Chapter 26

MALUSI NKABINDE
I really don't get why Milani had to do that. Now I have to save her a$$ and get her out of jail. They are charging her for kidnapping and for framing Nqaba. How did they even find out that? Jesus it must be Mnqobi, I told her not trust that moron. She should have just killed him when she had the chance, now she has the police force coming for her and they are definitely going to come for me. Emihle needs to talk to her father. My sister cannot go to jail. I might be angry with her now but she cannot go to jail. Emihle walks in looking very angry. "What is wrong with your sister Malusi? I swear Milani has death with. What the hell was she thinking? I told her not even think of harming that child and now this. I swear if I get m hands on her, I am going to strangle her." She is definitely angry. I don't know what got into her either. "Calm down baby. We need to talk to your father. Can you get him to meet us at our usual spot?" She is obviously annoyed, this not something she wanted to get her father involved in. "Malusi this trivial staff I don't want my father involved in. The more we call him to help us get out of situations, the people will start putting the pieces together and we don't want that. No one is supposed to know about me being his daughter." I understand her frustration right now. "I hear you and I understand but we don't have a choice right now. She can't go to jail. Yes she was stupid by kidnapping Lwandle and I'll deal with her but for now let's just get Milani out of this mess." I hate it when she is like this. "Fine I'll call him
"Fine I'll call him," she replies reluctantly, her voice still laced with irritation. The moments stretch as I wait for her to dial, my mind racing. Milani's reckless behavior has thrown us into a storm, and we have to ride it out smartly. Emihle's brow is furrowed as she listens to the phone ring, and I can sense her anxiety mounting. Her father is powerful, but I know how he feels about getting embroiled in family drama. "What if he refuses to help?" she asks, her tone skeptical. I shake my head, trying to draw some comfort from the situation. "He won't turn his back on family, not when it counts. We just need to make him see that Milani is in real danger and after this we are going to keep her on a tight leash." Then the call connects. "Dad, it's Emihle. We need to talk," she says, her voice steadying. I can see her resolve strengthening as she goes on. "It's about Milani. She's in trouble with the police." I grip the edge of the table, listening intently. "Yes, I know! It's serious... Yes, that's why we need you!" Her words are clipped now, her frustration spilling over. "We can't let her go to jail. We need a plan, and you're the only one who has the resources to help us. If she goes to jail, a lot will go wrong dad."
I can feel the tension filling the room, a bubble ready to burst. As she hangs up, I catch the fleeting expression of relief on her face. "He's on his way, he'll come here" she announces, but the weight remains. I turn my gaze to the window, watching the shadows of the late afternoon crawl across the pavement outside. "Malusi," she says, snapping me back to the moment, "we need a foolproof plan. Milani's actions are only going to escalate things. We have to protect her from herself before anyone else can intervene."
"Agreed. We should gather evidence of Mnqobi's deceit, something that could turn the tide in her favor," I reply. She nods, her expression thoughtful. "If we can show that Milani was only acting out of desperation to protect herself, maybe we can mitigate the charges."
Emihle's eyes narrow as she hatches a scheme. "I have some contacts who might be able to pull up records on Mnqobi. If he has a history of manipulation, it could work to our advantage."
"Alright, let's get to it. We run this now, not later. Milani might not have the sense to see this, but we have to be the ones to save her," I say with determination, knowing that time is slipping away. Emihle's energy shifts as she stands, pacing the room with purpose. "I'll reach out to my contacts and see what they can dig up about him. If we can catch him in a lie or expose his wrongdoings, it'll show that Milani wasn't the only one acting out of line. It's pity he is dead. It could have been much easier if he was alive."
"Right," I respond, feeling the adrenaline surging through me. "And I'll start gathering everything we have on her case. Every detail, every interaction—anything that can hint at outrage or desperation on her part. It'll help paint a picture of how she felt trapped." Knowing Milani that is going to be a difficult task. We might have to cook up some scenarios just to make her look crazy.
As I begin the process of compiling the evidence we need, I search through old messages and notes from Milani's earlier encounters. "We'll need to structure this so it draws the clearest connection. If we can show how biased the prosecutor is, with Milani's financial ties to him, it could also undermine the case against her. And we still have the kidnapping charges and we need to out lawyer. He needs to be on the ball. This is not just going to go away."
"Exactly," she replies, flipping her hair back with a fierce determination. "She created a mess Malusi - this hunger for power that she has is slowly destroying her and us in the process."
With newfound focus, I dive into the research, pulling up old case files, watching clips of interviews, and noting discrepancies. A few hours pass, but the pace of the race feels exhilarating as we reframe Milani's narrative. I take out m phone and text the lawyer telling him that he need to get here fast. We need to restructure this properly.
Just as I'm about to lose myself in the sea of my thoughts about Milani, Emihle snaps me out my thought. "Meeting in 30 minutes. Dad will be here in 30 minutes." My heart races; this is just another turning point, we still have a lot to get through to make sure she does doesn't end up in prison.
"Emihle!" I call out, urgency in my tone. "We need to wrap this up quickly. Time is not on our side. There's a real possibility that if we keep digging, we might unravel something much bigger. Let's put this all away before your father gets here." I know that my sister has been hiding things from me and she has been hiding them so well that I can't find anything. She freezes and turns to share my concern. "I have a feeling that there is more to Mnqobi than we think. Milani would have not gotten herself involved with him if she was not getting something major out of their relationship. What if this was not just about R3 Million life policy. Call your IT guy to start working on Mnqobi's laptop and phone. There's something in there that Milani didn't want anyone to know and she hid it with last person that we would suspect of knowing anything because she always painted him as nothing but a mere means to an end. Mnqobi could be part of a more extensive web?"
