The Inconvenient Marriage

By Yvonne Sibanda

Thia has always felt that Rod was the one she was meant to be with. Chad was a one night stand gone bad who insisted they get married, to take care of the child. After nine years Thia meets Rod at a High School Reunion. Will she go back to him or stay in a marriage she always viewed as inconvenient.
Chad has been taught from an early age to always do the right thing. What is he meant to do when his wife of nine years appears to have a deep yearning for her high school sweetheart? Will he be able to let her go, so she could finally be with the one she loves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yvonne Sibanda
• Release date: Dec 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005798482

Yvonne Sibanda

Yvonne Sibanda loves a good story with a happy ending. Born and bred in a small mining town of Hwange, Yvonne derives her inspiration to write from her family and friends around her. She believes that each and everyone of us is affected by the issues of the heart and therefore brings them out in her writing. To everything that has love in it, she's a softie, be it an emotional scene of a movie or novel, as she sheds a tear or two.

Book preview

The Inconvenient Marriage

By Yvonne Sibanda

Copyright © 2020 Yvonne Sibanda

Cover Photo Bob Oh unsplash.com

Discover other books by Yvonne Sibanda

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems - except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews – without permission in writing from the author, Yvonne Sibanda. This book is a work of fiction.

The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Table of Contents

The Inconvenient Marriage

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Epilogue

Excerpt: A Risky Venture

Excerpt: Finding a Husband for Cissy

About Author

Also by Author

Dedication

With love to my daughter Grace Sibanda. This is the first book I have completed and I enjoyed writing it as I imagined handing the advice to you when the right time came. To my family, from whom I got most of the ideas from as we sat around the table drinking tea and chatting over things that pertain to life. To my friends who encouraged me to write and finally to put my work out there to be read by others. To the first and last in everything, God the maker of Heaven and Earth, the Father of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thank you for the gift of life and giving me the love for happy endings. He is a God of many chances and is always there by our side, very close never judging but calling out for us to be reconciled to Him in every way.

Acknowledgements

To the strong women that I know who are both father and mother to their children as the men abdicated their duties. Enjoyed writing about Linda who still remained a mother hen after her daughter had left the coop and still helped her be what she could be: a good wife, mother and daughter. To the knights in shining armor who still exist. Men who have been trained on what it means to be men, who are willing to stand for what is right, men full of honor and integrity, who respect women and are leaders in every aspect of their lives.

Chapter 1

The alarm clock continued with its incessant ringing, making Thia throw away the blankets and finally get up from bed. She was exhausted. Today was her day off, yet she still had to do the other duties of a wife like get the kids ready for school, laundry, clean the house, pick them from school, attend a parents meeting and chat over the details of the school reunion planned out for next month. Morning honey, her husband Chad greeted as he got into the room after taking a shower. Morning. She got up and moved towards the wardrobe where she took out the clothes he would wear for work and immediately left for her children’s bedroom to wake them up. By the time she bundled them off to school and Chad was off to work she felt even worse than being exhausted and her day hadn’t yet started. When she got into the now empty house she busied herself with the house chores and was shocked when she realized that it was way past eleven a.m. when she finished. Where had all that time gone to?

She rushed to take the much needed shower and prepared a light snack afterwards. She was about to leave the house when her phone chimed announcing another message. As she checked the message she realized she wasn’t familiar with the number and it was just one word, ‘hi’. She put the phone into her pocket and shrugged off any thoughts as she had so much to do. She hurried from the house and left for school. She felt like she was barely managing with everything as she was being pulled on all sides. She and Chad had taken the decision to building a house and providing a stable home for their children prematurely. The long hours and overtime at work was getting to her while on the other hand she was both mother and wife. They had bills to pay, family and relatives to take care of and the house to be finished. The house was now at window level but Thia was not satisfied with that as she found herself comparing what she had accomplished so far with what her age mates had. They appeared to be a huge difference which she intended to reduce even if it meant working herself to the bone. Chad the calm and collected one was content with what they had accomplished so far and usually chided her of pushing herself, but she couldn’t stop.

