27/28
When a man loves
Episode 27
I waited patiently for my brother to wake up. I wanted to ask him a lot of questions, what he meant yesterday when he said that maybe someone threatened Chiedza and who was this source. I had so many questions for him and I hope he had no problem answering them, I was alre-ady feeling nervous about this. I had alre-ady prepared him breakfast and mind you this was the first time my brother slee-ping over. He is just not the type of a man who sleeps over at other people’s houses.
‘Good morning bro,’ I greeted him as soon as he walked inside the room.
‘Morning,’ he responded and gr@bb£d his car keys.
‘Are you alre-ady leaving?’ I asked surprised.
‘Yes, why?’
‘I had prepared breakfast for us and would like to ask you some few questions.’
‘Look forget about what I said last night, I was probably drun!kfrom this wine.’
Just like that he wanted me to forget of what he had said. He had mentioned something about Chichi, hello the woman who is carrying my child and the woman I have been looking for weeks.
‘But you said..’
‘Yes, I might have said that but I am not quiet sure of what I heard.’
‘Are you protecting someone?’
‘Yes, I am protecting you. If that girl doesn’t want to be found then let her be. She left because she had no choice.’
‘Her name is Chiedza. Do you even care about her?’
‘I care about you.’
‘Well that’s so easy for you to say when you haven’t been treating me like your own brother.’
‘I don’t know how you want me to treat you but I have my own ways of showing love. I can’t be telling you every day how much I feel for you,’ he said and this has been the longest conversation with my brother.
Trust me if people saw us together, they would think that we are not from the same wo-mb and we don’t share the same father but we did.
‘I have to go,’ he said and I just walked him out of the house.
He got inside his car and drove off. He didn’t even give me the answers that I was looking for. He was trying to protect me, I get it but I also wanted to protect what belonged to me. Now he just told me that Marisa knew about Chiedza which means that she had said something to her. Then how was I going to confront Marisa if I had no evidence. You see how complicated this situation is. The more I talk to Marisa, the more Jay always finds ways of dealing with me. When I moved on from Marisa, I wanted nothing to do with her but now it seems as if she still wants to be p@rt of my life when I am trying so ha-rd to move on.
I don’t want anything that binds us together but look at what she has done; she went to Chichi right and threatened her. I am not okay with this; I am not okay with everything. I am not okay at all. I don’t want to cause trouble but then should I just keep quiet and move on, pretend as if nothing ever happened. Pretend as if my brother didn’t tell me anything concerning Chichi’s whereabouts. I seriously nee-ded some advice and decided to call Pamela.
*
VUYO (Vusi’s brother)
I know people hate me for treating my little brother like he is my step brother but I guess I am bad of showing it, how much I care and love him. After driving off from his house, I went home to take a shower. I had so much wine to take in last night, I guess I was just tired with work and nee-ded something to calm me down and unstress me, I don’t know if that kind of word exist. But I nee-ded something to make me feel better and it worked.
After I was done with the shower, I left the house. Well my family they stay abroad. Yes I am a married man and have kids. My story will be a story of another day because right now I have to meet up with someone who is coming back from SA with my things. I had ordered some things at PEP and they are safely arriving today, actually the person has alre-ady arrived. I could have gone to buy the things but I have been very busy with work and meetings with the shareholders. p@rt of my meeting included that one I had with Jay.
The man who married my little brother’s ex-wife. I honestly don’t have respect for that silly woman after what he did to my little brother. Vusi is very different from me. He is very open minded, sociable person, mentor and someone with a good heart. He isn’t someone who can pl@ydirt. What I can say is that he is like mum and far from dad. I am like my father’s son. I am glad Vusi refused to be p@rt of the company; he would have never liked to see or to know the cruel side of me and my father. Me and my dad we were good p@rtners just like that. As I was saying, Jay wanted me to be p@rt of his project. The guts that man had to come to my office and ask me if I could p@rtner with him. Oh yes he was busy praising me and pretending as if he wasn’t any enemy of mine. I had him investigated by my pri-vate investigator and nothing good c@m£ out from his name. He had good ways of covering up his tracks when he was campaigning for the Mayor position but I am going to destroy him with the dirty information I have on him.
