33/34.
When a man loves
Episode 33
I walked to the be-droom and when I opened the door; my husband was busy pacing up and down.
‘Are you okay?’
‘I am not. There is something that I nee-d to tell you.’
‘What is it?’
He was about to say something when his phone rang and he walked out of the room. I alre-ady knew that it was Nyarai who had called him. I smiled while walking to the bathroom; I nee-ded to take a bath. It’s been a long day and I had to carefully watch my husband’s movements. I can’t believe that I am calling that son of a bit-ch my husband after what he did to me. I just pray that my mother gets well soon so that she can also pay for her sins. I will do everything in my power to make sure that I save that woman.
I shouldn’t have trusted my mother; no I shouldn’t have loved her that much. I mean what kind of woman in her right state of mind does that to her own child. I was very disappointed in her and I should have dealt with her when I had the chance to. When she sl@pped me that day, I should have started my revenge way before that but I will make them pay. Definitely I will not show her any mercy. She will deserve what’s coming her way.
I walked out with a towel wra-pped around my b©dy and Jay was sitting on the be-d. Watching him like this, looking miserable, sad and stressed really puts a smile on my face, I just thought while smiling. When he looked up at me, I quic-kly changed to a serious look on my face.
‘You don’t seem well?’ I asked pretending to be concerned.
He deserves this.
‘It’s just work,’ he lies.
‘What’s that you wanted to talk about?’ I asked applying lotion on my b©dy.
‘It was nothing. What do you want to have for dinner?’ he quic-kly changed the subject and I wasn’t going to pester me.
Trust me I know what I am doing right now. Asking him so many questions will just make him suspect me. I bet I am the last person he thinks about right now. I am sure he is asking himself who could be stalking him. Poor man, I wish I could feel for you but I hate you right now and this is my way of ma-king you pay. If it wasn’t for my mother and Jay, I could have been married to Vusi right now. We could be having maybe our 3rd child but these two just had to make things ha-rd for me. Love portion on me so that I could love Jay? I mean who does that.
‘We can eat anything,’ I respond to him.
‘Okay, I will make some plans. I want to take you out for dinner.’
‘Really?’ I smiled.
If there is something that you should know about me, I am very good when it comes to pretending. So late that night Jay took me out and we left our daughter at home with the maids. It was nice; no it could have been nice if it was Vusi but not this man.
‘The food was amazing,’ I complimented.
‘You liked it?’
‘I did and tha…,’ I st©pped at mid-s£ntence when I sp©tted Vusi from a distance as he was walking inside the restaurant in the company of some lady.
It wasn’t Chichi and now more than ever I wondered who it was. They pas-sed by our table and even when he saw me sitting there, he ignored me and that hurt me a lot.
‘Do you want to leave this place?’ asked Jay.
I think he must have noticed my sudden change of mood.
‘No,’ I found myself snapping at him, ‘I am sorry,’ I quic-kly apologized to him.
‘It’s okay,’ he said with a smile.
I couldn’t help it but wonder who that lady was. Obviously it wasn’t one of his relatives; I could have met her when we were still together. Was he d@t!ngtwo women at the same time?
‘Marisa,’ called out Jay.
‘Huh.’
‘You didn’t hear what I said. Did you?’
‘I am sorry,’ I apologized again.
How was I going to pay attention to him when Vusi was in the same room with me? When I saw the lady getting up from her seat and walking to the ladies room, I also got up.
‘I will be back shortly,’ I said to him and followed her.
I walked inside the ladies and after the flushing sound, she c@m£ out and I was pretending to be busy fixing my make-up. There was silence between us. It’s not like we knew each other but I was stealing short glances now and then.
‘Are you one of those ladies who are after his money?’ I asked.
I mean the words literally sli-pped out of mouth. She pretended as if she didn’t hear me and so I said. Shared on whatsapp by Martino
‘I am talking to you,’ I said now pushing her.
‘Excuse me. What is wrong with you?’ she asked.
‘What do you want from him?’
‘From who?’
‘Don’t act dumb with me. You know what I am taking about. Don’t act stupid.’
‘Listen lady, I don’t know what is wrong with you. You must be crazy,’ she said and tem-pted to walk out on me when I pu-ll-ed her back by her hair and she screamed out loud.
