I must be the dumbest woman who has ever walked this earth. How did I miss it? How did Mthunzi’s and Zelda’s relationship completely happen over my head? I did not suspect a thing! I suppose I never imagined Mthunzi to be the type that falls in love with the help. Though, why am I surprised? Mthunziloved me the most when I needed him. He loves being needed. He doesn’t know where to locate himself in a relationship when he isn’t the god in the relationship. He is right at home with Zelda.

But Zelda yena? How could she? I worked with her the closest. My kids trust her. 

This is why I never get too close to staff. Boundaries are so important. Nowthese bitches even fuck your man and still call you Mrs Msomi? I’m legit at a loss for words. But one thing is very clear to me, I need to focus on making money and take care of myself and my son. Mbali was my last ticket to a comfortable life with Mthunzi. With her gone now, George is my lottery ticket and I need him now more than I ever have.

George has put me up in a penthouse in Sandton. It is nice and close to my beauty bars. I can even walk to my places of work. Siya lives with my mom inDiepkloof now. I’m happy with that. He is stable there and my mom will give him what I won’t be able to give him – what Zelda has been giving him and Mbali all these years.

I am packing my bags now and getting ready to leave for a trip that George has organized for us to go on. I have exactly eight clients to entertain sexually in the next three days. I will be staying at a hotel that I now co-own with George. I am the hotel manager there, but I also have my own executive room where I entertain my clients and make money or seal deals for George. This money keeps my son in school, my family in Diepkloof fed and it further pays for my lawyer’s fees. This divorce is not as amicable as I would have hoped it would be.

***knock on my door***

I walk to the door and open it. It is George. I leave the door open and go back to packing my bags. He walks in.

“Hey” He says as he closes the door behind him, coming in and settling in the room where I am packing.

“Hey. You ready?” I ask him.

“Yeah. But before we head out, I wanted to give you this”, he says as he hands me an envelope. I accept the envelope and look inside of it. It is an A4 sized envelope filled with two hundred rand notes.

“What is all this money for?” I ask him. This is a lot of money.

“I feel bad that you had to raise Siya without me all these years. I’ll never make up for the lost time and I don’t even know if I’ll ever have a relationship with him. But I want to make sure that financially, he lacks nothing. So that’s his school fees for the rest of the year. I’ll EFT you more money to get him whatever essentials he needs”, he says.

This genuinely moves me. I have never expected this from George. I knew what I was getting myself into when I chose to keep his baby. I knew that when I kept the baby of my pimp, he would never stop treating me like his sex worker and suddenly co-parent with me. That’s not how it works. So this… this is everything. I will always appreciate him for this.

“Thank you, George. Seriously, thank you”, I say.

“Good. So let’s leave early so that we can pay these fees and leave him some food and goodies before we go make some more money.” He says.

I smile.

Indeed we get my bags, him holding the bigger bag for me and I hold my handbag and the envelope that I have shoved into my handbag, then I lock up my place and leave with George.

…

As expected, these old rich men who have been having their way with my body are fat sweaty bastards who do not last longer than ten minutes. It’s nothing a hit of cocaine cannot numb me from.

I got through it. Now, I am in my executive suite resting and recovering from the past three days of sexual action.

I go through my iPad and find streams of emails regarding my tenders. I need to find a PA as efficient as Zelda who will handle this for me. She was so good and I hate how easy she made business for me. She would have dealt with all of this and left the critical stuff to me.

What are all these queries? Some I have never even seen before. Oh my, I miss Zelda. Do I even have time to train someone to do what Zelda did for me? I hate this.

I have twenty imessages from Siya. We bought him an iPhone before we left and I am his only contact. I don’t even want him to contact Mthunzi. He is out of our lives for good. I decide to FaceTime him. He answers after two rings.

“Hello mommy”, he greets me. Even my mom appears on the screen.

“Hey guys. Are you good?” Me.

“Yes. I was just preparing to go play with my friends outside”, he says.

What friends now?

“You have friends in DK?” I ask.

“Yes, Sindiswa. Let the boy go play with kids his age and leave TV alone. He is a child. He must know how to play like other kids”, my mom says.

I should have known that my mother would turn my kid into a hood rat. I’m not impressed. He should be studying and watching decent channels.

“Mama, please make sure that he doesn’t take his phone with him to the streets”, I say.

“Yes mommy, I always leave my phone with gogo when I go play with my friends.” He says.

He says goodbye and runs off.

I talk to my mother now on his phone.

“When are you getting back?” She asks me.

“Tomorrow. I’ll come home for the rest of the week until Sunday”, I say.

“Good. Siya misses you and I want you to be very present in his life. I don’t have a problem with the fact that you work hard. But Siya needs you. He has lost Mbali and Mthunzi. He shouldn’t feel as if he is losing you too”, she says.

“Okay mom. I’ll be there, I promise.” I say.

“Good. Please bring some groceries.” She says.

“Can I send you money instead, mama? I’ll call a driver to take you to the mall and bring you back”, I say.

“And Siya? I can’t leave him alone”, she says.

“Take him with you, mama. Siya can handle himself”, I say.

She nods her head.

After hanging up, I send her R5000.

…

This morning, I leave the hotel. I am in the office trying my best to honestly get admin done and keep up with everything.

George walks in and finds me deep within the books.

“You are not coping”, he says to me.

“Huh?” Me.

“This is all too much for you. You need to hire that girl again. She was good.” He says.

“Admin is not that difficult to do. I can just go to a college and get someone to do all this for me”, I say.

“Then why haven’t you?” He asks me.

