cheat

"L's having problems with her marriage," she says. "She found photos on his cellphone."

"Photos?" I went to L's hen party four years ago. She sat under a tablecloth -- well, it looked like a tablecloth -- with her feet poking out. Her sister-in-law, in a broderie-anglaise dress, looked on. Later, L's mother took us on a tour of her wedding presents, displaying with a flourish the a microwave, an oven, more kitchen appliances, a dinner service, linen, irons, toasters. I thought of the wedding presents I got -- a duvet cover, a vase, two cushions, some hand-woven table mats, nothing with a plug on -- and marvelled.

S looks away. "Photos of parts of his girlfriend's body. And Mummy --" S still says Mummy, even though she is in her 30s and Mummy is nearly 60 -- "Mummy is so mad, she won't talk to us, she doesn't want to see us."

"Last week I 'phoned L. I said: 'Do you want me to come?" She said: 'What for?' Can you imagine, my sister saying that?"

We sip our mango juice, look out on the swimming pool. The air is heavy and hot. Three-year-old Tapiwa looks at the baby nursing, pulls at her mother's shirt. S pushes her away. "No, you're a big girl now Tapie."

"The thing is, we told her. Mai L said, so did I. We knew he had another wife when she married him. We said: 'L, isn't he too old for you?' But she said: 'No, we love each other. He's on separation from his wife.'"

Turns out He, L's husband the banker from Bluffhill, has three wives. Five children, two with L. "He told her to move out today. Said she must find a house for 200 dollars rent for her and the kids." 200 dollars rent will get her a room in the townships, not in Bluffhill. Rents in upmarket suburbs like that start at 1,000 - 1,500 dollars now - as surely the banker must know. Harare rents are on a par with Maputo these days. Higher even.

"She wants to go back to Mutare. She says she'll start up her beauty business." Ah yes -- I remember L's beauty business. She gave me a facial once, on a doctor's bed on a breezy verandah. But L won't come home on her own.
A modern woman -- once she won a beauty pageant -- she wants her in-laws to suffer the humiliation of having to escort her home, the unwanted bride, the one they couldn't get their son to treat right.