Before they got to the hotel, Samantha stopped by at the ATM and withdrew one hundred and fifty thousand naira. She figured that if she was going to enter Lola’s room unannounced, she should be prepared to pay a lot of money for it. She got to the reception and slammed all the money she had withdrawn on the table and the attendant’s eyes popped open. She told him what she wanted in exchange for the money and he obliged. All the while, Ike stood in the background and didn’t say anything. He allowed her to run the show.
With the access key in hand, Samantha ran up the stairs to the first floor of the hotel, wondering what Lola was doing in Calabar. Lola had spoken about an interview and she wondered if it was to find another potential rich young girl to steal from. She got in front of the door, took a deep breath, then put the key card in the slot. Once she saw the green light, she pushed the door open and walked in with Ike following behind, then saw Lola on the bed with a man. She froze, as Lola scrambled off the bed, then stood still and stared at Ramsey, or Peter, as he too scrambled off the bed, trying to put on his trousers very fast.
“Samantha, oh my god,” Lola said.
“What are you doing here?” Peter added.
Samantha was speechless. She shook her head and held her hand over her mouth as she started to cry. All the guts she had in her just a few moments ago had vanished, then she ran out of the room, and when Peter tried to run after her, Ike held his hand across the doorway and blocked it.
“You stay away from her.” Ike’s voice was menacing, so Peter stopped and looked at him. Ike then threw both Peter and Lola a disgusted look, then walked out of the room.
Samantha was standing by the car when Ike got outside. He unlocked the door with the remote control and she jumped in immediately. He entered the other side and drove back to the airport, then bought them tickets back to Lagos. Before they took off, he called the police station in Benin City and arranged with them to have his car brought back to Lagos.
***
They arrived in Lagos almost two hours later. Samantha didn’t say that much during the flight, only that she wanted Lola nailed. She wanted Ike to investigate Lola and find a link between Lola and her father’s missing money. Ike agreed to start working on the case from the next day, after he had reported back to the police station in Ikoyi.
Samantha didn’t go back to her apartment because she didn’t want to be alone that day, and the fact that Lola still shared the place with her disgusted her. She wanted to stay with Ike for a short while, then after she had gotten someone to change the lock of her door, she would go back. Ike was okay with the idea and allowed Samantha rest in his apartment. He ordered them something to eat and they ate together, but quietly.
Samantha had only planned to stay a couple of hours, but after eating, she fell asleep and overslept. Ike didn’t wake her up because he didn’t want to disturb her. While she was sleeping, he went to report to the police station, then went to her place and had her locks changed for her. When he was going back home, he stopped at a shop and bought groceries, then bought a bottle of white wine and a box of chocolate.
By the time he got home, Samantha was awake watching the news. She said she had wanted to go home, but didn’t want to leave his place open and also couldn’t find her keys. He explained to her where he had been and what he had done, and it made her smile. She then helped him with the groceries he had bought and he asked her to stay for dinner because he wanted to cook. She agreed.
He cooked pasta with shredded beef and green pepper sauce, and it was heavenly. She liked it. After dinner, Ike opened the bottle of wine and they had a few glasses with chocolate. They sat and talked about everything and didn’t notice time go by. It was much later in the night that Ike expressed his love to her and asked her to date him. Samantha was shocked at the sudden request and her mind immediately went to Peter. She thought about it briefly. Peter was a jerk and at least she found out that he wasn’t in any kind of trouble.
She then agreed to be with Ike and they shared a kiss, the same type of tantalising kiss they had shared in Ondo State and a much longer one. The long kiss led them to the bedroom, where they explored each other’s body and made passionate love. Samantha slept off almost immediately, so decidedly, she spent the night there.
***
Samantha woke up suddenly when she heard voices coming from outside. She sat up on the bed, disoriented for a few seconds, before she remembered where she was. She reached for her phone and checked the time. It was 1.30am. She touched the bed and Ike wasn’t there.
She stood up to go and verify whose voices they were and where they were coming from. Ike wasn’t in the living room or in the kitchen. He was outside by the door, and he was arguing with someone. She couldn’t understand what the argument was about, as she couldn’t make out the words, and when she tried to peep, she couldn’t see the face of the other person — Ike was blocking the person. She went back to the room and waited for Ike to come back to bed before she asked him about it. Ike said it was work stuff. He had blown off an evening job because he wanted to be with her and it had caused a problem at the police station. But it was nothing that couldn’t be handled.
