Chapter Fifteen: The Offer in the Shadow.

Here is Chapter Fifteen of The Chief's Assistant — a chapter of re

The email detonated like a bomb.

By morning, the digital version of the Zenetek files had gone viral—ripping through newsrooms, Twitter feeds, and encrypted political group chats like wildfire. Pages upon pages of early tech contracts, secret payouts, and correspondence between shell companies and corrupt political figures exposed a scandal so deep, it threatened to rewrite a decade of Nigerian economic history.

At the center of it: not Obinna.

But Minister Boma Ekene, former Commissioner of Digital Strategy and longtime investor in "emerging ventures."

By 10:00 a.m., he had resigned.

By 12:00 p.m., the EFCC launched an inquiry.

And by sundown, Amaka Ifeoma's name had become something more than controversial.

She was a movement.

"The Queen Who Brought Down a Minister"

"Amaka Ifeoma: The Truth Architect"

"#LetHerLead trends across West Africa"

But the higher she rose, the darker the sky grew.

Inside Echelon Tower, Amaka stood in her office, surrounded by silence.

No applause.

No celebration.

Just the weight of what she'd unleashed.

Obinna was gone.

Hours after she sent the email, he had left a handwritten note on her desk.

I chose love.

I chose you.

And now I choose to disappear, so you can finally step into the light you earned without me shadowing it.

Amaka folded the note quietly and tucked it into her coat pocket.

She wasn't ready to cry.

Not yet.

Not while she was still being watched.

Because even now, they were watching.

Kunle entered without knocking.

"You did it," he said. "But we have a problem."

Her voice was tired. "Another one?"

He handed her a phone. "This one comes in a suit."

Onscreen: a live video call.

A woman in sleek Ankara print and bone-straight braids smiled through the screen. Cold, beautiful. Her tone was velvet dipped in arsenic.

"Miss Ifeoma," she purred. "My name is Chief Zara Obieze. I represent the Alliance of National Interests. We'd like a word."

Amaka raised a brow. "The same 'alliance' whose funding was named in the leaked files?"

Zara's smile didn't flicker. "We don't take leaks personally. We take them as invitations."

"To what?"

"To power."

She leaned forward.

"You've shown the world you can destroy a giant. Now, we want to help you become one."

Amaka went still.

"You mean politics."

"I mean legacy. We'll back you. Fund your tech initiatives. Clear the noise. But we need your loyalty, your name—and your silence about some things going forward."

Amaka didn't reply.

Zara tilted her head. "You're smart enough to know every empire needs its devils. Why not choose which devils serve you?"

Then the screen went black.

Amaka stood frozen.

Kunle stepped beside her. "You say yes, you become untouchable."

"And if I say no?"

"They'll come for you."

She turned toward the window.

Across the skyline, Amaka saw a city that didn't know what to make of her yet.

To some, she was a disruptor.

To others, a messiah.

But inside, she still felt like a girl raised by a widow, pushing paper in a corner office, who accidentally discovered she was made for fire.

And now that fire was catching.

Her phone buzzed again.

A private message. Anonymous.

Tell us what you want, Amaka.

We'll give it to you.

— The Alliance

She looked down at Obinna's letter.

And for the first time, she didn't feel small without him.

She felt… vast.

Not because he left.

But because he believed she could carry it without him.

Kunle asked, "What do you want to do?"

Amaka smiled faintly.

"Remind them who taught kings how to build kingdoms."

Meanwhile, somewhere deep in Cape Verde, Obinna stood alone on a quiet beach, watching the ocean roll in.

The wind whipped through his linen shirt. He held nothing but a phone and a burning thought in his chest:

She's going to be more than they can handle.

Behind him, an encrypted laptop blinked.

A new message:

TARGET: AMAKA IFEOMA

ENGAGE OR ERASE?

– UNKNOWN PROTOCOL 9

Obinna stared at it.

His face went cold.

"No one touches her," he whispered.

Then he turned off the screen.

And walked away into the storm.