‘’Good morning Teliwe,’’ Edina said to the girl as she walked into her house. She placed the basket she had come in Teliwe's arms as soon as she walked through the door, "And merry Christmas.’’

Teliwe closed the door after her and led her to the kitchen where she had been pounding spices in the mortar, before Edina's knock interrupted her. She placed the basket on the counter.

‘’Sorry, the kitchen is a mess. I wasn’t expecting anyone.’’

Edina gave the messy kitchen a cursory glance before focusing her attention on the young woman ."Chonta told me what happened. Are you okay?’’

‘’It’s the story of my life, I’m used to that.’’

‘’No one should be used to pain and rejection. You know, it’s her loss just live your life and be happy. Don’t give her the power to hurt you. The door to my house is always open if you ever need friends or a place you can call home.’’

‘’Thank you.’’

‘’You too are welcome love. Anyway, I came to invite you for Christmas lunch, if you are free.’’

‘’Can I take a rain check on that one?’’

‘’You have plans?’’

‘’No. I am just not in a place to be good company.’’

‘’Okay. I understand. I did suspect that you would say that. Anyway, enjoy everything in the basket.’’

‘’Thank you,’’ she said as she escorted her out.

Teliwe couldn’t help but be amused by the woman’s antics to try to set her up with her son. Thoughts of love led her to think of the handsome stranger she had given her purity to, almost two months back. Memories of the rated R things they had done that night, had her blushing and fanning her face.

***

Meanwhile, at the Benedicts residence, Clere gave her parents grateful hugs. It had been a turbulent couple of years. There was a time they had thought they would never have the peace they were currently enjoying.

Charlotte offered her daughter a glass of eggnog.

‘’So how is everything coming?’’

Clere frowned at her mother’s question. She knew all too well, where this conversation was going. Her parents were not too happy about her taking the helm of the company, they expected her to be a trophy wife who was doted on by her millionaire husband.

‘’Everything is good mom,’’ she replied as he took a sip of her eggnog.

‘’Remember we had an agreement…,’’ Charlotte began.

Clere resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She knew her parents were just looking out for her but she just wished they had more faith in her. She was determined to bring glory to the company.

‘’I know, you don’t have to remind me every second mum.

Only over her dead body would she ever allow another person to run the company. She had sacrificed too much to be that careless.

‘’I know you are capable of doing it. I just don’t like that dog-eat-dog world you are getting yourself involved in,’’ her mother said.

Neither did she but someone had to step up and bring sanity to the company. She reached out and touched her mother’s hand." I promise I will care," she began, heaved and fought the urge to vomit.

‘’Clere?’’

Clere excused herself as another urge to throw up besieged her. She rushed out of the room to the downstairs bathroom, bent over the bowl and threw up. Her mother knocked and walked in.

‘’Honey? Is everything okay?’’

‘’I am fine mom, must be the eggnog,’’ she said. Two hours later, she stared at the pregnancy kit in disbelief.

***

Edina pulled her daughter Easineya aside as they had the Christmas lunch with a few of their family friends. Nasilele was among the guests.

‘’Easi, what do you think you are doing?’’ she asked her eyes levelled at her son’s ex-girlfriend.

‘’Huh?’’

‘’Don’t try to play dumb with me. Why is Nasilele here?’’

‘’Oh her?’’ she said and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as if her brother's ex-girlfriend attending the lunch was the most normal thing.‘’ She is my friend mother. Just because she broke up with my foolish brother doesn’t mean I have to cut ties with her.’’

‘’Honey, for peace and harmony to exist in this house, you need to stay out of your brothers business. Do not manipulate the situation.’’

‘’I'm doing no such thing,’’ she said slightly offended but Edina knew better than to fall for her innocent acts. She didn’t believe Nasilele's presence was a mere coincidence. Even the best of intentions sometimes could backfire on us.

‘’Lemba is in love with another woman. Nasilele is setting herself up for a fall.’’

Easineya scoffed at that.‘’ He is in love with a ghost.’’

‘’Don’t play with fire. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, leave your brother and his affairs alone.’’

Easineya mockingly crossed her heart. Edina shook her head at her then walked away. She looked over her daughter's shoulder and watched Nasilele who wore a cream plunge blazer dress and a pair of thigh length boots walk over to Lemba who was on the phone.

‘’Hey stranger,’’ Nasilele said to Lemba when she joined him by the window. She took a sip from her wine glass and offered him what she knew was her best seductive smile.

