He had given the case to her because his wife was in the hospital fighting off leukemia and as greedy as he was, he loved his wife and couldn't leave her alone for more than a day. Thomas Louw had been the second choice, however he was in a middle of a big corporate case and he couldn't handle another case.
Mandisa wasn't complaining. She was the youngest in the firm and while most people view that as a disadvantage, she saw it as an advantage. She was young, flamboyant and daring. She wasn't afraid to stretch the line or play hard ball. From the time she had realized that she was alone in the world with nothing to lose, Mandisa had lived her life on the edge.
She stood up and rinsed the soap off her body then stepped out of the tub wrapping a towel around her body. She didn't really live her life on the edge, not since she realized she didn't just appear on the world. She was conceived and a woman carried her in her womb for nine months before bringing her forth into the world. Mandisa drained the water from the tub and barefooted left the bathroom for her bedroom. There she unwrapped the towel and dropped it on the floor then selected a nightdress and a matching gown. From the age of six, Mandisa had wondered about the woman who had given birth to her. Who she was and what had made her dump her little daughter at an orphanage. Not that she suffered any mishap at the orphanage. Everyone was good to her and in a way it had been like her family, however Mandisa never lost sight that they were not her family. She had no family and would probably never have. That knowledge had made her work harder and seize every opportunity thrown her way.
Mandisa had been eager to get out of the orphanage and make something of her life. At the age of twenty six, her hard work had paid off and Richard, unable to ignore the fact that she was an asset to his team had made her a partner. Immediately Mandisa had put her new found promotion to her advantage. She went back to the orphanage and got the information she needed to trace her parents. She had hired a private investigator to do the work for her and eight months later, she had learnt that she wasn't alone as she had thought. She had three young sisters and one nephew.
Mandisa undid her dreadlocks and shook her head allowing them to fall to her shoulders then she strutted to the kitchen for her second wish. She filled the kettle with water and plugged in on. While preparing the tea, she thought about her sisters. She was the eldest at the age of twenty eight. Bonisile was the second born at the age of twenty five, then came Khanyisile at the age of twenty three and Sindiswa at twenty two. Mandisa had been shocked to learn that her mother had been a slut. She had died at the age of forty seven in Polokwane and only god knew what she had been doing there. Among all of them Sindiswa was the only one who could claim she knew their mother, however she couldn't remember her much as Sibongile Dladla had abandoned Sindiswa at the age of two. Sibongile had gone to the shops and never returned. Sindiswa had been raised by a Good Samaritan neighbor until the age of thirteen. Having adopted Sindiswa legally, the Samaritan relatives took Sindiswa in and raised her until she ran away at the age of eighteen.