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Next post comes up on Monday. Thanks for reading.

Present Day

Mofe had not been functioning at full capacity for two days. Not since Aunt Moni had visited him at the charity outreach and dropped that bombshell about his airfare to America all those years ago. Not since he had learned that the money had come from Chief Babatunde Johnson of all people. Not since the careful little version of his life he had spent years believing in had started to crack in places he had not known were weak.

One conversation. One revelation. And suddenly, the foundations of a story he had spent most of his life believing no longer felt as solid as they once had.

For years, Mofe’s uncle, Chief Babatunde Johnson had existed in his mind as a man who had inherited his brother's empire and forgotten the boy his brother left behind. After his parents died, Mofe had never felt wanted by the Johnson family. Tolerated perhaps, and acknowledged occasionally, but never wanted, never protected, and never loved.

His uncle had stepped naturally into control of the family wealth while Mofe learned to survive without his parents. The man had never shown interest in him, never offered guidance, never behaved as though Mofe was related to him in any meaningful way.

At least that was the story Mofe had carried all these years.

Then Aunt Moni had looked him in the eye days back and informed him that the money for his flight to America had come from the very man he had spent years resenting. The memory still made his jaw tighten.

He could remember every detail of that conversation.

"He gave you the money."

"What do you mean? I .. I don’t understand," he'd stammered.

"Your uncle. He was the one who sent the money for your airfare."

The shock, anger and betrayal. But most of all, the confusion. Because if Chief Johnson truly did not care whether he lived or died, why had he quietly funded the opportunity that had changed his entire life? Nothing about it made sense.

His body had remained at the outreach, but his mind had not. He’d tried unsuccessfully to fit this new information into the version of his life he'd always believed, and eventually, he'd left early.

After leaving the centre, he had gone straight to the office, hoping work would clear his head. He had thought the familiar rhythm of proposals, contracts, and decisions might pull him back into place. It had not.

Instead, his Executive assistant had walked into his office with a cream envelope and said, “Someone dropped this off personally for you, sir.”
Mofe had glanced at it absentmindedly at first. Then he saw the handwriting, and something in his chest had gone cold.

The letter was from Chief Onu, Ezinne’s father. The memory made his stomach tighten even now. He had torn the envelope open before the door even fully closed behind his assistant.

The letter inside was handwritten, the kind of handwriting that made every line feel intentional, every word measured, every sentence sharpened by a man who knew exactly what he wanted to say. And with every line he read, the weight pressing on his chest had grown heavier.

Hello Mofe,
I sincerely hope this letter finds you well. Contrary to what you may believe, I have no desire to revisit old grievances or reopen wounds that should have remained in the past.
Somehow, you've found your way back into my daughter's life, and I must admit that I'm glad you returned to make amends.
But you cannot make things right if you do not tell her the full story.
Mofe’s jaw had tightened immediately, but he kept reading.
She needs to know so that true forgiveness can happen for all of us.

His chest had gone still, and he’d stared at the paper for a long moment after that, his pulse pounding hard in his ears. The letter continued.
I do not mean to destroy whatever it is you have going on now, but I am an old man, and I will not go to the grave without reconciling with my daughter.

I’m eager to meet my granddaughter.

That sentence hit him harder than he expected. Because for one mad second, he could picture it. General Onu, no, Chief Onu, standing before Azora with all the pride and regret of a man too late to his own life.

It should have meant nothing to Mofe. It should have stayed simple. It did not.

The letter went on.

I made mistakes in the past, which I will neither deny nor seek to excuse. I know taking responsibility for them is the first step toward finding my way back to my daughter, and I accept that burden willingly.
I also hope that you and I can leave the bitterness of our past where it belongs. I know I gave you every reason to resent me, and I understand if forgiveness does not come easily. Still, I would like the opportunity to earn your respect, not only for Ezinne's sake, but because you are the father of my granddaughter.

Whether you believe it or not, I want us to move forward with mutual respect instead of lingering resentment. I am prepared to do whatever is necessary to build a cordial relationship with you, because I believe that little Azora deserves a family that is no longer divided by old mistakes.

I am not asking you to forget the past. I am only asking that you allow me the chance to make the future different.
But you cannot build a future with Ezinne while hiding the truth from her.

Then came the part that made Mofe feel sick.

I will give you time to process this and break it to her yourself. But I will not wait forever. Do it, Mofe. Or I will.

He had been furious, not at the letter exactly, but at what it meant. At the man who had treated his only daughter as a pawn he’d pushed around for his own personal gain, then suddenly wanted reconciliation on his own terms.

He was furious at the truth he was now being pushed to reveal, and at the future he could already see collapsing in front of him.

Mofe had sat there after that, the paper in his hand, staring at nothing. The office around him had gone quiet in the way rooms do when bad news has just entered and hasn’t left yet.

It was the warning near the end. The part that still echoed in his head whenever he closed his eyes.

You cannot build a future with Ezinne while hiding the truth from her. Do it, or I will.

Mofe had gone over those words again and again, and every time he did, he saw the same thing.

Ezinne's face. She would not show anger. That would have been easier. She wouldn’t shout or cry. She would just ... shut down.

He knew Ezinne well enough to know that the truth about what happened between him and her father all those years ago wasn't something she would simply forgive. There was no version of this where she listened calmly and accepted his reasons. No version where she nodded, understood, and somehow made peace with what he had done years ago. There was no version where she did not shut down the moment she found out.

And if Ezinne shut down, she did not do it halfway. She closed doors, locked them, and buried the key.

The thought made something ugly and helpless move through him. He had already spent one lifetime being excluded from the family he had once belonged to. He was not sure he could survive Ezinne shutting him out, too. Not now, when he knew he had a good chance at bringing them together as a family. Not after the last few months had started to feel like he was finally touching home again.

The secret that had once felt necessary now felt like a noose around his neck. And for the first time since returning to Nigeria, Mofe genuinely did not know what to do.

He had spent the last two days avoiding her because he could not trust his own actions around her. Not when the guilt and her father’s warning letter kept him unsettled.

That afternoon, he'd picked Azora up from school, stopped to buy her an ice cream, and picked up a bubblegum boba tea for Ezinne before driving to her place. Azora had chattered happily the entire journey, filling the car with stories about her day while he listened with half his attention.

He'd known Ezinne was home, but instead of going inside, he'd stayed away. He hadn't trusted himself to stand in front of her. He did not need Ezinne seeing him so unsettled, and he definitely couldn’t risk her suspecting him of keeping something from her.

The irony was almost unbearable. Because through all of this, Ezinne kept reaching out. She'd texted him. Twice. On two different days, arriving at moments he did not deserve.

Her first text had come the evening he left early from the outreach.

Ezinne: Maureen said you left early. Are you alright?

The message had nearly undone him. Not because it was dramatic or because it demanded anything. It was simple and soft. Ezinne, in her quietest form, reaching for him without making it obvious she was doing so.

He had wanted to smile when he saw it. He really had. But the day had already gone to hell before her text came in.

He had replied: Just tired. Needed some space to think.

A lie, but not a complete one.

Then her next message had come after a pause long enough to make his chest tighten.

Ezinne: You don’t have to carry everything alone all the time.

He had stared at those words for a very long time, because she did not know.

She did not know how badly he wanted to tell her the truth. How badly he wanted to throw every ugly thing on the table and let the wreckage fall where it would. How badly he wanted to trust that she would still look at him afterwards and not with disgust, not with pity, but with the same complicated tenderness he had begun to live for.

Then today she'd checked in again. Ezinne: Thanks for the boba tea. Hope you’re feeling better.

Nothing dramatic or demanding. Just quiet concern. The kind she offered only to people she cared about.

Mofe leaned back against the bar in his hotel suite and stared down at his phone. The room around him was worth more per night than most people earned in months. The city glittered beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. The whiskey in his hand was expensive. The suit jacket slung carelessly over a sofa cost a small fortune, but none of it mattered.

Because for the first time in a very long while, He felt completely powerless. He had spent years building a life where money solved problems. Where influence opened doors, and determination could overcome almost anything.

But there was nothing he could do about this. Nothing.

Because the one thing he could never afford to lose was Ezinne. And the terrible truth was that the only way to keep her was to tell her something that might make her leave forever.

Mofe closed his eyes. Then took another swallow of whiskey. If only she knew what he was carrying. If only she knew why he was staying away. If only she knew that for the past two days, every road in his mind had led back to the same terrifying possibility that the moment Ezinne learned the truth, he wasn't sure there would be any way back.

********

missviva:
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
Thank you!

you're welcome. Second part comes up sometime this morning.

missviva:
It’s today, right?..I’ve been anticipating 🥹

lol! Yes! Posting resumes this morning.

princemozyk:
bought false pretense not loading now...pl3ase assist

Sent you a mail

tonystark007:
I would love to get a copy of the book if it's available for purchase.

I wish it were available for sale but it's not. I'm writing and posting the chapters here as I go.

Dear readers,

My apologies for my absence. Posting will resume fully by 15th July. Thanks for your patience.

jupitre:
Welcome backkkk

Well...not exactly back yet. But thanks

juninhouj:
Thank you for this update........even though I don refresh your page tire.

So sorry for the unstable posting. I've got quite a lot on my plate this period.

Present Day

Ezinne knew she had done something she should not have done, and the knowledge had followed her for two days like a quiet, stubborn shadow.

She had not exactly regretted it, not in the usual sense, but she also could not bring herself to feel entirely comfortable about what she had heard. It sat in her mind in fragments, returning at odd moments when she was trying to focus on other things.
She thought about it while she answered emails, while she spoke to volunteers, and even while she sat in her office pretending to concentrate on paperwork. The memory came back with infuriating persistence, refusing to be pushed aside just because she wanted peace.

Two days earlier, on the second day of the charity event, the same afternoon Mofe had publicly cornered her to discuss their kiss, Maureen had mentioned that Aunt Moni was in Mofe's office. The news alone had been enough to lift Ezinne's spirits, and she'd meant to stop by to greet Aunt Moni properly.

