"Alright," Okemmiri said. "Continue. What happened next?"
Ndubisi remained on his knees, his eyes still vacant.
"Three nights ago, when Ego had travelled to Nnewi, I entered the hut. I expected to find money, but there was none. Instead, I found a strange-looking bird locked inside a cage."
A murmur moved through the crowd.
"I wondered why Ego would guard an ordinary bird so carefully. I knew immediately that it had to be important. Perhaps it was the thing producing the money."
Ego's heart sank.
"I unlocked the cage and caught the bird. The moment my fingers touched it, something strange happened."
"What happened?" Okemmiri asked.
"It disappeared."
The compound erupted in whispers.
"How?" the Dibia demanded.
"I don't know. It was simply gone. I searched everywhere, but there was nothing."
"Then how did another bird appear in its place?"
"Knowing what I had done, I realized I needed a replacement. The following morning, I went to the market carrying a large amount of money. I moved from one magician to another, offering a handsome reward to anyone who could reproduce the bird."
"And you found someone?"
"Yes. I gave him a detailed description of the bird, and eventually someone agreed to make a replica. I brought it back and placed it inside the cage."
Okemmiri stared at him.
"Why would you want more money? You already have more than most men could ever dream of."
Ndubisi's face remained expressionless.
"Because I was no longer certain how much time I had left here."
Okemmiri frowned.
"You wanted to leave?"
Ndubisi nodded.
"Why?"
"For that, you have to understand what happened before I came here."
"Then explain."
"Not long ago, I overheard Oluchukwu and Chinasa discussing Ego's late husband and the mystery surrounding his death. I became curious. Until then, I had never asked Ego how her husband died. It wasn't my concern."
He paused.
"But when I asked them about him, they told me his name."
His voice suddenly became quieter.
"Nnanna."
Ego's entire body stiffened.
At the mention of the name, her world seemed to stop.
"I became afraid of what Ego would do to me if she discovered who I really was."
"Discovered what?" Okemmiri thundered.
Ndubisi lowered his head.
"I will tell you everything. From the beginning."
"Go ahead!"
"After I was banished for a crime I did not commit—the murder of my parents—I wandered from village to village looking for somewhere I could belong. I hoped to find a place where news of my parents' deaths and my banishment had not reached."
He paused.
"I found nowhere."
"So I went into the evil forest."
"The first day I arrived, I was captured by four young men. They were rejects like me. Some had been banished; others had been branded Osu. They had declared war on the world that rejected them. They stole, robbed, and committed every crime imaginable."
His lips curled slightly.
"They tied me up and told me they intended to sell me into slavery."
"What did you do?"
"I begged."
He laughed bitterly.
"I told them I was willing to join them. I told them I could be useful. But they didn't care. To them, the money they would make from selling me mattered more than anything I could offer."
He paused.
"The following day, they left for an operation and abandoned me, still tied up."
"I had exhausted every trick I knew. Nothing worked. For the first time in my life, I prayed to my ancestors for help."
His voice became softer.
"And for the first time, they answered."
"I had barely finished praying when I heard a man's voice."
Who is that?
"I called out. I told him my name and explained that I had been captured by slave traders."
"The young man came closer and began cutting my ropes. While freeing me, he asked how I ended up there. During our conversation, he told me something that caught my attention."
"He said the men who captured me had buried stolen goods somewhere nearby."
"I told him I didn't know anything about it, but I offered to help him search."
"He freed me."
Ndubisi paused.
"We found the shallow grave."
"I saw the loot with my own eyes. There was a lot of it."
"He bent down and began removing the items one after another."
"Then he told me, 'We will take these to the Igwe and return with more men to capture these outlaws.'"
Ndubisi's expression hardened.
"I was shocked by his honesty."
"But I also knew what that meant for me."
"I was already an outcast. Returning the stolen property would not restore my name. Instead, the gang would hunt me down for helping their enemies."
"So I made a choice."
He looked straight ahead.
"I decided to prove my loyalty to the only people who had offered me a place in their world."
The crowd was completely silent.
"I pointed at a gun lying nearby."
"'Why don't you grab that one?' I told him."
"The innocent man bent down to pick it up."
"I grabbed the gun he had placed on the ground and struck him from behind."
"I only intended to knock him unconscious."
He paused.
"But he fell."
"I touched him."
"He was dead."
Ego's breathing became ragged.
"With that one act, I secured my place among them."
"We carried his body away and placed it beneath an Iroko tree, far from the buried loot."
"Their leader recognized him."
"He told us his name."
Ndubisi's voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"Nnanna."
The name hung in the air.
"The wrestling champion of Umudibia."
He paused.
"For some reason, that name stayed with me. It became like a stain I could never wash from my heart."
Before he could say another word—
SMACK!
Ego's palm struck his face.
The sound echoed through the compound.
Ndubisi's head turned with the force of the blow.
Ego collapsed to the ground, screaming.
"He killed him!"
Her voice cracked.
"He killed Obim!"
She beat her chest as tears streamed down her face.
"He killed Nnanna!"
Oluchukwu rushed toward her, but Ego pushed herself upright, staring at the man she had loved.
"The man I trusted…"
She could barely breathe.
"That was you?"
Okemmiri raised his voice.
"Where are your gang members now?"
Ndubisi slowly turned his head toward him.
"They are no more."
A faint, disturbing smile appeared on his lips.
"I dissolved the gang."
"What did you do?"
"After killing Nnanna, my position among them became secure. I began accompanying them on their operations. For a long time, everything went well."