Novels by Miriam Mavuzi

Brian looked back at me sadly. “Ma’am I’m really sorry.” He replied. “I can’t do that. We’ve received strict orders from your father to return with you. The whole country is awaiting your return.” “Please.” I begged him. “I’m sorry ma’am.” I turned to Malcomore. “I’m begging you.” “The boss is in front; I have no right to do anything I’m not ordered.” “I need him, I’m carrying his child.” “I’m sorry ma’am.” He told me. “If it were up to me I would let you stay since you are pregnant and maybe keep supplying you with proper food, water and clothes every week but it’s not up to me-“ “Malcomore do you want to walk all the way back to Duran?” Nathan asked him. “No sir.” “Then shut the hell up.” Nathan said. “She’s my fiancée. Not some village girlfriend.” “Forgive me sir.” Malcomore responded. “She’s still my fiancée.” Nathan replied. “We’ll fix it when we get home. She’ll remember everything soon again when she sees a doctor.” “How do you fix pregnancy?” Brian

“You have to go with them. I'll go to Kuja village. Gamu is right.” “No. What are you saying, Yoké?" I shook my head at him” “We will both run to Kuja village then.” “Please stay safe. I’m leaving now.” Gamu said quickly. “Bye Rena…” She turned to leave hastily. “Gamu.” Yoké called her. She turned back again. “Thank you.” He told her. “Just forgive me for what I’ve done and take care of this baby. Although I still can’t believe you two.” “We will.” Yoké said turning to me. “Bye Rena.” Gamu said. “Bye, friend.” I replied. She gave me a small smile, turned, and left us. “We will take care of this child. You'll leave with the Durans.” Yoké told me. “If you go to Kuja village you won’t be able to hide your pregnancy for too long. Soon they will start noticing and might suspect us. I don’t want to put our baby in danger.” “Baby?” Francis asked me. “Genesis, are you pregnant?” I looked up at him and he was holding a camera towards us with one hand and the other ha

“How could you do this to us, Gamu?” I asked slapping my hands over my mouth as soon as I saw the people she was with. “I’m so sorry Rena..." Gamu told me. She was trembling with fear and shaking her head. Her hair and clothes were damp, and her feet were covered in mud. “You’re sorry?” Yoké asked her angrily stepping out of the hut leaving me at the door. “I’m so sorry but I really had to do this.” Gamu told Yoké. I looked over at the Durans. They were standing with umbrellas and watching me. They were four. It was the same three people that had come the last time plus one more. The new man was a tall brunette and was wearing a black suit. He looked so superior compared to the others. For a second, I thought it was my father, but he was too young to be my father. He looked in his late 20's. When he saw me, his eyes popped. “Genesis?” The man said taking a step forward towards me. “Genesis Leticia Roseburg…” I looked back at Gamu. “Why did you bring them here, Gamu?" “Becaus

I shook my head and more tears fell that he couldn’t catch in time. “We’ll both stay out of it.” “Without you everyone will back out, I will do everything in my power to keep the group together. And they won’t even know that you are not with us because I will lead them to the cliff, and I will speak in your place.” “Our baby will need her father too.” Yoké hugged me and began running his fingers through my hair. “Yes, she does but she needs her mother more.” He tried to comfort me as I cried in his arms. “Don’t do this to me Yoké.” “If the uprising fails, just promise me that our child will always be safe and happy, that you will give her so much love to make up for mine.” “Stop saying things like this.” He loosened his hug but I did not want to let him go. I couldn’t even imagine my life without Yoké. How miserable would I be? What happiness would I reflect on to my child if my own source of happiness was to be taken away from me forever? He tried to loosen my arms gently and