Aunt Moni had become one of those people who brought life into a space simply by being in it. She had a way of making everything feel warmer, noisier, fuller. Over the past few months, she had drifted in and out of the house as though she had always belonged there, and in a way, she had.

Azora adored her completely, and even Ezinne had come to enjoy her presence, especially because Aunt Moni had no pretence about her affection. She fussed. She laughed too loudly. She asked too many questions. She offered food whether anyone wanted it or not. She bought things nobody needed and made it impossible to complain about it because she was so sincere, so effortlessly doting, that resistance felt almost rude.

But what Aunt Moni loved most, more than anything else, was Azora.

Every visit somehow returned to Azora, and every conversation eventually drifted toward Mofe’s mother, Mope, Aunt Moni’s twin sister. Aunt Moni had never hidden how much she saw her sister in Azora. In her energy, her curiosity, in the sharpness of her questions, in the way she could not sit still for long when something caught her interest.

Aunt Moni would often shake her head with a soft, almost reverent smile and say that Azora had inherited Mope’s whole spirit. Even the tiny scar on the back of Azora’s hand, identical to the one Mofe carried, had moved Aunt Moni deeply the first time she noticed it. Ezinne still remembered the way Aunt Moni had held the little girl’s hand with sudden tears in her eyes and whispered, She even has the scar. God, Mope would have loved this child. It had been one of those moments that stayed with Ezinne because it carried so much tenderness in it, so much grief and love and memory all at once.

So when she had started toward the administrative section that day, she had been smiling faintly to herself, thinking only that she would greet Aunt Moni, perhaps exchange a few pleasantries, and then move on with her work. Instead, she heard voices before she reached the office. Not the sound of casual conversation, but the unmistakable strain of an argument. She slowed immediately, and the closer she came, the more clearly she could feel the tension in the air.

Aunt Moni’s voice reached her first, sharp and unusually severe. She was speaking about holding onto the past, about bitterness, about things that could destroy a person if they were not released. Ezinne froze where she stood because it was not the sort of tone she was used to hearing from Aunt Moni. It was not cruel, exactly, but it was stern enough to suggest a conversation that had gone beyond ordinary concern. Then Mofe replied, though she could not catch all of his words. What she could hear was enough to tell her he was angry. His voice was low and tight, and there was something hard in it, something wounded.

Ezinne hesitated outside the office door. She knew she should either announce herself or quietly walk away. Instead, she stood there, one hand resting lightly against the wall, listening despite herself. Aunt Moni said something else, too quickly for Ezinne to fully understand, and then Mofe snapped with a force that made her go completely still.

“He’s never cared about my existence before!” he said. “Why does he suddenly care now?”

The rawness in his voice struck her immediately. It was not simply anger. It was pain laid bare. Years of it. Hurt that had clearly been sitting inside him for much longer than she had realized.

Ezinne remembered her chest tightening as she stood there, suddenly aware that she had stepped into something private and deeply old. Aunt Moni’s response came more gently this time, but Ezinne could still hear the tension underneath it. Then Aunt Moni said something that changed everything.

She admitted, carefully, that the money for Mofe’s airfare had come from his uncle. The words seemed to hang in the air after she said them.

Mofe’s response came instantly and sharply, a startled, disbelieving “What?” that sounded more dangerous than loudness would have.

Aunt Moni explained that his uncle had sent the money back when Mofe was preparing to leave for America. That was when Mofe’s anger truly flared. Ezinne heard a chair scrape violently against the floor, heard the sharpness in his voice as he demanded to know why she hadn’t told him.

He said he would never have taken the money if he had known where it came from. Aunt Moni told him he had been young and stubborn, that she had done what she thought was best at the time, but Mofe only grew more furious. He accused her of lying to him, of making decisions on his behalf and calling it love.

The argument continued, but that one line lodged inside Ezinne’s chest with uncomfortable force. Apparently people just keep making decisions for me behind my back and calling it love.

At the time, the words had struck her oddly, because she had not yet fully understood what they meant. But now, with the benefit of distance, they seemed to reveal a part of Mofe she had not previously seen. A man who had been hurt by people choosing for him. A man who expected to be left out, controlled, managed, and told later that it was for his own good.

For the first time, she realized there were parts of his story that she'd never fully known. The conversation ended with Mofe saying the words that lingered with her most.

“He abandoned me.”

He'd not said, “he disappointed me, or he hurt me.” Abandoned.

It was such a loaded word, so personal, so painful, that Ezinne had felt almost ashamed to keep listening. She had quietly stepped back from the door then, retreating down the hallway without saying a word. She hadn't told Aunt Moni she had overheard them, and she hadn't mentioned it to Mofe either. Not even to Rachel. But the conversation had stayed with her, lodged somewhere beneath everything else, waiting.

And now, two days later, it still sat there, in Ezinne's mind.

She should tell him what she'd heard, but she was afraid it would upset him. Or would it?

She was aware something had changed between them since the day he'd kissed her senseless in the study three nights ago.

Afriad he would bring it up the next day, she had chosen to avoid him until he'd cornered her and thrown the discussion right at her.

She'd finally found an excuse to leave the discussion but not before his remark had her wondering how he'd read her so well despite her trying to hide her true deep feelings.

It was her thoughtless question that had set it in motion, the one she had asked him in that stupid, vulnerable moment about what would happen when he eventually found another woman. Even now, thinking about it got her feeling so embarrassed.

At the time, she had not fully realized how exposed she sounded. But Mofe understood instantly. Of course he had. He had heard the insecurity under her words before she had even fully realized she was revealing it.

She could not deny that the thought of Mofe with another woman unsettled her deeply. Not only because of Azora, though that was part of it. But also because a new relationship would change everything. His attention would be divided, his time would shift, and the role he played in their lives would inevitably alter. Boundaries would come in, distance would become necessary, and some part of her had already grown far too used to having him around. Too used to his voice in the house. Too used to him showing up at the centre. Too used to Azora laughing louder when he was nearby. Too used to him. That realization disturbed her more than she wanted to admit.

Worse still, Mofe seemed to know it now. Ever since that conversation, he carried himself differently around her. He was more certain. More daring. More aware of exactly what he could provoke in her.

Cornering her outside her office in front of Maureen had proved as much. He hadn't looked bothered in the least that someone else was there. He had simply stepped into her space and openly accused her of avoiding him.

Now his absence for the past two days deeply unsettled her. He had called the centre both mornings to say he wouldn't be coming in, and that alone was unlike him. Mofe never stayed away from the centre unless something truly serious had happened. He hadn't shown up, hadn't lingered outside her office, hadn't cornered her again. Though he'd picked Azora up from school and taken her home, Ezinne hadn't seen him once. Somehow, he had managed to keep his distance from her completely, and that silence had begun to feel wrong.

Now, he was the one avoiding her.

She knew, instinctively, that something had shaken him. The conversation with Aunt Moni had left its mark. She had heard it in his voice that day, heard the tension and hurt he had tried to hide. Now he was keeping away, perhaps trying to process whatever had been stirred up in him, perhaps trying to regain his balance before returning to the centre.

Ezinne sat in her office and let the thought settle more deeply than she wanted it to. She told herself she should leave him alone. She told herself she should not care too much. But even as she tried to harden herself against the concern, she found it difficult to ignore the uneasy truth sitting beneath everything else.

She wanted to know if he was all right.
*****

Chapter 26

Eleven Years Ago

Ezinne stared down at the message on her phone, that she'd just sent.

Hey, can we see tomorrow?

It looked almost too simple to carry the weight it did. One small sentence, yet it had taken more effort than she wanted to admit to type it out and press send.

For weeks, she had been moving through a strange, uncomfortable arrangement that had begun with Ekene’s irritation at the officer and ended with her father loosening his grip in the only way he seemed willing to.

At Kevin’s place, after Ekene had argued with the officer and called her father himself, everything had shifted. Her father had listened, though grudgingly, when Ekene complained about the way she was being watched.

Ekene had not backed down, and had insisted with surprising boldness that Ezinne was not a criminal and shouldn't be treated like a prisoner. He had gone so far as to argue on her behalf, telling her father she had learned from her mistake and deserved to move around more freely. It worked.

It wasn't exactly as she had hoped, but it was definitely better than the previous arrangement she'd gone through for weeks. Her father had withdrawn the officer, but in his place came Ekene. Although more often, it was Ekene’s quiet and efficient driver who was waiting to drive her around.

For the past few weeks, they had become her rides to and from anywhere she needed the be. It was her father’s way of keeping some version of control while appearing to compromise. Ekene himself had taken the arrangement and used it to edge his way back into her life.

He came around in the evenings more often than she wanted to count. Sometimes he said he was checking on her, while other times he claimed he was already in the area. Sometimes he just stayed long enough to make his presence impossible to ignore. It was never loud or aggressive. That was what made it worse. He did not push with force. He pressed in with familiarity, with patience, and with the kind of quiet persistence that made it difficult to shut the door fully in his face.

And despite knowing better, she had let him. At least on the surface.

She talked to him politely, keeping her tone even, and made sure every conversation remained safely within the limits she had drawn. What they had between them was only a friendship, nothing more. She repeated it often enough, and hoped it had become clear to him. But if she was being honest with herself, she knew Ekene had not accepted friendship because he was content with it. He had accepted it because he believed it was the doorway to something else.

That was the part she found most exhausting, the hope in his eyes. The careful way he looked at her, as if waiting for the day she would soften and remember what they had once had.

He'd been on his best behaviour the past few weeks. He hadn't been cruel or shown any hint of his old behaviour. Although she wasn't fooled by the act, his attention had a way of lingering, taking up space and making her feel as though she had to guard every word around him.

Her message to Mofe had not been impulsive. She had needed to send it. She needed to see him. Needed to do something that belonged to her and not to Ekene, not to her father, not to the arrangement that had slowly begun to feel like a cage with more polite walls.

Because somewhere beneath the strategy and the frustration and the complicated usefulness of Ekene’s presence, Mofe remained the one person she still wanted to speak to without interference.

Being around Ekene caused her to miss her boyfriend even more than she already did. She needed to hear his voice. For one evening that belonged to the two of them again, even if only a little.

