FOUND HIM WITH MY SISTER

THE BABY

*CHAPTER 15: THE BABY*

Lindiwe screamed one more time and then - silence.

Then a small cry. "Nyeh... nyeh..."

A baby. So small. So red. So early. But alive.

"It's a girl," the nurse said. "1.8kg. Small but fighting."

Lindiwe was crying, sweating, but smiling. "A girl... Nandi... a girl..."

I held her hand. "You did it, Lindiwe."

At that moment, the door opened. Mrs. Khumalo-Dlamini walked in with her private doctor - Dr. Naidoo - and a bag full of baby clothes. Expensive baby clothes. Woolworths.

"Where is she?" she asked, out of breath. This woman who never runs, was running.

The nurse pointed to the small incubator.

Mrs. Khumalo-Dlamini looked at the tiny baby, with tubes, fighting for air.

And she started crying. Real tears. Not Sandton tears.

"She looks like Liam when he was born. Early. Small. My husband and I thought he would die. But he fought."

She turned to Lindiwe, who was scared on the bed.

"Lindiwe, I'm sorry. I told Nandi to leave you on the street. I was wrong. A child is a child. Can I... can I be gogo to this baby? Not by blood, but by love?"

Lindiwe nodded, crying.

Mrs. Khumalo-Dlamini took out her phone and called someone.

"Yes, move R20,000 to King Edward Hospital, private ward. Yes, now. For baby Khumalo. Yes, I said Khumalo."

I gasped. "Ma?"

She looked at me. "Nandi, you passed. Not 88 days. You passed in 3 days. You taught me that being rich means nothing if you have no heart. From today, you are not my son's girlfriend. You are my daughter."

Liam came in, heard that, and knelt down again - this time not to clean a toilet, but to hug his mother.

And outside the hospital window, the sun was rising over Durban. Over Umlazi and Umhlanga. Same sun.