"Big sister, so are you still leaving tomorrow?" Chipo asked Tapiwa as the two of them sat at the dining table enjoying their dinner.
Nodding her head as she ate, Tapiwa answered Chipo, "Hmm, I will be leaving. It's been a very long time since I was home, besides those four had already seen the doctor and as long as they take their medicine on time, they will live," in a cool manner.
Chipo nodded her head upon hearing that. She couldn't help but look at Tapiwa strangely.
So much had happened in a day. She had watched Tapiwa spending a lot of money ordering containers and then buying a family of four at a ridiculous price before spending a lot of money to just get the mother and daughters to be treated.
They ate their meal in silence after that. After the meal, the two discussed business once more for the last time since they would be seeing each other only after one month.
To travel safely without risking the children's health, Tapiwa hired a carriage which was costly than taking a normal carriage.
Her act of concern was all seen by the mother and daughters and without her knowing, she found herself earning the hearts and loyalty of her four most loyal followers in the future.
Because they needed to be careful, the journey that was supposed to take three days ended up increasing to four.
And during the journey, Tapiwa learned a lot about her servants since she didn't like calling them slaves.
The term sounded cringy and made her feel as if she was some bad person.
There was a reason why Tapiwa bought these four apart from feeling pity and compassion for them.
Tapiwa's estate lacked servants, and she needed people to take care of the place. She also planned on buying a few slaves whom she didn't have to worry about getting betrayed by in the future as long as she treated them right.
She was a person of many secrets and in the future, she would be sharing sensitive information and top-tier secretive recipes that would earn her and other women a lot of money.
She didn't trust other people enough to do this with them. But if she bought slaves who would work on these, then it was at least 90% guaranteed that she wouldn't be losing anything.
Women were the most unfaithful and unreliable people to trust in this world. Although at times, women love blaming their husbands for cheating and hurting them, Tapiwa knew that if it weren't for the women dangling themselves in front of a married man and pretending to be innocent and all that, maybe most marriages would have been saved.
Every woman was ambitious in their own way and easily got jealous as well. As long as there were benefits issued, Tapiwa didn't doubt that her future club members won't be able to sell her out.
So, before that happened, it was safe to surround herself with people that she trusted and, at the same time, strengthen herself as well.
What she learned about Tambudzai and her children was simply bittersweet and made her recall a lot of her childhood memories.
Although her parents didn't bother much with her, she had never starved and lived moderately. She never lacked servants, money, food, or a roof over her head. All of that was provided for without a glitch.
When she married her husband, although she was disowned for going against their wishes, her mother was still kind enough to give her a pouch of money that provided her with a stable standing for the first three years of her marriage before everything went haywire.
Anyway, pushing her matters aside, Tambudzai was indeed unfortunate, especially to meet such a shameless mother-in-law.
But it was okay now, now that she was no longer with them and was moving in with her.
To properly welcome Tambudzai and her children, when they reached Namwapa, Tapiwa bought more grains, vegetables, meat, and fabric for them.
Although she had bought more back in Karoba, the fact that she didn't have a lot of things with her when returning home, she wouldn't be able to explain herself if she took out fresh meat when she wasn't seen buying one.
While in town, Tapiwa hired an ox-cart back to her estate since her contract with the horse carriage was done.
On their way back to the estate, Tapiwa introduced Tambudzai to a lot of places, especially roads since it was difficult to know where was where except for the roads.
After two hours of being in an ox-cart that made her butt ache, the estate finally came in sight.
When Tambudzai and the kids heard that they would be living on such a long span of land, they all couldn't believe it.
They always knew that their mistress was rich, especially after taking them to the doctor and paying without batting an eye, but to see where she was living, their jaws were on the floor.
Tapiwa enjoyed watching them like that. For the first time in front of other people, she felt really proud of the assets that she owned.
The ox-cart entered the gravel road and moved a short distance before stopping.
"We are finally home!" Tapiwa exclaimed happily as she got off the ox-cart.
Tambudzai got off the ox-cart as well and helped her daughters off the cart carefully.
After that, Tambudzai, with the help of her daughters who were faring much better compared to before, began to help Tapiwa to offload the luggage and groceries off the cart.
When everything was off the cart, Tapiwa, who was feeling more generous, paid the driver's uncle thirty copper coins, making the old man grin very widely, showing his few yellow teeth happily.
Tapiwa then watched the uncle's driver leaving her estate whistling a song as he went. Smiling brightly seeing that, she started motioning for Tambudzai and her children to help her move everything under the shade.
At first, she wanted to have them bring everything inside the house, but when she recalled how she packed everything into her store space, she decided against it.
Before allowing these people inside her house, she would need to do some arranging first. However, there are other things that they can do now, while she works on bringing everything back.
Introducing the estate to the mother and daughters, Tapiwa began to show them around.
"I live inside the main building and unless I let you in, you are not allowed in to go in there," Tapiwa said warningly as she looked at the four.
Her house was full of secrets and no one was that trustful enough for her to expose herself like that.
Tambudzai and her daughters accepted this open-heartedly and didn't question their mistress.
For in their heads, 'whatever the mistress says was right!'