Her phone buzzed suddenly, and her breath caught before she could stop it. She unlocked the screen quickly.

Mofe:
You unblocked me?

Her face came alive and her lips twitched despite herself. Of course that would be the first thing he asked. He was probably surprised as she hadn't asked to see him for some weeks.

Her thumb hovered over the keyboard for a moment before she typed.

Ezinne:
Yes. But don’t get too comfortable. I can block you again.

His reply came almost instantly.

Mofe:
Ouch, that’s harsh.

A light chuckle slipped out of her before she could hold it in. She could picture his face already, the half-laugh he would try to hide, the way his eyes probably narrowed at the screen as he decided whether to take her seriously or tease her back. She decided to put him out of his misery by explaining further.

Ezinne:
It was time. I’m not fully over what you did, but it's time we moved on. But just so you know, I'm still going to hold it over you for a very long time.

There was a pause. Then:

Mofe:
I know.

That simple answer settled strangely inside her chest. There was no argument, no attempt to defend himself, no long explanation about why things had happened the way they did. Just that quiet acceptance that said he knew exactly where they stood.

She swallowed lightly and shifted on the bed.

His next message appeared.

Mofe:
I can meet you tomorrow.

She read it once, then again, feeling something in her chest loosen and tighten at the same time.

I'll just need some time to plan a covert meeting place.

Ezinne:
Oh, we don't need all that. The officer won't be coming along. It will just be me.

For a moment, the screen remained still. Then the typing bubble appeared … disappeared … appeared again. When his reply came, it was immediate.

Mofe:
Wait. What??

She stared at the question, a small, reluctant smile touching her mouth.

Mofe:
How in the world did that happen?

She looked at the screen for a moment longer. Part of her wanted to explain right there, to tell him everything: Ekene’s irritation, the call to her father, and his compromise to reduce the surveillance around her. But it still felt too tangled to put into text. Too much of it belonged to the awkward, half-true arrangement she was still trying to understand herself.

So she kept it simple.

Ezinne:
It's a long story.

His response came a second later.

Mofe:
Good long story or bad long story?


She softly groaned under her breath.

Ezinne:
I haven’t decided yet.

A moment passed before he replied.

Mofe:
Should I be worried?

Her smile faded slightly as she looked at that one. Because the truthful answer was probably yes. But she was not ready to go there yet, not over a phone and not tonight when she'd only just taken him off probation.

So she wrote:

Ezinne:
No. There's nothing to worry about.

The lie sat a little oddly in her chest, but she left it there.

His response was instant.

Mofe:
Okay. I’ll trust you.

That made her pause. Trust. The word felt fragile between them now. She thought of everything they had been through the past few months, how easy the trust between them had once been and how hard it had become. Then she forced herself to keep the conversation moving.

Ezinne:
Can I come to your aunt’s place tomorrow afternoon? That's where you're staying now isn't it?

His reply came almost immediately.

Mofe:
Yes, it's where I'm staying and you can come. I'm supposed to have a basketball game in the afternoon.

She frowned slightly, then glanced back at the screen as another message followed.

Mofe:
But I’ll cancel.

She noticed the ease with which he was willing to set something aside because she had asked to see him.

Ezinne:
No. Don’t cancel.

A beat passed. Then she added:

Ezinne:
I wouldn't mind watching you play. It's been a while since I was at one of your games.

This time, the pause on his end was longer. It was long enough for her to imagine him staring at the screen, trying to decide whether she was serious or teasing him. When his reply came, it carried all the surprise she had expected.

Mofe:
You want to come watch me play basketball?

She smiled before she even answered.

Ezinne:
Yes, it wouldn't be the first time. Are you shocked?

Mofe:
Very.

She smiled.

Ezinne:
Something tells me you're going to be shocked quite a few times in the next coming days.

She could almost hear the laugh in the silence that followed. Then another message arrived.

Mofe:
As long as they're good surprises, I'm all in for it. What time should I expect you?

She thought for a second before replying.

Ezinne:
Around 4pm?

Mofe:
Okay. I'll text you the address. It's not too far from the house.

Then, after a short pause:

Mofe:
You’ll really come?

The question landed more gently than she expected, and it did something strange to her chest. Not because it was dramatic, but because it sounded hopeful. He was cautious in a way he rarely used to be with her. She answered just as carefully.

Ezinne:
Yes, Mofe. I’ll come.

There was a delay this time. When his next message appeared, it was simple.

Mofe:
Okay. I'll look out for you.


But the simplicity of it did not hide the feeling underneath. The conversation went quiet for a few seconds, not because either of them had run out of things to say, but because both of them seemed to understand, in that moment, that tomorrow was becoming real.
Then he sent another message.

Mofe:
So … How have you been these past weeks? I was worried when you went silent for so long.

Ezinne’s fingers stopped moving. The question hit her harder than she expected, and she wasn't sure how to explain her radio silence to him.
Before she could come up with a response, another message appeared.

Mofe:
Honestly, I was starting to think maybe you’d decided it was over between us and you were just trying to come up with a way to let me know.

Her chest tightened sharply, and for a moment she did not move. Because there it was, the fear she had been pretending not to notice. The possibility that while she had been carefully managing distance, he had been over there, quietly bracing himself for the end.

She looked down at the message, her throat suddenly too tight for comfort. The truth was not simple. In the days they'd been apart, she'd thought about him a lot, too much even. But she'd needed some time to see how her movement with Ekene as her chaperone would be.
She had never considered the thought of calling their relationship off, however, she had thought about how much more she could take. Could she trust him not to hurt her in future?

Truthfully, she didn't know. But still, it hadn't been fair to keep silent for weeks. That thought alone was enough to make her feel guilty now, because Mofe had apparently been standing on the other side of that silence wondering whether she was walking away for good.
Her fingers moved slowly.

Ezinne:
I’m sorry about my silence. I needed some time to figure some things out but Mofe, if it had been anyone else but you that did what you did, it would have been over.

Mofe:
I know. I messed up pretty bad.

A second later:

Mofe:
I’ll do better going forward.

She read that twice. It was not a grand promise, or a desperate speech. It was just a quiet commitment. A simple sentence that somehow carried more weight than anything elaborate would have. Her thumb hovered over the screen for a moment before she continued. She needed to get off the uncomfortable topic and discuss something else.

Ezinne:
Have you seen your final result?

The question shifted the mood slightly, giving her a way to breathe again. His answer came quickly.

Mofe:
Yes.

Ezinne:
And?[/b]

A brief pause.
Then:

[b]Mofe:
First class. Best graduating student in science and technology. The HOD said I broke one record like that.

Ezinne sat up a little straighter. Of course he had done it, she thought as a small smile tugged at her mouth. He was special like that.

Ezinne:
I’m not surprised.

Mofe:
You’re not?


Ezinne:
Nope.

Then she added:

Ezinne:
They call you Bill Gates for a reason.

Mofe:
Very funny. I wanted to tell you immediately when I saw it, but ...

There had been a time when news like this would have belonged to both of them automatically. A time when she would have been the first person he called, and he would have come to her with the result still glowing in his eyes, waiting to see her reaction. Now it lived between them in text messages, careful and incomplete, because they were still learning how to speak to each other without stepping on old bruises.

She stared at the screen for a moment before typing:

Ezinne:
I’m proud of you.

There was a pause, and it was long enough for her to feel the weight of what she had said. When his response came, it was simple.

Mofe:
Thank you.

But something in the way those words sat on the screen made her chest ache gently.

Silence stretched between them again, fuller now, more thoughtful. She checked the time and let out a slow breath. She did not want to end the conversation, but she could already feel the risk of saying too much if she stayed longer. So she typed:

Ezinne:
I have to go.


His response came almost immediately.

Mofe:
Already?

She could hear the disappointment in the single word and it made her chest tighten faintly.

Ezinne:
Yes.

Then, after a moment:

Ezinne:
I’ll see you tomorrow. We'll talk better then.

A few seconds passed.

Then:

Mofe:
Okay.

He paused again, then sent one more message.

Mofe:
Ezinne.

She looked at the screen. Her thumb hovered before she answered.

Ezinne:
Yeah?

Mofe:
Thank you for unblocking me.

She read the message twice, then set the phone briefly against her chest as she exhaled slowly.
He made it sound so small, but it was not small. It was the opening of a door she had kept shut for months.
When she lifted the phone again, she typed:

Ezinne:
Don’t make it a big thing.

His answer came quickly.

Mofe:
Too late.

She could practically hear the smile in that. Her own lips curved faintly before she typed the final reply.

Ezinne:
Goodnight, Mofe.

His response appeared immediately.

Mofe:
Goodnight, Ezinne.

Then, after a short pause:

Mofe:
See you tomorrow.

Ezinne looked at the message until the screen began to dim.

Tomorrow.

The word settled quietly inside her, not soft exactly but full of possibility.

She lowered the phone and lay back against her pillow, her chest feeling lighter than it had in days.

Tomorrow, she would see him again. And even though so much between them was still uncertain, even though too much had been broken, rearranged, and hidden away for comfort, she could feel one simple truth pushing gently beneath it all.

She had reached for him, and he had reached back.

Tomorrow, she would see him.
************

Hello Readers

My apologies, but the next post will have to be next Tuesday/Wednesday as the next few days are going to be quite busy for me. If I’m able to post sooner though, I definitely will.

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.

Repogirl

GoodyMG:
great work. Such a good work since 2014 till date thats 12 years and still counting, if consistence is a person

Thank you

Uthman51:
I love you repogirl

Lol! Thanks

jupitre:
I was about to complain that we didn't hear anything regarding E zin again..

lol! She uses it daily.

jupitre:
Thanks repo for bursting my head with this update

You're welcome

Ezinne looked horrified. “Mofe!”

A volunteer walking past nearby glanced briefly toward them before quickly looking away again.

Mofe lowered his voice immediately, though amusement tugged dangerously at the corner of his mouth now. “You did.”

“You cannot say things like that here.”

“Why? It happened.”

Ezinne pressed her lips together tightly, and even that tiny movement nearly distracted him again. Because now every time he looked at her mouth, all he could remember was how her lips felt against his … The way she softened against him … The way she held onto his shirt like she needed something to anchor herself.

