THE BLAME I COULDN'T SEE
Mamutsi didn’t come home that night. She slept at Aunt Palesa’s place. That alone made the house feel different. Tense. Richard barely slept. I could hear the door opening every hour as he stepped outside to smoke. The smell of cigarettes kept drifting through the quiet house. He had a morning shift the next day. And I lay there in the dark thinking the same thing over and over again. This is my fault. I didn’t see it coming. I had gotten too comfortable… too relaxed in a place that wasn’t truly mine. Maybe I had crossed a line without even noticing. Just as I was about to fall asleep, an alarm rang from the bedroom next door. Richard was waking up for work. I got up and went to the toilet — not because I really needed to, but because I wanted a moment to talk to him before he
- Writer
