We finally got used to the pattern of this woman’s abuse. My father’s 40th birthday approached. He made a very wonderful speech and in closing, he told everyone how much of a golden star I was to him. Phindile did not like my father’s words and before we knew it my father was yelling at us. I was always in trouble for nothing. I cried a lot especially, for my little sister as she could not understand what was going on. Sbonelo did not care, he was always flirting on Mxit. At least he would comfort me. There came a time when I did not care about my father and Phindile yelling at us.

Everything was going okay until my father announced that he was getting married to Phindile. This meant that I had to deal with this woman for the rest of my life.

The wedding was beautiful — I was one of the bride’s maids. This felt like a betrayal to my mom, but I enjoyed dressing up. It was a beautiful ceremony, so beautiful that I forgot about all the ill-treatment.

After the wedding I made a decision to go back to my mother. I knew after the wedding things would only get worse. I returned to my mother’s and matriculated with good grades. I enrolled to a learnership programme for a billion-dollar insurance company. By God’s grace, I got a permanent post after the learnership programme. My step monster gave birth to two sons who look exactly like me.

Like they always say, ‘diamonds are made under pressure’. I’m glad I met the step monster. I had to go through all of this to be the amazing woman that I’ve grown-up to be. Sbonelo made all the wrong choices and ended up in jail. Gemini is a beautiful young lady now, you should hear her sing.

***

Tell us: What do you think of the ending of this story?