What you don't know, won't hurt you.

Nasilele realized how true the timeless adage was way too late as she sat in a daze before her laptop. Pearl shaped tears streamed down her face at the realization that she wasn't the only woman in Lemba's life.

Inexplicable pain wrung her heart. Nasilele who had until now had hope of a reconciliation between the two of them felt like her world had just crashed around her.

At first, she had tried to deny the facts before her but the more she stared the couple on the screen the more ridiculous she felt. Then raw pain coursed through her.

"You are a liar Lemba. You fooled me! You made a fool out of me!" she yelled as she she swept everything off the desk in a fit of unbridled rage.

The noise attracted the secretary outside. She barged in, worried about her boss.

"Ma'am, is everything okay?"

"Get the hell out! Who asked you to come in here?"

The secretary looked at the mess on the floor then shifted her gaze at her going boss.

"I will just clean the room up."

Nasilele grabbed the picture frame- the only thing left on the table- and hurled it at the secretary. " Are you deaf? Didn't you hear me when I said get out?"

Unfortunately for the secretary, she wasn't able to dodge the flying missile in time. The wooden frame hit her on her head. The secretary let out an agonised yelp as she covered her bloody forehead with her hand.

"Get out!" Nasilele screamed unaffected by the bloody gush on the other woman's forehead.

As the secretary ran out, Nasilele turned around, grabbed the laptop off the floor, went back to her seat and powered the laptop. Even though the screen was cracked, the picture was still visible.

Nasilele was a woman who was confident in her looks and sexy appeal as a woman but as she stared at the younger woman's picture through the cracked screen; she couldn't help but feel inferior to her.

She glared at the paused picture with jealousy.

There was no doubt the other woman was very beautiful with youth on her side. She felt a pang in her chest .Had he been cheating on her all this while?Was she the reason that he stopped loving her and broke off the engagement?Had they planned to meet and celebrate on the night they would announce to both families about the breakup?So many questions yet no one to answer her.

Unable to stare at the picture of the two of anymore, she flung the across the room and it hit against the wall. Her chest swelled and dropped as her breath came in short, rapid pants.

"Bastards! Lying swine's! You will not do this to me. I will not let you make a fool me you !" she yelled, the look in her turning crazed. "You won't do this to me Lemba!"

A few seconds later, she punched the internal office line."My office now!"

Taking a calming breathe, she righted her clothes then grabbed her compact from her purse and retouched her make-up.

A little while later, Ted from the bar, the doorman, four young women and another two young men, all dressed in the hotels black and white uniform stood before her in her messy office. They all stared at her with varying degrees of shock and disbelief. Nasilele had just fired them all.

Their crime? Aiding and abetting Lemba and his mistress. But of course they would never know. She wasn't about to humiliate herself further by explain her reasons. When the shock had worn off at the news of their sudden dismissal, they all tried to talk above each other as they pleaded with her to reconsider her decision.

"I want you out of my hotel in the next ten minutes. Your salaries will be credited to your accounts," she told them coldly.

Nasilele stared at them coldly, unaffected by their pleas. She scoffed at their attempt to have her tell them the reasons they were suddenly been dismissed. When they wouldn't move out and continued to pester her, she called security. In an instant, the once quite and uneventful executive floor was filled with wailing from the dismissed employees as security dragged them away.

Just as security dragged the last unwilling dismissed employee out, a tall and graceful woman in her late forties steppe out of the elevator. She was dressed in a beautiful blue chitenge dress with a matching gele. She frowned at the scene before her.

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

"Mrs. Akokwa," the head security guard greeted her respectfully and quickly explained that the eight employees had just been dismissed and were not allowed to be in the hotel premises.

"Dismissed? For what? How come I didn't know about this?"

She asked the security to stop man handling them and asked them all to wait in the conference room, after which she headed to Nasilele's office. She flung the door open and frowned at the mess before her.

"Nasilele, what's going on? Why did you suddenly let go of our employees."

"And why can't I? I am within my rights to."

"Not without a just cause and passing it through me," pointed out the head of human resource who also happened to be her fathers cousin. "

"I have my reasons."

"Which are?"

"None of your business," Nasilele snapped taking the elderly woman by surprise.

"Anything to do with the hotel is my business. This is not the market where you can fire anyone at will. This is a business Nasi run by rules and regulations. Honestly with all the problems we are facing, we really don't need the union hot on our tail. We can do without the bad publicity."

"You think I care about all that?"

"You should. I don't know how but they already got wind of the pending massive retrenchments and they are not happy campers."

"They are fired and that is final."

"Unfortunately, the final decision is not only up to you."

"Aunt!"

"Give me a good reason why you are doing this. Maybe if your reasons are justifiable, I might back you up."

Heaving heavily, Nasilele looked away from the elderly woman as a large lump settled in her throat.

" Honestly Nasi, what is wrong with you today?" Earlier, she had been at a party hosted in honor of the largest investor, Nsemiwe, when she got the distressed call from her secretary that Nasilele had assaulted, Emelia, her secretary. Nasilele ought to have been at the party as well but she hadn't turned up and she couldn't bother herself with giving a proper excuse. " Is something bothering you? Do you need sometime off? I think you should take some time off to cool down. I think you need some alone time to process everything that has been happening."

" I am fine."

"No you are not honey. Look at you. This is not you. You are acting crazy. Tell me, have you and Lemba talked..."

"Don't mention that lying bastards name in front of me."

Sibeso Akokwa raised her hands in surrender. " Okay. I guess its still a sensitive topic. Look, why don't you take the day off. I will deal with things here."

"Whatever," Nasilele murmured, grabbed her bag and stormed out.

