₦airaland Forum

IZUKWU:
Rollercoaster of emotions

Good to see you here. It's been a long time.

jupitre:
Even my emotions are all over the place...

All she can do is hope...

Thanks repogirl

Awww ... You're welcome 🙂

Ibunkun1:
Wow! You had me teary

Thank you so much for this update. I’ve been on hibernation for a while too

Great to have you back from hibernation. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting patiently

Excellent piece as usual! This episode is captivating, well-structured, and emotionally engaging. Thank you for giving readers such a wonderful experience for free. You are truly talented, and your hard work shows in every chapter.

sal1974:
Excellent piece as usual! This episode is captivating, well-structured, and emotionally engaging. Thank you for giving readers such a wonderful experience for free. You are truly talented, and your hard work shows in every chapter.

It's comments like yours that makes my effort worthwhile. I appreciate it, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Mesef dey gbadun this story, following bumper to bumper... Kudos repogirl

PHEMMY1007:
Mesef dey gbadun this story, following bumper to bumper... Kudos repogirl

welcome on board

Even me sef is scared...
What was the deal they made then, how bad could it be

jupitre:
Even me sef is scared...
What was the deal they made then, how bad could it be

Whatever she is planning is going to backfire one way or another.

Anyways sha, people will always do desperate and crazy things for love.

But that Ekene guy, don't trust him one bit, especially since her plan is probably going to involve manipulating him without his knowledge. She would only end up drawing him closer again, and complicating things for herself and Mofe

Kudos Repogirl! this one was an interesting read. Surely anticipating the next

Present Day

The drive home was painfully quiet as the SUV moved steadily through the evening Abuja traffic. Cars crawled along the roads, streetlights reflected off wet patches left behind by an earlier drizzle, hawkers moved between vehicles selling bottled water, plantain chips, phone chargers, and cold drinks to impatient drivers trapped in traffic.

Inside the car, however, everything felt strangely distant.

Ezinne sat beside him in the back seat with her head resting lightly against the seat, earphones tucked into her ears, the faintest sound of music or perhaps an audiobook leaking through whenever the car went over a bump.

Her eyes were closed, or at least Mofe assumed they were. She had barely spoken since leaving the centre. Not since she’d strangely reappeared after disappearing for a long while.

That part still unsettled him.

One moment, she had been helping with the final closing activities at the event, quiet but composed again, and the next, she had vanished. Nobody had known where she went. After getting her father off the premises, he had searched for her twice before forcing himself not to panic. When she eventually returned, she had looked calmer somehow. Too calm.

And now this silence.

Mofe sat beside her with one arm resting against the seat, watching her more than he should have. She looked exhausted.

Not physically alone, though that too. Emotional exhaustion hung around her heavily tonight. He could almost feel the weight of everything pressing down on her. It had been a lot to take in for one day, and would have been compounded by her father’s visit if he’d not stepped in.

Mofe’s jaw tightened slightly. He still had not decided whether he should tell her.

Every few minutes during the drive, he found himself glancing toward her and almost saying, “Your father came to the centre.”

The words rose repeatedly to the edge of his mouth before dying there. Because what good would it do tonight?

She was already barely holding herself together emotionally. He had seen it in the way she withdrew into silence after leaving the doctor’s office. In the way her fingers trembled slightly when she reached for her seatbelt. In the way she had leaned her forehead briefly against the car window.

Telling her now would only upset her further. And if he was honest with himself, another part of him simply did not want her anywhere near that conversation.

Not yet. Not when General Onu had looked at him the way he had. And certainly not after those vague, dangerous words.

“Does she know what you did?”

Mofe’s chest tightened.

He looked away from Ezinne and toward the passing lights outside the window. No, she did not know.

And he intended to keep it that way.

Beside him, Ezinne shifted slightly in her seat, adjusting the position of her head against the leather.

“You okay?” he asked quietly before he could stop himself.

She gave the smallest nod without opening her eyes. That was all. She had no more words, and Mofe let the silence return after that. For once, he did not try to fill it.

The rest of the drive passed in muted stillness.

By the time they pulled into the compound, the night air had grown cooler. Security lights illuminated the driveway in soft white pools as the gates closed behind them.

The driver parked near the front entrance, and for a moment, neither Mofe nor Ezinne moved. Then the driver climbed out first and hurried around to open the rear door. Mofe stepped out immediately before turning back toward Ezinne.

She removed one earphone slowly. “We’re home?”

“Yeah.” He replied, offering his hand automatically. “Careful.”

Ezinne placed her fingers into his palm and allowed him to guide her out of the car. The moment her heels touched the ground, she swayed faintly from exhaustion.

His hand tightened around hers at once.

“I’m fine,” she murmured.

“You almost stumbled,” he told her.

“But I didn’t,” she countered quietly.

“I said almost.”

Despite himself, the corner of his mouth twitched faintly.

The front door opened before they reached it. One of the house staff stepped aside respectfully to let them in.

“Good evening, sir. Good evening, ma.”

“Evening,” Mofe replied absently, assisting Ezinne inside.

The house felt unusually quiet without Azora’s endless chatter filling it. No cartoons playing too loudly somewhere. No little footsteps running across the hallway. No excited voice demanding snacks before bedtime.

Just silence, and he realised he missed his daughter’s presence even if it was only for the night. Ezinne seemed to notice it too because she paused briefly just inside the entrance.

“She’s probably bullying Dara for snacks already,” Mofe said lightly.

A faint smile touched her lips. “Most likely.”

It disappeared quickly again.

Mofe studied her for another second, and there was a niggling feeling in his gut that something was up with her. She looked drained enough that he almost told her to go upstairs and sleep immediately.

Instead, he guided her farther inside before releasing her hand carefully. He had already decided he would leave once he knew she was settled. There was still too much moving around inside his head tonight. The doctor. The surgery. General Onu. The threat hidden beneath that conversation. He needed space to think before exhaustion made him reckless.

“You should rest,” he said softly. “It’s been a long day. I’ll be heading to my hotel now, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ezinne nodded once.

Mofe waited another moment to make sure she was steady before turning slightly toward the hallway. But he had barely taken two steps away when Ezinne’s voice stopped him.

“Mofe.”

He turned immediately.

She was still standing near the foyer table, one hand resting lightly against its edge.

“Yes?”

There was a brief pause as if she was considering something. Then she said quietly, “I need to speak with you.”

Something in her tone made his attention sharpen instantly, and that niggling feeling he had now became a slight panic.

“Now?”

“Yes.”

“Is everything okay?” He asked even though he knew everything was certainly not okay.

“I don’t know yet.” Ezinne replied, adjusting her glasses faintly before continuing. “Can we go to the study?”

Mofe’s curiosity deepened. The study? Not upstairs. Not the sitting room. Not somewhere casual.

The study meant she wanted privacy, and a strange tension slid quietly through him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked carefully.

Ezinne shook her head once. “I just .. I need to talk to you.”

Mofe searched her face instinctively even though her eyes were hidden behind the dark lenses. Although she sounded calm, too calm, after the kind of day they had just had, calmness suddenly felt dangerous.

“All right,” he said. Without another word, Ezinne turned toward the hallway leading to the study.

Mofe watched her for half a second before following behind her. The unease gathering in his chest felt like he was being strangled from within. Had Ezinne somehow found out about her father’s visit? He was sure Maureen hadn’t told her. So how would she know?
**

Ezinne knew her father had come looking for her at the centre, but Mofe did not know she knew.

That was what sat between them now as they walked toward the study, heavy and quiet, like something alive breathing in the dark.

The house around her was calm, almost too calm after the noise and movement of the charity event. The air smelled faintly of furniture polish, and the light floral diffuser one of the staff always placed near the hallway. Somewhere in the distance, a generator hummed softly, and from the kitchen area came the muted clink of plates being arranged for the night.