Despite the grave trouble I knew I could get into if I was caught sneaking out again, I left the hut and walked to Yoké’s hut. I was trembling, not because of the cold but because of fear. The fear of telling Yoké about my pregnancy and the decision that I have made. When I got to his hut I entered without clapping. He was seated on his bed and painting with the little light from the oil lamp. When he saw me enter he looked up at me with a frown. “Genesis?” I nodded. I was still shaking in fear. He abandoned his wooden board on the bed and came towards me. “What’s wrong?” He asked me taking me into his arms. “I’m pregnant Yoké.” I told him. Even hearing myself say it suddenly scared me. “What?” Yoké asked stepping away from me and looked at me. “I’m pregnant Yoké.” I told him again. “How?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “What do you mean how?” “How do you even know?” “The witch doctor.” Yoké placed his hands on his head and just looked at me, he looked blown away, like he had

At night the lightning and thunder continued but the rain had stopped. Despite the grave trouble I knew I could get into if I was caught sneaking out again, I left the hut and walked to Yoké’s hut. I was trembling, not because of the cold but because of fear. The fear of telling Yoké about my pregnancy and the decision that I have made. When I got to his hut I entered without clapping. He was seated on his bed and painting with the small light from the oil lamp. When he saw me enter, he looked up at me with a frown. “Genesis?” I nodded. I was still shaking in fear. He abandoned his wooden board on the bed and came towards me. “What’s wrong?” He asked me, taking me into his arms. “I’m pregnant Yoké.” I told him. Even hearing myself say it suddenly scared me. “What?” Yoké asked stepping away from me and looked at me. “I’m pregnant Yoké.” I told him again. “How?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “What do you mean how?” “How do you even know?” “The witch doctor.” Yoké placed his

Preetah The scratching of the golden pen against paper was audible even in this loud atmosphere, I watched Arjun doodle his signature with natural ease, indicating strong muscle memory. He then went on to initial the bottom of all the papers. “Here.” He handed me the pen. “Sign here and then initial under every page. I can read you the document just in case you think you’re signing your life away.” He smiled. Was that supposed to be a joke? And at a time like this? I didn’t take the pen. “I just don’t get it.” I spoke. “The gifts this morning, the apology, taking me out tonight, what was all that for if you knew that you’d end the day by making me sign divorce papers?” He sighed. “The apology was genuine.” “You could have done all this at home, you even picked out a dress for me, Arjun –” My voice broke. “I wanted to take you somewhere nice, but you wanted to go somewhere I wanted to, I agreed because I thought about it like a last ask –” “You can’t be serious.” More tears fell

PreetahI watched him down his drink and then called the waiter with a nod of his head. His previous words still lingered in the air. How – how could he say that? The bartender refilled his glass. “Drink up, Preetah.” He took a big gulp and said. “You’ve only had one sip.” “Arjun, you just told me you hate me.” In case he forgot. “How are you just casually encouraging me to drink after telling me that you hate me?” I placed my glass on the bar. “I don’t get it. Are you drunk?” “After one glass of whiskey?” He scoffed. “Why did you say that then?”He turned to look at me, his eyes cold and empty. A body without a soul. “I hate you because you make me vulnerable. And I hate feeling vulnerable.”I searched his eyes for a clue. “What’s wrong with being vulnerable? We’re together.”“Preetah, when I was vulnerable, I got belittled to nothing.” He smiled, looking into the distance as if recalling a far memory. He wasn’t smiling with his eyes. “So I made a promise to never put myself in

Preetah I was wearing a short silk dress hand-picked by Arjun himself. My black wedges almost brought me up to his height. He stood behind me in the mirror, looking at himself. I took a couple of mirror selfies with him in the background. I was not one for pictures, but I needed a cute picture to post on my new I*******m account. According to B Linda, that was the ‘queen way of keeping all the females away without barking.’ So, this was it. After a whole day of watching every single video on her page, it was all down —mentally, down to the smallest detail: how I had to walk, talk, behave, and laugh. After today, Arjun would never want another woman if it wasn't me. “If you're done taking pictures, ma’am, can we go?” I gave him a playful smile, “Just one more.” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder. “Make a funny face.” Arjun raised an eyebrow but didn't object. He placed his lips in a hard line. Was that his idea of a funny face? Still, I pulled a duck face and snapped a quick