Vusi can’t pl@ydirt and so cheers to Vusi. I will make that son of a bit-ch pay for the pain he caused my little brother. After I am done with him, that’s when he will realize that physical Karma had visited his address. I am serious no one messes up with my family and gets away with it. After I am done with Jay, Marisa’s mother, that witch will come begging my brother for forgiveness. For ma-king him drink that nas-ty traditional medicine. I will make them all pay and they will lose everything even Marisa will.
Anyways, don’t mind the scary p@rt of me. I am a good person but I just don’t tolerate nons-en-se and I always protect my family at what costs. I will take a bullet for any one of them and that includes my little brother. He thinks I don’t love him but I do. Even when he had tried to kill himself, I found myself wiping off my tears. I asked myself, why would he be so weak? I blamed myself for not being there for him. I blamed myself for not letting him open up to me but I won’t do the same mistake now. I know Jay is out there to destroy Vusi but I will destroy him first.
Anyway I collected my things and drove off to my final destination. Smiling to myself, I was actually happy for him. I parked my car and took some of the things with me. They were many and so I couldn’t take them all at once. I got at the door and ringed the bell. I waited for few minutes and Claire was the one who opened the door for me.
‘Oh my, let me carry that for you,’ she said with a smile.
‘Its quiet heavy,’ I smiled back walking inside the house.
‘Vuyo,’ she said trying to get up.
‘Can you get up even?’ I asked with a laugh and went to sit beside her, ‘I k!$$£d her on the cheek.’
I have become really close with them for the past month. You must be wondering whom they are. Okay let me take you back a little.
TAKE BACK
So I was home alone, well I am always home alone doing some work and stuff when I heard a knock at my door. It was really late at night and I walked to the door wondering who it was. When I opened it, I was shocked to find Chichi and her family with suitcases. Well that surprised me and I was utterly shocked. I had never had a conversation with her but I knew she was carrying my little brother’s baby. I welcomed them and they went to sit on the sofa. I offered them something to eat but they told me that they were not in my house to stay.
‘Okay,’ I responded at that time.
I thought asking them why they were at my house would be rude, so I waited for them to say something. Chichi cleared her throat and began her story. She told me that she was in love with Vusi and she didn’t want to hurt him. She told me that Marisa had threatened to hurt her and the baby if she doesn’t leave Vusi alone.
‘I thought of just leaving without saying anything but my Auntie told me that at least I should tell someone close to Vusi the truth and I chose you out of his friends, I don’t know why maybe because you are his brother. The least expecting person is always the best one if you know what I mean. I know you love Vusi but you are just not good at showing it.’
I very much thought that was an insult from her but then I smiled. She was the first person to have told me the truth about myself. Instantly I liked her and I was like she will be a good sister-in law, you know what I mean. I heard about the co-parenting thing but both you and I know that it will end in marriage. Anyways they were asking for my help, they wanted to leave the city but had no money.
‘You don’t have to leave the city,’ I had said to her, ‘I own a house just outside this area and I used it to hide my family. I guess you know about what happened to my family, the reason why I had to s£nd them abroad. My wife was R@p£d by her ex who was a gangster and been threatening to hurt our kids. He was arrested but I just thought they will be safe outside this country. Anyway I don’t want you to be far away, I can take you there tomorrow morning. Trust me I won’t tell Vusi about this. We nee-d to protect this baby at all cost and I am glad you c@m£ to me.’
‘Thank you,’ she had said.
That’s how I helped Chiedza and her family. I also helped her Auntie to take 3 months leave. She will go back to work after Chiedza have given birth. I also made sure that a nurse is close by when she feels like going into labor. I think I almost blurted out the truth to Vusi last night when I was ti-psy. As long as Marisa is still obsessed with Vusi, it will be bad for Chiedza. Now the deal is for Chiedza to give birth first and then she can finally come back to my brother’s life. I will be able to protect both her and the baby. Nothing bad will happen to her as long as she marries Vusi and I will make sure Marisa is never close by. I am doing this for my brother and I know I should have told him and the family, but they are better off in the dark.
‘I am happy you c@m£,’ said Chiedza.
I am always coming here every day to give upd@t£s about Vusi. She always asks about him, after all he is the baby daddy.