***
Samantha found herself back in Ike’s apartment the next day, but towards the evening. She had gone back to her apartment in the morning with her new keys, showered, changed her clothes and gone to visit her parents. Her father was doing so much better, which meant that her mother was also doing well. He told her that he had been contacted by the police, and that they had found the person responsible for the loss of his money. The person had been arrested and all the funds were going to be returned to him.
Samantha smiled. She was genuinely happy for him and also glad that, as promised, Ike had followed up on the case. She didn’t know if to tell her parents that the girl they knew to be Ada, who was really Lola, had been behind it. She didn’t know if to tell them about the journey she had embarked upon with the private investigator. She knew that they were going to find out one way or another, so she told them everything. They were highly disappointed, but also glad that everything had worked out well eventually. So it was after the visit that she went back to Ike’s apartment to see him.
They had just finished making love, and Ike had gotten another work phone call and gone to the living room to speak freely. Samantha, on the other hand, laid on his bed, watching the evening news and waiting for him to come back. It was then that the story on Lola came on. Samantha sat up smiling, happy that she had been a part of the investigation.
She rolled over to the other side of the bed to get the remote control, where Ike had kept it. The volume of the TV was low, so she could barely hear anything. She increased it immediately, then listened and watched attentively.
“...Goes by different aliases, has been arrested for her latest crime. Lola James duped her flatmate’s parents of almost fifty billion naira, by using information she had gotten while living with her flatmate. Her several bank accounts have been discovered and all stolen funds are being returned to victims. She was working in a network, which has also been brought down, thanks to the Nigerian Police Force, and undercover private investigator and police contractor, Princewill Jackson...”
Samantha dropped the remote control at the instant, because the man she was looking at on the screen, whose name was Princewill Jackson, was also known as Ramsey Richmond and Peter Emeh. She was shocked, and at that instant, one thing crossed her mind — the phone call Ike had received in Ondo State from a certain ‘P.I. Jackson.’
Samantha ran out of the room immediately and went to talk to Ike. She was confused and her veins felt like they were heating up in her body. Ike wasn’t in the living room or in the kitchen, and there were the voices again coming from outside. Ike was probably arguing with someone from work again. She didn’t want to interrupt, but what she had to say couldn’t wait.
She barged outside and almost lost her breath when she saw Ike arguing with Ramsey or Peter or Princewill. She wasn’
t sure what name to call him anymore. They were arguing as if they knew each other very well, and from the few words she had heard, it was obvious that they were arguing about her. She demanded an explanation.
After a brief silence, Princewill broke the ice. He looked at Ike and asked, “Are you going to tell her or should I?”
Ike didn’t have the guts to give Samantha the explanation, so Princewill did, and the story took Samantha back to the beginning... to the day she quit her job. Lola had orchestrated the whole thing.
Lola always used the same routine. She would find a prey, spend time with them and get to know them better, and depending on their likes or “sin,” she would arrange her attack plan. If the new friend liked to drink, it was an easy and quick job, if they liked to study, it could also be easily handled, if they were people that liked to party and fool around, it would have also been easy, but Samantha was a different case. She was rich, but also hardworking and too serious. Lola had been looking for Samantha’s weakness until the day Samantha said she had quit her job because she wanted love... romance... a relationship.
Lola immediately called an acquaintance in her criminal network and asked him for a contact that was young, clean and a sweet talker, and a phone number was given to her shortly afterwards. Samantha had told Lola that she was going to the cake and coffee shop in two hours and that was how long it took Lola to put the plan in motion. She called Princewill, not knowing that he was an undercover investigator, and explained the basics to him. He was meant to distract Samantha and make her fall in love with him, while she had told Samantha to play hard to get. Then when Samantha finally fell for him, he would make love to her and when she was asleep, he would hack into everything she had — phone, laptop, bank accounts, connections, links, information — and send all the details to her. After that, he was to dump Samantha and break her heart. She would then spend the time crying, and when she finally moved on, it would be too late.
The only problem with the plan was that Princewill had genuinely fallen for Samantha during the time he wooed her and she played hard to get. Pretence became reality for him, but he couldn’t just end the mission, as there was a lot at stake. So instead of breaking her heart by dumping her, he decided to vanish, without a trace. He felt that it would make things easier for her. He hadn’t expected her to look for him, so he was shocked when he saw her walk into the police station on the day she did. He didn’t want to be discovered, so he asked his friend and partner, Ike to talk to her, after he had briefed him on the situation, and ask her what she wanted. Ike’s role was to distract her and keep her away until the end of the case, but he did the total opposite for his own selfish reasons. He knew that Princewill really liked Samantha so he decided to take advantage of the situation, as if it was a contest.
