5. His face in the shadows

I didn't sleep that night.

I couldn't.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face. Not the dead, silent face in the coffin from three years ago. Not even the man who called me and said to run. No. I saw the man who stood at the back of the wedding hall. Alive. Real. Staring straight at me with eyes that used to kiss me without touching.

Nathan.

But if what his mother said was true, then I never buried him.

I buried a lie.

I sat on my bed, surrounded by the photos, the manila envelope, the tiny phone with the strange message, and now this ,his wallet.

Why now?

Why my wedding day?

It felt like a curse. Or worse, like someone pressed rewind on a life I had worked so hard to escape.

I stared at the ring on my finger. I was married to Chuka now. He didn't deserve this madness.

He didn't even deserve the way I had frozen when he touched me last night. I couldn't explain it. It wasn't about love. It was about the shadow of a man I had mourned…a man I had loved first …coming back from the dead.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

It was Lota, my younger brother. He walked in with that serious face he always wore when something was wrong.

"I got a message," he said.

He handed me his phone. It was a screenshot from his anonymous mail.

Tell your sister to stop digging. She won't like what she finds

I looked up at him. "Did you tell anyone what I found?"

"No. Maka, what is going on?"

I didn't know how to answer that. I just stood up, grabbed my phone and the old Nokia, and stuffed the photos back into the envelope.

"I need to go somewhere," I said.

"Where?"

"To find the only person Nathan used to fear.

Thirty minutes later, I was standing in front of the tall black gate of Chief Okonkwo's mansion.

He was a retired politician, the kind that still pulled strings in the dark. Nathan used to work with him briefly. Then he left. Abruptly. Without a word.

Nathan told me once, after two glasses of wine and a fight over nothing, "That man is dangerous, Maka. If I ever disappear, it's either him or God."

I never forgot those words.

The security man gave me a suspicious look, but after I said my name, he went inside. I waited, heart pounding.

The gate finally opened, and a young man in a white kaftan led me in.

Chief Okonkwo was sitting under the gazebo, sipping something dark from a glass cup. His belly had grown larger, but his eyes were sharp. Too sharp.

"Ah. The widow," he said.

I ignored the sting in that word.

"You knew Nathan. You worked with him. I need answers," I said quickly.

He laughed. "Answers? From me?"

"I know Nathan is Tochi," I said. "I saw him. Someone is threatening me. And I found his wallet in his mother's house."

That got his attention.

He leaned forward slightly. "Did you find the key?"

I frowned. "What key?"

He looked at me for a long moment, then smiled slowly like he had just confirmed something.

"You really don't know what you were married into, do you?"

"Tell me," I said.

Instead, he stood up. "Nathan

should never have come back. If he's alive, then hell is about to open its doors again. Go home, Maka. Pray that the next time you see him is not the last."

"Wait…" I started, but he was already walking away.

I felt like screaming.

As I turned to leave, I bumped into someone by the gate.

I looked up and my mouth went dry.

There he was.

In the flesh.

Black hoodie. Baseball cap pulled low. But I would know that jawline anywhere.

"Nathan," I whispered.

He looked at me, eyes burning.

"I told you not to dig," he said, his voice hard. "You're going to get us both killed.

Nathan," I whispered again, this time louder.

He didn't hug me. He didn't move. He didn't even blink. His eyes scanned my face like he was checking if I was still the same woman he left behind.

"I told you not to look for me," he said flatly.

I swallowed hard. "What else did you expect me to do? Show up at the altar, see your face, and just smile for pictures?"

His jaw clenched. He looked tired. Older. Not in a bad way, but in a way that said he had seen things he could never unsee.

"You're not safe," he said. "They're watching you."

"I know. Someone sent my brother a message. Someone sent me a phone with photos of your body. A stranger gave me an envelope. Your mother gave me your wallet. And now here you are."

He stepped closer. Too close.

I should've slapped him.

I should've cried.

I did neither.

I just stood there. Frozen.

"You have no idea what I've done to keep you alive," he said, voice low and tense. "You weren't supposed to see me."

"But I did," I said, eyes burning. "You let me bury an empty coffin, Tochi. You let me mourn for you. You let me break."

He looked away.

"I was going to tell you everything once it was safe," he said. "But then I heard about the wedding. And I came. Because I had to see if you were really moving on."

I stared at him like he was a stranger. "So you came to haunt me? Or to save me?"

He didn't answer.

