HIS ROYAL BRIDE

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 31
UNEDITED

[KULANI]

He’s back. He looks less tense than he was when he left me in here. He’s sitting on the chair next to the window, and he’s not even aware that I’m awake and looking at him scrolling on his phone. I don’t even know where mine is.
‘Baby’ I softly call. He raises his face and gets up to come to me.
‘My sleep expert is finally awake?’
I laugh as he kisses me all over my face. I have come to terms with this title because it’s true.
I can represent South Africa and win if sleeping Olympics were to exist.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask.
‘I’m fine. How are you?’
‘I’m okay. We can go, right?’
He sighs.
‘Sure’
‘I’m guessing you’ve already told your brother about this?’
‘Yeah I was with him’ he sits up and I continue lying on my side as I yawn.
‘How did he take it?’
‘He’s not happy about having Xongi back into his life but he understands, sort of’
I am not even going to ask what that ‘sort of’ means.
They need to fix their relationship with their mother. I will be greatly disappointed if Xongi if
Xongi refuses to confess. I get up from the bed so I can go prepare myself. I can hear Kurhula
telling Fikani that he can come. So, they were waiting for me to wake up from my sleep? I took
a shower before going to bed so all I need to do now is to make myself look presentable. I also
need to take my antenatal supplements. When I’m all done, I’m told that the bro is waiting for
us outside.