She moved carefully, one hand brushing lightly against the wall when she needed to orient herself. Mofe walked near her, not too close, not too far, as though he was still trying to respect the space she had not asked for but clearly needed. A few weeks ago, that might have softened her. Tonight, it only made her chest ache with confusion.

Because she had been softening toward him.

The afternoon had drained her in ways she had not expected. First, there had been the success of the charity event, the unexpected turnout, the laughter, the gratitude, the strange joy of seeing something she had carried in her heart become real in the lives of others. Then came the doctor and those words that had shattered the careful peace she had built around her blindness.

“Surgery could help you.”

She still felt those words inside her like a trembling flame. Then she had broken down in front of Mofe. That was the part that unsettled her the most.

Not the tears themselves. She had cried before. She had survived enough to know that tears were not a weakness. But she had cried in his arms. She had let him hold her. She had let his warmth steady her when fear had made the ground beneath her feel untrustworthy. She had admitted things to him she had not wanted anyone to know, not even herself.

She had told him she did not want to hope. And he had known what to say. That frightened her.

It frightened her because she was beginning to need him again. Not in the childish, helpless way people often assumed blind women must need people. No. This was worse. This was the old, dangerous need. The kind that came from remembering that once, long before pain and betrayal and years of silence, Mofe had been the person her heart ran toward before her mind could stop it.

And now she was doing it again. And a part of her was terrified. Another part, the foolish part she had tried to bury, was not sure she hated it.

It was why she had not reacted as fiercely as she should have when he confessed he had stolen her medical records. She should have been angrier. She should have walked away. She should have told him that concern did not excuse violation, that good intentions did not erase betrayal, that he had no right to touch any part of her life without permission.

Instead, she had listened. She had allowed him to explain. She had even gone through with the consultation.

Perhaps the success of the charity event had clouded her emotions. Perhaps the doctor’s possibility had shaken her too deeply. Perhaps Mofe’s remorse had found her when she was already too tired to keep all her walls standing.

Or perhaps, and this was the thought she hated most, she had wanted to forgive him before he deserved it. She’d started to believe he had good intentions for her and her daughter.

Now she was no longer sure. Not after what she had heard.

Earlier, after returning from the consultation, after her tears had dried and Mofe’s comforting words had settled too warmly in places she did not trust, she had needed space. She had needed somewhere no one could find her, somewhere no one would ask if she was okay, somewhere she could sit with her own breathing and force her emotions back into some kind of order.

So she had gone into the private bathroom inside her office and locked the door.

She had not told anyone. She had simply slipped away.

For a while, she had sat on the closed toilet lid with her glasses in one hand and her other hand pressed against her chest as if she could physically calm the chaos inside it. She had listened to the muffled sounds of people moving outside. Volunteers calling to one another. Chairs being dragged. Someone laughing. The world carrying on as if her life had not tilted sideways.

She had heard Maureen come looking for her. The receptionist had knocked lightly at first.

“Ms Ezinne?”

Ezinne had held her breath.

Another knock.

“Ma? Are you inside?”

She had not answered.

Not because she wanted to worry anyone, but because she could not bear to be found yet. Her face still felt swollen from crying. Her thoughts were scattered. Her heart was doing that terrible thing again, reaching toward hope and fear all at once.

Eventually, Maureen had left.

Ezinne had waited a little longer before rising slowly. She had washed her hands, splashed a little water on her face, put her glasses back on, and unlocked the bathroom door.

She had only just stepped into her office when she heard the voice.

At first, her mind refused to understand it.

The sound drifted in faintly from the reception area beyond her office door, low and aged, but still carrying that unmistakable firmness. A voice that had once filled rooms without effort. A voice that could turn her childhood cold with one command. A voice she had not heard so close in years, except in memories that arrived uninvited and left her skin tight with old dread.

Her father, General Onu.

Ezinne had frozen where she stood.

For one suspended moment, she could not move, could not breathe, could not even think properly. It was as if the years folded in on themselves.

She was no longer a grown woman standing inside the office of the centre she had built with her own hands. She was a girl again, standing in a house that had stopped feeling like home the moment she’d fallen in love with the wrong guy, by her father’s standards. She was a daughter who had learned that obedience could be demanded, but affection could be withheld. She was the young woman whose future had been discussed like property, whose choices had been swallowed by other people’s pride.

Her fingers had tightened around the edge of her desk.

Why was he here? Why today? After all these years, why had he chosen this day, of all days, to walk back into her life?

Confusion moved through her first, thick and disorienting. Then came shock, sharp enough to make her knees feel weak. Then, beneath both, something deeper and older rose slowly.

Pain.

Not fresh pain, but the kind that had been buried so long it had roots.

She had retreated quietly back toward the inner part of her office, careful not to make a sound. Her instinct had been immediate and humiliating. Hide. Stay still. Do not let him know you are there.

She had hated herself for that reaction.

She had survived him. She had built a life away from him. She was not the heartbroken, confused young lady that he had once forced into a loveless marriage.

And yet, hearing his voice had sent her body back to a past her mind had spent years leaving behind.

Then Mofe had arrived.

She had heard his voice enter the reception area, cold and angry, and something inside her had gone still for a different reason.

She had not meant to listen. At least, that was what she told herself. But once she heard the tension between the two men, once she heard Mofe’s anger sharpen, and her father’s voice turn low and dangerous, she could not move away. Their conversation had held her where she stood.

At first, she had felt something painfully close to gratitude, because Mofe had stood up for her.

He had spoken the words she had never been able to throw at her father’s face. He had named what had been done to her without softening it, without dressing it up as a family misunderstanding or cultural expectation or difficult decisions made by elders who thought they knew best.

“The one you practically sold into slavery and abuse.”

The words had shaken her. They had wounded her, and they had also, shamefully, comforted her.

Because someone had said it. Someone had seen it, and had been angry on her behalf. But then the conversation had shifted.

“Have you told her?” … “Does she know what you did?” .. “Does she?”

That was when the cold had begun spreading through Ezinne’s body.

Mofe had not answered, but that silence had said too much.

Her father’s voice had changed after that, carrying something that sounded almost like triumph.

“I thought so. You still cannot bring yourself to tell her.”

Ezinne had stood in her office, one hand pressed against the wall, feeling crushed but forcing herself to listen. There was more. There had always been more.

The anger between them had not sounded like two men who merely disliked each other because of her pain. It had sounded older than that. Personal. Complicated. Filled with history that she had never known existed between the two of them. Filled with secrets that Mofe had deliberately kept from her.

And now he had not even told her that her father had come.

He had sat beside her in the car, watching her in silence, keeping another truth tucked away because he had decided she could not handle it. Again. That was the part that cut deepest.

Not just the secret itself, but the pattern. Mofe deciding … Mofe protecting … Mofe hiding. Mofe choosing what she could know and when she could know it.

How was she supposed to build any trust with a man like that? How was she supposed to let herself hope with him beside her when every few steps, another hidden thing rose between them?

By the time they reached the study, Ezinne felt calm in the way a person sometimes became calm when pain had become too sharp for noise.

Mofe opened the door ahead of her.

“Careful,” he said quietly. “The rug starts just after the doorway.”

“I know where the rug is,” she replied.

The words came out colder than she intended, and he went silent.

Good, she thought. Then immediately hated the small cruelty of it.

She stepped inside, finding her way easily. She knew this room well. It smelled of leather, paper, and the faint woody scent of the shelves along the wall. She moved toward the couch with slow, controlled steps, touched the armrest lightly, then lowered herself onto it.

Mofe remained standing for a moment.

She could feel him watching her.

Then he came closer and sat beside her, leaving a careful space between them.

“What is it?” he asked.

