*
UNCLE MBUSO
*
How the hell does she think she can abort my baby? The audacity of telling me she is not keeping it like she is not giving me a choice. Layla is testing me. She thinks this is a game. F**k! this is a problem. Now I have to fly back to the UK and deal with her and I still have my brother to deal with. How the hell did he even survive that accident. That was meant to be fatal for him. What the hell is going on here?
I'm not going to the UK, I need to be here especially since my brother is in hospital, someone will have to stand in for him and there's no better person to do it but me with Lizzy by my side. I've been side lined for too long and this my time. I pick up my phone and dial Layla:
Layla: Mbuso
"Pack your bags, you are coming to South Africa, don't even think of double crossing me Layla. If you abort that child without my consent, consider yourself dead."
Layla: This is my choice Mbuso, I'm the one that has to carry the baby and I don't want to. It's my body and I'll do whatever I want.
"You will not do what you want. Did you make yourself pregnant, no you didn't. I was there. You allowed me to use your body and now, now you are going to carry that child, give birth and give it to me so that you can go on and live your life the way you want. YOU ARE NOT ABORTING MY CHILD. Pack up and I'm booking the first available flight for you."
I hang up, not giving her a chance to respond to what I just said. This woman is going to drive me crazy. How can she even think that I would allow her to do this. This is my first born child. If it's a boy he will be the next king and she thinks I'll give up on that. I need to sort out my brother and his daughter. This Kingdom will be mine with Lizzy by my side as my queen. I need to go the hospital and see how this brother of mine is doing.
Nompumelelo: Malume, we are leaving now for the hospital. Are you coming with us?
"Yes I'll come with you. Where is your mother?"
Nompumelelo: She is in the car already. If you are ready, we can go.
I follow her to the car. Her mom is sitting in the back and for some reason Nompumelelo takes the front sit and I get in with Lizzy at the back and the driver drives out to the hospital. When we get there the doctor requests to see us before going to see him.
"How is my brother doing doc?"
Doctor: Your brother is stable at the moment. He has a broken leg, about four broken ribs. One of the ribs pierced his left lung. His skull is fractured which led to the brain swelling, which led to him being in coma. I thought he would be out of the coma by now but it looks like it will take longer because of the head injury. He might be in a coma for weeks or even months. He might come out of it once the brain swelling has gone down but that is not guaranteed. Also he has spinal cord injury and we'll only know severity of it once he wakes up. It is possible that he may never walk again. We managed to remove the rib that pierced his lung and stopped the bleeding. We also managed to stop the internal bleeding. He is currently in ICU. You can go seem him, I'll only give you 30 minutes.
"Thank you Doctor." I watch Lizzy who is silently crying at the moment. I can only imagine what she feels, I mean, the man has been her husband for years although I know deep down this is just an act so that her daughter doesn't question her. Mpumi is also distraught but maintaining her cool. This one needs to do exactly as she is told so that she can move out and be with her husband. I need her to marry Qophelo, I need his Kingdom to be more than just a good ally to us. I need them so that I can have access to them whenever I want. I need what they have for my Kingdom. Lizzy must arrange a meeting with the council and appoint me as King at the moment. I don't want to rush killing my brother it will look suspicious especially now that he is in a coma that he might never wake up from. This is working out just fine. Now all I need to do is to make sure that investigation doesn't get anywhere because if it does, they will find out that the car was tempered with and that's something I cannot afford.
*
NTSIKA
*
I have been waiting a long time to have Iyana in my bed and now, I can't even get her back from the people that stole her. Now she is gone. I can't even get to her and now I hear that she will be traditionally married this week. What the F***. There has to be a way for us to have access to the Manzini Kingdom. There has to be a way for us to have the land belong to us. We need to mine those precious stones. How does Menzi Zulu not even know about them. No one knows except Iyana. She let it slip when I tortured her to tell me everything she knows about her home. After all that, I am still losing everything.
"What did the lawyer say?"
Nkosinathi: We don't have rights to the land, so we cannot mine it. The only way to have that land is to have it sold to us. We actually don't need the whole Kingdom, we just need the piece of land with the stones to mine. It was not going to be easy with Iyana either. When you marry her she has to leave the Kingdom and stay here, she becomes Queen of Edwaleni Kingdom. She won't have a say with what happens to her Kingdom. If she was an only child then it have been easy but she is not. She has a brother that will take over from her so she will never be Queen of Manzini but Queen of another kingdom by marriage. Even the deal we had with Buthelezi was not giving us mining right or giving us the piece of land, so we still would not have able to mine there. We only agreed you would his daughter in exchange for us having access to their Kingdom. It mentions nothing about ownership.
