Chapter Thirty:

Welcome to Chapter Thirty! Kind of can't believe it actually got this long! But there you have it. This chapter starts about a month after Ziggy suffered a midlife crisis and left his beloved wife.

Petra was taking a stroll through the graveyard, trying to figure out where her loving and stable marriage took such an awful turn, when she saw a familiar figure standing by her mother's gravestone.

It was unclear who moved first. But after four long weeks apart, finally Ziggy was holding the woman of his dreams tenderly in his arms.

Ziggy held her in his arms and sobbed in to her shoulder. He told her that the kids had come to find him and talk some sense into him. He told her that seeing his ghostly children standing at the door of his hotel room made him realise that the thing he left to find, was already at home. He told her that he made the biggest mistake in leaving her. They didn't move from that spot for a long time.

Eventually they walked home together. After the last few weeks they felt like they had been through an emotional tornado. They both felt like they were starting a new relationship. They felt raw and vulnerable. But as Petra told her husband as they slowly made it up the driveway into their family home, they would be there for each other, to rebuild their marriage.

 

Ziggy washed the red hair dye out of his hair, and quietly slipped back into his family.

The kids didn't comment much on Ziggy's return. Just a quick hello and a hug, and a small smile for Petra. Life returned to normal.

Now that the kids had managed to get Petra and Ziggy back together, it was time to return to school. They had a nice family breakfast together before the taxi's started arriving.

With the kids gone, Petra and Ziggy were finally alone again. There was no forgetting what Ziggy had done, his new hair colour may have been washed away, but his tattoos remained.

But the one thing that had been missing since his birthday was finally back; the love he had for Petra shone as bright as ever.

That afternoon they renewed their vows. The promises they made the day they married so long ago were spoken again and they hoped this was the end to that sad chapter in their lives.

 

Ziggy felt terrible for what he put Petra through. And while she slept that night he made another vow. He would spend the rest of his life making it up to this wonderful woman.

Life returned to normal. Ziggy returned to life at the lab, and worked hard to get his next promotion. Which meant working on his mechanical skills.

The kids were settled back in to school and Petra continued to call them and check in every other day.

Petra began churing out best sellers again. She was soon earning quite a lot in royalties.

Petra liked heading over to the lab to have lunch with Ziggy.

One afternoon Petra had stopped outside City Hall. She was thinking about her next book, based on the tragic housefire that claimed the life of her aunty, father and cousin. A familiar figure caught her eye from across the quad.

Her missing cousin was racing right past her. What should Petra do?