His voice was gentle, but there was tension beneath it now. Curiosity. Concern. Perhaps even fear.

Ezinne folded her hands in her lap to stop them from trembling, and for a few seconds, she said nothing. She listened to the quiet of the house. To Mofe’s controlled breathing. To her own heart beating too hard beneath her ribs.

Then she turned her face toward him behind her dark glasses. “What is the nature of your relationship with my father, Mofe?”

The silence that followed was immediate, and she felt him go still beside her.

Ezinne’s throat tightened, but she forced herself to continue. Her voice was quiet, not angry, and somehow that made the words heavier.

“Tell me the truth this time. No more hiding things from me, please.”
*************


Next post comes up Thursday evening/Friday morning. Thanks for reading.

tonystark007:
Whatever she is planning is going to backfire one way or another.

Anyways sha, people will always do desperate and crazy things for love.

But that Ekene guy, don't trust him one bit, especially since her plan is probably going to involve manipulating him without his knowledge. She would only end up drawing him closer again, and complicating things for herself and Mofe

Kudos Repogirl! this one was an interesting read. Surely anticipating the next

Thanks! Nice analysis.

tonystark007:
Whatever she is planning is going to backfire one way or another.

Anyways sha, people will always do desperate and crazy things for love.

But that Ekene guy, don't trust him one bit, especially since her plan is probably going to involve manipulating him without his knowledge. She would only end up drawing him closer again, and complicating things for herself and Mofe

Kudos Repogirl! this one was an interesting read. Surely anticipating the next

I can see it backfiring too

Dear readers,

My apologies please. Due to circumstances beyond my control, tonight's update has been postponed till tomorrow.
Kindly bear with me pls.

Chapter 23

Eleven years ago

The lunch hour on campus was loud in the way only a school could be. Metal trays clattered against tables. Students laughed too loudly over shared jokes. A few groups huddled under the shade of nearby trees, talking with the easy freedom of people who had never had to look over their shoulders while eating.

Ezinne sat across from Dara beneath the open corridor beside the cafeteria, one hand resting around a half-finished drink while the other absently picked at the edge of her food. Her attention kept drifting past the lunch tables, beyond the students, beyond the walkway, all the way to the parking lot where the officer stood beside the car.

He was not close enough to hear them. Leaning against the side of the car with his arms folded, dark sunglasses shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun. From a distance, he almost looked casual. Relaxed, even.

But Ezinne knew better. The man never stopped watching.

Every now and then, his gaze swept toward the cafeteria entrance, checking movements, timing exits, faces. It made her skin itch.
Dara followed her line of sight and sighed.

“He is still there?” She asked.

Ezinne gave a short nod, keeping her expression flat. “He is always there. It’s like he has no life of his own to go live.”

Dara gave a soft, humourless laugh. “He probably thinks this is called dedication.”

Ezinne stirred her spoon slowly through the rice. “More like irritation.”

Dara stabbed at a piece of chicken on her tray. “At this point, I’m starting to think your father would assign you bodyguards inside the bathroom if he could.”

That almost earned a smile. Almost.

For a moment, both of them sat in silence, the sounds of students around them filling the space where their real conversation had to wait. Ezinne could feel the officer’s presence even from here. He was too far to hear them, but not far enough to forget.

Suddenly, Ezinne leaned forward slightly in her chair, then quietly, she said, “I think I know how to get rid of him.”

Dara paused mid-bite.

“What?”

Ezinne finally looked away from the window.

“I have an idea.”

Immediately, Dara’s expression changed. Not excitement. Suspicion!

Because she knew that tone. It was the same tone Ezinne used whenever she had already thought something through privately and only needed someone else to confirm she wasn’t losing her mind.

“You mean the kind of idea that is either brilliant or absolutely terrible?” she asked.

“The kind that gets me free of him.”

Dara blinked.

Then she leaned back slowly in her chair, studying her friend.

“Ezinne…”

“I’m serious.”

“I can hear that.” Dara’s voice dropped lower. “But what exactly are you thinking?”

Ezinne looked up then, her expression calm, but there was a sharpness in it that Dara had not seen before. Not anger exactly. Something more deliberate. She glanced briefly toward the parking lot again before lowering her voice, though there was no real need inside the noisy cafeteria.

“My father wants me with Ekene.”

Dara blinked once. Then twice.

“Oh no!" Dara exclaimed, quite scared of where Ezinne was going with this line of thought.

Ezinne ignored that reaction.

“He already thinks Mofe is the problem,” she continued calmly. “So if he believes I’m over Mofe and moving toward someone he approves of…” She lifted one shoulder lightly. “He’ll relax.”

Dara stared at her. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am.”

“Ezinne.”

“What?” she asked flatly. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

Dara opened her mouth. Then closed it again.
Because annoyingly enough… Ezinne was probably right.

Her father adored Ekene. Trusted him. Approved of his family, his background, and his future. Compared to Mofe, Ekene represented safety and familiarity.

If Ezinne appeared to be reconnecting with him, her father would almost certainly loosen the pressure around her.

The realisation clearly unsettled Dara.

“That is a terrible idea,” she said finally.

“It’s an effective idea.”

“It’s manipulative.”

Ezinne laughed softly under her breath. “Look at my life right now and tell me manipulation isn’t already happening.”

Dara rubbed her forehead slowly.

“No,” she muttered. “Absolutely not. I bind these kinds of crazy ideas from your head, Ezinne. You really can’t be thinking about doing something like this.”

That earned a small smile from Ezinne this time. But it faded quickly.

“I’m serious,” she said quietly. “I’m tired, Dara.”

The honesty in her voice immediately softened Dara. “Ezinne, you’re thinking about walking into a fire with your eyes open.”

“I know exactly what it is.”

“You are talking about using Ekene.”

Ezinne’s jaw tightened slightly, though her voice remained controlled. “I’m talking about using what already exists.”

“What already exists?” Dara repeated, incredulous. “That man is your ex. And not even a decent ex. He’s controlling, jealous, a cheat, and clearly still thinks he has some kind of claim over you.”

“He does not have a claim over me.”

“I know that,” Dara said quickly. “You know that. The question is whether Ekene knows that.”

Ezinne’s expression did not change, and Dara could see the answer in her eyes. She did not care whether Ekene knew it.

Ezinne glanced toward the parking lot again, toward the officer standing beside the car like some permanent extension of her father’s control.

“I can’t breathe like this anymore,” she admitted. “Everywhere I go, he is watching. I have to sneak around just to speak to someone I…” She stopped herself.

Someone I love.

The unfinished words still lingered between them anyway.

Dara looked at her carefully.

“And your solution is Ekene?”

“My solution is freedom.”

Dara leaned back in her chair, studying her now. “And what happens when Mofe finds out?”

There it was.

The exact question Ezinne had been avoiding since the idea first entered her mind.

Her jaw tightened slightly. “He doesn’t have to know.”

Dara stared at her in disbelief. “Ezinne.”

“What?”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

Dara lowered her voice immediately. “You think you can pretend to reconnect with your ex-boyfriend and Mofe just magically never hears about it?”

Ezinne’s expression hardened slightly.

“He was comfortable going behind my back,” she said quietly. “I can do the same.”

The words landed heavily between them. Dara went still, and for a moment, the cafeteria noise seemed distant around them.

Ezinne looked down at her untouched food, her fingers tightening slightly around the fork in her hand.

“I’m not trying to hurt him,” she continued after a moment. “But I’m tired of being the only one carrying consequences. He made decisions for me because he thought he was protecting me. Fine.” Her voice sharpened faintly. “Now I’m making one for myself.”

Dara searched her face carefully.“And if this blows up?”

Ezinne let out a slow breath.

“It won’t.”

“That’s not confidence, Ezinne. That’s denial.”

Ezinne looked up immediately. “Dara.”