Episode 28
‘You know sometimes we just nee-d to thank God. You are very lucky cousin,’ said Claire when she was helping me pack the baby stuff.
It was Vusi’s brother who had bought them for me and boy were they nice. They were of high quality and I would have never afforded to buy this without his help.
‘That family is willing to do anything for you. I am sure if we had gone to his parents, they were going to hire a military for your protec-tion,’ she said and I bur-st out laughing, ‘I am serious.’
‘Of cause you are and I am always thanking the Lord for giving me someone like Vusi. You know when I thought about his brother; at that time I wasn’t sure if it will work, if he was willing to help us. See I had to tell him my true feelings towards his brother. Vusi doesn’t know how I feel towards him but I told his brother instead of him.’
‘Well at least you were being honest and look he helped us. You are lucky Chichi, very lucky.’
I consider myself very lucky because if Vuyo was someone else, he would have never agreed to help me out. You see at that moment I was about to leave the City, I had actually made up my mind but my Auntie changed my mind.
‘Chichi, I am not saying get married now because I know that you still want to finish off school and marriage is something not on your mind but,’ she had said, ‘It’s rare to find someone like Vusi in this world. Marisa messed up big time probably because of her mother. Right now I think she has realized what she did was wrong, she lost a great man and such kind of man in this generation they don’t exist. Vusi does exist and maybe this was God. Maybe you ended up getting pregnant because God had wanted things to end up this way. You can’t be scared of Marisa. Is she God? Does she have a say in your life? I am not saying go and tell Vusi but think about this. This baby would want his/her father and plea-se Vusi is not just any man but I have seen the way he cares about you. To him you are alre-ady the woman he wants to marry and I honestly wish you will end up together. I am not saying don’t hide, any decision you come up with I will protect you and I am okay with anything.’
After what she said to me and more I changed my mind. I wasn’t supposed to hide from Marisa, I wasn’t supposed to hurt Vusi and so I asked my Auntie and cousin sister to give me a day to come up with something. That’s when I ended up thinking of his brother Vuyo. I mean not even Vusi will think that his brother helped me to hide right. I went over at his house with my Auntie. Auntie had taken some day off. I remember feeling nervous about meeting him. I had gone over to his house just once with Vusi to meet his wife and kids before they went back abroad. I knew his house and so he welcomed us and told me that he was going to help me out.
I didn’t tell Vusi anything but I know for this he was going to forgive me. I just want to give birth to this baby and go back to Vusi. I was just scared that since I am pregnant, Marisa might have hurt my unborn child, I would have lost the baby. But now it will be different, if I give birth I will try by all means to protect this child and I will also tell Vusi the truth. The reason why I left without saying goodbye. He might hate me for that but I hope he will un-derstand that I was doing It for the baby.
‘Vuyo is leaving,’ said Auntie when she opened the door.
Vuyo’s house is a very big mansion and it’s very beautiful. He made his employees, the maids and garden boy to sign some papers. They weren’t supposed to tell anyone that I was at the mansion and it worked. They are all so friendly and the maids they tell me a lot of things about Vuyo, that he is a good man. I walked out of the room with Claire and Vuyo was alre-ady re-ady to leave. I always love his company here. Well I get to ask about Vusi and how he is doing. I think it’s just time for me to call him and let him know that I am okay.
‘Thank you Vuyo,’ I said hvgging me.
‘You don’t nee-d to and take good care of yourself. Whatever you nee-d, don’t hesitate to call me. Okay?’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said with a smile.
‘Vuyo,’ I called him when he was about to get inside his car, ‘I really miss Vusi.’
He smiled.
‘Then call him, tell him that you just nee-ded a break and that you will come back. He will un-derstand,’ he said, ‘he loves you a lot. He won’t get mad at you,’ he said and I knew he was right.
I waved goodbye at him as he was driving off. I went back inside the house and straight to my room. I took out my phone, not Marisa’s phone. Auntie had bought me another phone. The one Marisa bought for me; Auntie got rid of it with a curse, so funny of her. I dialed his number.
*
VUSI
Pamela had told me to just let things be but I was mad as hell. I wanted to drive at Marisa’s house to confront her but instead turned back. I am now on my way to my brother’s house. I feel as if he is hiding something from me. I don’t know I can’t help it but notice that he is very calm with this issue. I even think that maybe he knows where Chichi is but then they were never friends or did they have a conversation before or just to get to know each other, so it’s a dead end. Chichi would never approach my brother for any help that I know because the two ha-rd ly know each other.
