It's mid January, I'm getting ready for registration at Howard College. I'm in my room trying to pick something to wear, after putting on dozens of outfits and changing them again, I finally settled for a pair of stonewash boyfriend jeans, black bandeau top with thin spaghetti straps, a white sleeveless shirt and my black and white Adidas slides. I left my crown messy and untouched. I Went to the kitchen to eat breakfast but it wasn't made, so I just took a few fruits and left. I took a taxi to town and upon my arrival in town, I took another taxi to UKZN. After about 15 minutes I was walking into the main gate at Howard College, I asked the security about where I should go and they directed me. After years and years of waiting in the queue, okay I'm exaggerating, it was a few hours, anyways after those hours, I am finally a registered LLB student at the prestigious University of Kwa Zulu Natal. I asked my dad to pick me up because it was a bit late and I wouldn't want to go to the rank so late. Dad with his wife and we ended up going to Musgrave center for supper and dad was acting a bit out of character, he was acting funny nje, I don't get what exactly is going on I just can't put my finger on it, but I hope nothing is wrong.
Oh silly me, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Naledi Starr Ngcobo, tall, dark-skinned 18 year old from Umlazi township, South of Durban, I'm not slender nor am I thick, I'm a size 34. I went to Moyeni Pre Primary school, Athlone Park Primary and finally Amanzimtoti High School. I am and always have been a loner. I am the only child of Ntombezinhle Yolanda kaMkhize Ngcobo and the only daughter of Nsikayomuzi Reginald Ngcobo. I have 3 older brothers from my dad's previous marriage, there is Philasande(30), Siphephelo(28) and Sanele(23), I love my brother's to death but they treat me like a 5 year old but yeah that's my family, that's my life. Dad is the CEO at one of the biggest architecture firms in the country, and mom, she is a teacher at one of the girls schools in Durban. Anywho, you must be wondering what happened with Bradley, well, that butt wipe disappeared off of the face of the Earth, I tried calling him a few times but like I said he disappeared, his phone is always off so I stopped calling and decided to focus on myself and my future.
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2 days after registration, dad is still acting weird and I'm definitely not the only one who noticed.
Mom: "maNgcobo, am I the only one who thinks your dad is acting shady?"
Me: "He is acting weird, but I thought you would know what's wrong because he's your man." I say with a shrug.
Mom: "I wish I knew, he's extra jumpy and doesn't want me touching his phone, maybe he's cheating on me." The sadness in her tone could not be missed. I may not know anything about relationships but I know my dad, and I don't think he would cheat on his 'Ngunezi'. After mom mentioned dad's possible cheating, she sat there staring into space. I went to my room to call dad, his phone rang unanswered the first few times then went straight to voice-mail, now I'm getting worried.
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Things at home went from bad to worse, dad started coming home late and avoiding both me and my mom, and mom was even losing weight and she even took leave from work. So on this day I came up with an idea on how we could corner dad into talking to us and telling us what was wrong. So I went into my parents bedroom to speak to my mom, I found her sitting by the dresser crying I rushed to hug her.
Me: "Ma, don't cry. I have an idea on how we get dad to tell us what's going on with him." She quickly wiped her tears and looked at me through the mirror, giving me a hopeful look.
Me: "Ma let's go the office, bring him lunch and hopefully get an explanation from him."
Mom: "But Ledi do you think that will work? You know how your father is, he'll just deflect."
Me: "1 thing I know about my mom, is that she never gives up, she keeps trying until she gets what she wants. Don't give up on your husband, don't give up on your family ma, please." She wiped the tears that kept on streaming down her face.
Mom: "Let me get ready, call your dad's favorite restaurant and order some lunch we will collect it on the way." And so I became a good PA, I ordered the food, chose an outfit for my mom and waited for her to finish then we made our way to the restaurant collected the food then went to the office. The receptionist let us through to dad's office and as we got off the elevator heading towards his office we could hear some noise coming from there, and it sounded like 2 people were shouting each other. We entered without knocking at found dad standing in front of a tall man who had his back to us.
Unknown Man: "Ngcobo we had an agreement, years later, after reaping the fruits of that same agreement now you want to pull out? You can't do that." What agreement? They both hadn't noticed our presence when dad said: "She's my only daughter, I can't do that to her."
Me? What do I have to do with this?
Unknown Man: "It's either we follow through with the agreement or we might as well take this to court and I'll sue you for everything you have."
"Fuze, what is going on?" Mom said with tears streaming down her face once again. Both dad and the unknown man were caught off guard by moms voice.
Dad: "Nothing my love, don't worry about this, I'll take care of it."
Mom: "Nonsense!! Who is he and what business does he have with my daughter Nsikayomuzi?"
Dad: "Babe please go home, we will talk about this when I get home."
Mom: "No, let's talk here and now, what's going on."
After a long back and forth conversation between them, the 3 of them sat down and discussed the issue at hand forgetting that I was there so I just sat on the couch and got busy with Instagram, I was fully focused on it, because I saw a post by Bradley, it was a picture and a short video. It showed him wearing a rugby kit that I didn't recognize and the video was of him scoring a try. What got me though, was the location he posted at 'Dublin, Ireland" I went through his feed and found out that he left for Ireland, the day after our last encounter which explains a lot, I was still focused on that when I heard my name mentioned in the same sentence as marriage.
Unknown Man: "She has to marry him, or you loss everything."