Mofe dragged his attention back forcefully. “You were going to avoid me all day, weren’t you?” he asked more quietly now.

Ezinne turned away. “That depends on your definition of avoid.”

He smiled faintly despite himself. “You know, for somebody trying very hard not to encourage me, you’re handling this badly.”

Her face turned back toward him instantly. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” he said calmly, “that if you truly wanted distance from me after last night, you’d be angry.”

“I am angry.”

“No. You’re unsettled.”

Her silence confirmed it more than words could have. He stepped closer carefully, lowering his voice further.

“And you know what’s making you unsettled?” he asked softly.

“What?”

“You liked it.”

Ezinne actually gasped. “Mofe! Stop this talk at once! This is not the place. My God, you can be so unnerving,” she whispered furiously in protest.

“And yet,” he said quietly, “you still kissed me like you missed me.”

That hit her, and he saw it immediately. The anger in her face faltered for one dangerous second before she gathered herself again.

“Mofe,” she said tightly, “I am warning you.”

“About what?”

“This, what you’re doing.”

He leaned slightly closer. “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“This shameless behaviour!” She told him, stepping back.

That finally made him laugh softly, and Ezinne looked deeply offended by the sound. “You think this is funny?”

“No,” he admitted honestly. “I think you’re beautiful when you’re trying not to panic.”

“There is nothing... there’s no reason for me to... I’m not panicking!”

She was such a bad liar. Her mouth said something, but her features expressed something else, and it just made him smile even more.

“No reason?” he repeated softly.

“None.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, are you done with this foolishness?”

Ignoring her question, Mofe tilted his head slightly as he studied her. Finally, he said very calmly: “So you’re saying if I kissed you again right now, you’d feel absolutely nothing?”

Ezinne went completely still, her lips parting slightly.

Mofe’s gaze dropped there instantly before he dragged it back upward with effort. God help him. He should not have said that. Not when the memory of her melting against him was still wrecking his concentration every few minutes.

Ezinne recovered first. “We are at work, Mofe. This is ridiculous,” she said tightly.

“That wasn’t my question.”

“Stop this right now.”

“That also wasn’t an answer.”

Her breathing changed slightly. Mofe noticed because he was watching her too closely.

“Arrgh! You are impossible,” she muttered.

“And you’re avoiding the question," he pressured.

“I am avoiding... nonsense.”

Mofe smiled slowly. There she was. Flustered. And somehow that pleased him far more than it should have. Deliberately, Mofe moved closer to her. Not enough to trap her. Not enough to touch.

But close enough that the soft scent of her perfume wrapped around him again and immediately made concentration difficult. Something floral and warm and unmistakably her. God, even that alone was enough to drag him right back to the study the night before.

Ezinne seemed to notice the closeness immediately, as her shoulders stiffened slightly and she took another small step back. He silently wished they were not in public so he could wrap his hands around her waist, bring her closer to himself and prove that she was lying to herself when he kissed her senseless.

Instead, he leaned closer to her, lowering his voice enough so that only she could hear. “You know what your problem is, Ezinned?”

“I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”

“You felt that kiss too much.”

Ezinne’s breath caught, and the truth was spelt so clearly on her features.

“I felt it too.” He confessed, almost groaning at how badly he wanted to kiss her again right there. Instead, he straightened slowly before he lost all sense entirely.

“But you can relax,” he said softly. “I’m not going to attack you in the middle of your charity event.”

Her face heated immediately. Had she thought he would?

“You thought I would, didn’t you?” He asked, unable to hold back a smug smile.

“I absolutely did not.” She retorted heatedly.

Mofe laughed quietly, and the sound sent fresh irritation across her face. Which only made him want to kiss her more. “And you don’t have to avoid me, Ezinne.”

“I told you, I'm not avoiding you,” She denied once again.

“We’re adults now,” he said gently. “We can talk honestly about what we feel.”

Ezinne slowly folded her arms across herself. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her face slightly toward him behind her dark glasses. “Well, I feel you are overstepping boundaries.”

Mofe shook his head faintly. “That’s not a feeling.”

Her lips tightened.

“Why not be honest with me?” he asked softly. “Tell me what you felt when we kissed last night.”

She swallowed once before finally speaking. “The kiss should never have happened.” Her words came out controlled and careful. “And going forward,” she continued evenly, “you should not kiss me or touch me anymore. We do not have that sort of relationship.”

Mofe stared at her quietly, knowing she was lying to herself. It wasn’t malicious or deliberate. Just desperate.

She had spent years surviving heartbreak by locking pieces of herself away, and now those pieces were waking up again against her will. But he was not going to push her. Not today. Not after everything else she had been through emotionally in the last twenty-four hours.

So instead of arguing, instead of pointing out the contradiction between her words and the way she reacted to him, Mofe slowly stepped back. The movement seemed to surprise her, and suddenly, he remembered her question from the night before.

What happens when you find someone you want to be with?

That question alone had explained everything he needed to know about her feelings for him. Women who felt nothing did not ask questions like that. A woman who truly wanted distance did not sound wounded at the thought of another woman beside him.

He told himself that she was scared. That was all this was. She was scared of trusting him again, scared of wanting him again, and scared of discovering that despite everything he had done wrong, some part of her heart still belonged to him.

And the truth was, he already knew it did.

It belonged to him enough for her to panic whenever he got too close emotionally, enough for jealousy to slip into her voice before she could stop it, and enough for her body to melt against his when he kissed her.

Mofe exhaled quietly and softened his tone. “Okay.”

Ezinne frowned faintly. “Okay?”

“I heard you.”

Some of the tension eased from her posture, though confusion replaced part of it now.

Mofe slipped his hands loosely into his pockets. “I’m not going to pressure you into saying things you’re not ready to say.”

Her throat moved slightly, but she kep silent.

“And I’m not going to spend all day arguing with you about whether last night meant something.” His mouth curved faintly. “Because I already know it did.”

Warmth rushed immediately into Ezinne’s face. “Mofe..."

"No," He shook his head gently. “You don’t have to admit anything right now.”

The softness in his voice unsettled her far more than teasing would have because there was no arrogance in it. Just steady, patient certainty.

Mofe held her gaze silently for another moment before speaking again. “You think I don’t know you by now?” he asked quietly. “Ezinne, you only build walls around things that matter to you.”

Something flickered across her expression too quickly for him to fully catch. Fear? Longing? Maybe both.

Before Ezinne could gather herself enough to respond properly, one of the nurses hurried toward them carrying files. “Ma, one of the doctors needs you in room four.”

Ezinne immediately turned toward the voice like someone rescued from a burning building.

“I’ll be right there.”

Then, without another word to him, she walked away quickly, assisted by the nurse and the E-zin cane she held tightly.

Mofe turned, watching her leave as a slow smile spread across his face. She could keep trying to avoid him, but he knew one thing for certain. Ezinne had not walked away from last night unaffected either.

So he would wait.

He loved her enough to wait and allow her to find her way back to him in her own time. He already had a part of her heart. Not completely. Not without scars and fear attached to it. But enough.

Now all that remained was time. Time for Ezinne to realise that she already had his too.

Entirely.


**********

Next post on Thursday/Friday. Thanks for reading.

Present Day



The second day of the charity event had started even more smoothly than the first. The publicity from the day before had spread quickly online and across local radio stations overnight, bringing in even more visitors. People moved efficiently around the compound now. Nurses checked blood pressure at one station. Volunteers handed out forms at another. Some of the medical personnel were already attending to patients while cameras from a local TV station quietly captured footage near the gate.

Everything was working and should have made him feel accomplished. Instead, he could barely focus because Ezinne had been avoiding him like the plague.

He had noticed it almost immediately that morning when she’d arrived at the staff tent with Maureen and two volunteers. He had heard her voice before he saw her, calm and professional as she greeted people and began organising activities for the day.

But the moment he walked toward her, she moved elsewhere. It hadn’t been obvious enough for anyone else to notice, but he had noticed. It had happened every single time. Not once since morning had she willingly stayed alone with him for more than thirty seconds. Every conversation had been brief, polite, and painfully professional. “Can you sign this?” … “The volunteers need more bottled water.” … “The doctor in tent three asked for extra forms.”

That was it.

She’d not mentioned his kiss, his heart-rendering confession, nor the emotional explosion that had happened in the study less than twelve hours ago. And somehow that silence was worse than anger.

Now he was almost regretting confessing his feelings to her the night before, even though he’d only told her the truth. God knew it was true. Every single word of it.

He had not planned for it to come out that way, of course. It hadn’t been his intention to corner her emotionally after an already overwhelming day. Between the stress of hosting such an event, the specialist consultation, her father’s appearance, the secrets she had uncovered, and the argument that followed, she had already been carrying too much, but he’d forgotten all that and gone ahead to kiss her. And even told her that he was still in love with her.

Like some reckless teenager incapable of self-control.

Mofe dragged a tired hand over his face as he stood near the registration area of the outreach centre.

Now, if he approached the admin table, Ezinne suddenly needed to supervise the pharmacy section. If he crossed toward the pharmacy section, she would somehow already be halfway toward the eye screening tent, speaking with one of the coordinators.

It would almost have been amusing if it wasn’t quietly driving him insane. Mofe exhaled slowly and loosened the top button of his shirt.

He deserved this since he’d refused to read the room before spilling his guts to her. Still, it did not stop frustration from building inside him every time he caught the sound of her voice somewhere nearby and realised she was deliberately staying out of his reach.

His mind once again drifted helplessly back to the night before. To the study. To her standing in front of him with hurt in her voice and suspicion in her eyes while demanding honesty from him.

And then … That kiss. Jesus Christ.

He closed his eyes briefly. That was the one thing he absolutely did not regret. Not even slightly.

He would never claim to be the world’s greatest kisser. He wasn’t some smooth-talking playboy who spent his life collecting women and perfecting seduction techniques. But kissing Ezinne had always done something terrifying to him. Something he could never properly explain.