…

Mhan Sarah seems surrounded by mixed emotions when we arrive. I sense relief and some fear at the same time. It’s disappointing how she always finds herself as an accomplice to Xongi’s shenanigans.
‘Please come in’ she promptly offers after we all exchange greetings. We follow her inside and she starts rinsing juice glasses.
‘Why did you keep her here and not say a word?’ Fikani asks.
‘Trust me, I wanted to but she insisted that she didn’t want her family to know that she’s sick.
‘Where is she now?’ Kurhula asks. Sarah points at the room with her head and tells us that Mhan Xongi was sleeping the last time she checked.
‘Can I go in?’ I humbly asks and she approves. I get up and head into the room we were directed to. I find her indeed sleeping – facing the window, with two crutches against the wall. I step closer and I realize that he whole body is covered in sores, ones that resemble bed bug bites – including her swollen legs. The problem is definitely not the bed. My heart is breaking at the sight of this. She looks weak, even in her sleep.
I pick up a chair and sit closer. She turns towards me and coughs.
‘Kuli…’ she calls, with a slight frown on her face.
‘Mhan’ Xongi…’
She tries to sit up and I insist that she continues lying down. She fully turns in my direction instead and lies on her side. I don’t understand the look in her eyes.
‘You look beautiful’ – she coughs once again – ‘You don’t just look beautiful. You are beautiful’ she randomly compliments and catches me off guard.
‘Uhm… thank you’
She weakly smiles.
‘You remind me so much of myself. I was so innocent and naïve when I got married off to Edward’ she starts reminiscing. Is she trying to say I’m gullible or am I being slow?
‘I was so young. I was seventeen at the time. He was older but extremely charming and gentle with me at first. I honestly cannot tell you where it all went wrong’
I don’t find this surprising. Sometimes I feel like I am a walking oxymoron. People have a tendency of not liking me at first sight for no reason at all but at the same time, they tend to feel very comfortable with sharing their business with me – even strangers. So, I don’t find her immediate ramblings strange at all. I’d make a bloody good detective.
‘I experienced my first slap from him after a month of being married to him. Lydia was there and the first thing she said was to leave him. She wasn’t afraid of him like the rest of us’ she laughs. Why do I feel like Xongi is sure that she’s dying? I have never imagined her speaking about Lydia in a good light. This is like listening to Fanisa admiring Aunt Lee’s fashion sense or something of that quality. She sighs. This honestly not how I expected this to go.
‘There was no way I would allow myself to be a return soldier. I wasn’t the first woman to be beaten by her husband and I was certainly not the last’
She goes quiet after this.
‘Do you regret it?’
She raises her eyes at me.
‘Staying through the abuse. Do you regret it?’
‘He kxlled my child, Kulani. Do you understand how strong you have to be to continue sharing a bed with a bed of that beastly nature?’
I go quiet.
‘Please open these windows’ she asks. I get up and do as requested of me.
‘She was beautiful. I named her Masana, meaning sunrays. Till this day, I still hear her cry like it was just yesterday when she was being suffocated to death by her own father’ the tears finally drop and instantly get absorbed by the white pillow cover. Something is missing from her character. Xongi always carries around this majestic energy that introduces her place in the royal homestead without her having to say it out loud. Those were my first impressions of her. It’s like she’s already given up.
‘He pulled her off my nipple like he was grabbing an empty water bottle. That man looked me dead in the eye and told me that I have a rotten and cursed womb’
Yoh…
I extend my hand and hold hers.
‘I did not come by myself’ I inform.
‘I can hear their voices’ she says.
‘Can I help you get dressed?’ I offer and she nods. She needs some fresh air and this whole room smells of disease. It’s weighing me down. She shows me where to find a comfortable dress and I help her get in it. I hand her the crutches and she walks ahead of me. When we appear, Mhan’ Sarah tells us that her garden needs some attention. Kurhula stands up when he sees Xongi. She is really not in a good state. Fikani remains seated. He helps her get seated on the couch. He’s trying to mask the heartbreak but I think I can say I know him. He’s not okay. Those few steps drained the life out of her. We’re all waiting for her to catch her breath.
‘I’m sorry…’ that’s the first thing she says after getting her breathing under control. They both insist on not making eye contact with her.
‘I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be Fanisa’s pawn’
These men are still silent.
‘Let me start with you, Kurhula’ – she coughs – ‘Everything you have watched me experience was not for eyes of your age at the time. I understand your anger, trust me. I remember all the times you have begged me to leave, with you. I cannot undo anything of the past. The only thing I can do… is try make things right because I no longer have any time left’
She wipes her tears with the back of her hand. Kurhula sits back on the couch. I feel like he’s been waiting to hear these words. I don’t know. Like he’s finally receiving the apology he never thought he’d ever get.
‘Fikani…’ she clears her throat. ‘I named you after your grandfather and you went to copy everything he was in terms of his calm demeanour’ she beams. He doesn’t return the smile.
‘I had to give you away. I had no choice my boy…’
‘I am over that’ he interjects.
‘Please let me finish’
He holds his tongue.
‘When you came back home, that was supposed to be the happiest moment of my life. It truly was but I had to go mess it up. That’s what I was always do. Maybe I was not meant to be a mother but in all that I have done, I humbly ask for you forgiveness. I would kneel in front of you both but you can all see that it would be take a couple of years to get up’ she laughs at her own joke.
‘You can still fix this by coming back home. I need you for my ceremony to go well’
‘That will not be possible’
Xongi starts looking uneasy. Fikani impatiently drops his hands, like he’s not surprised that she doesn’t agree. Kurhula stands up and Fikani picks up his car keys.
‘Can you both please calm down?’ They’re forcing me to speak.
‘Let’s go’ Kurhula says to me. I beg with my eyes. He’s not having it. He shakes his head and continues waiting for me to take his hand.
‘I’ll follow after you’
He rolls his upper lip and looks at me. He’s irritated. Fikani has already walked out of the house. He follows him. Xongi looks away when I turn towards her.
‘This is not the end of you. You know that, right?’
She still refuses to pay attention. Luckily for me, ears don’t have lids so I will continue to speak. She will listen even if she doesn’t want to.
‘Are you not tired of this back and forth between you and your sons? Let us go home. All you need to do is confess to what you have done and all of this will be over. You will be healthy like you had never fallen sick’
‘Confess what? I already have’
‘I am not talking about Fanisa’s love portion. I am talking about what happened between you and your husband the day he died’
She widens her eyes.
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Kurhula already knows. He just hasn’t mentioned it because he doesn’t care about his father, he never did. All because of the things he had to witness him do to you. That’s not enough? It’s not enough to tell you how much he loves you even though you never choose him?’
Now why am I crying? I need to calm down. Xongi is covered in shame.
‘I can say the same thing about Fikani. You never choose him as well and you’re surprised that he’s acting the way he is? Now he needs you. He might not say it but he needs you desperately so. You’re his mother but you’re prepared to sit here and die instead of fixing his life? One you’re responsible for the state it is in right now?’
‘You’re still my daughter-in-law. Don’t scold me like you’re talking to your peer’
I’m forced to pull in some air.
‘I am sorry. I did not mean any disrespect. I am just begging you to come back home. Please stop abusing Mhan’ Sarah’s kindness. Come back home, tell the elders that you killed your husband and do the ceremony that’s required of you. That’s all’
‘Those people are going to burn me, just like they did to Fanisa’
‘The worst the family can do is to tell you to leave but in this case, they need you just as much as you need them. They need a king. Things are stagnant because your husband is stubborn and spiteful. I am begging you for the last time’
She’s thinking about it. That’s something, I guess.