‘What the fv¢k is wrong with you?’ she asked pushing me.
‘Did you just push me?’
That’s how a fight broke and the next thing we are on each other’s throats.
‘Marisa,’ I heard Vusi shouting and I quic-kly let her go.
He quic-kly rushed to the lady as she was coughing.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked.
‘I am fine cousin. Is she your ex Marisa?’ she asked.
‘Yes.’
‘No wonder her face looked familiar.’
‘Let’s get you out of here. You nee-d help,’ said Vusi and he walked out with the lady.
Jay just shook his head sideways and left. I don’t know what’s wrong with me; I didn’t know that they were related. Stupid me. What have I done?
*
I opened the door for her and she got inside. I had to give her my suit jacket because her elegant dress had been r!pp£doff.
‘Are you sure you okay?’ I asked again concerned.
‘I am fine cousin.
‘I am so sorry.’
‘No nee-d to apologies. Actually it’s funny,’ she said with a laugh, ‘She thought that I was your girlfriend.’
‘She must have forgotten about you since you only saw her once at the wedding.’
‘I guess so. Are you sure Chichi is going to be safe? That woman is still in love with you or should I say obsessed with you.’
‘I don’t know. Marisa has gone crazy,’ I said and started the car.
I felt bad you know. Lia was my cousin sister and she was based in Australia, she actually c@m£ back yesterday. That restaurant has always been her favorite and she asked me if I could accompany her for dinner just after we had gone to visit Chichi. Okay now I know where Chichi is hiding, after all it was my brother who helped her. Back to the story, when I walked in I saw Marisa but for someone I am no longer in love with I ignored her. I didn’t even know that she was going to fight my cousin sister. We just heard noise coming from the ladies and I had to rush there to find Marisa strangling Lia. Marisa must be possessed.
I dropped off Lia at mums and apologized none-endlessly. She didn’t deserve that sort of treatment. She didn’t deserve it all. I got back inside the car and drove at their house in high speed.
*
JAY
‘What was that all about?’ I asked her.
I mean everything is all over social media, people were busy taking videos and for the mayor’s wife, come on Marisa should have acted like one and st©p haras-sing every lady that she sees with Vusi. I wouldn’t blame Vusi if she sues us for haras-sment.
‘I am talking to you Marisa.’
‘Jay, just leave me alone,’ she shouted at me and I just raised my hand in surrender
I was about to walk to our room when the guard called me.
‘What?’ I snapped.’
I have heard enough for tonight and I certainly didn’t nee-d any more drama in my life. I had a lot of things to worry about you know.
‘There is s…’
Before he could finish off his s£ntence, he barged in my house.
‘Vusi,’ Marisa was sure surprised to see him.
‘If you were not a lady, I would have beaten the $h!t out on you. What the hell is wrong with you Marisa? You know I have had it with you. What if you had hurt her? What if Marisa? Do you always have to think about yourself?’
I just watched him as he said all of that stuff to her. Oh no I am not getting involved in this. I can’t take Marisa’s side because she started off with the whole thing. I should just be watching as the drama unfolds.
‘Vusi, I…’
‘Oh plea-se save it Marisa. For someone who is alre-ady a mother, you ought to act mature but no you still choose to act immature. Can’t you see that you are re-ady to destroy his reputation? I didn’t want to do this but you leave me with no choice. I am applying for a protec-tion order against you. You are crazy Marisa and if you ever come anyway near me or any of the people that I love. I will make sure that your as-s is thrown is prison.’
‘Vusi.’
‘Oh yes I will Marisa. To protect the ones that I love, damn I will,’ he said about to walk out but st©pped, ‘you nee-d to get that stupid br@in of yours checked. You are crazy and you nee-d to be careful around her,’ he said referring to me, ‘she might be hiding something from you. She has a bipolar disorder; this one will ruin your reputation. I don’t know maybe you two really deserve each other. Psychopaths, I just feel pity for that little girl. She doesn’t deserve this. You,’ he pointed at Marisa, who was alre-ady in tears, ‘I won’t be giving you any more warning. One wrong move and you will find yourself in a mental hospital or jail. Bloody hell,’ he said and walked out.