The moment his mouth touched hers, something inside him always snapped loose. Desire hit him too fast, too deeply, too completely. Not just physical want, though God knew there was plenty of that, too. It was worse than that. Kissing her always felt emotional in a way that left him dangerously unguarded afterwards.

Like she reached into places inside him no other woman ever had.

Now he could not stop thinking about her. Her lips, the softness of them. The way she had melted against him after those first startled seconds. The faint scent of her perfume. The feel of her waist beneath his hands. The sound she made against his mouth when he pulled her closer.

His jaw tightened. Gosh...

Even now, standing in the middle of a busy outreach event surrounded by hundreds of people, his body reacted instantly to the memory.

The last time he’d kissed was months ago that night in her bedroom, and afterwards, he had practically fled back to America. At the time, he told himself it was because of work, because of commitments. He’d reminded himself that he had a life overseas. But the truth was uglier than that.

He had run because he’d been scared. He’d been scared that if he stayed around Ezinne longer, he would want more than one kiss. Scared he would cross lines he had no right crossing while still engaged to another woman. Scared that one more night around Ezinne would expose what he had spent years trying to deny.

That he had never truly moved on from her.

Eve had seen it before he fully admitted it to himself, and it still filled him with guilt sometimes. Because Eve had loved him honestly, but eventually, painfully, she had realised she was sharing pieces of him with a woman who was not even physically present most of the time.

He should probably hate himself for that. Instead, what he mostly felt was gratitude toward Eve for letting him go before he destroyed both of them slowly.

And if he was honest with himself, he probably would have broken the engagement eventually anyway. Because he had been deluding himself into believing he could bury whatever this thing was between him and Ezinne and still build a life with another woman.

Some feelings did not stay buried properly. Some people stayed lodged too deeply inside the heart. And Ezinne… Ezinne had never truly left him.

A volunteer called his name nearby, dragging him out of his thoughts.

“Mr Johnson, sir?”

He turned quickly. “Yeah?”

“The catering people are asking where the extra water packs should go.”

He blinked once, trying to force his attention back into the present. “Storage tent behind the admin block,” he answered automatically.

“Okay, sir.” The volunteer hurried away again.

Mofe exhaled slowly and looked across the compound, and his gaze found Ezinne almost immediately. Of course it did.

She stood near the eye screening section speaking to an elderly woman while Maureen took notes beside her. Her dark glasses hid her eyes as always, but he could tell from her posture that she was focused entirely on the conversation in front of her.

She was so damn beautiful. Even when she seemed exhausted, emotionally overwhelmed, and actively avoiding him, she was still devastatingly beautiful.

As if sensing his attention somehow, Ezinne turned faintly in his direction. For one brief second, their faces aligned, and his chest tightened.

Then, smoothly, calmly, professionally … She turned away again, and walked in the opposite direction toward the pharmacy section again, and he almost laughed to himself.

The woman was avoiding him with military precision.

He knew her well enough to understand that she would never simply let last night disappear without addressing it eventually. That was not who she was. Sooner or later, she would corner him somewhere private. Most likely, after he dropped her off at home that evening. She would ask him to stay behind for “a quick conversation,” and he would follow her into the study or the sitting room, already knowing exactly what was coming.

Mofe, last night should not happen again.

Mofe, we need boundaries.

Mofe, don’t misunderstand what happened between us.

And because he knew her so well, he also knew she would say it calmly, trying not to hurt him while still creating distance between them. The thought alone irritated him. The annoying part was that she would deliver it while sounding perfectly reasonable.

Of course, he didn’t expect her to magically fall into his arms after one kiss and one confession. He wasn’t delusional. But he was tired of her running, and tired of her pretending the thing between them did not exist when they both clearly felt it.

He exhaled slowly and folded his arms across his chest, thinking.

Maybe waiting for Ezinne to bring it up later was a mistake ... Maybe he should stop allowing her to control every emotionally difficult conversation between them.

‘What if you switched things around instead? What if you forced her hand a little?’

He sighed under his breath and watched her move farther across the compound with Maureen trailing beside her. The afternoon sun caught lightly against the edges of her dark glasses as she walked. One hand rested briefly against Maureen’s arm while the receptionist guided her around a stack of folded chairs near the pathway.

Mofe shook his head slightly. No.

He was not going to wait all day for Ezinne to slowly prepare herself to reject him politely. If they were going to have the conversation, then maybe he should drag it out into the open first instead of waiting for her to ambush him with it later.

And maybe … A reckless part of him admitted … Maybe he wanted to see her flustered too. Because while Ezinne had been avoiding him all morning, she had not once looked angry. Uncomfortable? Yes … Distracted? Definitely … But not angry.

Without allowing himself too much time to think about whether this was a terrible idea, Mofe pushed away from the registration table and went after her. They were crossing toward the side corridor leading to the temporary consultation rooms when he caught up with them.

Maureen spotted him first. Her eyes moved quickly between both of them with the alertness of someone who had already sensed tension but did not know the details.

“Sir,” she greeted politely.

Mofe gave her an easy smile. “Maureen. Stealing my boss away again?”

Ezinne stiffened almost immediately beside her receptionist. It was so subtle that most people would not have noticed, but Mofe noticed everything about her.

“She was never your boss,” Ezinne replied calmly without stopping, referring to herself in third person.

Mofe smiled faintly to himself.

“I don’t know,” he said lightly as he fell into step beside them. “She orders me around enough.”

Maureen laughed politely. Ezinne did not.

“What do you need, Mofe?” she asked. Direct. Careful. Trying very hard not to sound affected by his presence.

Mofe almost admired the effort. “I came to check if you’ve finally decided to stop avoiding me.”

Maureen choked on absolutely nothing. Ezinne stopped walking. The silence that followed lasted barely two seconds, but it was enough for Maureen’s eyes to widen slightly, and for Mofe to see irritation flash across Ezinne’s face before she smoothed it away.

“I have not been avoiding you,” she replied evenly.

“Oh, you haven't?”

“No, of course not.”

Mofe nodded slowly as though considering it seriously. “Interesting.”

Ezinne’s jaw tightened faintly. Maureen looked trapped between curiosity and the desperate need to disappear.

Mofe continued calmly, “So all the times you suddenly remembered urgent work the moment I came near you today were coincidences?”

“Mofe, I do not have time for whatever this is. I have work to do.”

Mofe smiled slightly. “Whatever this is?”

Ezinne turned toward him fully now, behind her glasses. “Mofe.”

Her tone was warning enough to make Maureen take one careful step backwards, and then she cleared her throat awkwardly. “I… er… I suddenly remembered I need to check the registration desk,” she announced nervously.

“Stay,” Ezinne said immediately.

“Go,” Mofe said at the same time.

Maureen looked trapped.

Then Mofe sighed. “Maureen, please.”

The receptionist hesitated only briefly before escaping with visible relief. Mofe watched her go with amusement before turning back toward Ezinne, who looked deeply unimpressed.

“Well,” he said. “Now it’s just us.”

“That seems to be what you wanted.”

“It is.”

Ezinne folded her arms slowly across her chest. “Why? What is this about, Mofe?”

Mofe watched her carefully. She was trying to look composed, but he wasn’t fooled.

“You’re avoiding me,” he said quietly.

“I’m not. If you haven’t noticed, I’m working.” She told him, sounding quite irritated, as if she couldn’t believe he was stopping her in the middle of the day to talk about something so irrelevant.

“I don’t like being ignored,” he stated.

“You’re not being ignored.”

“You’ve barely looked at me all day,” he complained.

“Mofe, in case you’ve forgotten, I can’t exactly look or see,” she reminded him.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes, “You know what I mean, Ezinne. You run when you know I’m approaching or when I want to talk to you.”

Ezinne exhaled sharply through her nose. “Mofe, have you noticed that we are in the middle of an event?”

“And?”

“And I’m busy.”

“You were busy yesterday, too, yet you still managed to speak to me then. Today, however, you’ve been working in the opposite direction from me all day.”

Something flickered briefly across her face at the reminder of yesterday. The kiss hovered instantly between them. Unspoken. Heavy.
Mofe watched her throat move as she swallowed. Interesting … Very interesting.

He stepped a little closer, lowering his voice slightly. “You know we’re eventually going to have to talk about it.”

Ezinne inhaled slowly through her nose. “There are people around,” she said under her breath.

“So?”

“So I would rather not have whatever this conversation is in public.”

Mofe’s chest tightened faintly at the word ‘whatever.’ He lowered his voice slightly. “Fine. Then let’s have it privately.”

“I’m busy.”

“You’ve been busy for six hours.”

“Yes, because I'm at work. You're supposed to be busy at work, aren't you?”

Despite himself, Mofe almost laughed. There she was. Defensive Ezinne. He understood this version of her far better than the cold silence from earlier.

“You know,” he said casually, “I expected more shouting after last night.”

Her face turned sharply toward him. “Mofe.”

“What?”

“We are not discussing this here.”

“Why not?”

“This is not the place, we are at work.”

“Or because talking about me kissing you makes you nervous,” he noted.

Ezinne’s breath caught so faintly. “You are unbelievable.”

“That’s not a denial.”

“Mofe.”

“What?” His voice softened slightly. “I’m trying to understand why you’re acting like I committed a crime.”

“You kissed me in the middle of an argument!” She said in an exasperated whisper.

“And you kissed me back.” He whispered back, just as exasperated.

Chapter 25

Eleven Years Ago

It was just after six, and the street was alive with the usual evening noise. Commercial bikes weaved sharply through traffic, hawkers called out to slow-moving cars, and the smell of suya, akara, and puff puff drifted through the air, mixing with exhaust fumes and the thick warmth of the day slowly giving way to night.

Mofe kept his head down as he walked, earphones in, bag slung over one shoulder. He had just gotten off the bus and still had a good distance to cover before he got home. He had left work earlier after taking the day shift, which meant he could code and rest at night now if he wanted to.

The music played softly in his ears, but he was not really listening to it. His mind had long drifted away from the road in front of him, circling the same thoughts it had been circling for weeks now. Always the same place. Always the same question. Always no answer.
Ezinne had not called.

Not since that meeting at the chapel over three weeks ago.

