"Let me get this straight." Mandisa said ignoring Sindiswa's tears. She was too angry to offer any kind of comfort and Bonisile didn't know how. "Your good for nothing husband finally gets what he deserves and somehow his devil of a brother figures you should suffer for it."
"Something like that." Bonisile said emptying the cup.
"Why now?" Mandisa wanted to know. "Why are they suing for custody now? When they kicked you out they didn't ask to keep Joy, in fact you told me that they claimed he wasn't one of them. He is almost two years old now and you have your life in order. Why the hell do they want to ruin that?"
No one had an answer for her. They were as puzzled as she was but not so surprised. They were all no strangers to abuse and cruelty, Sindiswa more than Bonisile. She had expected something like this, what surprised her was that the Motsepe had waited this long to try and hurt her. At the age of eighteen she had finally ran away from her adopted relative and she had met Tumi Motsepe, the most handsome charming gentle person she had ever known. She had fallen head over heels in love with him and after knowing him for three months, she had married him. Tumi had been in Johannesburg to study at Wits University and after marrying Sindiswa he had taken her back home to Durban to meet his family. Mama Motsepe had taken one look at her then spat at her face calling her a tramp who had seduced her darling son. Sindiswa hadn't known upon marrying Tumi that he came from a wealthy family. She had thought that he was like her, alone in the world. He sure seemed lonelier than her. Life with the Motsepe had been the same as life with her relative, if not harder. Mama Motsepe hated her and told her as much and in no time Tumi started resenting her too.
After six months of being there, Sindiswa had fallen pregnant. She had thought having a baby would change the Motsepe's perception of her. That hadn't happened instead, Mama Motsepe had hated her even worse. Just like her, she had taken one look at Joy and declared that he wasn't a Motsepe. She implied that Sindiswa was trying to pass another man's child as Tumi's and to her dismay; Tumi had believed his mother and threw her out. Sindiswa had lived on the streets with Joy struggling to support him and just when she had made a decision to take him to an orphanage, Mandisa had found her and life had never been better…until the Motsepe came back to her life.