Beckoned Through The Dark

99 // Nthabiseng // Sorrowful Love

We woke up early the following day and went to THE GUESTHOUSE where Tiffany was currently staying. Cecilia and Sello were staying there now and they were not enjoying it at all.

Tiffany groaned and buried her face in her hands. "Today is gonna be a long day, you know."

I stared at the piles of files in dread. Couldn't this wait for another day? "Are we seriously going to read all those things?"

I asked.

"What do you think? It is the only way we can get into Betty's web," She said.

"Ladies," Bradley greeted cheerfully. He loved mysterious things, so I guess he was looking forward to this.

Cecilia and Sello walked into the sitting room, not looking pleased at all.

Of all the ways I'd imagined my first time meeting my mother-in-law, this was not the circumstances I could have ever imagined.

As a matter of fact, meeting her was not an option because she was dead.

At least we'd thought.

Vincent always spoke about her, I'm sure he would be thrilled to find out that she was alive.

"This place feels like prison," She complained.

I could only imagine what they were feeling, especially after being locked up for years. The last thing they needed was another lockup.

"Tell me about it," Sello agreed. "Is it just the two of you?"

"Uhm...yeah, the others can't see you guys yet," Tiffany quickly interjected.

Surprisingly, she was right. I didn't want the others to know about them yet, especially Cecilia.

Tiffany was still wearing the same nun clothes as she did last night, Abigail was shocked to find that the woman had only brought pairs of the same clothes as those.

"These people are very strange, they have a room where no one else is supposed to enter," Sello said while eyeing Tiffany and Bradley.

I turned to Tiffany, giving her a questioning look.

"Tiffany, what are they talking about? What is in that room, Vincent also mentioned that room and a doctor and nurses coming in and out."

She ran her palm down her face, and I could tell she was not impressed with all the questions and suspicions.

"Fine, come with me." She got up from the couch, and everyone followed her to the so-called mysterious room. She knocked on the door twice. "Tiffany here, please open up." The door opened and she entered first. "Come in," She said and held the door for us. The nurse that was in walked out.

"Lesego!" I ran into the room where Lesego was lying unconscious on the bed. "Les?" I shook her arm.

"Careful, Nthabi, she's not well," Tiffany warned.

Cecilia and Sello stood frozen at the door.

I turned to Tiffany in fury. "What did you do to her?" I asked.

She gaped at me, obviously offended by my implications. "What could I possibly do to her? I saved her life!" She snapped and then left the room.

"Tiffany could never hurt your niece, she actually saved her," Bradley explained.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. It's just that I– what happened to her?"

He turned around to face the wall and covered his face.

"I don't know how to tell you this, Nthabiseng... She was beaten up."

"What- is it that b-bad?" 

He turned around to face me, but immediately turned his attention to Cecilia and Sello, and when he found that they were watching him, probably waiting for the answer too, he found it almost unbearable and looked down.

"It appears that they wanted her dead," he whispered. Thinking that maybe I heard wrong or that maybe he was playing with me, I shook my head. "They beat her to a pulp, and then they left Ryan Daniels to finish off the job. But we got there in time to save her." His eyes were on me this whole time as if he was waiting for me to explode.

A waterfall of tears flooded my eyes at that moment.

How could they do something like this?

"Who- who did this to her?" Sello asked in a crackly voice.

"She's like a daughter to me, Cecilia. Vincent loves her so much. It's as if she helps him to forget about the pain and loss of his wife and twins." When I said this, Cecilia turned to look at Sello who in turn looked away.

Cecilia stepped forward and sat next to me. "She can't die, not now," I whispered.

"My daughter," Cecilia said and held my hand before settling next to me.

Tiffany walked back in, and I threw her an apologetic look.

"There's something I need to tell you about... Well, what's behind Betty keeping me prisoned for eighteen years."

I surrendered my mind back to all the pain Vincent and Lesego went through. Not because I felt responsible, but because I couldn't bring myself to think about Cecilia's pain.

"You know, something strange happened after all this happened. I- I felt it. I felt all the pain she felt all over my body as if I were the one hurt," I said, and she gave me a look filled with regret. "As if she were my own child." I looked down on Lesego's fragile body. Susanna turned to look at Sello once more, and this time he swallowed hard.

"Nthabiseng, Lesego is Vincent's child."

I nodded in agreement.

"She's my niece, but she's like a daughter to me. Maybe it is because we built a strong bond over the last few days. I fell in love with this girl the moment I saw her at your funeral." Sello frowned. "She approached me on that day. I'd told myself that I would stand there in a distance and I did, but then when I was about to leave, she came up to me. I'm not sure why, but she broke down right in front of me. After a few moments of talking and comfort, everyone was looking for her, so I had to leave. She seemed to be in a lot of pain, she seemed to be the only person who was struck by your death, other than Vincent. I'm talking about the worst right now."

I'd wanted to tell Lesego that we were not meeting for the first time, but I did not want to pressure her at this time.

"She begged me not to leave but I refused. She begged me to take her with me. She-she started crying and I couldn't help but feel responsible for her tears. I left her. I had to leave. But then I promised myself that I would go back to her since I suspected that you guys still lived in the mansion. It was easy for me because Vincent left after your funeral– he was depressed, as much as that affected me, I couldn't bring myself to face him especially after everything that happened with his late wife." I could see pity plastered all over their faces. "Lesego and I would meet at the gardens every single day. When visiting her everyday became costly, I started visiting her after two weeks and she understood.

A part of me wanted to come back to Vincent, but I couldn't. I knew that house from the back of my head, Cecilia, and it came in handy when I came to say goodbye to her, because I was leaving the country, but then I met Vincent.

I stopped visiting her when she was twelve and I started to watch her from a distance. I didn't know she had a twin sister until she was on her sixth grade. I've known Lesego all her life, and it felt as though she also knew me when she first saw me. My obsessions became a reality with her, and that reality became an unconditional love." I smiled at those last words. The room was now filled with silence, Cecilia and Tiffany were crying.

"It explains Isabelle's mixed emotions, after Cecilia's death she was devastated, especially after the funeral, sometimes after that you would find her happy and then sad again. On her sixth grade she was depressed, we all thought it was because we separated her from her sister at school, but I guess it makes sense now – you stopped seeing her when she was twelve, on her sixth grade, which only influenced her depression," Sello said.

I swallowed hard at those words.

"The dolls." Everyone turned to look at Tiffany, only Bradley knew what she was talking about, while everyone else gave her a questioning look. "It all makes sense now – you created a dollhouse, you changed your bedroom into a dollhouse because you were depressed, hurt..." She cried with her hand over her mouth.

"A dollhouse?" Cecilia asked.

"Nthabiseng started collecting dolls and stored them in a room at home," Tiffany explained, and then turned to me. "You kept buying dolls for Lesego, but you kept them to yourself. Why didn't you ever tell us, Nthabiseng?"

I smiled sadly. "What good would it have done?" I sighed tiredly, rubbing my temples.

"Susanna, you wanted to tell me something." I reminded her, and she shifted uncomfortably.

"Uhm...Nthabiseng, the twins Vincent lost 23 years ago..." She trailed off, her facial expression changing, she looked at Sello, and he nodded for her to continue. She held my hand and continued, "Lesego and Karabelo are Vincent and Rorisang's daughters."

I smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "I know."