Xander"What did you say?"Nikki looks at me with fear in her eyes, "I said I'm pregnant." Oh my gosh, nope. This isn't happening. It can't be happening.A father? Me? No. I can't, I’m ready for this. No! I’m not ready for a baby."Xander, please look at me."My chest tightens and my breathing gets heavy and labored. I feel light-headed and the room starts spinning. I found a chair nearby, and I took my seat. I close my eyes and take deep breaths, calming my nerves and my mind. A father, Xander, you are going to be a father, and nothing is going to change that. Don't make the same mistake that your father made. "Andy, have you been taking your medication?"I shake my head."Are you fucking insane? Are you seriously trying to kill yourself?" Damien scolds, "Charles, go get his meds upstairs."I hear footsteps and people moving around me, but I'm not ready to open my eyes yet. I can't bear to look at Nikki's face, she must think I hate her right now."Nikki?"I hear shuffling and Nikk
Nikki "All rise, for the honourable Judge Kubeka." The entire room rises to its feet as the judge walks in and makes his way to his seat. "You may now be seated." The room sits. You could tell by energy in the room that people where expectant, and angry at Aiden, he could set the whole justice system back by years if he won this case. "Today we are beginning the trail of Aiden van Rensburg vs The State, the charges here today will be of money laundering, fraud, corruption and murder." the judge says, "Is the prosecution ready to make an opening statement?" "Yes, your honour." "You may take the floor, Mrs Chabedi." "Thank you. Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen of the jury. As you already know, we are here to serve justice to those who so rightly deserve it. Mr Aiden van Rensburg is being prosecuted for his sins." I listened closely as our lawyer spoke to the jury, the way she played on emotions and the pain of the people, it's the reason why I hired her in the first place, al
XanderIt's week two of the trial, and Nikki is being called up as a witness today. I was nervous. I didn't think it was a good idea for her to be under so much stress, after all, she was pregnant and the last couple of days had put her under a lot of pressure. "Babe, please just listen to me, I don't think this is a good idea." Nikki groans and rolls her eyes, "Xander, I'm not doing this with you again." "I agree," Charles says from the front seat. "It's the only way we can get this case to work in our favor," Nikki says, "We need to do this. I need to do this." I sigh, "Fine, but the moment I sense any stress coming from you, I stop the whole thing." She nods, "Fine." The car stops outside the courthouse, and we jump out of the vehicle, officers, and security guards immediately surround us, this has been our lives for the last two weeks. It's been a whirlwind for us all, I'm used to being in court, but Nikki and her family haven't been taking it well, especially with all that
Xander “What are you talking about Nikki? You messed up how?” “There is a lot that I need to tell you.” I look at Nikki, “About what babe? If it’s about Aiden’s accusations then surely we can get that cleared up.” “There is more to it Xander, a much darker truth.” My stomach turns when she utters those words, what is she hiding from me? Nikki looks around and shakes her head, “We will talk about this when we get home.” I sigh, “Okay, fine but do we need to excuse ourselves from the court?” She shakes her head, “I’m okay, let’s finish this.” I nod and we sit outside and wait for our family to step out of the court. Nikki’s mom walks out and spots us sitting nearby and walks towards us. Nikki stands up and starts talking to her mother in her native tongue, Xhosa. Nikki’s mother looks at me and then back at Nikki, she looks scared. Nikki’s mother, Boniswa, and I’s relationship is still in the works. I believe that she still doesn’t trust me but however, I still respect her, and
Xander “I can explain.” She folds her arms and looks at me, “You have 10 seconds.” “My company is going through a snag right now and with our project still in the planning stages, I have to figure something out to help us stay afloat until then,” I ramble, “I was going to tell you I swear, I’m just still talking to an investor in the UK to confirm the meeting and then I was going to tell you.” Nikki sighs, “Why not say something Xander, I hate it when people keep things from me.” Likewise, but you don’t hear me complaining. “I know baby, I didn’t want to worry that’s all. We already have a lot going on and all of this was before I found that you were carrying our baby.” She pouts, “Fine, but I’m coming with you.” “Nikki I – “It is not up for discussion,” she says and walks past me. I groan, “Yes ma’am.” I quickly change out of my suit and into a pair of sweatpants and I go downstairs and find Nikki munching down on the pizza. “Save me a slice, why don’t you?” She looks at
Xander It’s a little after 18:00 and Nikki and I are laying on the floor, covered with a small blanket that was on the couch, she’s fast asleep, and I’m awake, drawing small circles on her arm. Alone with my thoughts, I’m overwhelmed by the silence. A lot has happened, and every time I realize how far I’ve come; I’m amazed at the amount of unintentional healing I’ve done. The more I experience life with Nikki, the more I realize how much I missed out on growing up and being shielded and lied to by my father. People come in all forms, good and bad. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from, a human is defined by their actions and circumstances, each of our experiences in life determines who we become, we either chose to let them define us or redefine our circumstances. I’m about to be a father, and every day I’m learning something new about pregnancy and just how much value there is in a woman and why they are the supreme human being on this earth. They deserve more