“No, seriously.” Dara leaned forward now, her voice softer but more intense. “You’re talking about Ekene. Not some random harmless boy. Ekene is possessive. He already sent people after Mofe once. What happens if he starts believing this fake relationship is real?”

Ezinne’s stomach tightened slightly at that. She hated that Dara had a point. But she pushed the discomfort aside quickly.

“I can handle Ekene. Now that I know him for who he truly is, I can handle him.”

“That’s exactly what girls say before things become disasters.”

Ezinne rolled her eyes at her friend’s pessimism. “I’m not getting back together with him.”

“But you’re planning to make your father believe you are.”

“That’s different.”

“Is it?”

Ezinne looked away.

Outside, the officer shifted slightly beside the car, glancing toward the cafeteria entrance again, and her irritation returned instantly.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “It is different.”

Dara lowered her voice further. “Okay .. so what is your actual plan? Explain how you’ll manage to pull off this kind of deception. ”

Ezinne exhaled slowly.

“I’ll act interested in him again. Not enough to make it obvious to everyone. Just enough for my father to notice. Enough for him to think I’m moving on from Mofe. Enough for him to believe I’ve come to my senses and stopped chasing something he never approved of anyway.”

Dara stared at her for a long second.

Then she said, “And you think that will make him take the officer away?”

“I think it will make him think he no longer needs the officer.”

“That is a very dangerous thing to think.”

Ezinne gave a tired little shrug.

“Maybe.”

Dara opened her mouth, then closed it again. The unease on her features softened into something more careful. “Are you really sure you want to go through with this, and you’re okay with the decision?”

Ezinne’s eyes moved away. She couldn’t look Dara in the eyes anymore as she responded.

“No,” she said honestly. “I’m not okay with it. I’m okay with the result.”

Dara studied her for a moment longer, her expression caught somewhere between concern and disbelief.

“That is a very cold way to survive.”

Ezinne looked back at her.

“I’m not trying to be cold. I’m trying to breathe.”

That silenced Dara for a second, and she sighed heavily.

“You know Mofe is going to lose his mind if he hears about this.”

Something flickered across Ezinne’s face. Not guilt exactly. Something more stubborn. “Then maybe he’ll finally understand what it feels like when someone makes decisions behind your back and expects you just to accept them.”

Dara stared at her for a long moment after that, suddenly understanding something important.
She could tell that this plan was not coming only from strategy. Part of it was hurt and anger. Part of it was Ezinne still bleeding from what Mofe had done, and whether she admitted it or not, to reclaim some sense of power for herself.

That realisation made Dara even more nervous. Because wounded people rarely made clean decisions.

“You know still love him, even though you refuse to admit it to yourself,” Dara said softly.

Ezinne’s face tightened immediately. “That’s not the point.”

“It is exactly the point.”

Ezinne pushed her tray slightly away.

“I love him,” she admitted quietly. “And I’m still angry with him. Both things can exist.”

Dara’s expression softened.

“Yes,” she said gently. “They can.”

“Mofe doesn’t even have to know.” Ezine said with a shrug.

Dara blinked. “Ezinne...?”

“He doesn’t,” she argued.

“You are saying that very casually.”

Ezinne met her eyes. “Because I mean it very casually.”

Dara stared at her in disbelief, then gave a small, frustrated breath. “You really think you can keep that from him?”

“Yes.”

“He’s not stupid.”

“I didn’t say he was.”

“Then what exactly are you saying?”

Ezinne leaned back slightly in her chair, her gaze drifting again toward the parking lot before returning to Dara.

“I’m just saying, just as how he makes decisions on my behalf, I'm doing the same and he doesn't need to know about it.”

Dara looked stricken. “Ezinne—”

“No. Dara,” Ezinne’s eyes sharpened. “I’m tired of my father controlling where I go, who watches me, who I can see, and who I can’t. Even Mofe makes decisions about our relationship without caring about how I feel. I’m tired of everyone deciding what is best for me and then expecting me to be grateful for it.”

Dara said nothing.

Ezinne looked down at her hands.

“I know what I’m doing is not clean,” she said after a moment. “But I also know I cannot keep living like this. If pretending to go back to a man my father approves of is what it takes for him to loosen his grip on me, then that is what I’ll do.”

Dara’s brow furrowed. “You sound almost certain.”

“I am certain.”

“Even if it hurts Mofe? You’re sure?”

That question finally made Ezinne pause. For a moment, the answer did not come. Not because she did not know it. Because she knew it too well.

Her face remained composed, but her voice softened just slightly when she replied. “He hurt me first.”

Dara’s expression faltered, and Ezinne kept her eyes down, her fingers slowly tracing the edge of her plate.

Dara looked at her for a long time. Then she sighed.
“You really are determined.”

Ezinne gave a faint, humourless smile. “I have to be.”
Dara’s voice softened. “You know this could get messy.”

“It is already messy.”

“That does not mean it can’t get worse.”

“I know.”

“And you still want to do it?”

Ezinne finally lifted her gaze and looked directly at her.

“Yes.”

The answer was simple. Too simple.

Dara rubbed a hand over her forehead and let out another sigh. “You’re going to make me stress-eat this entire lunch.”

Despite everything, the corner of Ezinne’s mouth twitched faintly, and Dara noticed.

Then she pointed at her with one finger. “And don’t look at me like that. I am not agreeing with you [i]oh. I am just acknowledging that you’ve made up your mind.”

Ezinne let out a breath that was almost a laugh, though it never quite became one. “I’m aware.”
Dara studied her again, her eyes softer now. “Just promise me something.”

Ezinne waited for her to continue.

“Promise me you are doing this to get free,” Dara said, “and not because you want to hurt Mofe for what he did.”

Ezinne’s face turned unreadable, and for a second, neither of them moved. Then she looked away toward the parking lot again, where the officer still stood by the car like a fixed shadow.

When she spoke, her voice was low. “I’m doing this to get my life back.”

Dara held her gaze for a moment, then nodded once. “Then do it carefully.”

Ezinne nodded back, though her mind was already moving far ahead. And somewhere deep inside, beneath the hurt and the anger and the humiliation of being watched like she was something dangerous, Ezinne could feel the first hard edge of resolve.

If her father wanted her under control, she would give him a version of herself that looked controlled. If he wanted Ekene, she would let him think he was getting Ekene.

She would smile when she needed to.

She would lie when she had to.

And she would take her freedom back one careful step at a time.[/i]

Hmmmmmm

Present day

Mofe felt something cold slide down his spine at her question. Not because he had not expected this conversation eventually, but because of how calm she sounded asking it. That was what unsettled him.

If Ezinne had shouted immediately, he would have known what to do. Anger, he understood. He understood sharp words, slammed doors, and accusations thrown like weapons. He understood the version of Ezinne who fought him openly because, at least with that version, everything was visible.

This quietness was worse.

It reminded him too much of the moments before she truly withdrew from someone. Before, she stopped fighting because she no longer believed the person deserved access to her emotions at all. And Mofe could not bear the thought of going back there with her.

Not now. Not after these past few weeks. Not after the little, fragile progress they had made. Not after hearing her laugh again. Not after watching her slowly allow him back into spaces he thought were closed forever. Not after finally beginning to feel like a father to Azora instead of a visitor begging for scraps of his daughter’s life.

He did not want to go back to war with Ezinne. He did not want every conversation to become a battlefield again. He did not want her looking at him like he was poison. And most of all … He did not want her to discover the truth the wrong way.

Mofe inhaled carefully. “I don’t exactly have a relationship with your father,” he said slowly.

Even to his own ears, the answer sounded weak, but Ezinne remained silent beside him. She was giving him the chance to elaborate on his weak statement.

Mofe rubbed a hand over his jaw. “You overheard my conversation with him, didn’t you?”

