I was trapped inside my own head. I grieved over a boyfriend I thought had died. I harboured feelings of guilt because of his death, but then it turns out that he’s actually alive, but has now been shot again and might die for real this time.

I’ve been on the run for months. I’m attracted to the cop assigned to protect me, and if that’s not bad enough, I’m now caught between two men and I have no idea what I’m going to do.

Blessing hovers above me, stupefied. I curl into a ball on the kitchen floor and gaze up at him. I reach for his cheek with my hand and he leans into my touch.

“Are you OK?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t know,” I say. “My life is crazier than the worst movie ever made.”

He smiles. “You’re the most bizarre woman I’ve ever encountered,” he says, helping me to a sitting position.

I cross my legs in front of me. “I thought we were tighter than that, you and I,” I murmur, almost to myself.

His frown mirrors mine. “We are, Alex, but keeping you safe and alive surpasses everything else. I know the hell you went through. I was here with you, day in and day out, remember? If I had the chance to do it all again, I don’t know if I’d change anything, if it means having you sit in front of me as you are right now. That was my first and foremost duty: to keep you alive.”

“Is that why you were so careful around me?” I mumble.

He nods. “But even that didn’t help much,” he says. “You’re a force to be reckoned with. Don’t be too mad at me, OK?”

I give him my lopsided smile. I’m too tired to be angry anyway.

“It will be OK in the end,” he says.

***

A week later, Blessing is driving me to see Mark. He’s finally awake and has been asking for me. The atmosphere is tense between Blessing and I. A lot of unsaid words linger between us and the uncertainty of the future is palpable.

We drive in silence. We have hardly said a paragraph between us in the past week and have been swiftly avoiding each other. My thoughts refuse to come together. I have not been able to hold a single coherent sentence about any of the things that desperately need sorting out. All I have are questions circling in my brain.

Blessing parks at the entrance of the hospital and together we walk quietly to the reception area. “Hi, we’re here to see Mark Lukhele,” he says to the nurse. She looks briefly at the screen and presses some buttons before directing us to Mark’s room.

He’s lying on the bed, in a clean and slightly chilled room under neatly tucked in blankets. He turns his head when he hears us enter the room.

“Hi,” he says, clearing his throat and adjusting his whole body towards us.

“Hi yourself,” I reply. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m doing much better, thanks. How are you?”

“We are good.” I glance at Blessing.

“Thank you Blessing…” Mark wants to say more but he doesn’t.

I think Blessing knows what he wants to say. He simply nods. “I’ll give you guys some time to talk. I’ll be back.” He strides out of the room. I sit on the chair beside the bed.

We stare at each other like it’s the first time we’ve seen each other. I feel tears dancing in my eyes, but they don’t spill over because I don’t blink.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Mark says, his voice breaking.

“I can’t believe I’m here either. So much has happened.” I take his hand in mine and we both look away for an instant before going back to locking gazes.

“So are you OK? What are the doctors saying?” I ask, breaking the silence.

“They are happy with my progress,” he tells me. “Luckily, the bullet didn’t hit any major organs. How are you?”

“I’m good. I’m so happy that you’re alive. When I woke up and they told me that you were dead, I…”

“Hush now,” Mark says, squeezing my hand. “I’m alive and we’re together, nothing else matters.”

I catch Mark up on everything. I tell him about being on the run, the close calls we’ve had and how I grieved for him. I conclude with the arrests and with John being the leak, but that information isn’t surprising to him.

“Ruben is in on it too,” he adds. My eyes grow wide.

“What did you just say?” Blessing says as he strides back in. He is silently livid: grinding his teeth together, tightening his jaw and clenching his fists at his sides.

“Ruben and Jacob often talked in my room, they didn’t know that I could hear them,” Mark explains. “John didn’t know that Ruben was in it too. He thought that only Jacob was calling the shots.”

“Who is Jacob?” I ask them.

“Ruben’s right hand man,” Mark answers me, and continues. “Ruben and LG’s CEO served together in the army, and apparently they’ve been friends ever since. So whenever LG faced some legal problems, Ruben dealt with them, for a handsome fee of course. I heard him say that he was unwilling to give up his beach house in Cape Town because of two love-crazed, bored teenagers who thought they could play heroes.”

“But it doesn’t make any sense,” Blessing says, sinking onto the bed with slumped shoulders. “Why send me undercover and assign me to protect Alex?”

“You were the perfect cover for him,” Mark explains. “You got hold of sensitive information that he could use to demand more money out of LG, and you made him look like he was really investigating LG. Eventually they were going to kill me and Alex, and you would have never found out what really happened. Ruben fed Jacob information, Jacob passed it onto John, and John acted. Between the three of them, they knew what you were doing and that enabled them to be a step ahead of you”

“Ruben told them our locations,” Blessing murmurs.

I am reeling from this revelation. What has happened to the world?

“When I started asking questions about Alex, my security gradually increased,” Mark says. “They gave me the run around about where she was. I was restricted further: I couldn’t go outside like I usually did and I was monitored closely. When I asked why they said it was for my own protection.”

“I then heard about the drive you guys had, and that there was a meeting planned,” Mark continues. “Their plan was to get the drive, find out if you had any copies, and then kill you. I could not allow that to happen, so I seduced a nurse and convinced her to help me escape.”

Whoa! Whoa! Back up, seduced a nurse? I think to myself. Hypocrite much? My conscience immediately scolds me.

“We didn’t do anything, baby, I promise,” Mark clarifies. Blessing and I squirm with guilt, but Mark doesn’t notice.

“But Ruben told me he came with SAI men, why would he do that?” Blessing finally speaks. Marks chuckles in incredulity, but he looks impressed too.

“He and Jacob were going to frame John for your murders. As SAI men as witnesses, no one would doubt his story that John attacked the both of you at the exchange meeting, but they didn’t know I was coming and…”

“…And that I would recognize John,” I interject, finishing his sentence. “John went crazy when he saw me and realised that I would ruin the plan.”

“No, that’s not it,” Blessing says, pacing the room as he knits the puzzle together. “John could have handled you recognising him, but he realised that he was being set up when he saw Jacob with the SAI agents, and that is why he shot Ruben.”

“Jacob was there?” I ask. I can’t believe it. Of course, I couldn’t point him out because I’ve never met him. Blessing nods. We fall silent, letting the information sink in.

“I’m afraid visiting time is over,” a nurse informs us. Frankly, this is a welcome distraction. I cannot take any more of this secret spy corruption stuff. People wouldn’t believe this if it were a fiction movie. How am I supposed to accept all of this as my reality? We bid Mark goodbye and promise to see him soon. I avoid being left alone with him and I hurry out of the room with Blessing. We drive back in silence.

***

Tell us what you think: How will Alex and Blessing use all of this new information?