Nikki A few days later “Mama, can you please stop doing that?” My mother smacks her teeth and proceeds to wipe my jacket with her handkerchief. “Can’t have my daughter looking like she came from the township,” she says and pinches my cheek. I huff, “Mama, it’s just a doctor’s appointment,” “I know but you know what I’ve always told you,” “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” I say to her mother. I sigh, for the life of me I don’t understand why my mama has to be like this, I’m grown as hell. We are waiting outside my doctor’s office and I’m nervous as hell, I haven’t had one of these in a while, I barely get sick and if I do, I use home remedies. I feel my mother’s hand on my thigh, and I look down and it’s bouncing up and down. “Everything is going to be okay,” I nod. From the corner of my eye, I see Xander coming in with my food, these pregnancy cravings were something else, I had him go across town to get me some meat from a restaurant that I went to with Chantel, two yea
Xander We have two hours left before Damien’s proposal, and I am freaking out. The venue messed up the catering and the proposal area, and I am about to get some people fired. “We have two hours until the event and everything is a fucking mess,” I grumble as I walk past Nikki. She grabs me and pulls me towards her. “Look at me,” she says softly, and my eyes meet hers, and she gives me a soft smile, “It’s just a minor issue, can I call Chantel to come help, she’s good at handling situations like this?” I sigh, I didn’t want to seem weak, or incapable, but I needed the help and as part of my therapy sessions, I was told to always ask, accept, and give help. “I’d really appreciate that baby,” She gives me a light kiss, and she pulls her phone out of her pocket. “Chantel, I need your help,” she says, not wasting any time. “Okay, I’ll send you the address,” she hangs up the phone and starts typing, she hits send and puts her phone back in her pocket. I kiss the side of her head,
Epilogue – Xander It’s safe to say that it all worked out in the end for me, and for everyone. If there is anything that I have learnt from this is that no matter how life turns out, always be the bigger person. Never let anybody else determine how you see the world and the people in it. My dad messed up a lot of things, for his selfish reason. He sowed seeds of self-doubt, hatred, and selfishness in my life, and now I’m doing the work of re-growing my emotional garden. Everything he had ever taught me was wrong, especially about women. Found my mom, fell in love, and met some incredible women along the way. They taught me more than my father ever has, and that’s saying something. Women overflow with wisdom and grace, too many of them oppressed by the men they marry or encounter. As men, we should be protecting them and uplifting them. They are the carriers of our children and future generation. I have forgiven my father for everything he has done. He was only human. God says we mu
XanderIt’s been two weeks since Aiden has been back in custody, and all I can say is that it was the best decision we had ever made. Jessica was arrested but we had her released on probation. She knew that Aiden was our half-brother and only wanted to protect him. She apologized and all was forgiven.Aiden was going to be sentenced again for his escape and they were looking at adding another two years since he returned with no incident. It was a relief for everyone because his sentence was only going to be fifteen years, according to what our lawyer had told us.I was sitting in the visitor's area of the Sun City Prison, waiting for Aiden. Today was going to be the first time I had spoken to him ever since he was arrested earlier in the year.I hear chains clanking and I look towards the door and see Aiden's handcuffed from his knees to his arms. I stand up and wait for
XanderEverybody had gathered at our house. Everybody, I mean, Damien, Charles, Chantel, and X. We were waiting for X’s team to tell us that they had captured Aiden and he was in the set location. Emotions were running high, but we were all keeping our cool.Nikki and Chantel were currently occupied by their gossip, and the guys and I were gathered in the kitchen with the burner phone set in the middle of the table.“You are seriously considering murder?”X nods, “Yeah. If we let him live, who knows what he’ll do to us? To anyone.”I felt guilty. I wanted to know more about him and why my father kept him a secret. There had to have been a reason.“X is right,”“Guys come on. What about hearing his side of the story? He is your brother; do