That silence sat inside him in a way he could not explain. It was not loud, not dramatic, but it was constant. It stayed with him in the morning, followed him through work, and waited for him at night when the room grew quiet and there was nothing left to distract him from it. He had chatted with Dara a little over the past few days, and she kept telling him to be patient, kept assuring him that Ezinne would reach out when she was ready.

Mofe wanted to believe her. He really did. But waiting was beginning to wear thin on him.

He was tired in a way sleep could not fix. Tired in the deep, stubborn place where patience began to feel less like virtue and more like punishment. He wanted her to call. Wanted her name to light up his phone. Wanted some sign that she had not disappeared back behind that wall she always built whenever things became too heavy.

He adjusted the strap of his bag and kept walking, his steps slow and steady through the familiar road leading to his street. The laptop in his bag felt heavier than it should have. Not because of its weight, but because of what it meant. It was the same one Ezinne had replaced after Ekene had broken his. He had resisted using it at first. Pride had made him stubborn. He had told himself he did not need help, that he could manage without it for a while, that he could stand on his own even if his old one was gone.

But eventually, he had given in. Mostly, because Ezinne had called him out on his bullshit. And now he used it almost every day.

And even though it was just a laptop, it still carried her presence in a way he could not quite shake. Every time he opened it, he remembered the quiet way she had handed it to him. The care she had tried to hide. The anger underneath that care. The softness that had slipped through anyway. It was one of those small things that stayed with a person longer than it should have.

He turned slightly to avoid a puddle and kept moving.

Yesterday had not helped. He had gone to the HOD’s office for a simple clearance signature and walked out with news he still had not fully absorbed. The HOD had motioned for him to sit, the kind of gesture that always meant something serious was coming, and then told him plainly that he had bagged a first class. He was the best graduating student in the Science and Technology faculty. A new school record. A perfect GPA across the entire program.

Mofe had thanked him, shaken his hand, and left. That was all.

No celebration. No phone call. No one to rush to. There was no one he wanted to tell more than Ezinne, and she was the one person he could not share it with.

He had stood outside the faculty building afterward, the sun warm on his face, and felt something settle heavily in his chest. Not disappointment exactly. Not even joy. Something in between. He had worked for it. Every early morning. Every late night. Every job he had taken to survive. Every ache in his body. Every point had been earned.

He should have been proud. And he was, somewhere underneath everything else. But the happiness felt incomplete. His chest tightened again at the thought.

This was the kind of result that should have been celebrated. The kind of achievement people posted online, called family about, shouted about with joy. But all he could think about was the fact that he had no one he wanted to tell more than her. He just needed Ezinne to reach out before the part of him that had started to grow restless did something he could not take back.

He adjusted the strap of his bag again as he turned onto his street, his steps slower now from exhaustion more than anything else. He was already thinking about taking a quick bath and shutting the world out for a few hours when he thought he heard someone call his name.

“Mofe!”

He almost didn’t hear it over the music.

The second call was louder. “Mofe!”

He pulled one earbud out and turned.

Tiwa was jogging toward him from further down the street, her handbag bouncing lightly against her arm as she hurried to catch up. She slowed once she reached him, breathing slightly hard but smiling brightly.

“I’ve been calling you since that junction,” she complained between breaths.

“Sorry.” He tapped the earbud lightly. “Music.”

He started to put it back, but she immediately reached out and tugged it gently from his ear again.

“Ah-ah. Walk with me nau. We haven’t seen in a while.”

Mofe looked at her properly then.

She looked nice. Her hair was freshly braided into neat knotless braids that framed her face softly, and the fitted cream pantsuit she wore made her look older than she was. More polished. More confident. She looked like someone just returning from work, and the excitement still glowing around her made it obvious something good had happened.

He let the earbud hang around his neck instead. “How have you been, Tiwa?”

“Good oh,” she said brightly. “Actually, better than good.”

She straightened slightly like somebody preparing important news. “I got an internship, and started today.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Where?”

“A telecomms company in Wuse 2.”

Mofe nodded slowly. The outfit made sense now.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” She smiled wider at the praise. “I can’t wait to be done with school and actually start working.”

He huffed a small laugh.

“So, you know that we’re both now university people,” she continued. “Well… I know you’re already finishing your own program, but you get what I mean, sha.”

Something in her tone made him smile faintly to himself as they walked. He had a feeling where this conversation might eventually lead, but it didn’t make him uncomfortable. If anything, something was endearing about Tiwa’s openness.

She had never really hidden her crush on him very well. It had shown in the way she always found reasons to join conversations whenever he was around or how excited she seemed anytime he returned home from school. Back then, she had been much younger, and he had been careful to keep a respectful distance without embarrassing her for it.

Now, though, she walked beside him with an easy confidence that made her seem different from the shy girl he remembered.

“I used to be scared to even greet you properly,” she admitted suddenly, laughing softly. “You always looked so serious.”

“I wasn’t serious.”

“You were!” she insisted immediately. “All the girls on this street used to talk about you.”

Mofe groaned quietly. “Please don’t start.”

“I’m serious.” She bumped his arm lightly with hers. “You were everybody’s spec. Tall, fine, always minding your business, carrying a laptop up and down like one mysterious tech genius.”

He shook his head slowly, embarrassed despite himself.

“And the annoying part,” Tiwa continued dramatically, “was that you used to hold yourself somehow. Like all of us were beneath you.”

Mofe frowned immediately. “I never acted like that.”

“You did small.” She laughed. “Not in a wicked way. You were just… aloof.”

He supposed there was some truth in that. Life had always kept him busy. School. Work. Survival. He had rarely had the energy for unnecessary socialising with the neighbours.

Tiwa glanced at him sideways. “I used to think you were too fine to even notice somebody like me.”

“I always noticed you. You've always been cute little Tiwa, always cheerful and carrying her heavy school bag when going to school in the morning,” he joked.

“I’m not just cute, Mofe.” She smiled. “And I’m not in secondary school anymore.”

There it was. Mofe slowed his steps slightly.

“Tiwa—”

“No, allow me to land first,” she interrupted quickly, though she was smiling nervously now. “I’m just saying I like you. I’ve liked you for years, actually.”

He stayed quiet.

“And now we’re both adults, abi? So I figured… why not?”

Mofe stopped walking. Tiwa stopped too. The smile remained on her face, but uncertainty flickered faintly beneath it now.

“Tiwa,” he said gently. “I’m flattered. Honestly. But I’m not available.”

Her expression shifted only slightly. “You’re seeing someone?”

“Yes.”

“That fine lady that used to come around sometimes?” She asked.

He blinked. “Sorry?” Did she just describe Ezinne?

Tiwa laughed immediately.

“Don’t act surprised. This is a neighbourhood. Everybody notices everybody. And they noticed there’s been a pretty girl that comes to see you.”
Mofe suddenly understood why older people hated living around too many observant neighbours.

“We just haven’t seen her in a while,” Tiwa continued carefully. “So I thought maybe you people ended things.”

His ears caught immediately on the ‘we’. Were his neighbors genuinely monitoring his relationship?

“No,” he replied evenly. “We didn’t.”

Tiwa absorbed that quietly before trying again with surprising boldness. “I don’t mind being your extra girlfriend, though.”

Mofe looked at her fully now, unsure he had heard correctly. “What?”


She shrugged lightly as if the suggestion was perfectly reasonable.

“I’m serious. It’s not like you’re married. People date multiple people all the time now until they decide who they really want.”

As she spoke, her fingers brushed lightly over the sleeve of his shirt in a playful, flirtatious touch.

Mofe raised a brow slowly. That was certainly one way to look at relationships. Little did she know that emotionally, spiritually, mentally, he had already made his choice a very long time ago.

“Tiwa,” he said patiently, “I’m genuinely flattered. But I’m not interested.”

“But Mofe…”

“And I’m not that kind of person.”

She frowned, looking confused. “You’re so loyal to somebody that’s not your wife yet? What if you miss out on the one you're truly meant to be with?”

He almost smiled at that, but before he could respond, his phone buzzed in his pocket. Normally he would have ignored it, but something made him check.

He pulled it out. And froze. The notification sat quietly on his screen.

Ezinne Onu sent you a message.

For a second, everything around him seemed to drift far away, as though the world had suddenly been pushed underwater. The steady hum of traffic along the road dulled into a faint blur. Conversations from passing pedestrians melted into indistinct noise. Even the music that had been playing through his earbuds moments ago disappeared completely from his awareness.

Beside him, Tiwa was still talking, but her voice no longer registered properly. Mofe’s attention had narrowed entirely to the glowing screen in his hand.

She had unblocked him!

His heart gave a sharp, almost painful thud against his chest as he stared at the notification, rereading it to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. For weeks, he had checked his phone more times than he cared to admit, hoping for something, or anything, from her. And now, finally, her name was back on his screen.

Without thinking too hard about it, his thumb moved quickly across the keyboard, opening the message.

Hey. Can we see tomorrow?

A rush of emotion hit him so suddenly that he had to steady himself. Relief flooded through him first, warm and overwhelming. Then disbelief followed close behind, because part of him had genuinely started to think he had lost her for good.

But stronger than both was the fragile, dangerous spark of hope rising inside him again.

***********

Phew! This has been one hell of a week in the real world. Please expect the next chapter Monday/Tuesday. If I can post before then, I'll try. Thanks for hanging in there.

"This guy ... I don't ... I'm speechless right now, Ezinne," Rache sighed. It seemed she'd run out of excuses to make for his behaviour. "However, I still don't believe he's out to hurt you. He said he acted out of revenge but thought better of it later. I guess that should count for something?" Rachel asked.

"Well ... he seemed honest, at least after I'd practically pushed the confession out of him." Ezinne’s jaw tightened slightly at the memory. "And then, as though the evening hadn’t already been complicated enough, he kissed me and told me he was still in love with me before calmly saying goodnight and leaving as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb."

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the call. "Oh my God, wait!" Rachel’s voice suddenly brightened with startled excitement. "He kissed you? How was it!"

Ezinne pulled the phone slightly away from her face as though she needed a moment to look at it in disbelief, "Rachel. Is that truly the first question out of your mouth after everything I just told you?"