The moment the question left his mouth, he knew it was a mistake. Not because it was untrue. But because Ezinne was too intelligent not to hear exactly what he was doing.

He was stalling, buying time, and trying to arrange his thoughts carefully enough not to blow their lives apart. Because of one wrong sentence tonight … he could already see it happening. Ezinne, shutting down completely … Ezinne retreating behind walls so high he might never reach her again … Ezinne deciding he was exactly what she’d suspected he was, a manipulative son of a …

And maybe he deserved that. But he was terrified of it anyway.

Beside him, she let out a short breath.

“Don’t stall,” she said quietly. “And please, for goodness sake, don’t patronise me.”

Her voice remained calm, but he could hear the strain beneath it now, the anger pressing forward through the cracks.

“Don’t think that I don’t know exactly what you’re doing, Mofe. You’re answering my question with another question because you don’t want to directly respond to mine.”

Mofe went still. He was still not sure how best to answer her question or where to start his explanations from. He was wasting precious seconds trying to come up with something.

“This is exactly why I can never fully settle when you’re around.” Her tone sharpened suddenly.

Mofe’s chest tightened. “Ezinne—”


“You think you’re so smart,” she cut him off, the calmness beginning to fray around the edges now. “So clever. So crafty. Like everybody else around you is too stupid to notice when you’re manipulating a conversation.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.”

“Really?” Her laugh was soft and bitter. “Because from where I’m sitting, that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

Mofe opened his mouth again, but Ezinne was already spiralling now, words rushing out faster with every sentence.

“You always do this. You decide what I should know. You decide when I should know it. You decide what’s best for me as though you’re the only intelligent person in the room—”

“Hey, hey.” Mofe reached for her instinctively, his voice firm but careful. “Ezinne, please.”

She jerked slightly away from his touch.

“Calm down, and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Oh,” she said softly. “Now you’ll tell me everything?”

Mofe closed his eyes briefly. “Ezinne—”

“After I catch you hiding things from me, that’s when you’ll talk?” Her voice rose now, hurt overtaking restraint. “When exactly were you planning to tell me my father came to see me tonight? Were you ever going to?”

“I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

He hesitated. And that hesitation destroyed whatever little patience she had left.

“Exactly.” She stood abruptly from the couch. “Exactly, Mofe.”

Mofe rose immediately too. “Ezinne, please listen to me.”

“No, you listen to me for once!” Her breathing had quickened now, emotion cracking fully through the calmness she had walked into the room with. “You keep making decisions for me and calling it protection.”

“That’s not fair. I don’t want …”

“It’s the truth!”

Her voice echoed sharply through the quiet study.

“I’m not a child,” she continued. “I am not some helpless damsel in distress you need to save every time something unpleasant happens.”

“I know that.”

“Do you?” she shot back immediately. “Because you keep behaving as though you think I’ll break if people tell me the truth.”

Mofe dragged a frustrated hand through his hair. “That’s not what this is.”

“Then what is it?”

He looked at her helplessly. It was because the truth was messy.

The truth was that after the kind of day she’d had, after watching her cry and shake and struggle beneath the weight of hope, the thought of adding her father to the mix had felt cruel.

But there was another truth beneath that one, too. A selfish truth. He had not wanted her asking questions. Not tonight. Not while his own fear was still sitting raw in his chest after that conversation.

Ezinne laughed bitterly again.

“You weren’t protecting me,” she said quietly now. “You were protecting yourself.”

The words hit too close, and he stilled, his silence betraying him immediately.

Ezinne’s face tightened.

“What was he talking about, Mofe?” she asked.

Mofe’s pulse kicked harder. “What do you mean?”

“My father.” Her voice dropped lower, steadier again in a way that frightened him more than shouting. “What was he talking about when he said you were hiding something from me?”

Mofe looked away briefly, which was a wrong move because Ezinne saw it even without seeing his face. She was perceptive like that. Even without her sight, she read his body movements like an open book.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “There really is something, and it’s something really serious, isn’t it?”

“Ezinne…”

“What did you do, Mofe?”

“Please..”

“What did you do, Mofe?” Her voice cracked this time, and that sound nearly undid him. Because beneath the anger was hurt. The kind that came from someone slowly realising the ground beneath them might not be stable after all.

Mofe stepped toward her carefully. “Please, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down!”

“I’m trying to explain.”

“Then explain!”

His chest rose sharply. “I will,” he said quickly. “I will tell you everything if you calm down.”

The room fell silent immediately after the words. Heavy silence.

Ezinne stood a few feet away from him, breathing unevenly, her hands trembling faintly at her sides.

Mofe hated himself in that moment because he knew exactly how this looked. Another secret … Another hidden truth … Another moment where she had to drag honesty out of him, piece by painful piece … And yet fear still held him frozen. Because once he started talking, there would be no taking it back.

Mofe stood very still for a moment after telling her he would explain.

His mind was racing. He had spent years burying certain parts of himself carefully enough that even he sometimes pretended they no longer existed. Rage. Obsession. Revenge. Those ugly years after leaving Nigeria when he had poured every wound, every humiliation, every ounce of helplessness into ambition because anger was easier to survive than heartbreak.

And now he had to lay pieces of that ugliness before Ezinne and hope she would not look at him differently afterwards. Or perhaps she already did.

Slowly, he exhaled. “I bought your father’s company.”

The words dropped heavily into the silence.

Ezinne frowned slightly behind her glasses. “What?”

“Onu Shipping.” His voice remained low. Controlled. “I bought it years ago through a shell corporation. Nobody knew it was me at the time.”

Ezinne stared blindly toward him, stunned into silence.

Mofe dragged a hand over his face before continuing. “After I left Nigeria, I carried a lot of anger toward your father. More than I even realised at first. I blamed him for the role he played in our separation. For forcing you into …” His jaw tightened. “Into the life you ended up trapped in.”

The study felt too quiet now, but Mofe forced himself to continue before fear made him stop.

“When the opportunity came to acquire Onu Shipping, I took it. At first, it was business. Or at least that’s what I told myself.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Truth is, it was revenge. I wanted payback.”

Ezinne said nothing, and that silence was beginning to terrify him.

“I set auditors on the company after the acquisition,” he continued carefully. “And they found serious irregularities in the books. Financial mismanagement. Fraud. Funds disappearing. Their records had been manipulated before the sale. They essentially misrepresented the state of the company.”

Ezinne inhaled sharply.

Mofe looked away briefly before saying the next part. “I brought criminal charges against your father.”

The shock that crossed her face this time was immediate.

“You what?” She whispered.

Mofe nodded once, even though he knew she didn’t see it.

For a second, Ezinne looked genuinely unable to process the information.

“You brought criminal charges against my dad?”

“Yes.”

“Jesus Christ, Mofe…”

His chest tightened painfully at the disbelief in her voice.

“I dropped them,” he said quickly. “Not long after.”

“Why?”

He looked back at her finally. “Because by then I had already started realising how wrong I was about a lot of things. About the custody battle. About the anger I was carrying. About the kind of man I was becoming.”

His voice roughened slightly. “I decided I wanted a fresh start. No more revenge. No more hatred. No more poisoning everything around me.”

Ezinne shook her head slowly as if still trying to understand what she was hearing. “And you never thought to tell me any of this?”

Mofe’s throat worked.

“No,” he admitted honestly. “I wasn’t going to.”

The truth hurt both of them the moment it entered the room. Ezinne laughed softly in disbelief and turned her face away.

“I wasn’t going to,” he repeated quietly. “Because I wasn’t willing to do anything that might jeopardise this fragile thing we’ve started building between us.”

“And there it is,” she whispered.

