Jay's Pov
I've been waiting and praying for this day for the past 6 months, now that its here, I'm more nervous than excited about seeing my wife.
Don't get me wrong, I love Lerato to death and there'll never be anyone else but her.
I'm just not sure she'll ever be the same woman I fell in love with.
'Her memory is triggered by fear but odd things scare her not violence/fighting' I see the text from Lufuno.
Strange, I was under the impression she can't feel fear or any other emotion other than murderous rage
This all started last year November 24th during Phakamile's Birthday celebration.
His woman had arranged this extravagant day that had a surprise after another and for the first time in years, we were all together at the same time and place.
Somehow some idiot decided to test all of us with a failed attempt on kidnapping Phakamile's wife.
That was the first sign we had been breached but somehow instead of blood shed, we all but Danso went to Cape Town for the weekend.
Only a suicidal idiot would make Danso and Phakamile an enemy, we're all protected just by association
Danso had Nathi's businesses liquidated in hours and as much as he wanted to kill the wife and kids to make him really feel it, Phakamile had gotten soft and decided a man losing his money and power was punishment enough.
"My issue is with him, we don't mess with women and children. Have y'all lost your minds?" He said when we told him to take out Nathi's family
Now that we know, they actually meant to take his wife instead of Lerato, he's singing a different tune because that was then.
I would hate and blame Phakamile and Danso for what happened to Lerato if they too didn't lose their wives.
We don't speak much, each of us lick our wounds in designated corners but at least my wife is alive and now back home regaining her memory
Phakamile has to live with the fact that his wife died thinking, he hates her.
We all teased him about waiting 35 years to fall in love and how all the hearts he's broken along the way will be avenged by Lesedi driving him crazy just because she can.
She had him moving into the middle of no where, far from everything and everyone.
2 months after he bought a new house because he's previous one was given to his ex whom he was meant to marry weeks after meetings Lesedi.
Never once did we think, she'd hurt him the way she's hurt him, sure he can be dark but now he's nothing but a shell of a man.
Lesedi dying and leaving him with the guilt of knowing, it was all his fault, is the hurt we never knew or wanted for our brother.
Sure my family is compromised and a lot of pain has and is being endured but my wife is alive and we can always make more kids.
Love is a fucked up thing, Phakamile is THE definition of a thug in a suit. As kind and generous as he can be, in his nature he's a cruel man but that woman just walked into his life and had him simping at hello.
Lerato didn't know or remember me but I still had access to her. When she left I made sure she worked at a company I had a say in.
There are cameras in her house and car, I also made sure that Thabo knew that. So kissing Lerato wasn't up for discussion, he was there because she needed that.
Thankfully the very same cameras in the house have helped clear her name in this murder investigation.
This could be the break through we've been workings towards for months now
Everytime Lerato ran to her hometown she always ended up at Thabo's house so even his mother is my payroll.
I had to lie and say her parents passed away 2 years, it was an easier lie than telling Lerato that her parents died one after the other when she was kidnapped
Her father's blood pressure went up the roof, the first time they too received the torture video, days later he had a stroke and died in a few hours
My mother-in-law's heart gave in shortly after and a month into Lerato's disappearance, both her parents were gone. Thandeka didn't know as well until Lerato came home, I want to be angry with Thandeka but I helped Lerato raise that girl, I know her. I know this is hurting her, I know her enough to know Lerato's torture and losing their parents is punishment enough. That and her now living her life in the shadows, we tracked her down when Lerato asked for her in the hospital but I had to hide her quickly there after because Phakamile made it clear he wants nothing but a bullet through her head. As much as Lerato needed her then, I also know Phakamile and thought it best to keep her alive than risk her life, my Lerato would want that.
It's still unbelievable, this happened to us, there's been bloodshed all over the world looking for these women.
All Southern African gangs bow to Phakamile and Danso, they are 2/3rds of the African Kingpin trio.
No political and economical major move is done without their say so
They have ties in the UK and Asia and before all this happened, Parks was working on building ties in North America.
We're all legitimate businessmen with everything done by the book, it's just that we're recognized and respected in the black market business world
Do we know who traffics, arm deals and pushes drugs on a global million dollar scale, yes. Do we have CIA executives trying to track us? Yes, but the men those executives report to, work for us.
The tech and pharmaceutical industries have the biggest thugs in suits, especially in North America.
Parks want to get in business with them, Danso wants to tear them from the inside out and create his own start up. It's a several billions conglomerate
Are we bothered by any of the dark world information? No
Danso and Phakamile are like the government, they tax, put tariffs and regulate the African dark world. The Zaptaz tried but they had met their match, and gracefully bowed out when Phakamile told them to
Due to colonialism, they're the first Africans to run things, Danso has every intention of over throwing governments and putting new people in power.
Phakamile is born of political royalty so he stays out of the way and mainly deals with the cartels, tech and AI industries,
These two are who you go to, to stop blood spill between cartels, they're who the Russians inform before starting any political or economical shit.
Danso is behind the whole junk status of some countries including South Africa,
They have what it takes to pick and choose who can invest in African countries, especially Southern and West Africa. Meaning in less than 5 years, they'll run the Africa economy, they've been running This country for a little over 4 years now
They're who you go to when overtaking tufs or territories and who you get as an intermediary when Peten or Kim Jon wants you dead.
We don't traffic young girls or deal with drugs or weapons, we do worse. We wire funds and information without a trace. The truth is, the world's richest people are never on the Forbes list or what ever list you'll find Elon and Benzo.
The 1% of the wealthy is made up of families, from Asia to Europe, it's those few families that run the world.
Don't be fooled by the world news or media, our Bank, Mabutho which means an army is THE only black owned African Bank
The Britain monarch is the only family known and they're several steps back in terms of power and influence compared to Danso and Parks.
Danso is a revolutionist with militant knowledge, he doesn't want foreign investors and is slowly getting African artifacts back, on top of over throwing European heads.
He's a manace because they are rules and structures in place that he has no respect for.
The success of our dark world work relays on anonymously. Parks and Danso are 2 of the most powerful men in Africa and in the top 10 in the whole world.
Unfortunately there was a weak link in the circle and identities were leaked, we're still not sure who knows what and we're not too worried because Phakamile leads with respect and loyalty, so most people need him in their corner.
While Danso leads with fear and terror so either way, they're not the kind of people you mess with, end of story
I'm not part of that world, sure I benefit but all my businesses are legit and no more than 3 people know how truly powerful and influential these people are.
So you'd imagine our shock and frustration in realising we've been breached
Lerato was the least of my worries, just like we all knew our families were safe. It wasn't until Linda went missing without a trace.
It all happened too quickly, Parks and his Mrs were on a 6 week vacation in Europe.
Whoever has Linda knows how to pull strings because they had all the signs pointing at Lesedi, who was the newest member of our circle, unknowingly so at that
It caused a terrible drift between Parks and Danso.
He was not able to find Linda and their unborn baby while Phakamile wanted him no where close to his Lesedi around those days.
Days after coming back from vacation Danso was forming at the mouth thinking Lesedi was responsible somehow.
With how everything pointed at her, Parks had no choice but to confront her and she denied everything, reasonably so.
Phakamile snapped, no one knows the details but a day later, her blood was found all over her car on the side of the road on the N3
There was too much blood there to conclude she's still alive even though her body hasn't been found.
Knowing that he's to blame, Danso searched for her like a crazy person but her bank card and identity haven't been used since that day, no public surveillance picked her face up and it's been 8 months now.
If she was alive, whoever has her would have contacted us by now, the same way they did when they had Lerato.
With a heavy heart, we all know she's dead, we just choose not to acknowledge it. I would have been better help and support to my family (Danso and Phakamile) if my own wife and children didn't go missing the day after Lesedi.
I'm really nervous about seeing Lerato, from the surveillance alone, she doesn't smile or belly laughs the way she used to, there's a confused numbness to her exterior.
God knows I want her to recover, I really do, but then what?
She'll recover and remember being pumped with experimental drugs and psychedelics?
She'll remember the Russian Sadists doctor who drove a screw driver into the socket of her right eye.
It was in attempts of doing some world War 2 experiment on memory loss and induction of the truth serum from one's hormones.
She'll remember being trained by an Asian assassin, on how to shoot and fight, after she was pumped with some performance enhancing adrenaline drug.
She'll know that they trained and experimented on her and she'll know as hard as I tried
I failed to keep her safe, failed to find her after I had put her and our son in danger
She'll know that everyday they anonymously sent us footage or her screams that still hunt Peter and I.
She'll know, we've seen every humiliation they've put her through, every naked beating.
She'll remember that when her memory started dipping in and out, she killed our 8 month old daughter with her bare hands.
Leano's body was delivered 2 days after the footage was sent
She'll know, she killed her own child with no remorse, she threw our dead daughter's body in a bucket after she suffocated her. The same bucket they gave Lerato to shit and piss in
She'll know that she's a trained killing machine and the only way she can be stopped is with a bullet between the eyes because she can no longer feel physical pain
She'll know that I know they tried to rape her 3 times but with time she had gotten stronger and fought the doctor. She broke his nose the first time he tried, the 3rd time he tried it, her arms and legs were tied but she still broke his neck, left him for dead and used his key to escape
Not before shooting the 13 armed guards at the make shift lab in a warehouse in witbank.
