Amanda: Is This Love?

chapter 1

"Hurry up mummy" thats Ngiphile shouting from downstairs, it's her first day of school today. What happened to time? Just yesterday i was holding her for the very first time and at a blink of an eye, she's 6 years old and going to grade 1.

I woke up late today mainly because i stayed up all night working on a presentation that I'm delivering this afternoon. Its monday and I'm dressed in formal, I picked out a black ankle grazer powersuit with matching black heels and a white shirt underneath, I fix my brazilian curl lace weave and I'm finally ready to leave, I'll apply make up as soon as i get to work before my princess kills me.

I walk downstairs to find Ngiphile sitting on the high chair finishing up her cereal while ma'Martha has started cleaning around. Ma'Martha is like family to us, she's been living with us since Phile was still as young as 2 months, she grew up with my mum and they're close friends too.

I grab an apple then take my bags "bye ma" i say to ma'martha as we rush out, Phile literally runs to the car "what did i say about running?" She stops and looks down "sorry mommy" i nodd before opening the back seat door for her and buckling her up on her car seat.

As we drive to Clayview Primary school, we are jamming to Khaya Mthethwa ft the oasis choir "mkhul'umsebenzi", i laugh as Ngiphile sings the wrong lyrics. Well my daughter sucks at speaking isiZulu , she's been exposed to english since an early age. We finally get to clayview primary, we walk hand in hand to the assembly and turns out we are right on time!

We are allocated in grade 1A , Mrs Adams. I snap a few pictures of my baby in her school uniform before kissing her and leaving for work. I cannot believe that Ngiphile has grown so much, she's a big girl now.

Allow me to introduce myself, I am Amanda Mthethwa, 25 years of age and I'm a marketing director by profession, i obtained my qualification at the university of the witwatersrand. I'm a mother to the most amazing little girl, her name is Ngiphile, trust me this name has so much meaning to it.

I'm a single mother. I was raped during my first year in university when i was 19 years old, i never knew the guy that did this to me, i was a virgin when this happened. While dealing with the rape trauma, i found out that i was pregnant. Now I'm a strong believer in Jesus christ and also i believe that children are a blessing from God, regardless of how they came about, so i chose to cherish this blessing which came in the most painful way,that guy took away my virginity but God blessed me with an amazing princess, thats why i named her Ngiphile, in full it is Nkosingiphile meaning God has blessed me because indeed he blessed me.

I'm the only daughter of Donald and Thandeka Mthethwa,my mother is a restaurateur and my father owns a chain of franchise supermarkets so basically both my parents are business people. My parents reside in Brynston while I have my own house at Meyersdal estate. I hold an honours in bcom marketing and an MBA(Masters in business administration). I have a passion for advertising and i wish to one day own an events company. I own a black Mercedes-Benz G63, thanks to mummy and daddy dearest.

I'm single,eversince the incident I've vowed to never even look at the direction of any man, my baby is my number 1 priority followed by my career.

I'm driving to work, i work at an ad and marketing agency. I get to work at 8h00 and head straight to the boardroom to set up for my up and coming presentation which is in less than an hour. My PA, Linda walks in, she's a sweet young lady. "Ms A" she's the only one that calls me that. "Are we ready for the presentation?" I ask her, she walks in while smiling and starts distributing files around the round boardroom desk.

In a few minutes everything is set and ready for our clients. The presentation goes well and as usual the client is impressed and they're ready to sign a contract so it is now up to our legal team to finalise the terms then we are good to go. I'm proud of myself for securing yet another advertising gig.

I get back to my office and work on up and coming projects requested by potential clients. Its 14h15 and i should be at Phile's school by 14:30 or else my princess will think i forgot about her. Her day ends at 14h30 everyday and on fridays it ends at 12h30. Since its afternoon, theres no traffic so luckily i get to her school exactly at 14h30. I step out of my car and fix my pants a bit, I'm a big girl so pants need to always stay in place before people get exposed to things that they're not supposed to see.

I walk towards Mrs Adams classroom. "Mommy!" My princess runs to me as soon as she sees me, she almost stumbles. I spoke to the teacher and she gave me a list of additional stationary that needs to be bought, one thing about private schools is that you'll spend an arm and a leg just so your child can get the best education.

We walk to the car while Phile blabbs about how amazing her day was. "Mommy can we get mcDonalds, I'm hungry" she's probably not hungry, she might have heard one of the kid's at school mentioning that McDonald's is offering a new toy and my sassy princess doesn't want to be left behind on the latest trends.

We are at the McDonald's drivethrough, i get her chicken nuggets because my baby her doesnt finish her food, especially food with vegies unless mummy is feeding her. We drive back to my office, one thing about Ngiphile, she's a socialite, everyone at the office knows her. We walk into my office and she runs to give linda a hug and blabs on telling her that now she is in big school. I continued working on one more project before knock off time which is 16h00. Princess and i drive to mall of africa to get some of the stationary that she still needs.

"Mommy!" She shouts from behind while I'm still looking at this insanely expensive story book that the school requested us to purchase, i look back and Ngiphile is holding a box of shiny colourful glitter, oh God, there goes my fluffy pillows and carpet. One thing about my daughter, the word "no" does not exist in her vocabulary.