Charles“You can’t do that Dae. I will not allow it, you understand me,”Damien sighs, “Fuck Charles, I’m trying to keep the both of you safe. Who knows what that manic is capable of.”“Don’t you dare raise your voice at me,” I yell, “I will not let that man terrorize me or my family? We will remain here, and we will see this through together.”There was no arguing with me, I was going to have the last say and that was it. That sorry excuse of a man will not ruin our lives again.“Call Xander, we are all going to his house, and we are going to talk about this,” I say and walk out of the kitchen.I go to the spare bedroom and find Chantel sitting on the floor, with her phone in her hand.“Honey, you okay?”Chantel looked at me and she looked shaken.“Aiden is Xander’s brother?”“What? No, who told you that lie?”She gets up from the floor and sits on the bed.“Nikki just called me and told me that they found Aiden, and Aiden is Xander’s older half-brother,”“Damien!”Chantel sighs, “Th
XanderI hate it when someone says that. It usually means something very messed up is about to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it.“Just say it,”“Aiden is your biological brother,” X says.Damien and I look at each other. We both couldn’t believe it and it couldn’t be true. Could it?“How? I am the only son of both of my parents,”X looks at his screen, “Well, it looks like your father was a hoe.”I push X to the side and read what is written on the screen. His records were somehow sealed from the world, probably my dad’s doing. He was born the same year that I was just a few months before my birth, fuck that makes him my older brother.“His mother is unknown,”X looks at the screen, “I’ll have someone look into that.”“You’re taking this well,” Damien says nervously.I look at him and I shrug, “I’ve genuinely run out of fucks to give when it comes to Aiden and anything involving him but what’s bothering me is that my father. My father. I hope he’s in hell,”“Do you thi
“Do you still have men in the house?”X looks at his PC and nods, “Yeah, everything is good. They are still in the living room.”I was out with X and Damien, trying to figure out if the rumour of Aiden’s escape was true. We were waiting for Damien to return from prison with some information. We were at X’s house, in his basement. His family was out for the day, so we could work without his family disrupting us too much.“Do you think he could be out there?”I sigh, “Yeah, I do. He’s a sneaky bastard, that man.”X shakes his head, “We’ll find him, and deal with him accordingly. The rest of the squad doesn’t have to know.”“You’ve done stuff like this before?”“You mean assassinate, murder, make people disappear? It’s part of the job description, man. I’m hired by all sorts of people,” X replies but it’s a side of my business most people don’t know about.I nod, “Of course.”“People like Aiden have gotten away with so much in their lives that they have run out of their extra lives but s
NikkiI groaned as I sat on my bed, the baby was growing at an exponential rate and my back was hurting like hell. I look over and see Xander fast asleep. I smile as I brush his curls out of his face.Finally married. I couldn’t believe it. God finally granted me one of my heart's desires and another one is on the way.I get out of bed and put my slippers on and make my way downstairs to the kitchen. I proceed to make breakfast and Xander comes down the stairs. He sees me and smiles at me.“Good morning my gorgeous wife, and baby,”He kisses my cheek and bends over to kiss my stomach.“Good morning baby,”He takes the spatula from my hand and tells me to sit down. I don’t argue and I sit down on one of the bar stools.“Why didn’t you wake me up babe? You’re in your second trimester and I don’t want you to strain yourself.”I sigh, “I’m pregnant, not disabled Xander. We’ve had this discussion.”He frowns, “I’m sorry babe, I don’t mean to be overbearing. I just want you and the baby to
Xander Lobola Day“Shit,” I mumble to myself.I was standing outside the gate to Nikki’s family home, and I was nervous. Shaking even. I didn’t know what to expect. Xlanti had told me everything that I needed to know but still, I was nervous. I wanted to make a first impression, a good one.“Don’t worry Xander, we are here for you. just let me do the talking and everything will be fine,” X says.I nod. Damien places his hand on my shoulder, and I let out a shaky breath.A few moments pass and two men and a woman step out of the house and stand by the gate. Xlanti puts an R200 through the gate.“Siyanibulisa badala bam,” Xlanti says.“Molo nyana wam,” one of the men greet.“Silapha ukuze sithethe nabadala malunga nelobola kaNikiwe,” Xlanti says.The three elders look at each other.“You can speak in English, for the sake of understanding each other.”“Thank you,” X says and places another R200 through the gate.One of the uncles comes to the gate and opens it, we walk through the gate
Nikki I didn’t want him dead. Even though he deserved it but still. None deserves to die. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he was dead, I didn’t want to believe it. It’s been a few days since Aiden died and were sitting in the backyard, on the lawn. Xander had his eyes closed, I think he was asleep, and I had my head on his lap. I was looking up at the cloudy sky. Praying to god that he had at least in his final moments asked for forgiveness and that he was in heaven. Our lobola was in three days and I was excited, but I was also anxious. My dad’s side of the family was a tough bunch. Being half Xhosa and Zulu was not a good mix. My dad’s side of the family was Xhosa. I loved them to bits, unlike my maternal side, who decided to cut ties with my mother after she decided to marry my dad. Tribalistic idiots. “You okay down there?” I nod, “Yeah I’m okay. I’m just really nervous about Saturday,” Xander sits up and he looks down at me with his mesmerizing blue eyes. I was