"He's been in contact with your father; I heard that. He withdrew the charges, I heard that, too." Rachel's voice was completely unrepentant. "I want to know about the kiss."

"He brought criminal charges against my father... My father!" Ezinne repeated as if that would help Rachel understand the gravity of the situation and what she should be more focused on.

"Which he withdrew." Rachel countered as if that made it okay to move on and forget about it. "That doesn't interest me right now. What's really important is this kiss. So ... was it a good kiss?"

Ezinne pressed her lips together. The honest answer was sitting directly behind her teeth, inconvenient and accurate. If only Rachel knew that Mofe had never in his life produced a kiss that missed its mark.

"You are not taking this seriously," Ezinne said instead.

"I'm taking the parts that need to be taken seriously, seriously," Rachel replied. "The rest I am choosing to find very interesting. Ezinne, I say this with love … you've been single for years. “If a man who is clearly still into you kissed you tonight and it was a good one, that is not information I will allow you to gloss over,” Rachel told her matter-of-factly.

Ezinne wanted to remind her that she’d been with someone for a while, but she knew Rachel had never warmed up to the farce of a relationship she’d had with Emeka, her former business manager.

"I am thinking of restricting our interactions," Ezinne said, ignoring her friend’s penchant for salacious gossip. "His and mine. He can see Azora, he is welcome to be with his daughter any time, but I don't think the two of us should be spending this much time in the same space. There is simply too much he has been keeping from me and I don't—"

"Well, have you thought that he could be keeping things from you because you haven't given him a reason to open up to you?" Rachel cut in quietly.

The interruption was gentle enough that Ezinne didn't immediately shut it down.

"He is afraid of you, Ezinne," Rachel continued. "Not of you as a person. He's afraid of losing access to you. He's afraid he'll say one wrong thing and watch you close a door on him. Dara and I already see that he is devoted to you and everything that concerns you. We were talking about it the other day. You should see the way he looks at you, Ezinne," Rachel stopped, then gave a small, soft laugh. "I'm sorry, I know you can't. But you'd understand what I mean if you could. That man isn't in your life to hurt you again. You have had him walking over hot coals every time he tries to reach you, and he keeps walking anyway. That should mean something."

The study felt very quiet again.

"He left me, Rachel," she said finally, and her voice was quieter now, stripped of some of its earlier composure. "He left, and he didn't look back. For almost eleven years. What if he does it again? What if things get complicated, or I'm too much, and he decides that the cleaner option is to simply go? I can't fully trust him. Regardless of what you or Dara say, I cannot simply turn that off."

Rachel was silent for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was gentle and without any trace of the earlier teasing. "I know. I know that fear is real, and I know it's earned. I'm not telling you to ignore it. What you and Mofe need more than anything else right now is time. Not decisions or declarations or boundaries or confrontations. Just time. Let it unfold at whatever pace feels safe for you. You don't have to do anything tonight except go to sleep."

Ezinne sighed softly, turning Rachel’s words over in her mind and hoping she was right about Mofe and his intentions. The problem was that she no longer trusted herself to judge him clearly. She couldn't, not after everything between them and all the years of hurt and disappointment she still carried with her where he was concerned.

“And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you still haven’t answered my question about the kiss,” Rachel reminded her suddenly.

Ezinne’s groan came straight from her soul. “Are you seriously still on this?”

“Of course I’m still on it,” Rachel replied without shame. “You are not escaping this conversation until you tell me how it was.”

“You are impossible,” Ezinne muttered, rolling her eyes as she leaned back further against the couch.

Honestly, she was beginning to regret mentioning it at all. And if Rachel ever found out this wasn’t even their first kiss since Mofe had returned to her life? Ezinne didn’t even want to imagine the level of noise she would make.

“Well?” Rachel pressed eagerly. “Was it good?”

Ezinne pressed her lips together tightly and stayed silent.

Rachel gasped loudly. “Oh my God.”

“I hate you.” Ezinne said, knowing her silence had given Rachel the answers she'd been looking for.

“It was good, wasn’t it?” Rachel sounded scandalized and delighted all at once. “Ezinne!”

“I’m hanging up.”

“No, no, no, don’t you dare!”

Ezinne groaned and dropped her head back dramatically against the couch. “Rachel, I am genuinely having an emotional crisis.”

“And yet somehow you still haven’t denied enjoying the kiss.”

Because she couldn’t. That was the problem. She couldn’t lie. Not when the memory alone still made her stomach tighten helplessly.

Rachel burst into laughter. “Oh my God, Ezinne. You are finished.”

“I’m not finished.”

“You’re absolutely finished.”

Ezinne covered her face again in humiliation.

Rachel chuckled gleefully, "Oh my … He kissed you, and you enjoyed the hell out of it."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't deny it either." Rachel's voice pitched upward with delight. "The fact that you're avoiding the question means that man completely rearranged your bloodstream with one kiss."

"Rachel, stop nao!" Ezinne groaned.

"I'm just being observational."

"Please be serious."

Her friend laughed helplessly for a moment before pulling herself together. "Okay. Okay. Serious mode now, I promise," A brief pause. "But genuinely, good for you, because you've been-"

"Rachel."

"I've stopped. I've stopped completely." Another short pause, "One more thing-"

"Rachel."

"Done. Serious. Completely serious." She cleared her throat. "So, is there something else I should know?”

“There is one other thing,” Ezinne said, gently steering the conversation back to safer ground. She kept her voice calm and even, as though the words cost her nothing. “The specialist said surgery could potentially restore my eyesight.”

For a moment, there was complete silence on the other end of the line. Then Rachel gasped.

Not a small gasp. A full, sharp, breathless one that seemed to catch somewhere between shock and joy. She tried to say Ezinne’s name, but it broke apart in her excitement before she could finish it. “Oh my God—Ezinne…”

Ezinne closed her eyes. Even through the phone, she could feel the rush of emotion in Rachel’s voice. It was the same kind of shock she had felt herself when she heard the doctor say it. Her throat tightened all over again.

“Yes…” she whispered, blinking hard. She thought she had cried enough for one day, but the tears were still there, waiting.

Rachel said her name again, quieter this time, warmer. “That is the best thing I have heard in years. Oh my God, Ezinne. Mofe said there might be a chance, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. So it’s true?”

“It’s a possibility.”

Rachel let out a shaky laugh. “I cannot even pretend to be angry with him right now. Do you know what this means? When are they doing it? What did the doctor say about the recovery?”

Ezinne listened to her friend’s excitement spill through the line and felt that strange, familiar mix of things in her chest. Love. Gratitude. Fear. The warmth of Rachel’s happiness sat right beside the heavier truth she had not said aloud. She was not ready to hope. She wasn't ready to reach for something that might still be taken away.

So she let Rachel have the joy for now.

“We’ll talk about it properly when you’re back,” Ezinne said softly.

“When I’m ... oh!” Rachel’s voice shifted suddenly, delight rushing in a new direction. “I got an offer.”

Ezinne sat up straight. “What offer?”

Rachel sensed her confusion, so she explained calmly, “I applied to the Hilton sometime back for a position in the restaurant's kitchen and received an offer of employment.”

Ezinne blinked. “The Hilton Hotel?”

“Yes!” Rachel was nearly breathless now, trying very hard not to scream through the phone. “I got a station chef position, full kitchen brigade. I’ll be working under an executive chef who trained in Lyon. Ezinne, this is everything I’ve been working toward.”

A burst of joy went through Ezinne so quickly it nearly brought another wave of tears.

“Rachel!” she cried, smiling wide now. “That is incredible. I am so proud of you.”

Rachel laughed. “I was going to tell you in person, but I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. I only got the official offer letter this afternoon.”

“Why didn't you tell me you were even applying for such a position?” Ezinne said, half laughing, half offended. “How were you able to hold that in?”

“I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case something changed.”

“Well, it didn’t change, and I am officially screaming for you.”

Rachel laughed harder.

“We need to celebrate properly when you get back,” Ezinne said.

“We absolutely will.”

There was a soft pause, then Rachel’s voice gentled. “And Ezinne?”

“Yes?”

“Stop overthinking tonight. The secrets, the kiss, all of it. It will still be there tomorrow.”

Ezinne smiled faintly, though Rachel could not see it.

“Goodnight,” Rachel said, warmth unmistakable in her voice.

“Goodnight, Rachel.”

The call ended, and the room fell quiet again.

Ezinne sat still for a long time, her hands resting in her lap.

Rachel had not been wrong about everything. That part about Mofe, about him not running from her coldness, her distance, her suspicion, had settled somewhere in her and refused to leave. He had taken all of that and stayed. And then there was his confession.

'I never stopped loving you, Ezinne.'

She turned the words over slowly, still not sure how to receive them.

Mofe had ended an engagement a few months back. He was still finding his footing in her life, still adjusting to Azora, still trying to become the man he wanted to be. She did not know whether what he felt was real, or whether it was the confusion of a man whose life had changed too quickly.

Maybe he did not know either.

What she did know was that she was not going to encourage anything.

He was Azora’s father, and she was grateful for the way he was showing up for their daughter. Grateful enough to see that he was trying. But whatever had once existed between them, whatever had happened in the study tonight, she was not ready to name it.

Ezinne rose slowly from the sofa and moved toward the door.

The truth was, she had enjoyed the kiss. She had enjoyed it more than she should have but was not going to think too hard about that. Her fingers found the doorframe, and she turned into the hallway, walking toward her room with her heart still far too awake.


***********

Present Day

What the hell just happened?

The question echoed through Ezinne’s mind long after Mofe had left the study.

For several moments, she’d remained exactly where he had left her, standing motionless in the middle of the room like someone struggling to return fully to herself. The silence around her felt strange now, thick with the aftermath of everything that had just unfolded.

Slowly, she lowered herself onto the sofa behind her before her legs embarrassed her completely. One trembling hand gripped the armrest while the other pressed lightly against her chest as if she could physically steady the wild beating of her heart.

‘I never stopped loving you, Ezinne.’

