Bophelo failed her grade dismally due to her absence from school. How could she pass, though, because she was “stupid” anyway? She had to give the man back at home sex every day, day in and day out. But biggie had a big surprise for him, one that he had never thought about.

One day, Bophelo met a random guy in the street while she was out to buy bread. The guy initiated a relationship with her, and he promised her heaven and earth. Given her situation, she saw it fit to try getting into a relationship with the guy, just so she could get away from her rapist. That was the first and only time she had ever felt loved, even though she wasn’t. The guy lured her in and sold her dreams. It was good enough for her though, so she moved out of her rapist’s place but, unknowingly, moved in with another.

From the beginning, Bophelo was always able to open up to Kagiso. She told him everything she had been feeling from as long back as she could remember. But Kagiso was abusive, and how could she have ever known, because abusers are not marked on their foreheads?

Bophelo and Kagiso’s intimacy was supposed to be enjoyable, but that was not the case. Kagiso would sleep with Bophelo forcefully, simply because her rapist had done the same thing, and she had not done anything about it. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place: it was either she went back to her first rapist, or she stayed with the other, Kagiso.

Kagiso stayed alone, so Bophelo knew that if she eliminated him, she would have the house to herself and live happily ever after. The abuse went on and on though, and Kagiso would remind her time and time again that she had nowhere else to go, and that she was trash and that was why he ill-treated her.

Bophelo was trash, and she knew that because every man that had slept with her had said it to her. One night, Kagiso forced himself on her and instantly fell asleep afterwards. Bophelo was just too tired of it all. She had endured the pain for way too long, and, in a blink of an eye, she killed Kagiso in cold blood.

Everyone wrote Bophelo off afterwards because she was bad, but they were wrong about her. She had made Kagiso meet his ancestors a bit earlier than he had expected, and she had used an axe to cut his head in half while he was deep in his sleep. He then lied there in a pool of his own blood, and Bophelo did not even feel guilty about it, and she had no remorse at all.

Bophelo had just turned 18 at the time, so she was no longer a minor, and she was taken to jail.

“That’s where she belongs,” people exclaimed, and she made news headlines. “18 year old kills her 32 year old boyfriend in cold blood.”

After spending a while in prison, Bophelo remembered that she had last had her period two months prior. So, not only was she in jail, she was also pregnant with the deceased man’s baby. The man she had killed was the father of her unborn baby, a baby she had conceived forcefully.

Bophelo’s biological mother saw the news about her daughter, and she was shocked to find out that she was actually still alive. Maria, Bophelo’s mother, was in her death bed. She had lived with so much regret that it actually made her sick. She had thought that her child had died a long time back, and she had blamed herself for her death. Who was she supposed to blame, anyway?

***

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