Sinikiwe felt the sting of humiliation deep in her bones as she packed her belongings into a cardboard box, five security guards watching her every move.
Over a hundred pairs of eyes of her firmer colleagues followed her, their stares heavy with judgment as she was escorted out of the building like a criminal. The guards eyed her like hawks, as though she might bolt with something as trivial as a stapler.
She could feel their pity-some genuinely sorry, others secretly gloating. If a dozen felt pity for her, the rest felt she deserved it. After all, hadn’t she been the boss’s “it girl”?
The whispered gossip followed her down the corridor like smoke. If only they knew the truth: they could have had taken a chance with Abel and she wouldn’t have cared less.
Sinikiwe still didn’t understand how Abel had ever noticed her. She’d always been invisible-the quiet, unnoticed orderly girl in the dull office uniform, ferrying mail and files from one department to another.
Three summers ago, after Njolomba Holdings took over the company, she decided to improve herself. She enrolled in a short secretarial course at the local trade school. When she finished, luck struck-a receptionist position opened, and despite her lack of experience, she was the only internal candidate. She got the job.
That’s when she first met Abel. He was charming, handsome, confident-the kind of man who walked into a room and owned it. But she wasn’t impressed.
To her, he was just… nice.
A word that drew teasing from her colleagues, especially the ones who secretly dreamed of catching his attention.
They thought she was being pretentious but it was what it was. She was never attracted to Abel.
Still, Abel pursued her relentlessly. The colder and more distant she was, the more determined he became. His ego couldn’t stand rejection. Rumors spread like wildfire-by the end of the month, people were convinced they were already a couple.
“Give me three months,” he’d said, eyes burning with confidence. “Date me for three months. Let me show you we’re meant to be.”
She had agreed reluctantly, hoping that after those three months, he would see what she saw—that they simply didn’t fit.
But then George arrived.
Handsome, mysterious, and impossibly magnetic. One look at him and her heart forgot every rule it had ever learned.
Abel noticed the spark instantly, but he never said a word. Instead, he made jokes about her “little crush,” never realizing that her feelings for George were anything but childish.
In that relationship, there had always been three people-Abel, herself, and George.
Had she cheated? Technically no. She had been honest with Abel from the start-she didn’t love him. But Abel was convinced that time would fix everything.
“With time, you’ll learn to love me,” he’d said. “Love grows. You just have to give it time.”
But that time never came.
Months passed, and her heart only wandered further toward George. She’d tried to end things with Abel again and again, but he refused to be the one left behind. Abel Mbewe was the one who did the dumping, not the one dumped.
Then came that fateful day.
It began like any other-a morning full of promises that made her want to hum a tune under her breath.
“Town sister?” a voice called out to her as she sat on the bench at the bus station, four blocks from her now former workplace.
She looked up to find a Call Boy waving toward a white minibus with an orange stripe.
She shook her head.
Even if she wanted to board, she couldn’t-she was broke, jobless, and one step away from homelessness.
<><><><><><>
The sun was already dipping when Sinikiwe finally reached home. Her feet throbbed from the long walk under the ruthless African sun. Tired, hungry, and raw from the day’s heartbreak, she didn’t expect to find Gloria there.
Her sister’s laughter floated over the gate, light and carefree, blending with the music blasting from her phone.
For a fleeting moment, Sinikiwe hesitated.
Her thoughts had been growing darker by the minute—thoughts she dared not name. But maybe seeing Gloria would chase them away. She was her sister. Her blood. The one person she could depend on.
She pushed open the small black gate and stepped inside. Maybe tonight, they would laugh about her silly worries over popcorn and tea, pretending to watch a movie while the world outside kept turning.
React to this chapter:
