It started with a knock.
Not loud.
Not urgent.
Just deliberate.
I froze where I stood, slicing tomatoes for lunch. Chinedu looked up from the floor where he was assembling an old bookshelf. One knock. Then silence.
"Expecting anyone?" I asked.
He shook his head slowly, "no one knows we are here."
Another knock, three soft taps.
Chinedu stood up quietly and moved to the door.
"Who is it?" he asked.
Silence.
Then, a voice.
"I'm here to help Tomiwa."
My heart stopped.
Chinedu turned sharply to me. "Stay back," he mouthed, reaching for the wooden pole by the door.
I took slow steps toward the kitchen window, peeking outside.
A woman stood there.
Mid 30s, sharp eyes, ankara dress, no fear on her face.
She did not look like danger.
But neither did the last person who almost ruined my life.
"Who sent you?" Chinedu asked.
"I'm not here to cause trouble, I'm Ifeoma, i knew her father."
That made me blink.
"My father's dead," I said from behind him.
She smiled. "Yes and he was not the man you thought he was."
We let her in.
Not because we trusted her.
But because curiosity is louder than caution sometimes.
She sat on the worn out couch like it belonged to her.
"I was his lawyer," she began. "Or at least the one he trusted when he started hiding things."
I leaned forward. "Hiding what?"
She opened her bag and pulled out a brown envelope.
"There is a property in your name in Badagry, left unclaimed since his death. I only found you after searching old clinic records tied to your birth."
I stared at the envelope like it might explode.
"He left me something?"
She nodded. "But the will was not formal not by law, It was handwritten, emotional, but real. He mentioned you, your mother, the regrets everything."
Chinedu narrowed his eyes. "And why show up now?"
"Because someone else is looking for her too."
A chill swept through the room.
"Who?" I asked.
"Does the name Mrs. Odu mean anything to you?"
My chest tightened.
"She ran the house where I worked before everything fell apart."
"She is the one searching and not just through police she is paying people. Desperate, dangerous."
My mouth went dry. "Why?"
"I don't know. But people don't spend money to find someone unless they need to silence them."
We sat in silence.
The envelope lay between us like a question mark.
Chinedu finally spoke. "So what now?"
Ifeoma looked at me. "You have a decision to make. Claim the house and the secrets your father buried with it or disappear completely."
"And you? What is in it for you?"
She smiled faintly. "Justice and maybe peace. Your father was not perfect, but he tried to make things right at the end. I want to see it through."
After she left, Chinedu locked the door and turned to me.
"You believe her?"
"I don't know."
"What if it is a trap?"
I held the envelope in my hand, weighing it like it held my soul. "What if it is not?"
That night, i could not sleep.
I sat outside under the stars, barefoot on the concrete, letter pressed to my chest.
Was my father trying to redeem himself?
Was there something he left behind to protect me?
Or was this just another piece of pain, waiting to be unwrapped?
When Chinedu joined me outside, he sat quietly beside me for a while.
Then he said, "Whatever happens, I'm going with you."
I turned to him. "Even if it is dangerous?"
"Especially then."
I smiled. "You are not scared?"
He nodded. "Terrified but I rather face it with you than hide from it alone."
And right there, in the middle of the night, with nothing but stars and secrets above us
I kissed him.
Because sometimes love is not loud.
Sometimes it is just there steady, brave, and holding your hand while the world burns.