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Chapter 3 - Chapter 3: When Storms Arise

"Every great love must be tested by life, not to break it, but to prove its strength."

Love is sweet—until the bills come due.

After graduation, reality replaced campus dreams. Bright had expected life after university to be a straight road to success. Instead, it felt like a maze with "INSUFFICIENT FUNDS" written on every wall.

He moved back to his parents' small flat in Enugu, determined to find work. His father's health had begun to fail, and his mother's small trading business barely kept the lights on. Bright sent out dozens of applications, prayed, fasted, and still—silence.

Adamma, meanwhile, had secured a short-term job with a private school in town. She often used her tiny salary to help Bright's family, though she tried to hide it.

One afternoon, Bright caught her paying for his father's medicine. "Adamma, why would you do that?" he asked, his voice a mix of gratitude and wounded pride.

She smiled softly. "Because love doesn't just pray—it provides when it can."

He sighed, taking her hand. "I'll pay you back one day."

She squeezed his fingers. "You already have—with your faith."

---

But the storm wasn't only financial. Adamma's parents, especially her mother, began to frown on the relationship.

"Adamma, this Bright boy is a good man, yes," her mother said one evening, "but good doesn't pay rent. You need security."

"Mama," Adamma replied gently, "I'm not choosing money over peace. Bright may not have much now, but he has God—and vision."

Her mother shook her head. "Vision cannot fry plantain, my daughter."

Adamma laughed in spite of herself, but tears filled her eyes later that night. She knelt beside her bed, whispering, "Lord, please, don't let our love drown in this storm."

---

Bright, on his part, battled discouragement. One night he told Luke, "Maybe I'm not enough for her. She deserves better."

Luke clapped his shoulder. "Bro, she didn't choose your wallet—she chose your heart. But remember, even David was anointed long before the throne appeared."

Those words lit a spark. Bright began helping at a local youth center, teaching computer skills. It wasn't paid work, but it restored his purpose.

When he told Adamma, she smiled proudly. "See? You're already blessing lives. Money will come later."

He grinned. "Are you sure you weren't secretly sent by my guardian angel?"

"Maybe," she teased. "Only that I charge for overtime prayers."

---

Weeks turned into months of uncertainty, but their bond refused to break. They found joy in the little things—sharing suya at roadside stands, attending night vigils together, holding hands while walking home under flickering streetlights.

One night, after fellowship, Bright looked up at the stars and said, "Adamma, do you still believe God is writing our story?"

She looked at him tenderly. "Bright, He never dropped the pen."

> "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." — Psalm 30 : 5

---

The "morning" began with a phone call.

Bright had applied for an internship at a tech startup months earlier—and forgotten about it. When the HR officer said, "Mr. Bright, can you start on Monday?" he nearly dropped his phone.

He called Adamma immediately.

She screamed so loudly her colleagues thought she'd won a lottery. "You see?" she shouted. "God always shows up fashionably late but right on time!"

Bright laughed through tears. "You believed even when I didn't. You're my miracle in human form."

---

The new job paid modestly, but hope returned. He began saving, planning, praying for the future. Adamma's parents gradually softened as they saw his persistence. Her father, one quiet evening, told her, "Maybe this Bright truly carries light."

Months later, Bright knelt before Adamma with a small ring he'd bought after months of saving.

"Adamma," he said, his voice trembling, "storms came, but you stood beside me. You are my answered prayer, my proof that love endures. Will you walk this journey with me, for good and for God?"

Tears filled her eyes as she whispered, "I already started walking with you the day we met at that dusty cyber café."

He slipped the ring onto her finger, and laughter and tears mixed freely.

> "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope." — Jeremiah 29 : 11

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