Distraught

Thandi, Mandy, Cindy and Jane were sitting on a sofa watching a movie. This had become their girls night tradition. They have been meeting every month to catch up for the past eight years now.

“Thandi, I can’t believe your husband did a background check on me!”Cindy exclaimed.

“You are engaged to Tsepo and he is very protective of him”Thandi explained.

“You telling me! he went through my finances, interviewed my family, extended family and colleagues. Now everyone thinks I am under investigation because I committed a crime”Cindy complained.

“I’m sorry friend, a lot of people have taken advantage of Tsepo’s kindness and S’bu has made it his mission to prevent it from ever happening again”Thandi explained.

“I know, he is very talented in attracting bloodsuckers. I have met a lot of them since I have been with him”Cindy said.

“Are you two still having a private wedding for just family and friends?”asked Jane.

Thandi and Mandy bust out laughing before Cindy could respond to Jane’s question.

“Why are you two laughing?” Jane asked curious.

“S’bu is the best man, now connect the dots”said Mandy.

“That means S’bu will be helping Tsepo with planning, but S’bu never does anything small or private!” exclaimed Jane. She now understood why Thandi and Mandy laughed at her question.

“We started with fifty guests, now we at thousand, we will get to five thousand and I have made peace with it”Cindy said. She had previously dated abusive man and was just happy to be marrying a the man of her dreams and didn’t care about anything else.

“Jane, can you please tell us why you turned down Menzi’s proposal”Thandi asked. She thought Menzi and Jane were in love. She was shocked when Menzi told her that Jane refused to marry him without giving him any explanation.

“You turned my brother down?” Mandy asked, surprised.

“Marriage is forever, I don’t think we are at that stage yet and I am not ready” Jane explained. The three friends thought Jane’s explanation did not make sense at all. She had been with Menzi over five years but there was nothing they could do until she was comfortable to tell them her real reasons for refusing to marry Menzi.

“How is your research Mentee?” Cindy asked changing the topic, trying to diffuse the awkwardness in the room.

“Luke is actually very smart and is already a Quantum physicist, I have no idea why they want us to mentor him” Thandi said. Luke was sent to them by their research sponsor for them to mentor.

“He is here as a spy not a scientist, that’s why” Mandy said.

“You are being too hard on him”Thandi said.

“I am sure he reports back everything we do”Mandy said.

“It does not matter because we always do everything by the book. I’m just grateful for the sponsor” Thandi said, eating popcorn.

Cindy and Tsepo’s wedding was attended by mostly family and friends, like they wanted but S’bu’s exorbitant style was visible everywhere. The decorations, the cake and the food were all unique, extremely rare and expensive. After the wedding S’bu formally handed over Tsepo’s JC shares to Tsepo and Cindy. Cindy understood fully now why S’bu did a thorough background check on her. Tsepo was a millionaire but S’bu kept all that money away from him, fearing that he will give it all away like he did with most of his salary. Jane did not attend Cindy’s wedding, she broke up with Menzi and was not taking any of her friends calls. Thandi wondered if she upset her when she asked about her reasons for turning down Menzi’s proposal and decided to go to her house and make peace with her. S’bu left after Tsepo’s wedding to attend a business conference out of the country but his trip was cut short because he received a strange message from his Father. When he tried calling, he found out that Mr J was missing and G who was with him, was found on the side of the road, unconscious. The Jobe family was distraught and the whole country was shocked by the news. The best detectives were allocated to his case and S’bu had hired a dozen of private investigators. Two months later, there was still no trace of Mr J and G remained unconscious in the hospital. When everyone was loosing hope, G showed signs of waking up. Few days later, Menzi called S’bu with news that G was awake and wanted to talk to him but when S’bu arrived at the hospital, G was also missing without a trace. The ward G was admitted in, caught fire. In the chaos of patients being moved to safety and fire department personnel rushing in, no one saw what happened to G. The cause of the fire was suspected to have been started by a cigarette left by one of the patients in the laundry room.

S’bu cursed out loud punching the wall. He was the most powerful man but he could not protect G and his own Father. He blamed himself because he should have hired a bodyguard to sit by G’s side.

“Honey, you did not know that this will happen” Thandi said trying to console him.

“Shut up if you don’t have anything smart to say” he snapped at her.

“S’busiso”she called his name, shocked. S’bu had never used that tone with her before.

“If you did not insist that we attend the stupid award ceremony, I would have gotten to G on time. He would not be missing and my Father would be here”he shouted, took his car keys and left.

Thandi took in a deep breath. Surely S’bu was not blaming her for G going missing. She insisted that they attend the award ceremony because Amahle had done exceptionally well in her grades and her school was awarding her with full honours and gold medals. They were all sad about Mr J and G but she could not allow that to mess up Amahle’s big day. S’bu was under a lot of stress lately because of Mr J missing, he is just upset and will come to his senses soon, Thandi told herself.