She'll know that she left our eldest son on the side of the road after she called me using a trukers phone.
She'll know she left him in fear that she might black out again and kill him too.
She'll know that she didn't try to find or save Linda.
She'll know we didn't get there fast enough to find Linda.
She'll know that our son Lewatle is now the only child we have instead of the 3 we should have because she was 4 months pregnant when they took her.
She'll know the feotus was experimented on while she was pregnant and after she miscarried.
She'll know I'm the reason all of this happend to her and worse of all, I did nothing to save her. She saved herself
She'll know that the warehouse she was kept in, belongs to the Mzimelas who are truthfully family.
She'll know it was hired out to business associates who lost R130 million when Danso and Phakamile decided to liquidate Nathi's businesses.
Nathi was used as a front to promote the "black excellence" or "rags to riches" success story to sway and bait consumers and bypass business laws
It won't matter that these Russian investors had no idea who they were dealing with and are all dead along with their bloodline, right down to their cats and kitchen roaches.
None of that matters because I failed her and she has to live with the fact that she killed her own child.
How do I look her in the eye and explain myself after all that?
How can I explain that I still love her and that I want her to stay this time so we can create a new normal.
The more I think of it, the more nauseous I feel, Danso, Phakamile and I have lost too much
The only reason Danso and I still talk is because he has always believed Lerato will regain her memory and help find us Linda.
Even if she's dead, he felt it better to bury her then live with the turmoil Phakamile has been living with for these past few months.
Peace truly must be with the dead because the misery is slowly killing us all and we're now empty vessels, nothing short of the walking dead.
What's the point of being the Kings of the dark world if one can't find his kidnapped wife?
A lot of innocent people(relative because they're in the dark world) have lost their lives because no one knew anything about a Lesedi and a Linda.
Lewatle is with my mother at a safe house in Harrismith and he hasn't seen or heard from his mother since she left him on the side of the road with my name and number written on a piece of paper.
She told him she loved him and that she was sorry, she told him to only speak with people who felt right in his heart.
She asked him to tell the people that they'll be rewarded for keeping him safe and for connecting him with his father who's name and number was on the piece of paper.
He had just turned 8, my son spent his 8th birthday in a dark warehouse on a bed bug infestated sponge
As the warehouse was being raided, I got the call on my way to Witbank and found him asleep in a run down mud house also in the middle of no where.
The couple who found him were so old that both their eyes had cataracts, I was convinced they were blind at first.
I scooped and held my son in tears in disbelief of the 2 months I had lost with him and his mother.
'Their hearts felt right babazi, mamazi said you'll reward them'
That's the first thing he said when I squeezed him out of his sleep.
We looked for Lerato everywhere with no luck only to be called by Thabo 2 days later.
She was found passed out on her parents graves in Qwaqwa 370Km from were she left our son
How she walked/got there in 2 days is something I don't want to think about
Her memory loss was gradual and it seemed to bring her peace, or whatever little peace you can scrape after all that.
My mere presence made her hysterical, so I had to call Thandeka from her hide out
I was more than relieved to give her to arms she knew and loved, even though Thandeka is partially to blame
Regardless of my disdain for Thandeka
I had no idea that would be the last time I see Lerato and that I'd spend the last few months lurking around hoping for her to remember or ask for me.
I knew there was a great chance she'd remember, but I also knew the odds of her wanting to see or deal with me were non-existent. Not after everything.
She's no longer the 'always high' marketing student I met 12 years ago. She's not the woman I married but she's the woman I love and I'll always want her, in whatever way I can have her.
'Nqobile is involved, they kept her at one of the salons before being moved to Witbank'
The text from Danso says
Nqobile? Phakamile ex?
It makes a lot of sense because she knew all of us as much as she doesn't know about the dark world. She knows enough not to mess with us so why would she do this?
Her score is with Phakamile, why involve Linda or Lerato whom she was close with?
They even went on girls weekend away trips together. This makes no sense but somehow feels believable, she's good as dead now
It's 4:45 right now, Lerato offered to get me at the airport but that was before I had confirmation about the landing time.
The darkness and quietness of the ungodly hour is comforting
There's nothing I want more than to hold that woman in my arms while we fall asleep together
There's lots to discuss but right now, I just want to hold her. I can finally breathe, my heart is home, and I'm never letting go of her, ever again
With her by my side, we'll rebuild again and find a new centre