THE WARNING
By the time Chis stepped out of Adetola Holdings, the Lagos sun had climbed high enough to make the pavement shimmer beneath her heels, but she barely noticed the heat.
She stood near the entrance for a moment, staring at the message on her phone as though reading it again might somehow make the words more real.
Congratulations, Ms.
Chisimdi Nwankwo.
We are pleased to offer you the position of Executive Administrative Assistant at Adetola Holdings.
Your resumption date is tomorrow.
A slow smile spread across her face.
She had gotten the job.
After weeks of sending applications and sitting through interviews that ended with polite promises to get back to her, she finally had something concrete.
Tomorrow, she would have somewhere to be.
She would have a salary to look forward to.
Maybe she could finally stop calculating how long the money in her account would last.
Her phone started ringing before she had even finished typing a reply to the email.
“Please tell me you got it.”
Chinny’s voice was so loud that Chis instinctively pulled the phone away from her ear.
“I got it.”
The scream that followed made two people passing nearby turn and look at her.
Chis laughed.
“Why are you shouting?”
“Because I knew you would get it!
I told you that company was going to hire you.”
“You also told me to lie about knowing advanced Excel.”
“I was trying to give you confidence.”
“You were trying to get me fired before I even started.”
“That is not the point,” Chinny defended herself.
Chis shook her head, still smiling as she searched the road for a taxi.
Chinny had been her best friend for long enough to know exactly when she was anxious, and apparently, she had decided that the best way to deal with Chis’s nerves was to make fun of them.
“So,” Chinny continued, “tell me everything.
How did the interview go?”
“It was fine.”
There was a pause.
“Fine?” Chinny asked.
Chis could hear the suspicion in her voice.
She laughed.
“Yes.
Fine.”
“You’ve known me for too long to think I’m going to accept that answer.
Did they ask you difficult questions?”
“Some.”
“And you answered them?”
“I think I did.”
“And the CEO?”
Chis slowed down.
She hadn’t expected the question to bring Damian back into her thoughts so quickly.
She could still picture him standing beside her in the elevator, looking completely unbothered while she fought with the clock and complained about the elevator moving too slowly.
Then she remembered the moment he had opened the office door and she’d realized who he was.
Her cheeks warmed.
“Chis?”
She blinked.
“I’m here.”
“You disappeared for a second.”
“I was thinking.”
“About the CEO?”
Chis sighed.
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“Because I know you.”
“There is nothing to think about.”
“Then why did you suddenly become quiet?”
Chis glanced at the building behind her.
Its glass windows reflected the bright morning light, making it difficult to see anything beyond them.
Somewhere inside was Damian Adetola, probably already buried in meetings and business matters, while she was standing outside wondering why his face had remained in her mind longer than it should have.
“He was the man from the elevator,” she admitted.
Chinny went silent.
Then she burst out laughing.
“You’re joking!”
“I wish I were.”
“The same man you told me about this morning?
The serious-looking one?”
“Yes.”
“The one you complained to because the elevator was too slow?”
Chis covered her face with her free hand.
“Please don’t remind me.”
Chinny laughed so loudly that Chis had to move the phone away from her ear again.
“You actually complained about the elevator to the CEO of the company?”
“I didn’t know who he was!”
“And he still hired you?”
“Apparently.” There was a brief silence before Chinny made a thoughtful sound.
Chis immediately recognized it.
“Don’t.”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re thinking something.”
“I am definitely thinking something.”
Chis smiled despite herself.
“He was just doing his job.”
“Hmm.”
“Chinny.”
“I’m listening.”
“He wasn’t flirting with me, and I wasn’t flirting with him, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Interesting.”
“What is interesting about that?”
“The fact that you felt the need to explain it before I even accused you.”
Chis opened her mouth, then closed it again.
She hated when Chinny did that.
“I’m hanging up.”
“No, wait.” Chinny laughed.
“I’m behaving.
Tell me about the actual interview.”
Chis let out a small breath and continued toward the road.
“It went well.
He asked about my previous job, and we talked about handling difficult clients and things like that.
Then he asked about Dad.”
Her tone changed without her meaning it to.
Chinny noticed immediately.
“What did he ask?”
“When Dad died.”
“Did you tell him?”
“Of course.” Chis looked down as she walked, watching the shadow of her feet move across the pavement.
“I told him it was seventeen years ago.
Then he asked if I remembered much about Dad.”
“And what did you say?”
“That I didn’t.”
She swallowed.
“I don’t know why, but the whole atmosphere changed after that.”
Chinny was quiet for a moment.
“Did he say anything strange?”
