Chapter 1 - The Mother's Final Demand
“TAKE OUT YOUR GUN AND KILL ME, TUSA! MY FUNERAL INSURANCE IS PAID, AND I'VE ALREADY PREPARED THE HOUSE FOR MY BURIAL!”
“MA, I'M YOUR SON! HOW CAN YOU ASK ME TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?”
“YOU'VE KILLED OTHER MOTHERS' CHILDREN! WHY SHOULD YOUR OWN MOTHER BE ANY DIFFERENT?”
I stood frozen in the doorway of a small blue house, watching the strongest man I'd ever known fall apart.
My boyfriend, Mthente Ngubane, was twenty-nine years old.
He had once earned his living as a hired assassin.
He had killed people for money, leaving behind grieving families and a reputation that terrified even those closest to him.
But he had also saved my life.
Someone had paid him to murder me, and he'd chosen to disobey that order.
Now the man who had once been my greatest threat was the person I trusted most.
Unfortunately, his mother saw something entirely different.
She saw every terrible decision he'd made, every promise he'd broken, and every nightmare his choices had brought into her life.
And on the evening we visited her childhood home in Makhuni, she had decided that death was the only way she would ever find peace.
What I didn't know was that her despair concealed years of family tragedy.
And a dangerous secret from Mthente's past was about to return.
But everything had started several hours earlier.
My name is Nangomusa MaNtshangase, and I owned a growing interior design business.
That morning, I'd instructed my office administrator to advertise an opening for a junior interior designer.
My workload had become overwhelming.
After squeezing in an appointment with Vukani and attending a site inspection in Umhlanga, I still had dozens of emails waiting for me.
But I couldn't focus on work.
Mthente's mother had unexpectedly summoned him home after years of painful distance.
Aunt Zanele had been trying to convince her to intervene in our relationship.
She believed I was making a terrible mistake by loving a man with Mthente's history.
Perhaps she had reasons to worry.
But she'd never witnessed the sacrifices he'd made to protect me.
She hadn't seen him struggle with his conscience or fight to build a respectable future.
And she didn't understand how much he wanted his mother to recognize that he was changing.
I promised him I'd be home by three.
Traffic delayed me by five minutes.
When I entered the house, he was already dressed, sitting on the couch with his phone in his hand.
“Hey, babe.”
He barely looked up.
“Hey.”
I walked over and kissed him.
“Sorry I'm late. I'll shower quickly, and we can leave.”
He nodded without smiling.
Something about his expression bothered me.
Mthente had faced dangerous men without showing fear.
Yet the prospect of seeing his mother made his hands tremble.
Before heading to the bedroom, I touched his shoulder.
“Did she say why she wants to see you?”
He hesitated.
“Not really.”
“Then we'll hear her out together.”
He stared at the phone again.
“Maybe you shouldn't come.”
I shook my head.
“I'm not abandoning you when things get difficult.”
He finally looked at me.
There was something almost desperate in his eyes.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from his mother appeared.
He read it twice.
“What does she want?” I asked.
Mthente slowly turned the screen toward me.
The message contained only seven words.
Come home before dark. Everything is ready.
May you like
Neither of us understood what she meant.
And by the time we discovered the truth, his mother would already have prepared the house for her own funeral.
