Chapter 12 - What Really Happened to Chioma's FatherEbere survived.

Barely.

Doctors operated through the night.

Chioma sat outside the theater with blood on her hands.

She could not stop hearing her mother's final words.

Your father never died naturally.

By morning, an investigator arrived.

His name was Inspector Adeyemi.

“We need to talk.”

“About Donald?”

“About your father.”

Chioma looked up.

“He died twenty years ago.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Officially? Heart failure.”

“And unofficially?”

Adeyemi opened a file.

“Poisoning.”

Chioma's hands went cold.

“Who?”

“We don't know.”

“Then why are you showing me this?”

“Because the case was reopened after we found financial records connecting your father to Donald's family.”

He showed her a photograph.

Her father.

Donald’s father.

And a much younger Ebere.

“Your father discovered the illegal land transfers.”

“So they killed him.”

“That's one theory.”

“Who else had access?”

Adeyemi looked at her.

“Your mother.”

Chioma closed her eyes.

“I don't want to hear this anymore.”

“You need to.”

He placed another file on the table.

“Your father had a second child.”

Chioma frowned.

“I have Dubem.”

“Not Dubem.”

She stared at him.

“Who?”

Adeyemi said:

“Your father had a son before your marriage.”

Chioma's heartbeat quickened.

“A son?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

“We don't know.”

Then something clicked inside her.

Mr. Nwosu.

The old photograph.

The hidden documents.

Emeka.

Could it be?

She rushed to find Mr. Nwosu.

He was beneath the mango tree.

“Tell me the truth.”

He stared at her.

“About what?”

“My father had another son.”

Mr. Nwosu remained silent.

“Who?”

He finally answered:

“Emeka.”

Chioma felt the world stop.

“What?”

“Emeka's mother was your father's first love.”

“No.”

“She was.”

“Then…”

“Emeka is your half-brother.”

Chioma stared at him in horror.

“That's impossible.”

Emeka, standing behind her, heard every word.

He slowly stepped forward.

“You knew?”

Mr. Nwosu nodded.

“All these years?”

“Yes.”

Emeka's face crumpled.

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“Because your father died before he could.”

Chioma shook her head.

“But we…”

She couldn't finish.

Everything she remembered suddenly became poisoned by a truth she had never known.

Their love.

Their relationship.

Their broken engagement.

Their entire past.

Was it all a lie?

Emeka looked at her.

“I didn't know.”

Chioma began to cry.

“I didn't know either.”

The silence between them was unbearable.

Then Mr. Nwosu said:

“There is more.”

They both looked at him.

“Donald knew.”

Chioma's face went pale.

“He knew?”

“Yes.”

“Before he married me?”

“Yes.”

Emeka clenched his fists.

“That was why he wanted me gone.”

Chioma whispered:

“He knew we were related.”

“Yes.”

“Then he watched us…”

Mr. Nwosu nodded.

“He used your ignorance against both of you.”

Chioma collapsed into a chair.

Donald had not only destroyed her marriage.

He had manipulated her entire past.

Then her phone rang.

A message from an unknown number.

EMEKA IS NOT YOUR BROTHER.

Chioma stared.

Another message arrived.

YOUR MOTHER LIED AGAIN.

Then a photograph appeared.

It showed Chioma's father holding a newborn baby.

Beside him stood a woman.

The woman was not Emeka's mother.

It was someone else.

Someone Chioma knew.

She turned toward Mr. Nwosu.

“Who is that woman?”

He looked at the photograph.

His face became terrified.

“That…”

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He could barely speak.

“That woman is Donald's mother.”