Chapter 2

• For some reason, the woman who had never cared much about the desires of life and only focused on her studies was now thinking about the man in a black suit she had seen earlier at the rank. He wore a cold distant look on his face, but the woman still found him quite attractive for some reason. She remembered his ocean-blue eyes and short curly hair the most about the man. She had only taken a glance at him earlier, but his face was clearly engraved in her mind. There was something about him that she couldn't get but she knew for sure that she was now crushing on this stranger.
• "You better stop playing with fire Sam, that man is dangerous, goddamn what are you even thinking! "
• She shook her head roughly as if disapproving of what was on her mind, it was unlike her to think about a man, worse one that she had just met but hadn't even had the chance to converse with.
• "Come on! It's not like the man would take an interest in someone like me, he probably did not even see me there. It doesn't hurt to daydream a little, right? "
• She was now having a full-on conversation in her mind, a part of her wanted to continue fantasizing about the unknown man, but another part of her knew that this was a recipe for disaster, the man was a Khoza which meant that he also belonged to the tribe as the Khoza family, her own tribe and that of the Khoza's were like sworn enemies and it was prohibited to have any sort of relationship between the two tribes and the fact that the Khoza family ran the taxi industry did not make it any better for them so in the end, she sighed and slowly opened her eyes only to realize that they had reached her destination.
• She quickly collected her belongings and thanked the driver before exiting the vehicle. She then made her way to the house hoping to get some rest before tackling some of the assignments she had as their due dates was approaching.
• "ah, you are home. Great come over here and help me with dinner."
• Her mother's voice reached her ears as soon as she opened the door, shattering all her hopes of getting some rest. She smiled gently and turned to look at her mother who was chopping some vegetables on the kitchen counter.
• "hello mother. "
• She greeted her gently while placing her bag on the couch and making her way to the kitchen to help. Coming from a working class family, they did not have the luxury of hiring help, they had to do everything themselves. Usually her mother would always come back early from work and start doing some of the household chores including dinner and Samantha would also help out on days where she did not have a lot of classes going on.
• "Hello sweetheart, how was your day at school?"
• Athi Oliphant Smiled warmly at her daughter before enquiring about her day.
• "Nothing out of the ordinary , but something did happen at the taxi rank."
• She then recounted what she had seen and heard about the event. Hearing what Samantha had just told her, Athi immediately became serious and said.
• "You did well and left, it can be very dangerous when the taxi association congregate and it is even worse when they are announcing a new successor as there are other small bosses who want to expand their territory and not to mention how violent that business can be, you could be caught in the cross fire should war erupt while you are still there. "
• They continued with their conversation while Athi prepared dinner and Samantha cleaned up after her mother and by the time the food was ready, Luyolo Oliphant, Samantha's father also arrived home from work.
• The man worked as a store manager and would usually come back home tired as he would spend most of the day on his feet making sure that everything was in order.
• "Honey, you are home. "
• Athi welcomed her husband with a warm smile as she carried his bags for him.
• "you must be tired, let me run you a bath quickly, dinner is ready. "
• With that she headed straight to their bathroom and prepared a bath for her husband while Samantha sat quietly on the couch waiting for her parents to come back. She wished she could also disappear into her own room and rest a little but she knew very well that it would be rude to do so, especially when they always have their dinner as a family. Her eyes were fixated on her phone as messages kept pouring in from the group chat they had created with her friends.
• "Sam, what did your parents say, did they allow you to come over on Friday? "
• "oh no, why is she so silent. Girl I'm telling you Sam's dad probably didn't allow her. No this is not right, Sam you better do everything they ask you to also tell Mr Oliphant that this sleepover is for educational purposes. Sigh"
• It looked like the girls really wanted to spent the weekend with her, she better not disappoint them.
• "Guys relax, my dad only just came back I haven't even had the chance to talk to him. "
• She then locked her phone right after sending that message, and started setting up the table. It seemed like her message really did calm them down a little, as none of them typed anything after that and the phone stopped vibrating. After a few minutes her parents walked in and joined her in the dinning table. As they ate the girl would from time to time pick some dishes for her dad and smile at him while saying.
• " Pa you need to eat more so that you have the energy to run the shop. Pa you you are getting older now, so eat more so that you are stronger."
• The man finally felt that something was up as Samantha was never this attentive, he stared at her but every time he would look at her the girl would also avert his look and focus on her own meal as if she wasn't up to something.
• " Alright, come out with it, tell me what do you want?"
• " Pa you know It is almost the end of our school year right?"
• " Yeah so?"
• "Well it's been really busy and we have a lot of assignments due, so since my friends and I are in the same group we thought it would be easy to spend the weekend together and catch up on the work."
• Mr Oliphant remained quiet for a few seconds seemingly taking in his daughter's request, it was not safe for a girl to be out late at night but since they were only be indoors doing their assignments Luyolo didn't want to give her a hard time, especially since she had never given them any problems before.
• " which friends are you talking about?"
• " Zintle and Oyisa."
• " Fine I will drop you off at their residence and pic you up on Sunday."
• On the other side, Chad had emailed Adrian a copy of his findings about Samantha.
• " She's from an ordinary family, her mother is a high school teacher and her father is a store manger working for one of the Khoza branch shops. She's doing her third year in finance and her grades are pretty good. Never been in a relationship, seems like other than being with her friends she would spend her time at the school library or head straight home."
• " Mhmm."
• After the lengthy report Chad had just gave, the man only responded with a hum as if all of this information had nothing to do with him.
• " Gosh, wasn't he the one who wanted me to do a research on this girl."
• He rolled his eyes discretely but did not dare to say anything.