Mofe stepped closer instinctively. “Ezinne—”

“So I was right,” she cut in quietly. “You were protecting yourself.”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“I don’t want to lose access to Azora because of decisions I made when I wasn’t thinking straight,” he admitted. “And yes, maybe I was selfish. Maybe I was afraid that if you knew everything, you’d shut me out again.”

Ezinne folded her arms around herself tightly. “Mofe, part of earning my trust is being truthful with me.”

“I know, but it’s not that … easy.”

“Mofe ...” Her voice shook faintly now, exhaustion bleeding through the anger. “Every single time I begin relaxing around you, every single time I start thinking maybe we can move forward, another secret comes out.”

Mofe’s chest tightened harder.

“It’s worse finding out this way,” she continued quietly. “Overhearing things. Piecing together conversations. Wondering what else is hidden underneath everything you say.”

She swallowed. “I’m afraid I just…” Her voice faltered slightly. “It’s like I should just forget about trust with you .. today has been so overwhelming for me, and you played a large role in it .. Something needs to change, Mofe, and I think it has to come from my end because it seems you're a lost cause..”

The words hit him like a physical blow, and he went still.

Ezinne continued before he could speak. “I won’t keep you away from your daughter. You have full access to Azora. That isn’t changing.” Her tone became more controlled again, painfully formal. “But I’ll be watching you more carefully from now on.”

Every sentence felt like another door quietly closing. “And I think,” she continued, “you should step back from being involved in the centre. It brings us too close and warps the boundaries of our relationship.”

Mofe felt panic beginning to rise in his chest now.

No.

She was retreating. He could hear it happening. Building distance carefully, brick by brick.

“As for the surgery,” she said quietly, “I feel I should let you know that I won’t—”

“No.” The word tore out of him before she could finish.

Mofe crossed the distance between them so quickly that Ezinne startled. His hands closed around her shoulders firmly.

“Don’t,” he said hoarsely. “Don’t do that.”

“What?” she asked, shaken by the intensity in his voice.

“Don’t push me away.”

His grip tightened slightly, not enough to hurt her, but enough for her to feel the desperation running through him.

Mofe was breathing hard now. Because suddenly he could see it all unfolding too clearly. Ezinne pulling away emotionally. Creating polite distance between them. Restricting his involvement in her life. Letting him see Azora but shutting every other door. Turning him back into an outsider standing at the edge of his own family.

And he could not survive that again.

“But I can’t trust you when you keep things from me,” Ezinne whispered. “You’ve been in contact with my father and never said anything.”

“I’m no saint, Ezinne .. I never claimed to be one.” His voice cracked with frustration and emotion. “I am human .. a very flawed one. I get scared. I have insecurities. I feel things, Ezinne. I make bad decisions sometimes.”

Her breathing faltered slightly. “But you need to believe me when I say I’m devoted to making this work.” He shook his head slowly. “You. Me. Our daughter. I swear to you, I will never knowingly do anything to destroy this thing between us.”

“Mofe…”

“Ezinne, you and Azora are the best things to happen to me, and although it hurts that I lost so much time finding out about her existence, it will finish me if I lose either of you.”

“Mofe …” Her voice was weaker now. And Mofe heard it.

Hope surged recklessly through him.

“And I don’t want to hear you say you’re not having the surgery.” His voice deepened. “Why would you deny yourself that chance?”

“It’s not about denying myself—”

“Then what is it?” he demanded softly. “Punishing me? Punishing yourself? Punishing Azora?”

Ezinne flinched slightly.

“Why, Ezinne?” Mofe continued, his voice rough with emotion now. “Do you think I’m trying to hurt you? Is that it? Do you really think I could ever hurt you deliberately, Ezinne?”

Silence. His chest tightened further. “So you think I’m still that man?”

Ezinne’s lips parted slowly. “I don’t know the kind of man you are anymore.”

The honesty in the words gutted him.

“You’re the man who left me years ago without looking back,” She said with a shrug.

Mofe closed his eyes. God. Her words still knew exactly where to cut him open.

“And believe me,” he said quietly, “I’ve regretted it every day since.”

Ezinne swallowed hard.

“But I can’t change what happened … And I swear to you I’m here now.”

A sad smile touched her lips briefly. “Till when?”

Mofe frowned, for a second, unsure of what she meant.

“Till you find a wife?” she asked quietly. “Another family? Another life you actually want?”

Confusion crossed his face immediately. “What?”

“You’ll eventually fall in love, Mofe.” Her voice trembled faintly despite her effort to stay composed. “You’ll move on from this. From us. When you find—”

He laughed softly in disbelief. Not mocking. Just genuinely startled.

Ezinne stiffened instantly. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re making it sound ridiculous.”

“Because it is ridiculous.”

Her face tightened. “Wow.”

Mofe shook his head slowly, still stunned. “Ezinne?”

“What?”

“Is this what scares you?”

“I’m not scared.”

“You are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re terrified you’re falling for me again.”

Ezinne gasped softly. “How dare you?”

Mofe stepped closer.

“I don’t—”

“You do.”

“I’m not falling for you.”

“Yeah?” His voice lowered. “Then why do you sound heartbroken talking about me loving somebody else?”

Ezinne opened her mouth, but no words came out. And that was all the confirmation Mofe needed. Something inside him snapped. They were standing so close now … If only she knew how challenging it was for him to hold himself back and not give in to his desires every time he was around her.

He cupped her face suddenly and kissed her. Deeply.

Ezinne gasped softly against his mouth, shock running through her body before sensation drowned it completely.

The kiss was nothing like the careful restraint they had been circling each other with for weeks. This was hunger. Relief. Fear. Love. Years of buried longing are crashing together all at once.

Mofe kissed her like a man who had spent too long starving. One hand remained against her face while the other slid around her waist, pulling her against him firmly. His mouth moved over hers slowly at first, then deeper when she made the smallest sound against his lips.

Ezinne’s fingers gripped his shirt instinctively. Her knees weakened almost immediately.

Because God … She remembered this. She remembered how devastating Mofe could be when he kissed her like he meant it. Like he felt it everywhere inside himself. Like, restraint physically hurt him.

His mouth was warm and demanding, but not rough. He kissed her with unbearable intimacy, like he was trying to pour every unsaid thing into her instead of words. Every regret. Every apology. Every year, he had lost her.

Ezinne melted against him before she could stop herself. Her body betrayed her completely.

The tension drained out of her limbs in soft waves until she was clutching him for balance, breathless beneath the intensity of his kiss. Mofe made a low sound against her mouth when he felt her give in, and that sound nearly destroyed what little resistance she had left.

His hand tightened at her waist, and the kiss deepened further. Slow. Sensual. Savouring.
Possessive in the gentlest, most devastating way.

By the time Mofe finally pulled back, both of them were breathing unevenly.

Ezinne could barely think.

Mofe rested his forehead briefly against hers, chest rising hard, desire and emotion burning openly across his face now.

“Don’t shut me out,” he whispered roughly, his hands still holding her close.

“It would be the greatest gift I truly wouldn’t deserve, if you fell in love with me again.” His voice broke slightly. “Because I never stopped loving you, Ezinne.”

Everything inside her went still at his plain confession.

Mofe seemed to realise what he had just admitted only after the words were already hanging between them, because surprise flickered across his face. Then resignation.

Ezinne could not speak. Her heart was beating too hard and too fast.

Mofe gave a soft, humourless laugh beneath his breath. “I sincerely didn’t mean to let that spill out tonight.”

He brushed his thumb gently against her cheek. “But maybe there’s no point hiding it anymore.”

Ezinne remained frozen in his arms. “I only want us to work,” he said quietly. “You. Me. Azora.”

The sincerity in his voice hurt her.

“I understand if you don’t feel the same way about me.” He swallowed hard. “That’s fine. But please… don’t shut me out.”