I am just going to ask him if his source has found something about Chichi’s whereabouts. Busy thinking and driving, my phone rang and I answered it using the loudspeaker.
‘Hello,’ I responded, I don’t know who it was since the number is new.
‘Hie.’
‘Yes, who is this?’
‘It’s Chichi,’ she said and I found myself pu-lling over, that was sure a surprise.
I was utterly shocked that I failed to say something. Mind you it’s been a month, the last time I had her voice was when.. I don’t want to think about it right now.
‘Hello, are you there?’ she asked, ‘Vusi!’
‘Yes, I am here,’ I said with emotions almost chocking me.
I guess I had mixed emotions at that time. I was happy, angry, confused and just excited.
‘How are you?’
‘Chichi, how am i?’ I found myself raising my voice and immediately calmed myself down; this wasn’t time for me to be shouting at her.
I guess it wasn’t that easy for her to finally decide to call me and talk to me. I had to stay calm at all costs; I didn’t want to push her away.
‘I am sorry,’ she apologized, ‘I didn’t mean to leave without saying goodbye.’
‘Okay, where are you Chichi?’ I asked with a hint of concern in my voice, ‘I am just, I miss you a lot and I am worried about you and the baby.’
‘The baby and I are fine. You don’t have to worry about us.’
‘Chichi, can you hear what you are saying right now?’
‘I haven’t been able to do anything because I am worried about you. I know that it was Marisa who made you leave.’
‘What?’
‘You don’t nee-d to lie to me because I know she met you and said something to you. Did she tell you to stay away from me or else she will hurt the baby and you?’
‘It seems you know your wife pretty well.’
I almost laughed but it’s no time for jokes.
‘I heard that and of cause I know that she can be a bit-ch sometimes. Look I un-derstand you are hiding from her right now….’tidi tidi it hanged up.
I think she ran out of airtime and so I called her back. I was happy when she picked up.
‘As I was saying, you don’t nee-d to be afraid of her. You could have at least told me the truth and I would have known how to deal with her. I was really angry and mad at you. You had me all confused because I didn’t know what was happening. Listen Chichi I love you and even if you were here, I would have never let anything bad happen to you. I am sorry you couldn’t tell me the truth, you were probably scared and you didn’t want me to go to her and confront her right?’
‘Yes, I was scared for our baby when she threatened to hurt me. I promise you Vusi once I have delivered this baby, I will come back to you. I won’t stay away forever.’
‘It’s okay I un-derstand.’
‘You do?’
‘Yes, I do and I know that your Auntie is taking good care of you. I will be waiting for you. I am just happy that you called, honestly I was going insane.’
‘Are you not angry at me?’
‘I was at first but you did it for the baby. Maybe I would have done the same thing. You know I deserved to know of your whereabouts right?’
‘Yes, and I am sorry I just left.’
‘It’s okay. I will be here waiting for you. You come to me when you are re-ady okay?’
‘I will make sure that they call you when my d@t£ has arrived okay. You nee-d to be in that room with me.’
‘Promise?’
‘I promise babe.’
‘Did you just call me babe?’
‘Hubby.’
‘That’s even better. Okay my baby mama. I love you okay and we will fight Marisa together. She just nee-ds a good beating. I will give her a good beating just for you.’
She laughed.
‘You are crazy.’
‘For you I am. So I wish I would see you but I guess we just communicate over the phone. I nee-d to know what that woman is up to. She might have someone following me and so I think you are much safer where you are right now. I will find a good way to deal with Marisa. Okay.’
‘Okay.’
‘Good, I will call you later. plea-se do take good care of yourself.’
‘I will and you too.’
‘Definitely will baby mama. Bye, I alre-ady miss your voice.’
She laughed again.
‘I am hanging up now,’ she said.
‘Yes, hang up.’
‘No, you hang up,’ she said.
‘I can’t but you can.’
‘Vusi.’
‘You know what let’s keep talking while I proceed with my journey.’
‘Don’t get distracted on the road.’
‘I won’t.’
Tbc