As her funeral ended, Noela Rukundo waited outside her house for the crowd to clear so she could confront the man who had paid for her to be killed.

Once most of the mourners had left, she got out of her car and was quickly spotted by her husband, Balenga Kalala.

At first, he appeared astonished. Reaching out to her, he asked "Are you still alive?" Rukundo told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

"Surprise!" she replied. "I'm still alive."

They were in Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 22, 2015 – though five days prior to that, Rukundo had been in Burundi, where she'd overheard her husband order her death, according to ABC.

Rukundo had been in Bujumbura, Burundi's capital, for a different funeral – her stepmother's – since January. She was in her hotel room, distressed, and had been ready to go to sleep for the night when Kalala called.

Balenga Kalala pleaded guilty to one count of incitement to murder, and was sentenced to nine years in prison. He is currently serving his time. (Balenga Kalala/Facebook)

"I said I was going to bed. He told me, 'To bed? Why are you sleeping so early?'" Rukundo recalled to the BBC.

He told her it would be best for her to get some fresh air. Thinking he'd instructed her to do so because he was worried about her, Rukundo went outside.

Within seconds of leaving the hotel, she said she saw a man move towards her. He soon revealed a gun and told her to get into a nearby car.

Once inside, she said she saw two other men sitting near her. They covered her head then took her for a ride, which she said lasted at least 30 minutes.

The men then pulled her from the car, took her into a building, strapped her to a chair, and called their boss.

A fourth man joined them, demanding to know why someone wanted Rukundo dead.

"Which man? Because I don't have any problem with anybody," she replied, according to the BBC.

"Your husband!" a man said, according to Rukundo. The gang leader then called Kalala and let him know they had his wife.

He turned on the speaker.

"Kill her," Kalala said.

Rukundo passed out. She told the BBC it felt like she was going to explode.

Kalala is the father of three of Rukundo's eight children, reported The Age newspaper in Victoria. They'd been together for 10 years when the incident occured.

When she'd arrived in Australia back in 2004 as a refugee, he'd helped her learn English. She'd come all the way from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the other side of the world and had fallen in love.

"I knew he was a violent man," Rukundo said to the BBC. "But I didn't believe he can kill me. I loved this man with all my heart!"

At his sentencing in December, Chief Justice Marilyn Warren said that Kalala had done this out of little more than the possibility she had been having an affair.

Noela Rukundo told the Washington Post she will marry again, despite the hardship she faced in her ten years of marriage with Balenga Kalala. (Kazungu Bembereza/Facebook)

"It was premeditated and motivated by unfounded jealousy, anger and a desire to punish Ms Rukundo," said the judge, according to ABC.

The Age reported that Kalala eventually confessed.

"Sometimes Devil can come into someone, to do something, but after they do it they start thinking, 'Why I did that thing?', later," he said.

Kalala had built up a good reputation within the local Melbourne community, but he'd also had a troubled childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At 24, his wife and child had been murdered.

His hired kidnappers refused to kill his current wife, however. They told Kalala they'd done the job and charged him nearly $7,000 AUS, but the gang gave Rukundo a recording of their conversation with him and the receipts, ABC reported.

Rukundo returned to Melbourne and met with her pastor after being freed. He helped her sneak home five days later.

Meanwhile, Kalala was already telling their friends and family that Rukundo had died in a tragic accident.

It allowed her to later call the police, after Kalala had pleaded with her, unable to believe she was standing in from of him.

"You are a wicked man. Why did you want me to be killed? What about your small children?" Rukundo said to him, according to ABC. "Who was going to look after them?"

Once arrested, Kalala denied the accusations to police. But later, when confronted with a recording of a phone conversation between him and Rukundo in which he had asked for forgiveness, he broke down.

Kalala pleaded guilty in September to one count of incitement to murder, according to the Age. In December, he was sentenced to nine years jail, and is eligible for parole in six years.

One of Rukundo's eight children, Fostin, said he was upset by the whole affair.

"I looked at him [in court] but I couldn't see a man," he said to ABC. "Because I believe a man would not do something like that."