“Not exactly.” Chis frowned, trying to recall the moment.
“He just seemed…
different.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.
Like hearing Dad’s name meant something to him.”
The thought had bothered her since she left the office, but she had tried to dismiss it.
Maybe Damian had simply been curious.
Or maybe he had known her father.
Lagos wasn’t as big as people sometimes imagined.
She was about to say as much when Chinny interrupted her thoughts.
“Your mother called me this morning.”
Chis stopped walking.
“What?”
“She was looking for you.
I told her you had an interview.”
Chis’s expression changed.
“Did she say why she was looking for me?”
“Not really.
She just sounded worried.”
That uneasy feeling returned.
Her mother had always worried about her, but recently there had been something different in the way she reacted whenever Chis talked about her future.
Chis couldn’t quite explain it, but she had started noticing it more.
“I’ll call her when I get home,” Chis said.
“Good.
And don’t forget tonight.”
Chis smiled again.
“Forget what?”
“Our celebration.”
“We’re celebrating already?”
“You got a job.
We are celebrating.”
“I thought you said you were broke.”
“I am.”
Chis laughed.
“Then what exactly are we celebrating with?”
“Hope.”
“Chinny.”
“Fine.
I’ll buy the food.”
That made Chis laugh again.
“Seven o’clock,” Chinny insisted.
“And don’t even think about cancelling.”
“I won’t.”
“Good.
I want the full story.”
“You’re never going to let that elevator thing go, are you?”
“Absolutely not.” Chis ended the call still smiling.
But the moment she slipped her phone into her handbag, her thoughts returned to the interview.
To Damian.
To her father’s name on that file.
And to the strange look that had crossed Damian’s face when he heard it.
She told herself it meant nothing.
She had no reason to think otherwise.
Across the city, Damian stood beside the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office, looking down at the traffic moving through the streets below.
His brother had left nearly an hour ago, but his warning had stayed with him.
You just brought the past back into this family.
Damian returned to his desk and picked up Chis’s résumé.
There was nothing unusual about it.
Her qualifications were suitable for the position.
Her previous experience was relevant.
She had answered his questions honestly, and from what he had seen during the interview, she was capable of doing the job.
He had hired her because she deserved the position.
That was all.
At least, that was what he told himself.
His gaze settled on the photograph attached to her application.
She looked younger than he had expected.
There was nothing calculating about her expression, nothing that suggested she had walked into his company with an agenda.
She had simply needed a job.
Damian set the résumé down.
He was reaching for his phone when the door opened.
His brother stepped inside.
Damian looked up.
“I thought you left.”
“I did.”
“Then why are you back?”
His brother closed the door behind him and walked toward the desk.
There was none of his usual confidence in his movements now.
He looked troubled.
“I spoke to Father.”
Damian’s hand stopped halfway to his phone.
“And?”
“He doesn’t know about her yet.”
Damian leaned back slowly.
“You haven’t told him?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
His brother gave him a hard look.
“Because I wanted to speak to you first.”
“You’ve already spoken to me.”
“No.
I warned you.
There’s a difference.”
The words settled heavily between them.
Damian stared at him.
“What exactly are you afraid is going to happen?”
His brother looked toward the résumé on the desk.
“You know what happened seventeen years ago.”
“I know what Father told us.”
“That isn’t all.”
Damian went still.
“Apparently not.”
His brother’s eyes returned to his.
For a moment, something uncertain passed through his expression.
Damian caught it.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You just looked at me like you were about to tell me something.”
His brother sighed and pulled out the chair opposite the desk before sitting down.
“Damian, you were twelve when everything happened.
There are things you didn’t understand.”
“I understand that Father blamed Emeka Nwankwo.”
“That isn’t all.”
“Then what isn’t all?”
His brother seemed to realize he had said more than he intended.
Damian leaned forward.
“Tell me.”
“You should ask Father.”
“Why would I ask him when you’re standing here?”
“Because some things are better coming from him.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“That’s exactly what people said when I was twelve.”
His brother’s expression softened for the briefest moment.
“You were a child.”
“And now I’m not.”
“No.”
His brother stood, smoothing his jacket.
“Now you’re a man who has just hired the daughter of the man our family spent seventeen years trying to forget.”
Damian watched him walk toward the door.
“Wait.”
His brother stopped.
“If there is something about Emeka Nwankwo that I don’t know, I want to know it.”
His brother looked back at him.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then he said quietly, “You may regret asking.”
The door closed behind him.
Damian remained alone in the office.
He looked down at Chis’s résumé again, but this time he didn’t see the qualifications.
He saw the little girl she had once been.