‘’Nasi?" Lemba who was on the phone quickly put an end to the call then turned to face her, his facial expression and the look in his eyes wary, " I didn’t realize you had been invited.’’

‘’You seem disappointed that I was.’’ Lemba chose to keep quiet. She was right after all. He would have preferred that they saw less of each other.‘’ I am here to apologize."

"For what?"

"About the other day..."

"It's fine. You already explained yourself..."

" But that's it. I lied. It was your birthday, I didn't want to spoil your day."

A wave of sadness washed over him."I see."

"No, you don't Lemba. Even though your selfish decision to put an end to us hurt me, I still love you and I want you back."

"Do we have to do this?"

"If we must, yes. I refuse to give up on you, on us without a fight. You may have stopped loving me but I didn't. My love for you and our relationship grows by the day. Its, for this reason, I am telling you now, I don't care who you are in love with, I will fight for you."

"Nasi, don't make me lose the little respect I have for you."

"At this point, who cares about pride? If takes losing my dignity to get me back my man so be it. Anyway, Merry Christmas," she said and walked away.

Watching her leave to join Easineya who threw him a challenging look across the room, Lemba could not help sighing wearily. It seemed the days ahead would not be easy.

***

The next day, Clere lay on the examination bed as her ob-gyn, Dr. Easineya carried out a sonogram.

‘’Congratulations, Miss Benedicts. You are ten weeks pregnant.’’

The news devastated the eighteen-year-old college student. Her heart was instantly filled with repulsion.

She left the doctor’s office dejected and lost.

‘’Clere, my child, what is wrong?’’ Bernard Benedicts asked his only child. Clere had just asked to speak to them but for a while, she just sat looking down at her hands in her laps.

‘’I just came from the doctors,’’ she finally said. Her mother moved from her seat and joined her on the love seat.

‘’Baby, are you okay? What did the doctor say to get you like this?’’

‘’I’m pregnant.’’

Charlotte who was holding her hands withdrew them and stood up."What do you mean you are pregnant? How did that happen?’’

‘’You have never dated, how could this have happened?’’ her father asked in disbelief.

Clere told her parents the pregnancy was from a one-night stand she had when she had attended a college party.

Both Bernard and Charlotte were hurt and disappointed. They had never imagined their daughter would be one of those kids to engage in casual sex.

‘’I’ m sorry,’’ she said her head bowed.

Asked if she knew the guy, she shook her head. The lie was better than the truth. Clere knew if her parents found out that she had been impregnated by Ian Anderson the man responsible for the misery that was their lives, they would die from shock and disappointment.

Later as she stood in front of the mirror in her room and ran her hand over her tummy, tears rolled down her face. She vowed to get Ian for ruining her life.

Earlier her mother had assured her that they would help her raise the child as she had sobbed in her arms.

But she had no intentions of keeping the baby. Her baby, for the rest of her life, was going to be a reminder of Ian. Clere told herself she didn’t have it in her to raise the child of a monster and pretend like what he had done to the family was okay.

Even as she ran her hands on her still flat tummy all she felt was rage towards the unborn baby.

Clere reached for her phone on the bed and made a call to detective Monde.‘’ What's the progress?"

***

Teliwe was helping her men offload plants from the van when a delivery man came to her with her assistant.

‘’Teliwe, you have a delivery,’’ Arnold called out to her.

Teliwe took off her gardening gloves and went over to them. She signed for the delivery. After the man left, she opened the envelope and stared at the contents in disbelief. Soon that disbelief turned to anger.

‘’The nerve of that man!’’ she hissed as she hurled a cab and asked the man to drop her off at Barotse plains hotel. Teliwe matched to the executive floor where Pumulo’s office was. The secretary told her he was in a meeting with the board. She veered for the boardroom where she found him with Sibeso and three other people she had never met before.

Pumulo stood when she walked through the door.‘’ Teli…’’

She slapped his face before he could finish saying her name and shoved the envelope to his chest.

‘’How dare you Pumulo!’’

‘’Teli!’’ exclaimed Sibeso as the slap echoed throughout the room.

‘’Aunt, you know her?’’ Nasilele who was there with her parents asked. She had not been able to take her eyes off the woman her ex-boyfriend preferred and was searching for.

‘’Yes. She was…she is your cousin's friend,’’ Sibeso said standing up. She had no idea what to do. The anger the young girl was emitting was not be messed with.

‘’I can explain…’’ Pumulo began walking closer to his ex-girlfriend.