Dean Artha looked like she had no clue. I looked at the others all watching her expectantly. “You know what, I understand Artha’s loss for words.” I said, turning in the office chair to face Arjun. I kept my voice clear and casual. “I don’t think this is the kind of video you watch once.” “Exactly.” Artha took over. “I feel like I need to rewatch it to be able to make a good judgment. The first watch was me just looking out for the basic requirements of advertising, the second watch would be for me to look at it from a client’s point of view.” Arjun looked from Artha to me and then back. He nodded thoughtfully. “Everyone else feel the same?” The looks on people’s face said otherwise, thus making the silence awkward. “I think it was pretty straightforward. It was definitely one of those ads that just make sense.” Harvey said, making it even more awkward. “I agree with Dean and Artha.” Elza said. “Definitely one of those watch twice ads.” Arjun nodded thoughtfully. “In that case

Preetah I cleaned the house, pushing furniture out of their places and getting every corner. I damp dusted everything that was not made of cotton, linen, or hemp. I did our laundry, ironed and then packed them away. After that, I cooked, fixed the table and then called babuji out to eat. “I could smell the food from my room.” He chuckled as he took a seat in his usual place. “Enjoy your food, father.” “Thank you, and where’s yours?” I shook my head and smiled. “I am not hungry.” His wrinkles creased up more when he frowned up at me. “You sure?” I nodded. “Is it because of last night?" He asked. “You look like you’ve been crying all night.” A sigh coming from deep down left my chest. Last night? Or every single day since I married his son? “I will talk to him when he comes back. Don’t stress like this, please.” He continued. “I am used to you being the life around here.” I pulled out a chair and sat down. “I got a call from India; my father was in hospital. His bl

Roshni I got off at the 24-hour pharmacy a few streets from home. I walked in and immediately felt like all eyes were on me. Please let me not see anyone I know. Please don’t let me see anyone I know. As I was walking to the counter, a man followed behind me to stand in line. I let him go first because I didn’t want him knowing what I was there for. When it was my turn again, I looked around me as casually as I could to check that none of our neighbors or parents' friends were around. “Good evening.” I greeted the woman behind the counter, wearing a hijab. “Can I please get two pregnancy tests.” When I got home, Ananya was in the kitchen cooking and my parents were still at work. “Evening, sister Roshni.” “Hi.” I came to kiss her head. “You good?” “Yeah.” She was turning the roti. “How’s Mr. Arora? Mom told us he was in hospital.” “He is fine now; his sugar just went too low.” “Oh shit –” “Ananya.” I gave her a firm look. She knew she wasn’t allowed to cuss. “Sorry, sister

"We have nothing left because of him." Dad said, staring at the ground. "I can't believe I trusted him that much.""Who is it, dad?" I asked."None other than your very own half brother, slash cousin, slash no relation at all, Francis.""What?" I asked. "What is he looking for? He wants to make money out of Toko Village meanwhile he is stealing from us and still gets a basic salary on top of that. How can someone love money this much? So much that you'd steal from your own..."Alice and Yoké joined us, they had heard the news too."I knew that that sneaky guy was dodgy." Alice said as she stopped behind the couch Delilah was sitting on and leaned on it.

Uma was awake, and as soon as we entered his ward and he saw us, he smiled, looked away and began sobbing. He covered his hand over his eyes and sobbed. "Aww." We chorused in unison, as if we had planned to. "Don't cry babe." He's girlfriend, Esther said, quickly walk-runned to him. She sat on the side of his bed and hugged him. She hugged him for a while as he continued crying. "We are here..." She told him, she looked sad too. "We love you and we'll always be here for you." Yoké stood behind next to his bed, the opposit side to where Esther was and placed his hands on the cotside. I came over to her side and she stood up to let