His hands slowly loosened around her waist. “You’re the mother of my daughter, and I want a real relationship with you, Ezinne. A good one. A healthy one. I want our daughter growing up seeing that.” His voice softened further. “You asked for truth. There’s mine.”

Very gently, Mofe released her completely, and the loss of his warmth felt immediate. He stepped back slowly, still watching her face as though trying to memorise every emotion moving across it.

Then quietly, almost tenderly, he said,

“Goodnight, Ezinne.”
******

My apologies for the delay in completing the chapter.
Next Chapter comes up on Thursday.

Well done and kudos for effort @repogirl—the episode is captivating and keeps the reader hooked from start to finish.

Omooooo

Wow! This is a masterpiece. I just finished reading up and Repogirl, you finish work. Kudos.

Wow!

This one was lightly emotional at the start, then intensely emotional at the end

Nice one repogirl 👍

tonystark007:
Wow!

This one was lightly emotional at the start, then intensely emotional at the end

Nice one repogirl 👍

Thanks

Emeraldz:
Wow! This is a masterpiece. I just finished reading up and Repogirl, you finish work. Kudos.

Thanks, glad you're enjoying the story

sal1974:
Well done and kudos for effort @repogirl—the episode is captivating and keeps the reader hooked from start to finish.

Thanks

Chapter 24

Eleven Year Ago

The living room carried the faint buttery smell of popcorn, warm and familiar against the quiet comfort of the apartment. A movie played lazily on the television, the volume low enough that neither Ezinne nor Uduak were really paying attention anymore. The evening sun filtered through the curtains in soft orange streaks as daylight slowly faded, casting the apartment in a calm golden glow.

Ezinne sat curled into one end of the couch, a throw pillow resting against her stomach, while Uduak reached into the bowl of popcorn balanced between them. Kevin, Uduak’s boyfriend, was out playing football with his friends, which meant the apartment belonged entirely to Uduak for a few peaceful hours.

Uduak glanced sideways at Ezinne. “You actually look alive again.”

Ezinne blinked at her. “Wow. Thank you.”

“I’m serious,” Uduak said unapologetically. “The last few weeks?” She shook her head dramatically. “God. You were depressing me.”

Ezinne let out a reluctant laugh under her breath.

“I’m not joking,” Uduak continued, pointing popcorn at her for emphasis. “Every time I came to your house, you looked like somebody whose village people had finally succeeded in bringing down.”

That made Ezinne burst into a laugh, the sound surprising even herself a little. “What the F, Uduak?”

Uduak immediately pointed at her triumphantly. “See? This! This is what I’m talking about. You’re laughing again. For weeks, you’ve been behaving like a ghost. Thank God, there’s some colour on your features again, finally.”

Ezinne shook her head, smiling despite herself. “You’re just so dramatic.”

“No, you were the dramatic one,” Uduak corrected. “Do you know how uncomfortable it is sitting beside somebody who keeps staring into space like Patience Ozokwo, whose husband just died in a Nollywood home video?”

”Stop…” Ezinne groaned, chuckling and throwing a pillow at her friend.

Uduak dodged it easily, laughing.

“But honestly,” she said after the laughter softened, “it was hard to watch.”

Uduak leaned back into the couch, the smile fading into something gentler now. “I mean it. You were genuinely sad, Zinny.” She looked down briefly at the popcorn bowl before continuing more quietly. “Sometimes I’d leave your house feeling miserable afterwards because your sadness would just… sit on me.”

Ezinne’s expression softened. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“It was.” Uduak looked at her directly now. “You barely spoke. You barely ate. Half the time, it looked like you hadn’t slept. And every conversation somehow came back to Mofe.”

Ezinne looked away at the mention of his name, her fingers absentmindedly smoothing the edge of the pillow in her lap.

Uduak sighed. “See? That look, again.”

“What look?”

“That look, like your chest is physically hurting.”

Ezinne let out a quiet breath through her nose. “Maybe it was.”

Uduak shook her head immediately. “No man should have that kind of power over you.”

Ezinne did not answer.

“I’m serious,” Uduak continued. “I don’t care how much I love somebody. If Kevin tried that nonsense with me, I would cut him off immediately and move on with my life.”

Ezinne slowly turned toward her.

“Move on?” Ezinne asked, skeptically, staring at her friend, wondering if Uduak had forgotten that Ezinne had known her since her hundred level.

“Yes.”

“You?” Ezinne asked again, her disbelief now even more evident.

“Yes, me.” Uduak replied with a definite shrug.

Ezinne stared at her for a second. Then suddenly she burst into laughter. Real, gut-warming laughter.

Uduak frowned immediately. “Why are you laughing like that?”

Ezinne tried to speak through her laughter. “Because you are lying.”

“I am not lying!” Uduak exclaimed in her defence.

“You, who physically fought Kevin’s sister because you thought she was his secret girlfriend. Back when you two just started dating, have you forgotten? The day you saw her in the passenger seat of his car?”

Uduak looked offended instantly. “But … she looked suspicious.”

“She was his blood sister!”

“How was I supposed to know that at the time?” Uduak demanded defensively. “And she was rude to me first.”

Ezinne laughed harder, leaning back against the couch now as the memory replayed vividly in her head. The shouting .. The flying handbag … Kevin, clearly frustrated and stressed trying to separate and explain at the same time to two furious ladies in a parking lot.

Uduak folded her arms stubbornly. “For your information, I apologised afterwards.”

“After she almost removed your wig.”

“She did not remove it.”

“But she shifted it, sha,” Ezinne teased, still laughing.

“That is not the point,” Uduak stated, even though she also couldn’t resist smiling.

Ezinne wiped at the corner of her eye, still laughing softly. For a moment, the heaviness inside her loosened enough for her to simply exist there with her friend, warm sunlight on her skin, stupid memories between them, and laughter instead of pain.

Uduak watched her carefully then. “There,” she said softly. “That’s the Ezinne I know.”

The laughter faded slowly from Ezinne’s face, and a quieter expression replaced it. “I wish it were that easy.”

Uduak’s teasing expression softened immediately because she understood exactly what Ezinne meant.
“I know,” she said gently.

Ezinne looked down at the pillow in her lap. “It’s different with Mofe.”

“How?”

Ezinne was quiet for a moment, trying to put feelings into words that never seemed large enough to carry them properly.

“Because…” She hesitated. “When things were good with us, they were really good.”

Uduak listened silently.

“He wasn’t just my boyfriend.” Ezinne’s voice dropped softer now. “He became part of my everyday life so naturally that I didn’t even notice it happening at first. Everything somehow included him. Every thought. Every plan. Every stupid little thing I wanted to talk about.”

Her throat tightened slightly. “And then suddenly he wasn’t there anymore.”

Uduak leaned back quietly, letting her speak. Ezinne stared at the television even though she was no longer watching the movie.

“It’s strange,” she murmured. “You can know someone hurt you terribly and still miss them so much it feels embarrassing.”

Uduak nodded slowly. “That part I understand.”

Ezinne gave her a small look. “Do you?”

“Yes.” Uduak smiled faintly. “You think I enjoy Kevin all the time? Sometimes I want to throw him into traffic.”

That pulled another small laugh from Ezinne.

“But seriously,” Uduak continued, “there’s a difference between missing someone and letting them destroy you.”

Ezinne’s fingers tightened around the pillow. “He destroyed what we had, he broke my heart, but I wouldn’t say he destroyed me.”

“Omoh, it was close though. I was afraid you would never get over what he did.”

The honesty of it stung a little because Ezinne knew there was truth in it.

Uduak tilted her head slightly. “So…” she asked carefully, “how are things now?”

Ezinne hesitated as the chapel meeting flashed through her mind immediately. Mofe’s face … His voice … The hurt when she walked away from him again. Her chest tightened softly.

“We’re trying,” she admitted quietly.