Rose and Robert were already waiting for her at the school parking lot when she drove through the school gates. They rushed into the car and bickered on as she welcomed the noise which managed to take her away from her thoughts. How was your day? she asked the kids, while she maneuvered the car from the parking lot and joined the queue of others leaving the school. The two siblings continued to regale her about their day as she drove towards their grandmother’s place. When they arrived at her mother’s place she scolded the kids not to run when they hurriedly scrambled off from their seats while she carried their school bags and followed them at a leisurely pace. They rushed into their grandmother’s arms. Thia barely managed to slide in her greetings to her mother before the children started talking. It was always like a competition of raised voices as they usually were noisy and one was forced to shout over the ruckus.

Hush their grandmother reprimanded, silencing them and pulling each child into another of her bear hugs. Go into the kitchen, you will find some chocolate chip cookies and milk on the table. She turned to her daughter afterwards and also hugged her. The children gladly left both adults who trailed behind and came into the house. You look exhausted, Linda commented after noticing her appearance and managed to elicit a grimace from her daughter. Linda was in her mid-sixties and didn’t look her age at all. She was dressed in a blue doll dress and had combed her afro hair for once which had a few grey hairs at the front making it look more fashionable and not at all a sign of aging. She had laugh lines at the corner of her mouth and a dimple would appear every time she smiled. At the moment Thia was looking the worse for wear and more like her mother’s sister.

I am, have been pulling double shifts at work and with all this house work, kids and all, it’s just proving to be too much. I am beyond exhausted ma. I need a long vacation. The only rest and comfort that I get nowadays is a bubble bath with a glass of wine, once per month. She slumped down on the couch in the living room and pulled an incredulous expression. Linda chuckled; I told you about your rush into starting a family, look where it has landed you. Her daughter could be very dramatic. The talk about her rushing was always a bone of contention as her mother had instructed her from as early as thirteen, the relationship and sex aspect of things. She thought back to the impromptu sex talks that her mother held and felt herself cringing from embarrassment. Her mother has always been unconventional in the way she did things.

I know, I know, she interjected waving her hands to stop her from going further.

There’s no use in speaking pertaining to things that have already happened ma. And besides I am not like you. Linda scoffed softly at that statement, You can be if you just decide on what you want and not be led by your heart. Like I always say, you should guide your heart instead of letting it guide you she teased. Anyway how’s my son in law doing? She was still standing, watching her grandchildren who still hadn’t settled down. Chad is fine; he got promoted last week so the additional income will go a long way for us to finally finishing our dream house.

Wow that’s good news we give thanks to God Almighty for that. At least you had the good sense to pick out a good man and settle down with she quipped. She had noticed that her grandchildren were now settled, engrossed in munching the cookies and not making noise hence sat down, so when is the meeting?

It’s at 6 p.m., but I need to meet up with the ladies an hour before for a cup of coffee and discuss about the reunion. I will come and get the kids at around 7:30 pm, Thia advised while at the same time looking at her wrist watch, If the meeting is not over by then I can always get the updates from the other parents.

Greet the girls on my behalf. Tell Angela to give me a call. It’s been ages since I last spoke to her. Thia smiled recalling on how her mother had also taken her three friends under her wing. Always ready to impart her wisdom pertaining to faith, life and love. Thanks for bringing my grandchildren so that I spend some time with them. She continued as she watched Thia stand, walk over to the children and hug them, before she waved at her mother and left for the coffee shop.

Linda knew that she at times could be hard on her daughter, but she couldn’t help it. Thia had so much potential and her only problem in all this was that she always wanted to do all things at the same time. She was never one who took things one step at a time and be content in the stage she was in. No, her daughter was different to her in a lot of ways. When she had Cynthia, it had been a well thought up plan. All her ducks were already lined up pretty well as she was successful in her career and also she managed to get married to a man she considered to be a perfect mate. Whereas Thia’s idea of life was going to college, getting pregnant , a rushed wedding to cover up that fact which had been a letdown to Linda as she thought she had equipped her daughter effectively to the point she wouldn’t make such a mistake.

Life could be unpredictable though, especially when one was dealing with human beings. This was proven by her husband Matthew. Sweet Matthew the perfect mate turned out to be a dud at the end. He cheated on her a countless number of times and the most horrifying thing of all is that he would apologize about it, but still cheat even more. That nearly destroyed her self-esteem as she felt like his cheating was her fault. Then the abuse started. The final straw came when he threw their one year old daughter against the wall after coming home drunk. She hadn’t even realized that he also started drinking in addition to his philandering ways. Linda had sworn that she would never experience what her mother went through, hence threw Matthew out of the house when that happened.

Linda was one of the girls in a family of six boys and three girls. Their home was ruled by an overbearing