INCLINATION

CHAPTER 13 | Betrayed

HLANGA.

#NotEdited

She places her soft hand on my back and I feel her warmth seeping inside and warming me up. Of all the things I thought Andile was capable of, I never thought he would involve our father in his dealings and he would agree also to use me in their illegal activities. I never thought my father is capable of hurting me like this after everything I have done for him so his business could not go bankrupt. I should have let it go down. I shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place like how my mother asked me. She begged me and I never listened and now. My life is in danger because of them. My whole family is not safe because of two stupid people and one of them I trusted with my whole life.

I am going to fly to Joburg, I want my father to look at me in the face and confess to me or so help me Lord. I’m going to be their worst nightmare. I shift and face her.
“ How do you know that it was mu signature that is on those documents?”
She cocks her head. “ Really Hlanga?, I know it because of that check you gave me"
I hold her gaze, she still remembers that day. “ the check you never cashed in"
“ I…..I….” she stutters then heaves a deep sigh. “ I never needed that money. Your money Hlanga"
I let out an exasperated sigh “ I didn’t sign a damn thing…..”
“ I know....” she whispers “…. I knew you would never be involved in something like that so I started to investigate six months ago and I found out who was forging your signatures”
They are dead “ Who is it?”
“ Charlotte’s brother Tate. I don’t know who did it before him because he was in jail for two years on charges of fraud and identity theft. He took over from the person when he got out. Charlotte must have asked him.”
“ Does he know, you know?”
“ I would be dead if he knew. This was my ticket to be finally free of him. I was going to tell my father when I got home but then Don happened”

“ Don’t tell your father. I’ll need everything you have on Andile, my father and all their illegal business"
“ What are you going to do?”
“ Don’t worry yourself”
Her eyes get misty and her voice shakes. “ How can I not when you’re about to confront them?”
“ cause you trust me to take care of it, like you should have done the moment you found out"
“ I was scared"
“ Scared of me too? You don’t trust me now?”
Her voice breaks “ I do trust you. You know that"
“ Yet I had to find out about things from my aunt and not you. You hide things from me Emy. You couldn’t even tell me that you were here, right under my nose"
“ I’m sorry…”
“ I’m sick of your apologies. Didn’t you think that all of this was also hard on me too? Seeing the woman I love get married to my brother, see you being treated the way he did….”

She better not blame me for the mess she got herself into. “ You promised me that you would protect me, where were you then?”
“ You chased me away, told me to stay the hell away from you!”
“ Stop yelling! I was scared for your life"
“ Bullshit! You fell in love with that psycho. I had to watch you love someone else while you claimed to love me. Do you know what that did to me. Did I mean that little to you?”
“ It was hard for me too. I couldn’t go back on my word Hlanga"
I really hate doing this but she needs to know how she hurt me. “ So you chose to break my heart and marry him instead?” A tear rolls down on my cheeks and she breaks down. “ why wasn’t I worth the risk Emy? Was I not worthy enough for you?”
“ Please don’t say that. I love you Hlanga, you’re the only man I have ever truly loved.”
“ But not enough. You simply gave up on us"
Her voice shakes “ You did too, why am i being the only one who’s being blamed? You just vanished on me. Stopped talking to me”
“ Because your father asked me to stay away from you, that you were promised to someone else not knowing that, that someone else was my little brother. Imagine the surprise when I found out it was you they went to ask for your hand in marriage and you said yes.”