Sibeso Akokwa sighed and walked out. As soon as she walked in the conference room, the just dismissed workers stood up and looked at her anxiously. Sighs of relief, soft sobs and words of gratitude greeted her ears as soon as she assured them that their dismissals had been reversed. Sibeso gave them all a week off and offered them complimentary weekend trips at one of their lodges.

"How is she?" she later asked her secretary who had earlier joined her in the conference room.

The secretary walked besides her towards their office. "She will live. She refused to come up though. The young Miss scared her for life."

"Yeah, her and me both. Did you manage to find out anything?"

"Yes. Earlier, Miss Nyambe asked for the CCTV footage from the night of her engagement."

"Oh? What for?"

Sibeso never attended the party as she was still in South Africa finalizing details of the contract between her family and Nsemiwe. Pumulo and Nsemiwe were supposed to stay with her for another week as they had scheduled to have their honeymoon on the Nkosi Lettie, a Durban based luxury cruise ship but for some reason, Nsemiwe had suddenly changed her mind after the wedding and insisted she preferred to have the honeymoon back home.

Sibeso had faith in her secretary's gossip skills and didn't for a moment doubt what she had been able to piece together in such a short time.

"So it is like that?"

"I could be wrong. Do you want me to investigate it further?"

"No. Its fine. I just didn't peg Lemba to be a two timer."

" Do you want to see the footage? Unfortunately Miss Nyambe had the IT department delete it all."

Sibeso waved her hand dismissively. " Get back to work."

"Ok Mrs. Akokwa."

"Have Emelia take the day off. Here, process these papers for her. Tell her she can take some time off and return when she is fine. Offer her the same incentives as the others."

"Ok ma'am."

"And make sure this doesn't grow out of proportion mmm?"

The secretary threw her a sheepish smile as she zipped her mouth.

Alone, Sibeso took out her tablet. She browsed through the news articles featuring the hotel. A satisfied smile crossed her face with the positive reviews.

She picked up her phone and made a call but just like the many times in the past month, her call went unanswered. Later, she followed her son and his new wife into his office.

Nsemiwe had her arm in the crook of Pumulo's arm.

"You are back. I thought you would stay a little longer," Sibeso said to them.

"I asked Pumulo if we could leave. My feet are killing me," Nsemiwe replied.

"Is that so? Did you carry a spare pair of slippers?"

"Unfortunately no. But I think if I just rest for a while, I will be fine."

" You should do that and try to avoid high heeled shoes from now on. Its not recommended for pregnant women to be in heels," Sibeso said. " We wouldn't want anything happening to my grandchild now, would we?"

"No of course not mom," Nsemiwe replied sweetly as Pumulo shot his mother a loo that she could not decode.

"I will have someone bring you a pair of slippers."

"Thanks mom, you are so sweet. Your mom is so nice," she said in a soft coquettish voice to Pumulo.

"If nice was a person," Pumulo commented dryly, his cold gaze pinned on his mother.

Sibeso smiled awkwardly.

"Mom, don't mind him. He's been like this for days. Mom a month has already passed since our civil wedding. I was thinking it was about time we stared planning for a church wedding."

"Is that so? Well, we can talk about that once you guys have moved back home. In the meantime, I will talk to our Reverend and invite him home for dinner the day you will move in."

"Thank mom, you are best," Nsemiwe squealed delightfully. " I can't wait to walk down the aisle with all our friends and relatives. Pumulo, you should make sure all your friends are invited. Don't leave anyone out," she continued looking up at him her eyes filled with mockery and provocation.

Pumulo removed her arm from his and walked over to his desk.

" I have work do. If there is nothing else, you can go ahead to the suite."

"Oh but I want to stay here with you," pouted the pregnant Nsemiwe. " I don't know why but the baby and I just want to be by your side all day long."

Pumulo threw her a cold glare where as she smiled sweetly at him.

" I will just go use the little girls room, don't go anyway. Your wife and baby will be back soon," Nsemiwe said, blowing him a kiss on her way out.

" Son," Sibeso began hesitantly as soon as the door closed behind Nsemiwe. " How are the two of you?"

"How do you think?" He retorted, pulling on his tie.

"It can't be that bad. I know there is no love between the two of you, but love can be cultivated with time right?"

"And the point to this conversation is?"

Sadness shadowed the elderly woman's face. She wasn't happy with herself for what she had done but she believed she had done the right thing. " I know you must hate me but whats done is done. If you give yourselves a chance. If you really try hard, you two could be a happy family."

Pumulo scoffed, pulled back his chair, sat and switched on the computer.

The moment the computer turned on, Teliwe's face, which he had saved as the wall paper stated at him. He stared at the young woman's smiling face longingly. For a permitted himself a tiny smile as he reached out to touch the screen.

Though Sibeso wasn't privy to what had her son smiling like that, she had a vague idea. She cleared her throat, edged closer to the table and took a peek. "Have you had a chance to talk to her?"

He switched off the computer and reached for a file instead. " You should leave."

"You should talk to her before she finds out from a third party."

"Too late. Your lively daughter in law already beat you to it."

"What? How? How did Teliwe take it? Is she okay"

"How the hell do you think?"

"Oh god. Poor Teliwe, maybe I should go and talk to her..."

" You stay away from her. Haven't you done enough already? "

"Son, it wasn't my intention to hurt either of you. What happened hurts me more than it hurts both of you but I had no choice. Someday, Teliwe will understand. Someday, when you are a parent, you will understand."

"Is that what you you have been telling yourself to ease your guilt?"

"Pu....,"

"Shut the door on your way out," he said dismissively and turned his attention to the file before him.

Dejected and with no way to defend herself, Sibeso turned and walked away. Nsemiwe who had been eavesdropping at the door, scurried away before she could open it. Nsemiwe was not too pleased the the conversation between the mother and son, gritted her teeth and stomped her feet.

"Just wait and see Teliwe. Wait and see," she hissed.