We exchange a determined glance, both sensing the weight of the moment. "Let's make this count, Malusi. We aren't just saving Milani; we might be unveiling something dangerous, something she is involved in without us," she says, and I can hear the resolve in her voice. "Right behind you," I promise, and together we dive headfirst into the chaotic sorting of documents and putting them away before her father gets here. The clock is ticking as we just finished putting all the paper work away. We sit in silence waiting for her father. A knock breaks our silence. Her father walks into the lounge looking calm but you can tell there is a bit of confusion in there.
"Thank you for coming, Dad," Emihle says, her tone earnest yet careful. He looks up, his expression inscrutable. "I already know it's about Milani. I don't need to be drawn in again," he begins, his voice deep and steady. But before he can continue, I decide to jump in. "Sir, please hear us out. This is bigger than just Milani's situation. There is a potential conspiracy at play that could affect all of us," I say, my tone firm but respectful. He raises an eyebrow. "How so?"
"We are still looking into it. Milani is definitely involved in something and she didn't want knowing about it. She managed to hide everything from me." I watch his expression shift from skepticism to interest. "She wasn't acting alone. We have some information but we need to link it so that it makes sense. We believe she is up to something but we are not sure what it is. What we need right now from is to get her out of jail. With the charges they have on her, I am pretty sure she won't get bail."
"Look dad, she won't survive jail or prison. And if any her of plans involve betraying us, then I'll definitely have the pleasure of killing her." Slowly, I see the wheels in her father's mind turn. "Alright," he says, suspicion giving way to curiosity. "We'll need a plan, a timeline, everything lined up if we're going to move forward. I'll get her out and I'll see what else I can find out. This Detective investigate the case that has to do with that Cele boy and Milani, is keeping all the cards close to his chest. No one knows what's going on. Only a selected a few and those few are not talking."
Emihle and I exchange a glance of curiosity. This is going to be harder than we thought. "My lawyer will be here tomorrow so that he can put something together for her defence." This is going to be hard Milani has really gone and done it this time. "Fine. I'll let you know when she is out. Keep her on a tight leash, I can't be involved in every mess that you guys create for yourselves. Emihle you know what is at risk here. Keep it clean. Are you coming for dinner this weekend Emmy?" Emihle gives her father a nod, he acknowledges and walks out. Just as he walks out, my IT guy walks in, he greets and we walk to my office while Emihle goes to the kitchen to prepare something to eat for us. When we get to my office I give him Mnqobi's laptop and phones. Thanks to the police office we have on our payroll, otherwise these would still be sitting in the police station in evidence lock up. He takes them and sit at the table in the corner in my office, where he always sits when he is working. I watch as connects Mnqobi laptop to his and the phones and starts clicking away on the buttons.
I am not going to lie for the first time in my life I am afraid of what he might find. The last time he hacking into something involving this case he couldn't. Let's see how he does with this. This was Mnqobi, he couldn't have had tight security on it. "Boss come take a look at this." I get up walk towards him. He shows a folder and it has everything on me. Every business that I do to the last detail. It details of my business partners, details of the new product that we are supposed to launch. This folder has everything on me. My offshore back accounts are on here. How the hell did Mnqobi get all this. Everything is linked to his other phone. The whole laptop is linked to his second phone. He opens another folder without saying a word and it's everything on Milani and Emihle. Photos, documents, videos, everything. There's surveillance footage as well. We are being watched and we don't even know about it. He opens a third one, this has all the cops, judges, lawyers, ministers everyone we are paying off including Emihle's father. This is not good. "I think these were meant to be found and the have been uploaded to a cloud server that I cannot excess. Look at this, he has info on how Milani killed your brother. If the cops have this boss, then it's the end. Hold on." He says opening another folder. This has everything on how Milani was going to take over half my business. "So she was planning on betraying me, us." I think to myself but my thought stop when I see a document on how I was planning to get rid of her. Oh my God she knew, she knows and this was revenge. Wait this is revenge. She messed up and she knew I was going to run to her rescue. "This is a set up boss. She knew you were going to try and save her." Fu*k! Milani is smart. I under estimated her. "Thanks, you can go. I'll take it from here." He gets up and takes his things with walking out.
I take a sit where he was sitting and go through the laptop, I find another folder hidden in a bunch of other folders. This is basically a duplicate of everything we've found except for one. I click on it and it opens, what I see has blood draining from my face. How could he have know about this? Mnqobi was supposed to be in the dark about his real father. When his mother got pregnant with him, he couldn't risk having people use him to get to him. He had already broken up with mother. Mnqobi tasked his brother of raising him. He grew knowing that his uncle was his father. How did he find out, I know for certain that his mother didn't tell him anything. She didn't want her son involved in this like. Only if she knew now that her son died knowing everything. He took over his father's business, oh my God. So he is the one that I have been dealing with. He knew I killed his father. He was slowing taking over territories. He's the reason I've losing money. I give it to him he was smart. Smarter than we gave him credit for. How does this involve Milani though. What more was she going to gain out of this partnership. She really had us fooled. Now I am wondering if I want her out prison. She lost on framing Nqaba and the kidnapping was what exactly, she must have known she was not going to get anything from Nqaba.