A WEB OF DECEIT

chapter 1

NKOSIKHONA MKHIZE

The room felt smaller than it actually was. The air was thick, suffocating almost, and the weight of everything settled on my chest like an anvil. My mind was a battlefield, emotions waging war against logic, leaving me exhausted. I had thought that after all these years, nothing could shake me. I was wrong.

Ayanda’s words kept echoing in my head, louder each time I tried to silence them. Pregnant. The revelation felt like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind out of me. It was as if my world had shifted, spinning off its axis, leaving me struggling to find my footing. I couldn’t even be sure what was worse—the fact that she was pregnant, or the fact that she had betrayed me in the worst possible way, with my best friend, Sipho.

Betrayal. The word rolled around in my head like a bitter pill I couldn’t swallow. Sipho and I had been through everything together—school, family drama, wild nights in Joburg—but this? This was something I never imagined he was capable of. We were brothers. Or at least, I thought we were.

I picked up my phone, staring at Ayanda’s number on the screen. My thumb hovered over the call button, hesitation tightening my chest. Did I really want to have this conversation? Was I ready for the answers she might give me? The bitterness in my throat made it clear that I didn’t have a choice.

The line rang a few times before she picked up. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was soft, cautious. “Nkosikhona?”

I took a deep breath, struggling to keep my voice steady. “We need to talk, Ayanda. I need to understand how this happened. You’re pregnant—how do I even know it’s mine?”

There was a long pause on the other end, and for a moment, I thought she might hang up. But then she sighed, a sound full of exhaustion and regret. “Nkosikhona… I know this is hard to believe, but I haven’t been with anyone else since you and I broke up.”

My jaw tightened. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the familiar sting of betrayal flare up again. “Except for Sipho,” I said, my voice edged with bitterness.

She let out another sigh, this one filled with the kind of frustration that only deepened my anger. “That… that was a mistake. It meant nothing. It was a one-time thing, and I told you that.”

A mistake. A one-time thing. I couldn’t help but feel the bile rise in my throat. That ‘mistake’ had cost me more than she could ever understand. It wasn’t just my relationship with her that had shattered—it was my trust in everything and everyone I held close. I pressed my thumb and forefinger against the bridge of my nose, willing myself to stay calm.

“I want a paternity test,” I said after a pause, my tone flat, emotionless. “I need to know the truth, Ayanda. I can’t—” I stopped, taking a breath to steady myself. “I can’t do this without being sure.”

There was a silence that stretched on longer than I was comfortable with. When she finally spoke, her voice was subdued, almost defeated. “I understand,” she said. “I’ll take the test. You deserve to know.”

When the call ended, I dropped my phone onto the bed and just sat there. I couldn’t move. My body felt numb, like it was sinking into the mattress. The questions in my mind grew louder with each passing second. What if the child wasn’t mine? What if it *was*? Either answer came with its own kind of hell, and I wasn’t sure which would be worse.

The weight of my family’s expectations pressed down on me like a heavy cloak. The Mkhize name was not something to be taken lightly. My father had made sure I knew that from the day I could understand words. We were a legacy, a lineage, a dynasty. And now, the idea of having a child was more than just about fatherhood—it was about responsibility, duty, the continuation of that legacy. But how could I bring a child into this world under such a cloud of uncertainty? How could I face my parents if the child turned out not to be mine?