The Mistress

back breaks to provide for my family.' Twenty-year-old Gershom said to eighteen-year-old Feggy. Sitting on top of a rock,

ye

e. I will provide for you and our future kids. I will be

ear-old memories. She could not help but chide at her eighteen-year-old self who had been hopele

e saying goes, if you go searching for honey, expect to be stung by bees. Who would hav

ght a day would come when the man she had loved when he had nothin

fantasized about being Mrs Feggy Chomba. Instead of dreaming of having

or was to be Gershom's wife. For three years, after she had completed her secondary education, she had anxi

a homemaker. For ten years, as she went to sleep next to him and woke up by his s

Feggy could not deny that he had been all that until Yolanda. What she thought o

wn, his promise of forever had an expiry date. It pained her to know,

gone through all sorts of emotions. At first, she had

nvinced herself he had strayed

he felt repulsed by her? Had she not loved him enough? or maybe the

er the betrayal, she realized

ad cheated because he had not respected

ss she was on the verge of death, she fulfilled her wifely duties. Feggy had long realized even if she could bend her body like a

accused her of being a husband worshiper. If she was not a steadfast Christian, one could be excused if they thought her husband w

d always paid extra attention to her looks

l gone out to disrespect her with a

ad many

he had loved

mebody had told her that marriages come and go; a husband will cheat on you, and throw you out as if you were gar

e could be the Mrs Somebody she had desperately craved for and still have a career. If she had a career,

positive. Not that it wouldn't hurt, she was sure the feeling of hopelessness after been betrayed by a loved one was the same whether you wer

regretted her foolishness in th

alled her from the doorway s

look at the boy who had pee

verythi

times but you

e pulled him into a

etted was bearing children for him. Her children were the source of her happiness.

want so

ave vi

visitors in, she had been expecting them. She hurriedly picked

be a couple who she had met o

ics and beddings. Gershom had bought most of the stuff on his many trips Dar-es-salaam. All of the items had never

debts from the 5k she had made. The shop owner, who also happened to be her f

in law came back

ish. I took your advice and s

band and his mistress. When she got back home, she prepared lunch for the kids and while they were eatin

*

will be back in the next two hours. Yo

the better. A month and some days had already passed since they had stopped

ttle ones. Miss Mbewe had been kind enough to lend h

he seats under the shed. Just as was about to unstrap Bertha f

voice and stared at her in surprise. "

ork

Since

rred here. This is

going on in her life, she had not paid much attent

hat are you

ee a friend,' she

he already knew why she was there. She and Mrs Bunda happened to be college mates. Before she had left, she had asked her to take care of her

he mumble, ave

diot done this t

ight smile and loo

an come to your own family? Why? If my brother is behaving irration

come on. It's

ot Bertha from her and joined her o

want to worry anyone. I keep thinking if I hold on a little longer if I pray a li

ll loved him and she did not want to bring up her children in a broken environment. All she could do each night that went by and day that came was hope that God had f

d rather pretend to them that all was well than let them see her this vulnerable. They were his family and she was sure, even if they seeme

hands by her side into a fist wishing her brother were rig

dity. The day he had said, I do to Feggy, the day he had brought her to the family and made her part of their family, she had become her sister too. Bu

ween us? Could you not l

r one condition, which was for Feggy to tell her everything tha

d up by her eldest brother in Kitwe. He was just from doing

ey

usaka ASAP and sort out your

e four siblings sighed.

get to the capital city. When Kangwa had cut the call, Henry called his twin brother who was a manager at Dukes and Diamonds hotel in Ndola. T