I stopped at the door way before entering the living room. He was in a navy blue suit, standing next to the couch, instead of sitting. Rosalie had just brought him his drink. He briefly pointed towards the table where she was supposed to place his drink. I went to sit on the couch opposite the one dad was standing next to. Yoké stayed at the room door post and leaned against it.Dad paced to and fro and stopped where he had started."So we've lost more than half of our clients..." Dad said, voice still powerful although the sad message.I kept quiet and watched him."We've lost most of our projects we were busy with, the clients asked to cancel their contracts or else they'd take us to court. Most of our employees, has resigned because they see the downfall. They know that we won't be able to pay them. Only the loyal ones remain."He then shrugged. "Maybe they're not even loyal. Maybe they are just

We stopped a block away from the motel just incase there were people put in place by Nathan to watch Yoké. But we could see the motel from here. It was a cheap old building. So cheap that the light of the ‘M’ in ‘Motel was flickering so bad that you’d think it would just die any moment. “So what will happen is you’ll give me Nathan’s phone so that when I get in, I can ask him which room number he is at.” The woman half turned to talk to me.“But I’m going in with you.” I told her.She shook her head. “I may not have been entirely loyal to your father but I’m not bad enough of a worker to put your life in potential danger.”“What do you mean danger? I’m—”“I have a gun. Although I’m going in there alone, I know how to defend myself up to a certain point. We don’t know whether Nathan’s men are in there, or around here, in some building, possibly watching us right now. What happens if they fire at us?”“They’ll never fire at me—”“You d

"Yoké...""Gen— Genesis is that— oh my, are you okay?”“I’m fine Yoké. I’m fine.”“What— how did you— Did Nathan put you on the phone with me?”“No Yoké. You don’t ever have to worry about Nathan ever again. He’s in custody…”“Nathan is in custody?”“He’s gone. He’ll never stand between us again. It’s all good now.”“No, no, no Geny. You don’t know Nathan, he’ll never be ‘gone’. You have to hang up right now and never call this number again.”“I’m telling you, my love. It’s over for him. The police have him and my dad knows about him—”“Look Nathan can’t be in custody. We have a— Look, I’m sorry Geny but you and I can’t ever be together. It will never work. Just p

I slammed the car door and fell back on the back seat. The woman, who was supposed to shut the already shut door for me gave me an unbelievable look and then got into the driver's seat."So what happened to your twin? Isn't he going to come with us?" I asked, bitterly."I understand you're upset that your father won't help you with your boyfriend but you don't have to take it out on me, or the car door." She told me looking back at me.We maintained eye contact for a while until she turned back and fastened her seat belt. She started the car and we were on the road again after a few minutes.I was too angry to care about how much this woman was looking at me in the rear view mirror."What?" I suddenly asked after a while of more rear view eye contact.She suddenly stopped the car causing me to fall forward and hit against her seat."Hey!" I shouted as I sat back in my seat. "Are you crazy?""Look, I'm not sure whether or not Mr

"Rebecca?" Elizabeth asked. "Are you okay?" Hunter asked her. She looked mortified but managed to nodd her head. Sylvester took a few steps back and then was caught before he fell backwards. "Sir, are you okay?" One of his men asked him. Sylvester grunted. "I... am shot." He dropped the gun to the floor. The wound was on his left upper arm and was bleeding profusely. Rebecca's palms flung to cover her mouth as she watched the guards rush to provide Sylvester with medical attention. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to..." Rebecca was shaking. Hunter came to hug her. "It's okay, you didn't pull the trigger, he did." "But still—" "Let's get out of here." Hunter placed an arm around her and they quickely made for the gate. "Rebecca!" Elizabeth was crying behind them. "Get in, get in." Hunter opened the car door for her and then shut it. He could see cars approaching in high speed. "Shit..." There was only one way out of here, and it was the same way the cars were coming, the othe