‘’Keep your goddamn explanations. I don’t need them!’’

Pumulo reached for her hand. Teliwe swatted his hand away and stepped away from him. His face fell and hurt reflected in his eyes as his shoulders slumped. The others watched on too stunned to react. With the drama that had been surrounding him, they had learnt it was better to watch from their lanes.

‘’Please…’’

Sibeso went over to her and touched her gently on the shoulder.‘’Teli dear….’’ She began but the cold and hurtful look the young girl gave her had her swallowing down whatever she had been about to say.

‘’Leave me alone Pumulo. Stay the hell away from me.’’

‘’I just wanted to make things right."

‘’There is nothing that you can ever say or do that will ever make what you did right. Nothing!!’’

‘I’m sorry,’’ he said looking down. Teliwe walked away ignoring his apology.

Sibeso ran out after the young woman her son had loved and intended to spend his life with.

‘’Teli, Teli wait…’

Teliwe was already at the elevators. The doors opened up and she walked in. Sibeso ran up to catch up with her but the doors closed just as she got there. As the doors closed, Teliwe’s blazing glare was what Sibeso was left with.

Sibeso took to the stairs and ran down the four flights of stairs like her life depended on it. Breathlessly, she caught up with Teliwe just as she stepped out of the elevators. Teliwe aimed to walk past her, the elderly woman clamped her hand on her wrist.

‘’Teliwe, wait.’’

Nsemiwe was just coming around the corner when she came upon the scene.

‘’With all due respect Mrs.Akokwa, let go of my hand.’’

Sibeso flinched at the cold manner she was being addressed. Teliwe had only ever called her that once, when Pumulo had introduced them to each other, Sibeso had insisted and urged the girl to call her mother. In Teliwe, she had seen the future wife of her son, the mother to her grandchildren. Then Nsemiwe and the bankruptcy happened.

Sibeso let go of her arm.

‘’Teliwe, can you spare me a few minutes?’’

‘’You tell your son to leave me alone,’’ she said and walked away. She called after her but Teli never turned back. Turning back to head back up, she found her daughter in law glaring at her. Sibeso walked past her and got into the elevator.

She found Pumulo anxiously pacing the boardroom. Pumulo cursed under his breath when Sibeso shook her head at his unasked question.

‘’Son, what did you do to upset her? Have you been bothering her?’’

‘’Sibeso, what is going on here? Who is that girl?’’ Inonge, Nasilele’s mother asked.

‘’Her name is Teliwe, she is the ex of Pumulo,’’ Sibeso said. Nasilele sunk to her seat at the news.‘’What did you do?’’

‘’I sent her tickets for an all-expense-paid to Zanzibar,’’ he said as he sat defended. He had not expected her to react the way she had.

His sentence was followed by a chorused outcry of disbelief from his family. They were having the emergency board meeting that Teliwe had interrupted to see the way forward with the estimated pruning of over a thousand workers, and his careless spending did not sit well with them.

‘’Get over yourselves. A friend just repaid a debt he owed me. I thought Teli would make better use of it. I was wrong.’’

‘’Oh honey, you know Teli better than anyone, all she needs is time.’’

Pumulo grabbed his car keys and walked out. By the time the family was getting home, he had not yet returned and he wouldn’t pick his calls.

‘’Aunt do you think Pumulo still loves the girl?’’ Nasilele asked as they had dinner. She had been able to get Sibeso to tell them about him and Teliwe. Nasilele needed to know all there was to know about her rival for Lemba’s heart.

‘’He never stopped loving her,’’ Sibeso said quietly.

‘’Oh there is my traitor of a family,’’ Nsemiwe said as she walked in clapping her hands mockingly.

‘’Oh boy,’’ Inonge murmured as the others groaned."It’s going to be a long night.’’

‘’So where is your son? Is he with that slut?’’

Sibeso chuckled.‘’Oh, that is where the definite difference comes in. Teliwe is a lady, my son holds her in great respect and he would never disrespect her like that.’’

‘’Wow! You are one crass mother. I am warning you and your son, I won’t take this lying down. I own all of you. I will pull out my investment, let’s see if you can survive without my money!’’

‘’Oh please. I am getting tired of your threats. Go on, pull out your investment if you must,’’ Sibeso said standing up to face the woman she had brought into her son's life,‘’ Poverty is not the end of the world. We will make it somehow. And you want to know something funny, you are the one who will end up losing more in all this,’’ she said and walked out to the lounge just as Pumulo stumbled in drunk, whiskey bottle in hand. Bikusita rushed to his side and helped him to a seat, as Sibeso stood frozen in one-place tears filling her eyes.