This is the other side of Vusi that I didn’t know existed. He surprised me enough that I was left ton-gue tied.
‘Marisa Marisa huh. Vusi is a good man. He is much worse than me,’ I said with a smile and walked to our room leaving her screaming with anger.
Maybe he was right; maybe Marisa wasn’t at all a decent woman but had different types of personalities. I sure should be careful around her. Wait? What if it was Marisa who saw me that other day? I wish to tra-p the person who has been calling me so that I catch her and she will tell me who s£nt her. I know she is not working alone.
Episode 34
It’s alre-ady 2 days after the incident at the restaurant. Should we even call it an incident? Anyway I haven’t been receiving any threats from that pri-vate number. I can safely say that everything has been better and Marisa has been avoiding me. She has been sneaking out of the house and I don’t know why. Today is the day that I am going to be following her, for all we know she might be doing something illegal.
‘Jay, I am going out,’ she says to me.
‘Alright,’ I respond finishing off what I was doing.
Recently I have been seeing her going in and out of the garage. Mostly Marisa and I don’t go there. Even my cars I always have them parked in there by one of our drivers. I decided to go when I made sure that she was out of the house.
‘Sir, do you nee-d anything there?’ asked the gateman but I told him to carry on with his work for I was getting the thing by myself.
I opened the door to the garage and behold there was a motorbike inside. I don’t own motorbikes because I hate them but as soon as I looked at it, I swear it looked very familiar to me. It’s like I have seen it somewhere but I don’t know where exactly. I walked around looking at it whilst trying to bring back my memory then I st©pped when I saw the number plates. This was the same motorbike I had seen days ago, the one I tried to chase but couldn’t…Wait, so it was my wife? Okay now this makes s-en-se, it was Marisa all along and I know she was working with someone. I walked out of the garage room and walked back inside the house.
If she was doing this to me then I was also going to be pretending to her. I sat on the be-d contemplating on what I had just discovered. How could she do this to me? What was she trying to gain? I swear I didn’t see this coming. I waited for Marisa to come back home and she c@m£ back very late as I was pretending to be slee-ping.
‘No, he is slee-ping. Make sure that you change her bandage. Yes, thank you,’ I heard her say.
She must have thought that I was de-ep in my sleep; I clenched my fist in anger. So she was working with someone and Sharon didn’t die after all. I am safely so say that I am not guilty for any murder. Anyway I continue with my pretense of slee-ping thinking about all this. I think Marisa might have found out that I was cheating on her with her mouth and did this to me. She must have followed me that night and I did felt it you know. I seriously felt as if someone was watching me but you know you just ignore that feeling sometimes.
The next following day we woke up as usual and I left the house early after telling my pri-vate investigator to follow my wife. I know that she was going to leave the house. I wanted to know where she was hiding her mother. Marisa was a doctor; I know she was the one treating her mother. I un-derestimated her; I always thought that she was too quiet or calm to be doing such kind of things. I was wrong; she was her mother’s daughter. If only she knew what that woman did to her father then she would have just let her die. Well maybe one day she will found out that her mother killed her dad.
Vusi was right you know and that’s quite interesting. I know those two never fought in their relationsh!pbut it actually surprises me how he got to see the kind of person Marisa really was when he told me that I should be careful around her. I was just too blind to see but as I have said it before, I must have un-derestimated her. My pri-vate investigator called me later on and told me where my wife had dropped off. I know the place because it was her father’s farmhouse the one he left in her name. Yes I had gone there with Sharon; she just wanted to show me the place. I don’t know why though she did that maybe when she showed me the place that’s when she confessed on killing her husband. She must have trusted me enough with her secret.
I continued with my work and left the office at around 6pm. I wanted to go home, change and make sure that Marisa wasn’t leaving the house. You know right now I don’t care about Marisa’s mother being dead or alive. I mean it’s still the same thing; there was absolutely nothing that I could do. When I got home Marisa was at home pla-ying with our daughter. After all this is over, I will take my daughter with me and I will resign from this mayor position, I am just tired of pla-ying dirty games. I scooped up my daughter and made her sit on my l@p.
‘I am going out with my friends tonight,’ I said to her.
‘Oh that’s good.’