Uduak’s brows lifted instantly. “Trying?”

Ezinne rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.”

“I’m not starting anything. I just want details.”

“There are no details.”

“That’s a lie.”

Ezinne sighed. “We’ve been talking.”

“Secretly?”

“Yes.”

Uduak grinned immediately. “Oh ho!.”

“Relax.”

“No, you relax,” Uduak countered. “You were mourning this guy like just two weeks ago. Abeg let me enjoy this your small progress.”

Ezinne shook her head helplessly, but the small smile lingering at the corner of her mouth betrayed her immediately.

Uduak caught it at once.

“Aha,” she said triumphantly, pointing at her. “That smile. You still have it bad for him.”

The smile faded slightly from Ezinne’s face at the truth of it.

“Yes,” she admitted softly. Then after a brief pause, she sighed. “And that’s the problem.”

Because she had it so badly for Mofe that sometimes she wasn’t even sure she could think clearly when it came to him anymore.

Uduak leaned back against the couch.

“It’s only a problem if you’re not being honest with yourself,” she said. “Decide what you want and stop being afraid of the answer. You either want to be with him or you don’t.”

“My heart and my head both want him,” Ezinne admitted quietly. “But every time I think I’m ready to move forward, I remember what he did, and I pull back again.”

Uduak was quiet for a moment before she sighed softly.

“You know, Kevin and I had trust issues, too, at some point.”

Ezinne looked at her skeptically. “Trust issues? Uduak, you were literally a runs girl.”

Uduak groaned immediately. “I know, I know. But I stopped. And eventually I told him the truth.”

Ezinne’s eyes widened. “You actually told him?”

“I had to,” Uduak said quietly. “It was around the time you broke up with Ekene for his cheating, and I kept thinking my relationship would end the same way if I kept hiding things. I knew I loved Kevin too much to keep lying to him.”

Her expression softened slightly as she continued.
“And honestly, it was hard. I nearly lost him. Maybe I should have because he didn’t deserve that from me.”

“Girl, you’re brave,” Ezinne said honestly. “If it were me, that secret would follow me to the grave.”

Uduak laughed softly. “I just wanted the guilt off my chest. I told myself if the relationship ended, then maybe it wasn’t meant to be… but omoh, I was praying badly that it wouldn’t.” She shook her head with a small smile. “When he forgave me, I couldn’t even believe it. How many guys would honestly do that?”

Ezinne listened quietly.

“So if it’s meant to be,” Uduak finished gently, “then let yourself feel what you feel.”

Ezinne exhaled softly and offered her a small smile.
“Thanks for telling me this. You have no idea how much it helps.”

Maybe she needed to stop punishing both herself and Mofe with the distance she kept forcing between them. If they were truly going to figure things out, then they needed more time together. Real time. Honest time. But to do that, she first needed to get the officer off her back.

Almost as if sensing the direction of her thoughts, Uduak tilted her head slightly. “And your dad still has that officer following you around?”

Ezinne groaned softly. “Yes, [i]oh. He’s the one who even drove me here. He’s outside sef.”

Uduak winced immediately. “Omoh. I don’t envy you at all.”

Ezinne leaned back quietly against the couch, her fingers absently tracing the seam of the pillow resting across her lap.

Yes, she thought silently. But I’m working on it.
The thought settled steadily inside her. It was the real reason she had come here. Not just to see Uduak … Not just to escape the suffocating atmosphere at home for a few hours.

Her eyes drifted briefly toward the television before she spoke again. “So when will Kevin be back from his game?”

“Anytime from now,” Uduak replied casually as she got up from the couch. “Which means I should make his dinner before he comes and starts acting like a neglected baby.”

Ezinne laughed softly as Uduak adjusted her shorts and headed toward the kitchen area. “Ahh, weldone oh, our wife!” She teased her friend.

Uduak gasped dramatically and turned around. “Excuse me? Respect yourself.”

“You’re literally timing food around his football schedule.”

“That is called being a supportive girlfriend.” Uduak rolled her eyes and disappeared into the kitchen while muttering under her breath about “jealous single women.”

Ezinne smiled to herself and leaned deeper into the couch, listening to the familiar sounds coming from the kitchen almost immediately, cupboards opening, and pots moving, as Uduak hummed tunelessly to herself. It felt strangely comforting. Domestic in a way Ezinne was not used to.

Her own house always had staff moving quietly through large polished spaces, meals appearing before anyone even asked for them. Everything was efficient. Elegant. Managed. But here, things felt smaller, warmer, and more personal.

“What are you cooking?” Ezinne called toward the kitchen.

Uduak’s voice floated back almost immediately. “I’m reheating the seafood okra soup I made last night and turning semo.”

Ezinne physically recoiled. “Turn semo,” she repeated with deep skepticism.

Uduak burst out laughing from the kitchen because she already knew the reaction coming.

Ezinne shook her head slowly. She could barely turn eba properly on the rare occasions she had attempted it. Semo? That thing would probably become cement in her hands.

“That’s nice,” she said diplomatically.

Uduak reappeared briefly from the kitchen doorway with a mischievous grin. “You want some?”

“Nah.” Ezinne waved her off lazily. “I’m not hungry. Besides, I’ll probably be leaving soon.”

“Oh, too bad,” Uduak said dramatically. “My seafood okra bangs. Your loss.”

Ezinne chuckled softly and didn’t bother arguing. Because honestly? Uduak could cook ridiculously well.

Ezinne had eaten enough of her meals over the years to know the girl was not bluffing. Even Kevin’s friends shamelessly hovered around whenever they heard Uduak was cooking.

“You know, one day,” Ezinne said thoughtfully, “I’ll just vex and force our chef to teach me how to make proper meals too.”

There was a loud burst of laughter from the kitchen. Then Uduak appeared again, holding a spoon like a weapon.

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “You? In a kitchen? Don’t try it.”

Ezinne narrowed her eyes. “Excuse you.”

“No, I’m serious.” Uduak pointed accusingly at her. “You would be a complete disaster.”

“Ah .. Ahn … but I can learn,” Ezinne argued, as she burst into laughter. Uduak needed to calm down.
“You can surely learn, but na your teacher go suffer am. You that can even burn water, sef.”

“I have never burned water,” Ezinne protested, between laughs.

“You almost set noodles on fire once.”

“That was one time!”

“One traumatic time,” Uduak corrected firmly. “Your chef nearly resigned.”

Ezinne burst out laughing. “You are wicked.”

“I’m truthful.”

Uduak returned to the kitchen, still laughing to herself. “And besides,” she continued loudly from inside, “you’re too soft for kitchen suffering. The first time onions enter your eyes, you’ll start crying and calling on all your ancestors.”

Ezinne shook her head helplessly, smiling despite herself. “I no blame you, just continue mocking me, it’s not your fault.”

“I will,” Uduak replied cheerfully.

Ezinne relaxed back into the couch again, the laughter lingering warmly in her chest now. For the first time in weeks, moments like this no longer felt impossible. Normal conversation. Teasing. Friendship. Small pieces of herself returning quietly.

….. Maybe she was healing after all, she thought to herself.

Could it be because of her recent meetings with Mofe? Or could it be because she now had a plan to take back control of her freedom?

Her mind drifted once again toward the plan she had set in motion inside herself. Toward Ekene. Toward the careful performance she was preparing to build. Toward the freedom she wanted badly enough to manipulate for.

The thought dimmed her smile slightly. Because deep down, she already knew this plan would not stay simple for long. And somewhere inside her chest, beneath the laughter and teasing and temporary comfort of Kevin’s living room, unease had already begun to grow.



**[/i]

repogirl:
Good to see you here. It's been a long time.

Yes oh.
I always love a good read.

keep it up.

I'm loving this...
He's a pawn and he doesn't even know it