Six years old.
A father she barely remembered.
A mother who refused to explain why he had died.
And a family that had apparently buried more than one secret seventeen years ago.
By seven that evening, Chis had almost convinced herself to stop thinking about the interview.
Almost.
She arrived at the small restaurant she and Chinny had chosen, and the moment she stepped inside, she spotted her friend waving enthusiastically from a table near the window.
“You’re late.”
Chis laughed as she slipped into the seat opposite her.
“I’m five minutes late.”
“Five minutes is still late.”
“You were late the last time we met.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
“I was hungry.”
Chis shook her head, smiling as she picked up the menu.
The familiar comfort of being with Chinny eased some of the tension that had followed her home from Adetola Holdings.
This was what she needed—food, laughter and a few hours where she didn’t have to think about interviews, bills or the strange look Damian had given her when she mentioned her father.
Chinny watched her over the top of her menu.
Chis knew that look too.
“You’re thinking about it again.”
“About what?”
“The interview.”
Chis lowered the menu.
“I’m really not.”
“You are.”
“I’m choosing what to eat.”
“You’ve been staring at the same page for three minutes.”
Chis looked down.
She had.
She laughed and closed the menu.
“Fine.
Maybe I was thinking about it a little.”
“Especially the CEO?”
Chis tried to look annoyed, but the smile threatening her lips ruined it.
“You’re impossible.”
“And you’re smiling.”
“Because you’re ridiculous.”
Chinny leaned back with a satisfied expression.
“So he made an impression.”
“He was my interviewer.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Chis reached for her glass and took a sip, buying herself a moment.
She could still remember Damian’s expression when he smiled at her, brief and unexpected, and she disliked the fact that the memory made her feel strangely warm.
“He’s just different,” she admitted.
Chinny’s teasing expression softened into genuine curiosity.
“Different how?”
“I don’t know.” Chis rested her glass on the table.
“He’s very controlled.
Like nothing gets to him.
Even when I was panicking in the elevator, he looked completely calm.”
“Maybe that’s what rich people look like.”
Chis laughed.
“Maybe.”
“And did you like him?”
The question was so direct that Chis stared at her.
“I barely know him.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Chis rolled her eyes, but her smile returned.
“I don’t know, Chinny.”
It was the most honest answer she could give.
She didn’t know Damian.
She didn’t know why she had noticed his voice or his smile or the way he looked at her when she spoke about her father.
She didn’t know why she was even thinking about it.
She reached for the menu again, determined to end the interrogation before it became unbearable.
Her phone began vibrating against the table.
The name on the screen made her smile disappear.
Mum.
Chis answered immediately.
“Hello, Mum?”
Her mother’s voice was unusually quiet.
“Where are you?”
“I’m with Chinny.
We went out to celebrate my new job.”
There was silence.
Chis glanced at Chinny, who was already watching her closely.
“I got the job at Adetola Holdings,” Chis added, trying to keep the excitement in her voice.
The silence on the other end became longer.
Then her mother spoke.
“You need to leave that job.”
Chis frowned.
For a moment, she wondered if she had heard correctly.
“Leave?”
“Please, Chis.”
Her mother’s voice trembled.
“You can’t work there.”
The excitement she’d felt all day began to drain away.
“Mum, why?”
“I can’t explain this over the phone.”
“Then explain it when I come home.”
“Just promise me you won’t go back tomorrow.”
Chis sat straighter, confusion turning quickly into frustration.
“Mum, I need this job.
You know how long I’ve been looking.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you asking me to throw it away?”
Her mother went quiet again.
When she finally spoke, her voice was so soft that Chis almost had to strain to hear her.
“Because that family has already taken enough from us.”
The call ended.
Chis stared at the phone.
For several seconds, the sounds of the restaurant seemed to fade around her—the clinking of glasses, the low conversations at nearby tables, the faint music playing overhead.
Chinny reached across the table and gently touched her wrist.
“What happened?”
Chis slowly lifted her eyes.
She couldn’t explain why her heart was beating so hard.
For seventeen years, her mother had refused to tell her what happened to her father.
She had always assumed the silence came from grief.
Now, for the first time, she wasn’t sure.
Her mother’s words kept repeating in her mind.
That family has already taken enough from us.
Chis looked toward the restaurant window, but all she could see was her own reflection staring back at her.
For seventeen years, she had accepted that there were things her mother simply couldn’t talk about.
But now, for the first time, she wondered if the silence had never been about grief at all.
Her father’s name.
The Adetola family.
Her mother’s fear.
There had to be something she didn’t know.
And she was going to find out.