearing a black suit ready to leave for his company. He adjusted his black suit necktie properly, wearing an inner white sleeved shirt.

Jessica stared back at Dylan’s face and saw the hardened expression on his face.

She wanted to put Nina down on the next chair for Nina to start eating by herself. She wanted to stand up from the dining chair to go and prepare Dylan’s breakfast, but Dylan quickly told her coldly, “There’s no need for that; I cannot wait to eat.”

Jessica had already stood up from the dining table and saw that Dylan didn’t want to wait for his breakfast. He finished adjusting his suit and inner white shirt, placed some money on the center 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. She rushed back to her small daughter after looking back at Nina, who was crying and trying to feed herself.

Jessica carried Nina back onto her thighs again 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 could do to appease him as she continued to feed her daughter.

After Jessica was done feeding Nina, and Caleb had also finished his meal, she knew that Dylan had only left the security man at the gate to lock and open the gate for him whenever he was leaving for the office in the morning and returning home in the evening. Dylan had sacked all the maids and domestic staff too.

Jessica heard the sound of Dylan’s car starting in their garage, and he finally drove out of their compound. She knew he was just leaving for the office.

She went to her kids’ room downstairs to prepare their bath. After she was done bathing them, she dressed them in new clothes and finally brought Nina and Caleb back to the living room with their toys to play. Furthermore, she switched on the television, putting it on a cartoon channel for her kids to watch, before she went back upstairs to her bedroom.