Pumulo before marrying Nsemiwe had never touched the bottle. Pain pierced her heart and tore it to a thousand pieces at the realization that she had done this to her only child. In not wanting to lose the lifestyle she was accustomed to, she had sold her son's soul.

Nasilele who had rushed to get a bowl of water returned with it and began to dab at his forehead. Inonge pulled off his shoes. Sibeso dragged her feet to him.

‘’Oh Pumulo, why are you doing this to yourself?’’ she sobbed quietly.

‘’I had a good woman, I had the best woman a man can ever have but I let her go…I want to forget… I can’t live with her hating me as much as she does. I want to forget…,’’ he sobbed through his drunken stupor.

‘’Oh God, what have I done? I’m am sorry, my son.’’ Sibeso sobbed as she knelt by his side and took the bottle away from him.

‘’I had a good woman mom. Teliwe was the best thing that ever happened to me now I am stuck with Jezebel.’’

Nsemiwe who had not forgotten the bathroom incident a few weeks ago huffed and stomped off for her room. Vowing to get even with the Gardner.

***

Three days after Clere had discovered she was pregnant with Ian's child, the man in question, Ian Anderson slept next to a young girl who didn’t look a day above fifteen. The same girl, Clere and Monde had been checking out a few weeks back on the infamous pimping Atlantic Road.

A loud knock on the hotel room door he had booked woke him up from his slumber. This was the same room he had negotiated Clere’s virginity in exchange for the company.

‘’God damn it, am coming,’’ he growled as he reached for his robe. He gave the girl next to him a spank on her curvy and firm behind and promised himself to have another round as soon as he dealt with whoever dared to disturb him. He had given his people strict instructions to not be disturbed unless his mother was dying who happened to have died a good twenty years back.

He took a moment to run his wrinkly hand's hand over the girl’s body who lay facing the other side. The feel of her soft and silky skin aroused him. He gave himself a mental note to give whoever had picked her for him a raise. The girl had been wild just like he liked them. He was about to turn her and have his way with her ignoring whoever was at the door when the door burst open, splitting off its hinges.

Ian sprang off the bed in shock.  A team of four officers walked into his room.  One rushed to the girl who surprisingly, had slept through the noise.

‘’What is this? Do you know who I am?’’ he demanded.

One of the officers went over to him taking out his badge."Ian Anderson?’’

‘’Yes? So you know who I am. I demand you leave this instant before you lose your jobs.’’

The officer produced cuffs, roughly grabbed him as he read out charges he was accused of.‘You are under arrest for soliciting a prostitute and for sleeping with a minor.’’

‘’What?’’ Ian asked shocked and looked to the bed where the girl, now turned over had foam around her mouth. Paramedics rushed in and began CPR on her.‘’Take the damned cuffs off me. I demand you let me go!’’

It was quickly established that the girl had over dozed. Asked what drug it was Ian refused to say a word as he struggled to be released. Luckily for the medical personnel and the girl, the tale signs o the table gave them the clue they needed.

The paramedics quickly did first aid on the girl and as soon as they had everything under control, they put her on the stretcher and rushed her to the hospital.

‘’Looks like we are going to have to add drug possession to the list,’’ the officer who had spotted the cocaine on the glass table said. A search of the room revealed he had about half a kilo of the drug.

‘’Tell those idiots to get these off me,’’ Ian demanded as he sat on the floor of the hotel room still in his robe.

His lawyer, a bald and stocky old Indian man leaned closer to him.‘’ Ian, I need you to appreciate the gravity of the offence, the girl is a minor and a sex worker and on top of that, drugs were found on you.’’

‘’Do I look like I care how deep I am in? I pay you good money to make stupid things like this to go away,’’ he hissed at him just as he was roughly hurled up to his feet and dragged away. Ian’s lawyer wiped the sweat from his brow. If there was ever a career finisher, it was this. He made his mind to not go down with him. While Ian was being taken down in one elevator, he used the service stairs, no ways was he letting the media vultures sink him alongside Ian.

Outside, a group of journalists stood waiting to be the first to get the scoop.

As the journalist pounced on the officers and Ian, each wanting to get the best picture and their questions answered, Clere watched from her van, packed not so far away with Monde by her side.

As the van drove away with a cuffed Ian, Clere permitted herself a smile, which was more of a smirk, the first since she had found out she was pregnant.