Ike and Princewill communicated all the time during the case. Princewill gave Ike real time updates, while Ike gave false reports. In fact, Ike hadn’t really done any investigation or tracking. He had used information given to him by Princewill. He knew the plan all along that Princewill was going to be in Calabar with Lola, and also knew in what hotel they were going to be lodged, so if he had acted surprised and concerned at any time, he had been pretending. He wanted Samantha to catch Princewill in the act, so that she would finally forget about him.
While working undercover, Princewill said he had to do whatever was necessary to get the information he wanted from Lola. He normally observed his characters carefully, so he knew that Lola liked him, and that was her weakness. So he used sex as a tool to get what he wanted, which meant that he initiated it, and not Lola. Ike almost blew up the case when he showed up with Samantha, but Princewill managed to salvage it, swearing to Lola that he had no idea how Samantha had found them.
His life had been put in danger at that point, and Lola threatened to kill him. She then went ahead to contact one of her acquaintances to help her verify if Princewill was genuine or not. It was verified that he was. And to make her calm down again, he used sex as a tool a few more times until he wore her out and she fell asleep. Then he was able to hack into her phone and networks to get the information of everyone involved. He sent out details to the Police Force immediately and they started working even as Lola was asleep. By the time she woke up the next day, her criminal network had already collapsed and she was arrested...
Samantha got upset after the revelation and about the fact that she had been used by both men. And without saying anything, she went back into Ike’s room, refusing to allow any of them touch her or talk to her. She grabbed her handbag and stormed out of the apartment.
***
Samantha had spent the weeks that followed the sudden explosive events that occurred in her life, thinking. She had received multiple unanswered phone calls from both Princewill and Ike, each still declaring love to her and at the same time telling her why the other person wasn’t good for her. They left her messages, left her gifts at her doorstep, even stopped by a few times and knocked until they got tired, but she refused to consider them.
The problem was that she loved them both. She had once loved Princewill then hated him, and she had also once loved Ike and now hated him too. So both men were on equal footing when it came to the love and hate mélange. They were also dashingly handsome, very seductive, well built and everything that a girl would want. There was a tie.
Samantha still wanted love, but she didn’t want painful love, and she also didn’t want to start afresh and start looking for another person to love and to love her. There had to be one thing that distinguished Ike from Princewill and it was going to be the key to making a choice. So she decided to think deeply about it, then the next day, she would pick the right one.
***
A few days later, Samantha went into her favourite cake and coffee shop and sat at a round table, but it wasn’t the table close to the window. She had made her decision a few days back and invited the person for coffee, but she didn’t want to see him as he walked into the shop. She wanted to be surprised by him.
She had taken a bit of her cheesecake when she heard the door open. A dashing young man walked up to her and grinned. She smiled back and her eyes betrayed forgiveness. She had forgiven him because she loved him and because she had found the one difference in him.
He pulled a chair and sat down opposite her. “I want us to start all over again,” he said.
“I want that too.” Samantha smiled.
Just then the waiter came to take his order, and as he placed it, he kept his steady gaze on Samantha, not wanting to take his eyes off her ever again.
“Cheese croissant and espresso,” he said.
“As always,” the waiter replied, then scuttled off.
In the end, making a decision had been quite easy for her. Princewill did everything he had done for her, while Ike did everything he had done for himself and to spite Princewill. She went over to Princewill, sat on his lap and they shared a delicious long kiss. It was at that moment Samantha knew she had found love.
*****
About the author
C. M. Okonkwo is a Nigerian author who grew up in Lagos and moved to France to study, where she obtained a B.Sc. in Business Administration and Management, an M.Sc. in Personnel and Employment Management, and an advanced M.Sc. in International HR Management and Development. A lover of travel and tourism, her writing ideas and style are inspired by experiences gained in different countries she has lived in and visited.
Author’s Note
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*****
Editing by Laybels Publishing.
Cover image by C. M. Okonkwo
*****
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoye
d it!
Novels:
The XIth Hour, Thriller/Suspense, 2013
Thirteen Suspects, Erotic/Suspense, 2014
Desperate Women Series: Literary/Suspense
Dim Noo Abroad #1, 2014
Yankee Based Wives #2, 2016
Twenty-One Days, Literary/Suspense, 2015
Novellas:
The Angela Hunter Series: Mystery/Suspense
Closed Door #1, 2013
Jammed Door #2, 2014
Locked Door #3, 2015
Blocked Door, #4, 2016
Short Stories:
Ziora’s Surprise, Thriller/Suspense, 2013
Finding Love, Romance/Suspense, 2015
Black Box, Mystery/Suspense, 2015
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