Zina's mind was racing. Her father had filed a case against Aurelian Royce and now, that same man was standing in her office, calm as ice, claiming to be her protector.
"What your father uncovered... could bring down everything. And you're not the only one looking into it."
"The people who killed him they're watching you now."
She leaned against her desk, trying to mask the sudden weakness in her knees. "You're telling me this because... you're suddenly feeling guilty?"
"No," Aurelian said, his voice low and unshaken. "Because we need each other."
Zina scoffed. "We? I don't need you. I need answers. I need justice. And I certainly don't need help from the man my father tried to expose."
Aurelian stepped forward, his eyes unreadable. "I didn't kill your father. But I know who did. And if you keep digging alone, you won't live long enough to find out."
The air between them thickened. There was no fear in his voice just certainty. Like death wasn't a possibility… but a schedule.
Zina clenched her fists. "Then why don't you go to the police? Or the press?"
He shook his head. "The police are compromised. The press is bought. You of all people should know that by now."
"And you? What are you then?" she asked.
"I'm a man who knows how the game is played," he replied. "And I've lost people too."
Zina paused. There was something in his voice this time not charm, not arrogance… but something broken.
She hated that part of her wanted to believe him.
She poured herself a glass of water and sat down, needing something to ground her. "So what exactly are you proposing, Mr. Royce?"
"A deal," he said simply. "We work together. You have your father's case files. I have access to information, accounts, people... things your father never got close to. Together, we finish what he started."
Zina's laugh was bitter. "You want me to team up with you to investigate you?"
"I want you to investigate the truth," he replied coolly. "Even if it implicates me. I won't stop you."
She studied him carefully. Most men in power didn't offer themselves up for judgment. Especially not men who looked like they were born into secrets and diamonds.
"What's in it for you?" she asked.
Aurelian didn't hesitate. "Closure. And maybe… redemption."
That word lingered in the air like perfume sweet, tragic, and impossible to touch.
Zina stood up and walked to the window, watching Abuja's skyline glow in the afternoon heat. Her father had walked these streets with fire in his veins. And he had died alone.
Could she trust this man?
No.
But could she use him?
Maybe.
She turned back to Aurelian. "Fine. We work together. But under my rules. No secrets. No vanishing. No lies."
He nodded. "Agreed. On one condition."
She narrowed her eyes. "What?"
"I stay close to you. From now on."
Zina frowned. "Why?"
"Because if they think we're working together, you'll be targeted. And I'm the only one who knows how to keep you alive."
There was a quiet beat between them. The kind that makes a woman feel something she shouldn't. Her instincts screamed danger. But something else whispered necessity.
"Fine," she said. "But the moment you lie to me, I'll bury you myself."
He smirked. "Fair enough."
Later that evening, Zina locked her office and returned home with the files under her arm and a weight on her chest. She kept glancing over her shoulder. Cars. People. Faces. Were they just people… or watchers?
When she stepped into her apartment, she locked every bolt. Checked the windows. Triple checked her doors. She was becoming like her father now paranoid, sharp, constantly hunted.
But she wasn't afraid.
She was ready.
She opened her laptop and pulled up the sealed lawsuit again. Her father had laid out a trail of corruption so intricate, it almost read like fiction. Offshore accounts, coded emails, and a shell company tied to a Swiss bank under the name Black Ember Corp.
And at the center? A string of payments… traced to Aurelian Royce.
Her stomach turned.
She picked up her phone and typed a message:
"How do you explain the Black Ember payments?"
Delivered.
Read.
A minute passed before the reply came:
"Meet me tomorrow. 10 AM. Hotel Malakai. Suite 509. Bring the file. I'll tell you everything."
Zina stared at the screen.
HOTEL MALAKAI
That was the same hotel where her father had stayed the night before his death. The same hotel that had claimed their cameras were "malfunctioning" that night.
Coincidence?
Or a warning?
She placed the phone down and closed her eyes, just for a moment. The city outside her window continued to hum, unaware that another storm was brewing not in the sky, but inside the courtroom, behind whispers, within the very systems built to protect the people.
Tomorrow, she would walk into the same hotel that swallowed her father's truth.
But this time… she wouldn't walk in alone.
Zina stared at her father's framed photo on her shelf.
"I don't know what you got yourself into, Dad," she whispered, "but I swear... I'll finish it. Even if it kills me."
She glanced at her phone again. Aurelian's message glowed on the screen like a trap.
Tomorrow, everything would change.
And if Aurelian Royce was lying?
Then she'd bury him with the truth.