She’s my wife

S’bu was now left alone in his house. He spent the whole day planning how to get Thandi back and agree to marry him. In the afternoon, he went to Jobe home to console Amahle who found out from her friends at school that S’bu and Thandi had broken up. S’bu promised his daughter to work thing out with Thandi and make all of them a family soon. Amahle was happy to know that the three of them will be a family soon and promised her Dad not to listen to kids at school. He decided to go to Thandi’s flat and work things out but she was not home. He waited for hours but Thandi did not return to her flat until he left and planned to talk to her at work the following day. At JC, S’bu saw Thandi’s car at the parking lot when he got to work and decided to go and speak to her.

“S’busiso Jobe, how can you be so cruel and vindictive?” Mandy shouted at him the moment he walked in.

S’bu had no intentions of arguing with his sister, he just ignored her and walked to Thandi’s office but she was not there.

“Where’s Thandi?” he asked.

“She’s not in today” Mandy responded.

“I saw her car in the parking lot, where is she?” S’bu asked getting annoyed with his sister.

“You mean the car you made her believe was a company car and took away when you broke up?” Mandy answered also annoyed.

“What?” S’bu asked puzzled.

“Don’t act surprised, I hope you know that once she leaves, there’s no way I can continue with our research alone. You might as well close this unit” Mandy said angrily.

“I’m here to work things out with Thandi, not to fight with you” S’bu said trying to calm down his sister.

“Then why take away the car and cut her salary? She missed work for a week and you already sent her two warning letters? Do you know how many job offers she has turned down to stay here?” Mandy asked getting angrier.

“I swear, I have no idea what you are talking about, please tell me where she is so I can talk to her” S’bu pleaded panicking.

“I don’t know where she is, she handed her resignation when she received the second letter of warning. She took this week off and promised to come back next week to serve her 30days notice” Mandy said.

S’bu left the research department in a hurry and headed to human resources department. He was so angry his eyes were bloodshot and veins were bulging on his forehead. He bulged into Brian’s office and kicked the door shut behind him. Brian was so startled he jumped to his feet.

“What the fuck did you do?” S’bu shouted.

“S.... Sir” Brian stuttered. He had no idea what he did and had never seen his boss this angry before.

“You took the car, cut her salary and sent her warning letters? Who do you think you are?” S’bu roared. He made so much noise that everyone in HR came out of their offices to find out what the matter was.

“Sir, I...I have no idea what you are talking about. I just came back from leave today” Brain said shaking.

S’bu opened the door and shouted at the HR employees that had come out of their offices. “Which one of you is stupid enough to take away my wife’s car, cut her salary and send her warning letters?” he roared.

Four employees came forward shaking. When the news came out that the two had broken up, they decided to check Thandi’s company profile and found inconsistencies. Thandi was earning much more than she was meant to and the company policy did not allow her to have a company car. Since Brian was on leave, they thought they would score some points with S’bu if they corrected all of that and made life difficult for Thandi. They were so happy when she resigned that they immediately accepted her resignation and waited for Brain to come back to inform him of the work they had done to get rid of their boss’s gold digger ex girlfriend.

“She’s my wife, you idiots, you are all fired!” S’bu shouted at them and kicked the glass door on his way out, breaking it into tiny pieces.

He tried calling Thandi while walking to his office but her phone was off. He called her Mother hoping she would know where Thandi was but Thandi had not called her family or taken their calls since the day they all scolded her and took Sbu’s side. He was not surprised when he found his Father in his office.

“S’busiso, what’s going on between you and your wife?” Mr J asked.

“We had a misunderstanding, I’m working on it” S’bu responded trying to sound calm.

“Your breakup is all over the news, you are also all over with different women. What exactly are you trying to do?” Mr J asked not impressed.

“I asked her to marry me and she refused. She does not think I can be in a monogamous marriage. I was hurt and needed time to think” S’bu explained.

“You know your reputation, she has every right to worry about your loyalty” Mr J said.

“I admit that I flirt but I have not been with any other women since we got married” S’bu said defending himself.

“And you think she should be a good wife and be grateful for that?” Mr J asked sarcastically. “Careful what you do son, when I was your age, I made sure that I treated your Mother the way I wanted Mandy to be treated one day. What you do to Thandi today is what Amahle will regard as normal in the future. Thandi does not have good memories of her parent’s marriage. To her, marriage is associated with alcoholism, dishonesty and abuse, because that’s what she saw growing up. It was your responsibility to show her a different and better view of marriage to alleviate her fears. Ask yourself what your achievement was this past week?” Mr J said before leaving his son, hoping he came through to him.

S’bu closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He was so hurt by Thandi’s rejection, he failed to see what was always staring at him in the face all along. Thandi’s parents marriage traumatised her as a child. It bugged her so much that her Mother stayed and took all the abuse even after multiple hospital admissions. In an ideal world, Thandi would have received counselling as a child but most parents do not realise the impact of their actions on their children. Thandi always ended things and walked away from him whenever they argued. She was doing what she wished her Mother could have done in the past. Even though she spent most of her time in Sbu’s house, she insisted on keeping her flat and spending her own money. Everything she did maintained complete independence from him so she could be able to walk away. The past week he just proved all her fears about marriage. He was all over the city, drunk with different women while she was stripped off her car, salary, given letters of warning and her family turned away from her. S’bu stood up and left his office. He needed to find Thandi and make things right.