CHAPTER 4: BROKEN TRUST

The night had settled into a thick blanket of darkness, and the street of Lagos were spookily quiet. Ugochukwu couldn’t shake off the smell that everything in his living was unraveling, and there follow nothing he could practice to stop it. His faith, the one thing he thought was unbreakable, had been shattered by the two people he had cared for the most: Tunde and Adaobi.

As he walked along the dimly perch street, his footsteps repeat in the still. His creative thinker kept replay the scene in the warehouse. The dusty treachery, the sharp look in Tunde’s eyes, and Adaobi betrayal there, her gaze averted as if she couldn’t even look at him anymore. It was all likewise much for him to process.

He paused for a moment, leaning against a concrete wall, try on to calm his breathing. He had been fooling away. He had trusted them both, have them parts of himself no one else had witness, and they had used it against him.

“Tunde…” Ugochukwu muttered under his breath, his paw clenched into fists. He had always think of Tunde as a brother, a man he could rely on. But directly, it seemed like Tunde had been trifle a plot from the very kickoff. How long had he been working with Chief Eze? How long had he known about Adaobi’s betrayal?

His phone seethe in his pocket, jolting him out of his thoughts. He brought it out, anticipating a message from Adaobi or perhaps even Tunde. But the phone screen was blank — an unknown number.

Funny and cautious, Ugochukwu answered.

“Ugochukwu, ” a voice on the other end said. It was deep, nigh unrecognisable. “We need to talk. ”

The whisker on the back of his neck suffer up. “Who is this? ”

“You’re in a big trouble than you are, my Friend, ” the vocalism replied. “And the people you believe? They’ll snitch you when you least anticipate it. ”

Before Ugochukwu could react, the credit line go bad stagnant. The message was clear. There follow more belong on than he had ab initio sympathise. And whatever it was, it was a great deal uncollectible than just Tunde and Adaobi’s betrayal.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car pulling up beside him. Ugochukwu turned quick, his spunk bound off a musical rhythm. It was a sleek fateful car — the variety that screamed power and influence. The window rolled down slowly, and a familiar face appeared.

“Get in, ” Tunde’s voice said, sounding strangely calm. His aspect was almost emotionless, like a man who had build peace treaty with his choices.

Ugochukwu didn’t hesitate. His dead body affect on instinct, and before he knew it, he was posture in the backseat of the car, staring at his honest-to-god friend.

Tunde didn’t speak immediately, and the secrecy between them sense like a suffocating weight. Ugochukwu could palpate the heat energy of treason coursing through his veins.

“Why, Tunde? ” Ugochukwu’s representative was small, almost a whisper. “Why did you do it? ”

Tunde finally fill his regard. His eyes were tired, hollow, but there exist something frigid and calculate behind them. “You don’t understand, Ugo. This wasn’t about you. This was about selection. ”

“Survival? ” Ugochukwu laughed bitterly. “You rat me for survival of the fittest? You, of all people, know what loyalty means to me. You promised you would never turn your back on me! ”

Tunde clenched his jaw but allege nothing for a long time. The car continued to seethe through the street of Lagos, and Ugochukwu experience a greyback reduce in his stomach.

“I never desire to produce affect in any of this, ” Tunde in conclusion mouth. “But things changed. The people we work for. . . they don’t play by the same ruler you and I fare. They don’t care about friendships or loyalty. They desire power. And the alone way to stay on alive in this game is to give to them what they desire. ”

Ugochukwu’s chest stiffen as the weight of Tunde’s Word off him. “So, you chose them over me? ”

“It wasn’t about choosing position, ” Tunde replied, his voice equanimity but tint with regret. “It was about continue to be alert. The thing I’ve seen… the people I’ve met… It’s bigger than us, Ugochukwu. It’s bigger than anything we could’ve ever imagined. ”

As the car bend a niche and the familiar wad of Ugochukwu’s flat building complex came into view, his thoughts raced. His entire biography, everything he’d built, had been a Lie. His father’s end, the promises he had made, his relationship with Adaobi —it was all theatrical role of something much disconsolate than he give birth known.

Suddenly, the car stopped, and Ugochukwu was jar forward. Tunde opened the door and got out, signalize for Ugochukwu to follow. He waffle for a moment, then ill-treat out of the car, his bosom impound. The dusty melody attain him, but it did nothing to calm the storm inside him.

They were standing in the courtyard of a high-upgrade building, its towering structure redact long shadows on the flat coat. Tunde motion for Ugochukwu to follow him up the stairs.

“What is it again? ” Ugochukwu ask, his voice strained.

Tunde didn’t respond immediately, rather conduce him up to the construction’s rooftop. The eyeshot from the top was breathtaking—Lagos in all its chaotic, coloured mantrap. But it perform piddling to comfort the growing sense of apprehensiveness that settled in Ugochukwu’s chest.

“I didn’t want this for you, Ugochukwu, ” Tunde read, his vocalism flaccid right away. “But you don’t understand the forces at play here. If I hadn’t snitched on you, they would have twist on me. You’re caught up in something that’s going to destroy you, just now like it destroy me. ”

Ugochukwu finger the ground beneath him duty period, as though the exercising weight of the world had short contract down on him. His mind spin around with motion, his nitty-gritty burn off with choler. How had everything last so wrong?

Before he could verbalize, the sounds of footsteps broke the quiet. Ugochukwu move around to visualise Adaobi walking toward them, her expression of guilt feelings and fear. She came to them, looking on from a distance.

“You didn’t have to do this, Adaobi, ” Ugochukwu said, his voice raw with emotion. “I loved you. I trusted you. ”

Adaobi stopped in spacial movement of him, her chest replete with bust. “I’m good-for-nothing, Ugochukwu. I never wanted to hurt you. But I have no choice. They made me do it. They threatened me, my family… I couldn’t have them ache us. ”

Ugochukwu’s heart shatter as he stood in front at her. All this time, he had been blind to the truth. The woman he had have it off had betrayed him.

“Do you know what commitment is ? ” Ugochukwu’s voice was a rustle, but it have a bun in the oven the weight of his pain. “You both sold me out. And for what? For selection? For power? ”

Tunde stepped forward, place a placd a hand on Ugochukwu’s shoulder. “You need to bail out, Ugochukwu. You can’t keep going down this track. It’s too not too late for you to turn backwards now. ”

Ugochukwu rock his head, the anger boiling inside him. “I will never forgive you for this, Tunde. And I will never forgive you, Adaobi. ”

With those words, he turned to his other side and walked by, leaving the two of them standing there, entirely in the dark. His trust was shattered. His heart was broken. And he had no idea what the hereafter deem. But one thing was clear—He was daunted with betrayal.

As he descended the stairs, his phone buzzed at one time again. This time, the notification wasn’t from anyone he knew. It was a simple phrase, one that sent a cold chill through his spine:

“You’re next. ”

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