Her heart reacted violently every single time the words replayed themselves. Which was every few seconds, whether she invited them or not.
God. Those words had shattered through her the moment he had uttered them. Why had he confessed them to her? What was she supposed to do with the information? What exactly did he want from her? That was the part she could not understand, not even the kiss.

The kiss at least made sense in a catastrophic sort of way. Mofe had always kissed like he was trying to ruin her permanently. Like he approached kissing with the same terrifying intensity he approached everything else he cared about.

And then his ‘goodnight, Ezinne…’

The soft, calm certainty in his voice after their earth-bending kiss had shaken her more deeply than she wanted to admit. Because he had not sounded embarrassed or panicked. He’d not sounded like a man who had lost control emotionally and immediately regretted it.

No. He had sounded like a man who meant every word he said and was entirely unafraid of her knowing it.

Her breathing had steadied somewhat, but the rest of her had not. Her pulse still beat wildly in places that embarrassed her. Her mouth still tingled. Her body still felt too aware of him, even though he had been gone for several minutes.

“No,” she whispered weakly into the empty room.

Because no matter how many years passed, Mofe still somehow knew exactly where to touch her emotionally to leave devastation behind.
Slowly, before she could stop herself, her fingers rose toward her mouth, but froze halfway through the movement, and then groaned softly in frustration and dropped her hand back into her lap.

“This is ridiculous.”

But it was not ridiculous. That was the problem. It was real. Every horrible, beautiful second of it had been real.

The warmth of his hands around her waist. The roughness in his breathing. The way he had kissed her like restraint was physically painful. The way her own body had betrayed her almost immediately, softening against him before her mind even had the chance to protest.
God, her knees had actually weakened.

Ezinne covered her face briefly with both hands.

“You are a grown woman,” she muttered at herself in disbelief.

She was a mother. A professional. She managed an entire institution. And yet one kiss from Mofe had reduced her into something breathless, trembling and frighteningly close to helpless.

And what was truly humiliating was that some traitorous part of her had wanted it, still wanted it … wanted him.

The tension between them had been building for weeks now, and she had known it. She had felt it every time he stood too close and she caught a whiff of his heady masculine scent. Every time his voice softened unexpectedly around her. Every time she felt him staring at her longer than necessary.

In the car rides, every day to work and back. At dinner, when he chose to stay for it. On the horse. At the resort, when he’d held her against his chest, every nerve ending in her body had awakened so violently she thought she might lose her mind.
She had felt it gathering steadily between them, but she had ignored it like an idiot. Now she was sitting alone in the study, unable to stop replaying the exact feeling of his mouth on hers.

The memory hit her again suddenly. The deepness of the kiss. The way he made a rough sound against her lips when she melted against him. The possessiveness in the way his hand tightened around her waist.

She felt the sudden flush of heat course through her body and nearly cursed aloud. “For goodness sake, get over it already.”

But it wasn’t so easy. Especially as she had kissed him back just as desperately. Not politely, or cautiously. Not like a confused woman accidentally caught in an emotional moment.

She had even clung to him. God help her, she had clung to him.

Ezinne closed her eyes tightly behind her dark glasses.

What on God’s good green earth had been going through her mind? One moment, she had been angry with him. Hurt. Questioning him, demanding honesty and trying to protect herself from yet another disappointment. But somehow, impossibly, the conversation had spiralled so far away from where it started that she could barely trace the path anymore.

How had they moved from arguing about his dishonesty …to her blurting out fears about him eventually leaving her behind for another woman …to Mofe, accusing her of trying not to fall for him again …to that kiss?

One minute, she had been furious with him. Next, he had kissed every coherent thought out of her head and confessed he had never stopped loving her like some character from one of those ridiculous romance novels Rachel liked forcing her to listen to.

And worst of all? A part of her believed him.

That was the truly dangerous part. Not the kiss. Not the confession. The sincerity.

Mofe had sounded like a man laying himself bare. No manipulation. No charm. No careful strategy. Just raw truth spilling out before he could stop it.

And that terrified her.

Because she did not know what to do with the fact that hearing those words had not pushed her away from him. If anything, it had weakened her even further.

Ezinne sighed shakily and reached for her glasses properly again, adjusting them over her face. She needed to calm down. Needed to think rationally again. Needed to remember all the reasons she should be careful with Mofe.

He had secrets.

He had hidden things.

He had made decisions behind her back.

Even tonight, she had only discovered the truth because she overheard him and her father talking … her father.

The thought alone exhausted her all over again. She leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes behind the dark lenses.
The image of her dad standing in the reception area returned sharply. The sound of his voice. The cold shock that had moved through her body, hearing him after so many years. Then Mofe’s voice had cut through the air moments later, angry, protective and carrying an anger so deep it still unsettled her.

There was history between those two men. A lot of it. And she was more than certain that Mofe still was not telling her everything.
Her phone began ringing suddenly beside her, startling her enough that she jumped slightly. She groped for it across the couch cushions before finding it by touch. The familiar ringtone calmed her a little when she realised who it was. Rachel. Thank God.

Ezinne answered through the Bluetooth earbuds still resting in her ears. “Hi Rachel?”

Rachel’s cheerful voice burst through immediately. “Finally! I have called you like three times today. Seems you were busy all day.”

Despite herself, Ezinne smiled faintly. “I’ve had a long day, Rachel. I only just got home not too long ago.”

“Oh wow ... How did the event go?”

Ezinne let out a tired breath and rested deeper into the couch. “It actually went really well. Better than I expected. There were so many people. The turnout was huge.”

“Oh, that's incredible, Ezinne. I'm so glad. So Mofe came through with everything he promised?"

And there it was. The name that Ezinne had been circling since she picked up the call, spoken plainly and without warning.

”Yes … I guess so.” Ezinne muttered, but she should have known her friend knew her too well.

Rachel paused immediately, as she sensed something in the tone of Ezinne’s voice. It was one of the things she loved most about her friend.
Rachel always knew when something was wrong beneath the surface.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Umm … Nothing.”

“Ezinne.”

The simple way Rachel said her name made Ezinne’s shoulders sag slightly.

Ezinne sighed heavily. “It’s just…” She stopped.

“What happened?”

For a few seconds, Ezinne debated brushing it off. Where exactly was she supposed to start? With the surgery? With her father? With Mofe confessing he loved her? With that kiss that still felt branded onto her mouth?

Then suddenly the words started spilling out before she could stop them. “Mofe is just so shady.”

Rachel snorted softly. “That’s the complaint? I thought somebody died.”

“I’m serious.”

“What did he do now?”

Ezinne rubbed her forehead tiredly. “He’s doing … things … and keeping them from me, Rachel. He is such a crafty, secretive, insufferably calculating man who keeps things from me and then somehow arranges them in a way that makes it difficult to be as angry as I have every right to be."

Rachel grew quieter. “What kinds of things?”

Ezinne shifted on the sofa, pulling her feet up beneath her. "He stole my medical records, Rachel. I don’t know how, but he took them without my knowledge and used them to source a specialist ophthalmologist, whom he flew into the country to do a check-up on me. He had been planning it all along without telling me anything, and the event was the moment he chose to make his grand reveal."

Silence.

Then carefully, "Ah," Rachel said.

The sound was not entirely surprised.

Ezinne froze. "Ah? That's what you're saying? Ah?"

"Ezinne—"

"Wait! Did you know?"

Rachel sighed dramatically. The pause that followed was half a second too long and told Ezinne everything before Rachel's voice confirmed it. "He told me about the records, yes."

Ezinne nearly fell off the couch. “He WHAT?”

“He told me about it sometime after he returned from his last trip to the United States,” Rachel admitted cautiously.

“You knew and said NOTHING to me all this time?”

“I told him immediately that he was insane for taking your records without permission! But it was obvious that he was trying to help!”

“He violated my privacy!”

“Yes, and I told him that.”

Ezinne was too stunned to speak for a second. “Rachel…”

“He was scared,” Rachel said more softly now. “He genuinely thought if he told you too early, you’d shut him out before he had the chance to fix things. You could barely stand his presence around you at the time, remember?”

Ezinne let out a bitter laugh. “So everybody is protecting my feelings now.”

“That’s not what this is. He promised he would tell you when the time was right."

"Rachel." Ezinne's voice was flat. "You kept this from me."

"I know … I know, and I am sorry. But Ezinne, listen to me." Rachel's tone was firm but genuinely warm. "I understood what he was saying. He's not trying to deceive you. He's a man who knows he's on thin ice and is trying very hard not to fall through it. I'm not saying it was the right way
to handle it. I'm saying I understood why. Cut him some slack. He is only human, and he is doing things the best way he knows how. He will make mistakes. But he is not trying to hurt you."

“I hate that he keeps doing things behind my back, and you’re excusing it!”

Rachel sighed. “No. I’m not excusing it. I’m just saying I understand why he’s behaving this way.”

Ezinne opened her mouth, closed it, and then exhaled through her nose in the way she did when she was choosing not to say the first things that came to mind.

"I have not finished," she said.

Rachel went quiet. "There is more."

"Significantly more." Ezinne shifted again, the memory of the evening reassembling itself in precise, uncomfortable detail. "My father came to the centre this evening."

The silence on Rachel's end was absolute.

"As we were wrapping up," Ezinne continued. "He came to see me, but Mofe chose to see him and didn’t plan to tell me about it. I only knew because I overheard their conversation, the conversation between him and my father." She paused to let that settle. "A conversation that made it very clear the two of them have been in contact for some time. He's definitely been speaking to my father without telling me."

"Oh," Rachel said softly. Not the same 'ah' as before. This one was different. It was quieter and more genuinely taken aback.

"I confronted him about it when I got home. The short version is that he acquired my father's shipping company some time ago as an act of revenge, filed criminal charges against him, and then withdrew them recently. None of which he had any intention of telling me." Ezinne's voice remained measured, but there was a tightness beneath it that Rachel knew how to read. "If I’d not been there, he would never have said anything … maybe until his so-called right time or maybe never at all, who knows?"

Rachel breathed out slowly. "That's… a lot."

"It is a lot!"

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]

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

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

tonystark007:
Wow!

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

Nice one repogirl 👍

Thanks

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.