It was Johan who answered the phone.
‘Hello Mr Steyn, this is Nonceba. There have been some developments in your case and I think we should meet as soon as possible. It’s not something I can discuss on the phone. Can we make it at the same place where I met your wife, sometime tomorrow morning?’

Johan felt his stomach turn. ‘What it is? You look worried,’ Petra said when he got off the phone.

‘I don’t know. Nonceba wants to meet us. She says there are new developments in the case.’ Since the arrival of this baby,
it seemed their lives had been turned upside down, and it was draining him, reminding him of past mistakes that he would rather forget.

‘I can meet her alone again if you are not ready,’ Petra offered.

‘You know, Petra, I can’t run away forever. At some point I have got to face her. If we wait until after the case, it will be another deception, which may make her even angrier. I will come with you, and if I feel strong enough I will tell her who I am.’

The following morning they all got into the car, Johan, Petra and baby Princess.

On the other side of town in Morningside, where they had moved from the beachfront flat to a cottage with enough space for the two of them, Nonceba had to work hard to convince Mvelo to meet these people and see if they were the ones who had her baby. ‘I could be wrong, but if I’m not we can fight for Sabekile,’ she said. The only thing that made was that Nonceba agreed to hold off reporting it to the police. So they got ready and walked to Tribeca from the cottage.

‘It’s her, the woman, it’s her,’ Mvelo said as they approached, holding Nonceba’s hand tightly. ‘Please let’s go back, she’ll recognise me,’ she said, pulling Nonceba.

‘But Mvelo, don’t you see. This is good. You’ll get your baby back and we can be a family. Don’t you want that?’

Mvelo did. She wanted it so badly, but she couldn’t face the woman and tell her that she was taking the baby back. She had been so kind to her, and now she was about to break her heart. It was too late to turn back, though, they had already seen them coming.

Petra looked confused. ‘I know you. You came to my house the other day,’ she said as Nonceba and Mvelo sat down. Mvelo’s stomach went cold and turned somersaults.

Nonceba explained about Sipho and her connection to Mvelo. When she got to the part about Mvelo abandoning her baby, Petra couldn’t hold back her tears. ‘I knew it,’ she said. ‘I could see you were the mother. What now? How are we going to deal with this?’ She was holding Princess Tholakele tightly.

Johan sat quietly, numb as a stone. He avoided looking at Petra because her tears were cutting into him. Mvelo couldn’t look at anyone at the table. She was too ashamed about her part in the mess.

An uncomfortable silence fell all around as it became clear that Nonceba and Mvelo wanted to take the baby from them.

Finally Johan couldn’t stand it any more. He felt he was being punished for his sins, but Petra didn’t deserve this. ‘I used to know a lady by the name of Zimkitha Hlathi,’ he blurted out. ‘She was thrown in jail for kissing me in public, but by then it was too late because she was already carrying my child.’ He talked quickly before he lost his nerve.
There was stunned silence all round.
Johan reached into his jacket pocket and took out a picture of a woman who was the image of Nonceba; just a little darker with slightly tighter curls. Nonceba couldn’t remember her mother in person, but she had seen pictures of her. The one Johan held was of her mother all right. Nonceba looked at the picture, looked at her father, and burst into tears.

Petra stood up with Princess and asked Mvelo to join her to give Johan and Nonceba some privacy. Mvelo was too dumfounded to say anything, and followed Petra to another table. They sat there, too scared to say anything to each other.

Petra was cradling Princess and fussing over her and, as she watched, Mvelo made up her mind. She had given Sabekile up. She had prayed for her baby to find a good home, and she had. If this woman would allow her to be a part of her baby’s life, to see her whenever she wanted, she would let her adopt Sabekile.

As much as she was happy to have Nonceba back, Nonceba had left her before. What would stop her from doing it again? And what would she do then? How would she look after Sabekile? She did not want her daughter to face a day of hunger. ‘She belongs with you,’ Mvelo said to Petra. ‘If you allow me to visit her, she can stay with you.’

Petra wept, and Mvelo took the baby from her arms and held her. She drank in the warm, soft feeling and her milky smell. She felt immense love for her child.

Waiters at the restaurant looked puzzled at the obvious drama unfolding before them. Johan was rooted in his seat, too scared to move.

‘I had given up. I looked and looked, and then eventually I gave up,’ said Nonceba between gulps of emotions. She stretched her hands across the table and reached for Johan’s. It was more than he had hoped for.

‘She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,’ he said. ‘I loved her, but I was a coward.’

Nonceba looked down at the picture. ‘Tell me about her,’ she said. ‘I want to hear it from you. My grandmother told me what she knew, but she didn’t know much about her life in Hillbrow.’

It was around 6 p.m. when they finally left Tribeca, all of them thoroughly exhausted. They had still not discussed any of
the details regarding the adoption, so they planned another meeting in Manor Gardens at Petra and Johan’s house.

Johan was relieved that Nonceba had not rejected him. Zimkitha’s burning eyes were replaced with the loving eyes of Nonceba. She concluded that she had been brought back to Durban to complete her search.

Johan and Petra couldn’t believe their many blessings. First they had found a baby looking for their care, then a daughter they had searched for high and low, and a teenager who had chosen their home for her baby to belong to. When Mvelo told Nonceba of her decision to let Petra and Johan keep
the baby, Nonceba reminded her that they still had to face the court.

Mvelo fell asleep with her head buzzing.