Broken

*7*

Monday morning couldn't come soon enough as Mo tossed and turned in bed. After her conversation with Rea, she had decided to let things be because she couldn't undo the whole issue of him having a child in some foreign country. He probably even had more that she didn't know about because Rea was quite the ladies' man when she met him. While they were dating back then before he left, there had been rumours about him having multiple children with multiple women but Mo had quickly gotten over that. Now here he was, acknowledging his child for the very first time ever. It made Mo happy because it showed that he had changed but it made her sad because she wished that she was the one who had given birth to Rea's child.

The alarm finally rang and Mo jumped out of bed, fatigued. She ran the shower while making herself some cereal and milk. When all was done, she took off to work.

Mme Kalimo had already organised everything and as Mo went over her notice board, she saw that she had quite a number of meetings today as well as brunch with one of the investors. She figured that she would be home in time to watch Skeem Saam because she had missed the soapie. Smiling, she began to organise the clients' files for the meetings and placed each on its own shelf so that she wouldn't struggle with procuring the files once the meetings started.

Mme Kalimo stuck her head through the doorway and whispered, "There's a man here for you and he's not a client or investor."

"Rea? Please tell him that I have a long day ahead of me and I'll see him-"

"Not that boy. I have never seen this one before. He's very angry. Come on out."

Mo followed Mme Kalimo into the waiting room where she was surprised to see a disheveled Omphile who stared at her angrily. His eyes were bloodshot.

"My goodness, Omphile! Have you been day drinking? What is wrong?"

"Where the hell is your friend?!" he yelled.

"I don't know. Can you please come through to my office. I don't want you upsetting my clients who will be here any time soon."

"To hell with your clients! Where is that hoe friend of yours?"

"Come to my office, Omphile or I'll have security throw you off the premises."

Omphile pushes past Mo to her office and when she got in, he was already settled in the client chair. He was a mess both emotionally and outside. He was sobbing as Mo closed the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she sat before him.

"Where is Thabile?" he whispered.

"Like I said, I don't know where she is. But I do want to know what is wrong with you. You don't look so good. Can I give you a drink-no. You look and smell like you bought the whole bar. What's up?"

"I just need to talk to Thabile. She can't do this to me. She can't take Aphiwe."

"What are you talking about?"

Omphile chuckled bitterly. "She wants full custody of my only daughter going on about how I am going to have another child with my new whore. My lawyer says the court might support her decision because I have been unfaithful to her. She can't take my daughter."

Mo couldn't believe this. Thabile would never do that. She knew how much Aphiwe loved her father and to take her away from one of the people who care about her the most would be both selfish and heartless. "I'll talk to Thabile."

Omphile looked at her and smiled weakly. "You always could talk sense into her. Please help me. I can't lose Aphiwe."

"I won't promise you anything but I'll try. Now, before you go anywhere else..." Mo rummaged through some keys before finding the one she wanted. "This is the key to the staff quarters on the other side of this building we're in. There's a bathroom and I think Rea left some of his clothes so you can borrow them. I don't like seeing you like this, Omphile. You may be a terrible man for hurting my friend like that but you're still my friend too. Now go and get ready to go to work or else your business partner is going to buy you out."

Omphile laughed a little. "I can't have that happening. Thank you so much and I'm sorry for calling Thabi a whore. She has been a good wife and mother."

"And you should always remember that."
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The meetings were so boring for Mo and many times her mind drifted off to other things and she only came back when she heard her name being called.

"Ms Leballo, am I boring you?" a caucasian investor from Russia who was presenting an idea asked and all eyes in the room fell on Mo.

"Mr. Armanov, with all due respect, the idea you are presenting to us is great but looking at our revenue, we can't put it into action," Mo said. She found it weird that she remembered what he was presenting about. "We already increased the number of trucks and all the other modes of transport which has brought in a considerable amount of profit in the few months it has already started but that profit will not be able to cover what you want us to do and I believe we might even run a loss if we proceed with your idea-sir."

The table murmured their agreement as the Caucasian man stared at Mo. Then he smiled. "This is the reason I love working with you," he laughed and so did the other investors. "You don't beat about the bush. If you want to say something you just say it and often you are right! Anyway, we'll scrap the idea and also, we will be investing more money in this company of yours to expand on what we're already doing. The profit margin has greatly improved since you sacked that man that was defrauding us-what was his name again?"

Mo looked at her hands. They were talking about Reahile.

"I hope wherever he is he has stopped, otherwise a cell in prison will be awaiting him. Did you end up finding proof that he did it, Ms Leballo?"

Mo shook her head. "Unfortunately no. I sure hope he has changed indeed."

As the day progressed with Mo going in and out of meetings, things got hectic at the office when a huge shipment of cars came in. She had to personally attend to delivering the cars to a car sales that was in Quthing which was four hours from Maseru. She did this personally because the last time they shipped cars, their driver then almost disappeared with the brand new merchandise but luckily he was caught before making it to the border. And Mo knew who was behind that which she had chosen to keep a secret. But she still had the driver's confession on tape which she had gained by telling him that if he confessed everything, she would make sure that he never saw what the inside of Correctional Services looked like. The scared driver had spilled all the beans and Mo kept the recording as leverage over him for when she needed him. But on an act of mercy, because she knew that he had a family of six, she decided to keep him on as the petrol attendant which he was very grateful for.

Getting into her company overalls and putting on the matching cap with her logo, she got ready to jump into the driver's seat.

" Ntate Moshe!(Ntate is used to address someone older than you and shows respect)," she called the company petrol attendant. He was a bronze skinned man in his late forties. "Is the tank on full?"

Moshe nodded but he looked a bit uncomfortable. He was fidgety.

Mo looked him in the eye. "What has the little birdie told you?" she asked with a raised brow.

"It's just rumors but looking at your schedule, if you leave now, you will be in Mafeteng district in an hour which will be 7pm and I heard that there's an ambush waiting to happen in Mohale's Hoek which is about an hour and half away from Mafeteng. You won't be able to make it to Quthing."

Mo smiled. "Thank you," she said. "Don't worry about me. I am going to make it to Quthing one way or another. Wanna come along for the ride?"

Moshe perked up and a smile lit on his face. "For real? I mean after what happened last time... I don't think I should come."

"You're off the hook but one wrong step...correctional services will be waiting and that is not a threat. I think you deserve another chance though which is why I'll be taking you with me. And you can be my bodyguard. Also, if we survive tonight, you'll be getting overtime and a bonus. And we'll be using the truck with the long container."

Moshe couldn't hide his excitement. "Let me call the mother of the kids and tell her the good news."

"OK. 5 minutes and we're out of here." Mo jumped into the driver's seat.