The next thing I knew, we were at his place kissing on the bed.

We took off each other’s clothes and we made love for the first time. It did hurt at first but it felt great after the second try. We fell asleep and we were woken up by his uncle’s loud knock.

“Vusi, wake up man, we have to be in Joburg in less than 14 hours!” he shouted.

“You didn’t say that you were leaving today, so you got what you wanted uh!” I was holding back tears as I said that.

“No baby it’s not like that”, he was up and getting dressed. I got dressed too and went for the door.

“Hi Vatiswa”, his uncle greeted me as I was leaving.

“Hi Uncle Sam”, I found myself saying. I went straight home and my mother wasn’t up yet. I got into my room and locked the door. Michael was in my room, I said to myself as I picked up his iPod from the floor. I jumped to bed and fell asleep. Then there was a banging on the door.

“Vatiswa open the door, there’s something you need to know,” my mother called out. I looked at the time on my cell phone… it was 12H40.

I slowly got up and went to open the door, my mother was surprisingly calm. She told me that she received a call from an old friend in Joburg telling her that someone had died.

“Is that person our relative or rather your relative?” I asked sarcastically.

“Well Vatiswa, that person is your mother.”

That came as a shock, my mom was still alive and my so-called mother here lied to me and said she died long ago.

“Get out! I said get out!” I yelled at my mother and I burst out into tears. I wasn’t crying because my mom died, but I was upset that the person I regarded as my mother lied about my mom. I wanted to at least see her and ask her why she gave me up for adoption; I guess that was too late now. I wanted to ask her if I had any siblings whom I can reconcile with and look up to.

Was I her only child, her first born or her last? Probably I was the first born, the ‘mistake’. My mother came to my room with a cup of Rooibos tea and told me that we have to pack for Joburg because we will be leaving in the evening.

“Her funeral is tomorrow,” she informed me. I just sipped my tea without saying a word.

Tell us what you think: Did Vatiswa’s mother do the right thing by keeping this secret from her all these years? Will Vatiswa be able to forgive her mother for deceiving her?