Sylvester took out his phone and phoned Angelo. It rang and rang. Sylvester thought it would go to voicemail but then he picked up."Hello?" It was a female."Who is this?""You called me, who are you?""I got this number from the card at the reception. Is this not Angelo's gym?""This is Better Life Gym." She responded."Exactly." Sylvester said. "Can you get Angelo on the phone.""I don't know who that is, sir.""Cut the crap lady. I was there yesterday with Rob Holland, the billionaire. Remember me? And then we went down to basement to Angelo. Can you just pass him the phone.""Would you like to know about our membership packages?""Tell Angelo it's about Hunter King."The lady stayed quiet for a while and then sighed. "Hold on."Music started playing on the other side of the line."Shit..." Sylvester said in annoyance. He watched the guards dragging Hunter to the side building."Hello?" At last it was Angelo."It's Sylvester, head of security for Rob Holland and—""Get to the poin

"I guess there's no talking you out of this?" Joe asked. "Like she said, you're so damn stubborn. Really. Gosh!"They were sitting on the edge of bonnet of Fred's car.Hunter looked off into the pitch dark forest. "I don't have a choice, Joe." He whispered. "Look how we're living. Doing this gets all of you immunity.""Maybe there's another way." He placed a hand on Hunter's shoulder."What way?"Joe stared back at him desperately, the desperation was reflected back. "Uh... I don't know."Hunter's face fell and he looked the other way."But we can work something out together. Let's just tell your dad and I am sure he will work something out.""If he had a sollution, we wouldn't have spent almost a week in this cabin. The guy's been in hiding himself for how many years? From the very same person. It's hopeless Joe.""No—""This is the only way.""Getting yourself killed, really? That's the best you could come up with?" Joe scracthed his head roughly. "Maybe we can get money. Like milli

Hunter laid topless on their bed, facing the ceiling. He and Rebecca had just made love and she was now sleeping on top of his chest. "What are you thinking about?" She asked him. He smiled. "Nothing." "You sure?" She looked up at him. "Not thinking about 'sending me back to the palace'?" He frowned and then looked at her. "You were eavesdropping?" "I didn't intent to, but the walls of this cabin aren't that thick. I can hear George snoring right now." "Sorry if it sounded rough." He responded. "Sorry if it looks like I'm getting tired of always being locked up." Hunter scoffed. "Are you being sarcastic?" "Do you remember what you told me while we were still at the warehouse?" "What?" "You said that when everything was over, we'd live a normal life. That you'd stop that work and we'd be together like normal people." "Yeah..." "Well, you left your work, but I just want to know when we will be able to live like normal people again." Hunter sighed. "As soon as your dad pay

"We're not stabbing that man in the back." Rob said as he entered the passenger side of his all black SUV."You know, I don't get it, sir." Sylvester responded. "You're gonna keep choosing Hunter, even if it's over your daughter?" "I am not choosing him over Rebecca, I am trying to protect them both." Rob stood his ground. "Protecting him is not gonna get us far, sir."Rob thought for a few seconds and then responded. "I am not leaving him out to dry. He doesn't deserve it.""He's the reason we're in this mess in the first place. He kidnapped miss Rebecca." Sylvester started the car. "With all due respect, I think you're forgetting that.""You know, you keep saying 'with all due respect' but don't seem to be giving me any. I said we are not turning on Hunter and you should respect that.""My job is to protect your family. I wake up every morning and devote my life to you and your family, sir."Rob sighed and then pinched the space between his eyes and lowered his head. "I know, I kn

"Don't ever look for me because you will never find me. Take care of yours and I will take care of mine. Bye forever." That was the note that had come with the baby.Although George didn't understand the second sentence, he placed the note on their coffee table and took the wailing baby out of Stella's hands. It was his first time carrying a baby, and he feared holding him too tight or not holding him firm enough and drop him. As he tried to craddle the baby, his heart pounded. The baby had light brown skin and not much head hair. His mouth was pink and his wails were woarse."Shh shhh..." George tried walking around the room trying to sooth it. "Is it a boy or a girl?" He asked his mother."It's a boy." George looked at the baby's face and fell in love. "But how could she just leave you like that, little guy?" He asked."Because she's crazy that's why." Stella responded. "She knows you're studying full time and I am working full time. How are we gonna take care