Leah finally arrived the next morning. Aunty E and Boipelo were still there, but Leah took me aside to tell me what our father had told her.

He was devastated by what he’d done, and that was why he was not answering our phone calls at first. That was why he’d run away. He told her he’d fallen in love with someone else. A new engineer at his company.

Leah was angry with him; we both were, for a long time. But Aunty E helped us with that too.

“Anger is gonna eat you up, girls. You need to set it down and know that people are complicated and make mistakes. I do. You do – and your father does. And just like we want grace, so does he. You’ll need to find a way to forgive him for all of you to finally be healed.”

And we did. We forgave him and found our way back together, in a new way, but it still works.

Now I’m in London, at university with Boipelo, just like we planned. My father and his new wife are coming to visit me next week, and I’m looking forward to it. Who would have ever thought that would happen? It has though!

When I think now about how I did things at the time, I often wonder why. Why did I think keeping a secret was better than reaching out to the ones I love, and who love me, and asking for help?

Maybe it’s as simple as us humans valuing perfection. I didn’t want our perfect, not-so-perfect, family to be exposed. I didn’t want a divorce to step in and ruin the pretty picture. What I know now is that life has so many pretty pictures – an endless supply – if only you open your heart to them and show some faith in the people around you.

In the end, we all got through. Even my mom. She’s the head teacher at the school now, happy and busy. I heard rumours from Aunty E that she might even be dating someone. I’ll know more when I go home at the end of term. I hope it’s true.

***

Tell us: Do you agree that reaching out to loved ones is the best thing to do when something bad happens? Are there exceptions?