Good question.

“I’ll get my HR person on it as soon as possible”, I say.

“Take the girl back. So what? She’s with your soon-to-be ex-husband. That’s personal. This is business. If you going to keep blurring the lines between business and personal, then you are not the businesswoman I thought you were.” He says.

That stings a bit. I don’t say anything.

“You are a smart woman. Phone that girl. You don’t have time for a recruitment and training process. My tender connections want to let you go and give the tender to someone else. She was good at managing all of that. She could even come and manage the hotel once hotels open again. You can see for yourself that if we don’t make money in other ways, we could lose the hotel. Call her. I bought us some time with the tender people. Have her back on board by tomorrow”, he says.

Fuck!

With this, he leaves the office.

Indeed I pick up my phone. My butterflies are all over the place, leaving my tummy in knots. I don’t even know why I feel so nervous. She is the one who fucked my husband. Why am I uncomfortable?

Her phone rings until it goes to voice-mail. I try her again. She still doesn’t answer my call. What is wrong with this girl? I call again.

“Sindiswa.” Mthunzi answers her phone instead.

“Mthunzi, I’m looking for Zelda”, I say.

“What do you want, Sindiswa?” He asks me.

“I need to talk to Zelda. This is business related”, I say.

“She doesn’t work for you anymore”, he says.

“Mthunzi please. I just need five minutes of her time. Please”, I beg.

He hangs up.

Shit!

My phone rings. It is Zelda. I answer.

“Hello”.

“Sindiswa, you were looking for me?” It’s Zelda. She even calls me Sindiswa now, not Mrs Msomi.

“I need you to come back to work. I hope that we can still work together despite the nonsense that you are doing on my husband’s penis”, I say.

“Sindiswa, I’ll hang up this call if you intend to be disrespectful”, she says.

This bitch!

“All I’m saying is that we can be women about this. We still have to work together. I’m hoping we can be smart and professional and still deliver on what needs to be done. I still need you”, I say.

I hate myself for saying this, but it is true.

“Email me what I still need to do. I’ll work from home until we can meet again to work in an office space”, she says.

“Fair enough. Thanks Zelda”, I say.

She hangs up.

I get onto my laptop and indeed send her a list of things to do. I give her work regarding the tender we have and some hotel stuff I’d like her to do for me. This should take her about a week to get through, but at least now I can shift focus on the beauty bar stuff.

I arrive at home, my mom’s house, at 10pm. My baby boy waited up for me. Apparently he refused to sleep until I got back. I didn’t even unpack. I spent time with him and he told me all about his friends, how he likes living with gogo now and how he wishes I could live with them. He mentions wanting to see Mthunzi, but I don’t even entertain it. I engage with him on everything but that.

At midnight, I force him to go to sleep. He insists that we will sleep together in my room. I don’t protest. My mom switches off the lights and makes her way to bed as well.

The house is now silent and I cannot catch a glimpse of sleep. I pull out my MacBook and see if I cannot get work done.

I see emails from Zelda. This girl is a miracle worker. My eyes legit water at the work she has done. She has even resolved our queries and issues with our tender people. She has now emailed me a lot of things that I need to action and sign off.

She has also looked into the hotel stuff. Her analysis of the hotel stuff is a clear indication that Mthunzi helped her. It is too analytical and extremely thorough.

I don’t care though. I’m happy.

I sign off and action what needs to be done.

I finish at 6am when it’s time for Siya to wake up and get ready for school.

Indeed, I wake my son up and help him get ready for school. He is done with everything by 7am. As I pack his school bag and sports kit bag into my car (George has bought be a BMW X6), two little boys that are around his age run up to me. 

“Are you Siya’s mom?” The one boy asks me. 

“Yes, I am. Who are you?” 

“I am Siya’s friend. My name is Lindo.” 

“I am also Siya’s friend. But I am his best friend. My name is Khaya.” 

“No, I am his best friend.” 

“No, I am. We play together more!” 

Whatever kids! I really don’t care. 

“Siya!” They both shout as Siya comes to the car. 

“My mom is taking us to school today”, Siya says without even asking me. 

“No, I am not.” I say. 

Siya sighs at me. I roll my eyes. 

“Please mommy”, Siya asks me. His friends are also now giving me puppy eyes. If I actually cared, this would move me. Why can’t they just take the bus?

“Fine”, I say because I just want to make my son happy. 

These boys waste no time! They run to two different houses. I wanted Siya to stay behind, so I can tell him that he must never do this again. I don’t want the responsibility of other people’s children. But, he ran with them. 

Sigh! 

The boys run back with two mothers that have doeks on their heads. 

I can’t!

I know it is only 07H12am, but even I am in a presentable dress and sneakers. My weave is combed nicely and my eyebrows look like I take my life seriously. This is the one thing that I do not miss about the ghetto.

“Hello, I am Lindo’s mother. My name is Lucy. I thought I should come and say hi and thank you for driving the boys to school today.” 

“I am Siya’s mother. My name is Sindiswa. I will fetch them from school as well this afternoon.” 

“Thank you. I am Nomsa. Khaya is my son.” 

“I will see you ladies later. It was nice to meet you. Let me get the boys to school.” I say as I get into my car. 

The boys are already buckled up in the backseat. Siya is buckled up in the front seat. I am assuming that they all go to the same school because I am not a taxi and I am not doing more than one stop to drop off kids at school. 

I’m back home by 08:30am. My mom tries to make me clean the house and no, I’m not doing that. I go and get my sleep instead, setting my alarm for 1pm.