I let out a bitter laugh.

"You said you've done things. What kind of things?"

Tochi took a slow breath. "I infiltrated something, Maka. Something dark. A network of power and money that runs deeper than politics or gangs. The kind of people who make people disappear without a trace. I was trying to expose them. I got caught. And when I realized they were coming for you, I did the only thing I could."

"Fake your death," I whispered.

He nodded.

"I thought it would end there. I thought if I stayed dead, they'd leave you alone. But someone inside the circle betrayed them. There's a leak. And now they think I told you something. They think you know."

I looked at him, my voice trembling. "Do I?"

"No," he said quickly. "Not yet. And you shouldn't."

"Then tell me. Everything. Right now."

Nathan looked at me like he wanted to.

He really wanted to.

But then he shook his head slowly.

"If I tell you, Maka, they won't just come after you. They'll come after everyone you love. Lota. Your parents. Your husband."

That last word landed like acid on my tongue.

I could feel my breath getting shallow. I wasn't sure if I was shaking from fear or from being this close to him again. I had a thousand questions fighting to burst out of my chest. But one came out louder than the rest.

"Are you back for me?"

His eyes softened.

That was all I needed.

But he still said nothing.

Silence, again.

He turned away.

"Wait!" I called after him. "You can't just leave me like this again."

"I have to. They're close. I only came to warn you. Stay away from Chief. Stay away from my mother. Burn whatever they gave you. And don't trust anyone."

He took a step back into the shadows.

Then he said something I didn't expect.

"If I don't make it… forgive me."

Then he disappeared.

Just like the first time.

Only this time, I wasn't going to sit still and cry.

No. This time, I was going to fight.

I didn't leave the gate for a long time.

The silence after Nathan disappeared was louder than any scream. I stood there, rooted, staring into the same darkness that swallowed him whole again. My mind was racing, heart slamming in my chest, and yet everything felt frozen.

I had seen him.

He was real.

But he was also gone.

Again.

And this time, he left more questions than the last.

I walked home like someone in a trance. My phone buzzed three times, but I ignored it. I wasn't ready to talk to anyone. Not even Emeka. Especially not Emeka.

What was I going to say?

"Hey babe, remember the husband I buried three years ago? Yeah, he's alive. And he says I'm in danger."

Madness.

Everything felt unreal until I stepped into my bedroom and saw my wedding dress still draped across the chair. White, spotless, mocking.

I ripped it down and tossed it into the wardrobe.

I needed answers. Real ones. Not riddles and warnings. I needed to know who these people were. The ones Tochi said could disappear someone without a trace.

And I needed to know why they were still watching me.

My eyes drifted to the envelope on the table.

There was something I hadn't checked.

Inside the flap of the envelope, tucked so deeply I nearly missed it, was a tiny memory card. I stared at it for a second. Then ran for my laptop.

I slotted it in. A folder popped up.

One video. No label. No date.

I clicked on it.

The screen lit up with shaky footage of a dark room. A man was tied to a chair. His face bloodied. His head drooped.

Then a voice came from behind the camera. Deep. Calm. Cold.

"You thought we wouldn't find out? You thought death was an escape?"

The camera zoomed in slowly.

My breath caught.

It was Nathan.

A broken version of him. A man on the edge of death. But it was him. Alive. In pain. Before the world thought he was gone.

I covered my mouth with my palm. My stomach twisted.

Then I heard another voice. Female. Familiar.

"Just do it quickly. I don't want blood on my hands."

My heart stopped.

I knew that voice.

I had eaten in her house. Worn her lace wrappers. Called her Mama.

It was Nathan's mother.

She was there.

She knew.

I slammed the laptop shut like it had burned me.

Tears rolled down my cheeks, not the kind you cry out of sorrow, but the kind that fall when you realize the truth is uglier than the lie.

Nathan hadn't just faked his death.

Someone had tried to kill him.

And his mother had helped.

The knock on my door almost made me jump.

I wiped my tears and opened it slowly.

It was Emeka.

His eyes scanned my face. "Are you okay?"

I nodded too fast.

He raised a brow. "You sure?"

I tried to smile. "Yeah. Just tired."

He looked like he wanted to say something else but didn't. Instead, he pulled me into a hug. I let him. But I didn't hug him back.

Because in that moment, I wasn't thinking about love or loyalty or marriage.

I was thinking about how many people were lying to me.

And how far I'd have to go to uncover the truth.