‘Do you have any plans? Maybe you might tag along.’
‘Oh no, I will be fine. I am just meeting up with my sisters as we try to discuss mum’s whereabouts. It’s been days and she hasn’t shown up. We are really worried about her.’
‘I wish I could do more to help you out but it has been dead ending my side. My people haven’t found anything either.’
‘It’s okay I know you are doing your best to find her. I just wish she could call or just communicate just anything.’
I took her hand but de-eply feeling like I could strangle her to death. Oh noo you know sometimes feelings switch from loving someone to hating them. The most thing that I hate the most in the world is being lied to and Marisa just did that now.
‘I should go and prepare for my outing.’
‘Do you nee-d me to pick up some clothes for you?’
‘Oh noo don’t dress,’ I said with a smile and unsmiled when I was walking to our room.
We chose not to talk about the restaurant incident because isn’t it crystal clear that she is still in love with Vusi. She literally fought with that girl because of that. I just had to let it be. I found it so useless to continue fighting for her; I feel like I am fighting this war alone and at the end of the day I am still going to lose. I left the house and drove to that location. It was alre-ady dark outside and I made sure to take some few things with me. When I got there, I decided to park my car just few meters away from the actual place. I walked to the area and when I saw the lights on, I knew they were probably not slee-ping.
*
NYARAI
When I found myself at the Mayor’s house, I wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision but then I nee-ded this job. After having spent those years in prison, I honestly wanted a fresh new start and away from my family members because I was still blamed for my husband’s death. You know when you are being abused, some people they think that you are the cause of the whole ordeal. I mean no friend or family member believed me when I told them that I was being abused. When I stabbe-d my husband countless times that night was because weeks before I had been hospitalized for miscarriage and it wasn’t the first time. I had stayed with him thinking that he was going to change; I was doing it for our marriage up until I ended up being thrown in prison for murder.
I thank Marisa for helping me out; if it wasn’t for her I don’t know what I would have done. I was in a desperate situation when I found her. anyway I finished bathing her, Marisa’ smother who was still a vegateble. Not wanting to sound rude but she was half dead. As I was walking out of the room, I felt as if someone was inside the house with me. Maybe I was just thinking of many things. This is the day that I killed my husband and I have been feeling a little edge since in the morning. I knew no one was going to find out about this hiding place, only Marisa and I know the place. I brushed off the thought of someone being inside the house with me and continued with what I was doing. I walked to the kitchen wanting to prepare something to eat. I opened the fridge and as I was closing it, I was hit with something on the head and that was blackout for me.
*
Serves her right for teaming up with Marisa and trying to bring me down. I can’t believe I always bu-mped into this lady at Sharon’s house. She is the same maid that used to take care of our daughter when she was at Sharon’s house. If I was marking the register then I would have found out that one of my employees was missing but that thought never crossed my mind. I tied her on the chair and sat on the sofa with the bait in my hand. I just hit her a little, she wasn’t going to die. I didn’t want blood in my hands.
I left her and went to check up on Sharon who just l@ythere like a vegetable. Poor woman, they could have just let her die. She didn’t deserve to live. I suddenly heard that girl ma-king sounds in the dining room and rushed there, she was awake.
‘Wakey wakey,’ I said to her and by the look on her face she was surprised to see me or should I use the word shocked to see me, ‘You must be surprised to see me right. Huh sweetie. How are you feeling?’
‘Untie me plea-se.’
‘Why? You and I are going to have a long conversation. I nee-d to know what my wife have been up to. I am sorry do you have any wine in here,’ I said walking to the bar area, ‘it’s just that I can’t spend the whole day without sipping on anything. Since this is going to be a long night, I might nee-d to take the whole bottle with me,’ I said and walked back to her.
I placed the bottle of wine on the table and sat back on the sofa.
‘Where was I? Of cause I nee-d to know what you ladies have been up to. Do you know how much you have stressed me up? I couldn’t even get my good night sleep because I was worried. I couldn’t help it but wonder, trying to think and questioning myself. Who could be calling me with a pri-vate number and threatening me?’ I said and took a sip, ‘It was you maid. It was just a maid ma-king my life miserable. Shall we begin to talk ma’am,’ I said placing the injection on the table.
Tbc..