Two days had gone by and Bernard had not returned home. He had stayed by his daughter’s bed side and refused to take a break so he could go home and freshen up. Martha, sensing that her husband would not be coming home any time soon, she woke up early on a Wednesday morning and prepared to visit the hospital.“I am coming with you,” Natasha told her mother when she walked into the kitchen.“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” Martha was leaning against the kitchen island while she waited for her coffee to be ready.Natasha sat down on the stool closest to her mother. She still had her night gown on and the weave in her head appeared to have a voice of it’s on, an angry one at that.“I don’t have much to do this morning,” Natasha informed her mother. “I haven’t been ab
Luyando opened her eyes wide open. “Tulani would never say something like that about me!” for a person that had been looking broken and unable to move much a few seconds ago, she suddenly looked like she had too much life in her sitting up in bed like that.“How would you know that?” Natasha asked. “You don’t even know who he is. He told me that he hated having you in his family. How you appeared from nowhere and tried to take his parents away from him.”“You lying b---h!” Luyando shouted. “Tula would never say that!”“Oh but he did!” Natasha shouted. “You think he liked having you in their house but it was just pity. You keep holding on to the idea that he might one day tell you that he loves you…because how can he not when he accepted you into his life so easily? But that was never love. It was pity!”
Tulani had just finished talking on the phone with his son and was getting ready for bed when he heard a knock on the door. He dressed up again and went to check who might be visiting at such an ungodly hour.He was half-way though the living room when he realized it might be Luyando. He quickly rushed to the door and the video intercom by the side immediately confirmed his suspicions before he even opened the door.Tulani opened the door to a dishevelled and disoriented looking Luyando.“Where the hell have you been?” Tulani asked her right away. “We’ve been looking for you the whole day. Thought you went and did something crazy again.”“Aren’t you going to let me in?” Luyando asked, sounding too calm for someone as headstrong as her.Tulani stepped aside to let her in.“Can you give me
Tulani parked his car on the side of the road, a short distance away from his home and called Natasha to ask for her father’s number.“Have you found Luyando?” She asked him, thinking it could be the only reason he was asking for her father’s contact information a few minutes to midnight.After hearing about his daughter’s disappearance, Bernard had gone out to search for her wherever his feet would take him. Seeing the desperate state of her husband, Martha had had no choice but to accompany him on his search, afraid he might lose his mind from hopelessness.“Yes,” Tulani answered. “She’s at my place right now.”AdvertisementsReport this ad“I thought she might come there,” Natasha said, her voice dropping a few levels lower.
“They were fraternal twins,” Bernard explained.Martha could not hide her shock. For twenty years her husband had not mentioned anything about that. She had been under the impression that there were no secrets between them. Why hadn’t he mentioned anything to her before?“Tasila had a very troubled pregnancy,” Bernard explained. “She had a very weak immune system so her body easily gave in to a lot of diseases. She was sick most of the time and it seemed to get worse during her pregnancy. Something happened during delivery and we lost Chipego.“It was a boy. Luyando was a fighter so she came out first…but her brother wasn’t much of a fighter.” He closed his eyes as if to keep the pain of the whole experience shut in the past where it belonged.“Chipego gave his mother a hard time and by the time he finally came out, i
Luyando was fully awake now.Still, he got up again and tried to go to her but she was waving her arms in front of her to keep him away.“Don’t you touch me!” She yelled at him.Ben took a step back, his hands raised in the air.“Who the hell do you think you are coming here?” Her words were as jiggly as the legs she was standing on. “It’s your fault that all this is happening,” she accused him, unsteadily pointing her finger at him. “It’s your fault that no one wants to love me. How can they love me?” she scoffed. “How can they love me when my own father hates me? You blame me for mum’s death don’t you?”“No, no, no,” Ben forgot about staying away from her and tried to reach for her hand.“Don’t!” She shouted.
“What do you think you are doing?” Natasha asked, tagging him on the shoulder and urging him to get back up.The desperation in her eyes wouldn’t have been so loud if not for the fact that they were at a company dinner and everyone was looking at them. It was just like Tulani to make a public spectacle of everything.“I will only get up if you give me an answer,” Tulani said, holding out the engagement ring to her.“Right here?” Natasha’s eyes roamed the room and found that they were indeed the centre of attention. “This is embarrassing Tula.” She whispered to him, trying to close the ring box but Tula wouldn’t let up.Tulani knew he was going to pay dearly for putting Natasha on spot like that but for him it was the only way to get her to finally make up her mind about him. He had no doubt that she felt the same way a
“What do you mean I lied to you?” Bernard asked his daughter. Luyando moved her phone from her right hand and ear and placed it on the other side as she steered the vehicle out of the parking spot. “Tulani and Natasha are engaged!” she yelled. Bernard, who had been expecting such a call since the day Tulani approached him and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage calmly stood up from the couch and went to take the call outside. Seeing the look on her husband’s face, Martha knew right away who was on the other end of the line. “You promised that you would talk to Tula for me!” Like a mad woman, Luyando pressed hard on the accelerator and headed towards her father’s house. “I kept that promise to you Lulu,” Bernard said. “I spoke to Tulani about you just as I promised.”