"This is just all bull dad. So that means there is nothing we can do. Being part of the Manzini Kingdom would have made us rich. I think we shot ourselves in the foot here."
Nkosinathi: I am very much aware of that but we still have a chance to be part of it. Your sister can marry their son.
"Athandwa is never going to agree to that. You saw how she was when Iyana was here. She didn't like what we were doing to Iyana. She is never going to agree. Even if you can force her to do it, she won't. Besides all that, she is going overseas soon, have you forgotten about that and you can't take that away from her. She will disown you, if you try and she is still young. Iyana's brother is also young, he'll only be king in a few years."
Nkosinathi: I'll talk to her. She can take one for the team. "He says and walks out on me just like that. This idea of his is not going to work. I know it won't. He cannot tame Athandwa. No one can. My sister is very strong willed and she won't sacrifice her dream just for us to more rich. I can imagine what she will say now. I just feel that Iyana was the easy choice. The girl was already timid. She was easy to manipulate. It's like she was desperate for something.
I can't believe I am losing Iyana just like that. Am I really going to give up on her just like that? I don't want but then again what choice other choice do I have. I cannot come up with a plan to get her back in a few days. This is just screwed up. How did we even get here. How are we losing right now. We should have never waited this long. I don't even know we waited. Iyana would be my wife right about now. I need to release some of this tension.
*
MENZI ZULU
*
Iyana will be traditionally married to Qophelo this weekend and I don't know how I feel about that. It's like someone has put a knife in my back, my stomach is twisted into knots. I really don't know. Her brother will also be here this weekend. He will be coming home from varsity. I always thought she would stay here and not leave. I never wanted for her to leave, I still don't.
Nobuhle: What is wrong with you? You've been sulking ever since you received the letter about Iyana.
"I am not sulking I just don't want her to leave. I want her to stay."
Nobuhle: I'm sure if you had your way, you would force her to stay but then you would risk having to hand her over to the Buthelezi's again and she will run again. Iyana was never meant to stay here. If she was meant to stay here we would not have been given her brother. Leave it alone Menzi. If you are thinking of stopping the lobola negotiations, don't, she is better off not living here.
"You can't say that Nobuhle. She is our child, she deserves to be with us."
Nobuhle: With us or with you huh? I am glad she is getting married, at least I won't have to worry about you disappearing to her room every night. I wish I had never had her. She became a curse in this household. I don't want her here.
"Nothing happened Nobuhle. I told you that nothing happened."
Nobuhle: Your mouth is saying that but your body and eyes say different. The marks you left on her say different. I know she didn't have a boyfriend, it could have been only you. You tried to hide it but I know. I saw it. I was warned about it but I ignored the warnings. I was warned when she turned eleven that this would happen but I brushed it off. I knew Menzi, I knew.
"I love her Nobuhle. I love her so much. I just want....." She interrupts me before I could finish what I was saying.
Nobuhle: I don't deny that you love her. I am just wondering how it was going work, me sharing my husband with my daughter. You were told you can get second wife but you opted for your own child. How that works, I have no idea, only you would know. It makes me wonder if all of this started before she turned eleven. "I looked down and she chuckles lightly." So it did. Wow Menzi, just wow. So she is the reason you were sexually active the way you were. I mean we had sex almost everyday. She is the one the kept our sex life so alive. The things that you did to me you wanted to do to her right. You were imagining her right, when you got all kinky on me. I know when you made sweet love to me you were seeing me but the other times you were seeing her, your submissive slave, what I was not.
"Just stop. It's not like you ever wanted to be more adventurous. You've always known how I am. You've always known my interests and kinks which you gladly satisfied before we got married. After we got married you changed Nobuhle. You changed not just in the bedroom but in everything. You became a completely different person. You stopped catering to my needs whilst I catered to yours. I gave you everything Nobuhle. I showed you love, protected you and provided for you. I defied my parents to marry you because I loved you. You know that the royals in this Kingdom only marry the chosen one. I refused to marry her. I told my parents that I could never marry someone I don't know, someone I don't love. I chose you. I married you only to realize that I married wrong. My parents warned me about marrying you but I did not listen because I loved you. All you ever wanted was to be Queen, to live the lavish life and not work for it. Even now, what do you do as queen except spending my money? Your don't perform any of your duties, only when it suits you, you would remember that you are the Queen. I guess the person you were before we got married was jut a figment of my imagination, and the you that I got after we got married is the real you. So yes, my sick twisted thoughts about our daughter kept our marriage alive. I couldn't touch her the way I wanted but I can you touch you. Yes everything I did to you, is everything I wanted to do to her.
Since you mentioned a second wife, I didn't take one because I didn't want you to feel like you are not enough but then again you are not enough. I think I will consider it now.