Pedigree

It is always important to get rest away from everything because the day your body decides to shut down, you might need it up. This is exactly how I am feeling, it’s like my body has been begging me to just rest away from everything but I have been forcing it to stand and now here I am. I get home feeling completely drained, dad is in the kitchen cooking because I can smell the strong spices from the living room when I enter the house.

Growing up I always knew if he were home from the spices, there is no day in my life that I ever saw our kitchen run out of spices because dad has been a lover and that is why he started growing some in our backyard.

‘Hey.’ I say walking in on him

He opens his arms, he has always understood when I didn’t want to talk. When I just needed him to be quiet as I got into his arms and drowned my sorrows away.

‘You know I won’t let you go down right?’ He asks

I just nod my head

‘And I know you didn’t hurt her, you would never do anything to hurt her.’

I nod my head again

I go over to one of the kitchen chairs and sit, he brings a bowl.

‘Eat some soup, it will warm your insides before you can eat anything.’

‘Thank you.’ I say putting a spoon to my mouth.

‘I will be back.’ He says

..

It breaks my heart seeing Kasweka like this, but what hurts even more is that the Kalubas have a lot of money and with a strong case they can bring her down.

I call my lawyer, he told me he would call me in an hour but I haven’t heard anything from him and I am worried that maybe he doesn’t want to take the case anymore.

‘Chisoni, I was about to call you.’

‘Please tell me you have some good news.’

‘Someone tempered with the camera that shows their yard and outside their gate.’

I scratch my head, that is not good news.

‘There is worse.’

‘What?’

‘Kasweka was the last person Moudy talked to before she died, there are messages that show Kasweka asking Moudy to go outside. That could incriminate her.’

‘Okay but if the cameras were tempered with, how did the footage get leaked? Who is even circulating it?’

‘Is Kasweka with you as I asked?’

‘Yes she is.’

‘Keep her there until this whole thing dies out, I need to know what the Kalubas are planning before we can do anything but right now I need as much information as possible that could get her out of this mess.’

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ I ask even though I am not sure I want to know the answer

‘She could get arrested but we can get her out on bail, it will cost you a leg but at least she will be sane home as we gather more information so that she comes out innocent.’

‘Thank you so much, this is quite helpful.’

‘Don’t thank me just yet, there is more to this case and as much as I am thrilled it is scaring me. A part of me feels like a lot of people will get hurt.’

I choose not to respond to that.

‘But before I go, do you and your daughter have any enemies that have a strong reason to want to harm you?’

I shake my head as if he can see me

‘Chisoni, do you have enemies that would hurt your daughter in a quest to get to you?’

‘Not any that I am aware of.’

‘All my clients say that, but I will give you some time to think through it. I need you as honest with me as possible because this is your daughter’s future that is on the line. From the information I have already gathered the two were seen together last night, she dropped the deceased home yes but the time she took from there to her boyfriend’s home was quite long. I will need to find out from her if she made any detour and we need to establish why she sent those messages asked to see her when she had already left.’

I swallow hard, no parent ever wishes this kind of predicament upon their child.

‘I will cooperate, my daughter too.’

‘Good, now make sure that you keep your daughter safe and sane. She needs you.’

I drop the line and breath out hell, I call Mphatso and explain what the lawyer has said. I am trying to get him to talk to some IT guys and see if Kasweka’s phone was hacked. I strongly believe she has been framed because no matter how drunk she gets she would never master such courage to hit someone.

When I walk back to the kitchen Kasweka looks lost in her thoughts.

‘Pedigree.’ She whispers, more to herself than to me.

‘What?’

‘VK told me something about pedigree.’

‘His lineage, his ancestry, his family.’ I say

‘He wouldn’t pick me because I am not his family.’

I don’t know what to tell her.

‘Nobody picks me.’

‘Kasweka.’

‘Even my own father couldn’t.’ She says ask I look at her like she is losing her mind

‘You need to rest.’ I say and she doesn’t protest

..

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Winnie

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