CHAPTER 4: THE MERCY OFFER
1323 Words
CHAPTER 4: THE MERCY OFFER
*6:03 AM. Midnight Bytes Cafe.
The admission email still glowed on her cracked phone screen:
*Welcome to FUEN, Doctor.*
Doctor.
The word looked fake. Like it belonged to someone else. Someone who didn’t run barefoot through FUEN bush at midnight. Someone who didn’t get called “PERSONAL” on a fraud spreadsheet.
Ada closed Dreame. She couldn’t write. Not yet. Her hands were still shaking.
The DSS card sat on the sticky table. *DSS CYBERCRIME UNIT*. The officer said “Don’t talk to press.” He didn’t say “Don’t talk to your father.”
She had 47 missed calls.
She pressed Daddy.
One ring.
“Ada?” His voice broke on her name. Like it was the first word he’d said in years. “Ada, is it you? Are you safe? The men who came… they said… they said you were helping them?”
“Daddy,” Ada whispered. And then she couldn’t stop. All of it came out. The 180. The USB. Room 304. “Six months,” she said. “He wanted six months of my life for 328, Daddy.”
Silence. Then a sound she’d never heard from her father. A sob. Raw. Ugly. The sound of a man whose daughter was almost sold.
“I’m coming,” he said. “I’m on my way to FUEN now. Stay there. Don’t move.”
The line died.
Ada put her head on the table. The plastic was cold. The cafe smelled like old noodles and her new life.
The door opened again.
She didn’t look up. She was done with men in dark shirts.
“Ada?”
That voice wasn’t DSS. Wasn’t Dr. Kene.
She knew that voice.
She looked up.
Mr. Jude. Her JAMB lesson teacher. 6 AM to 9 PM. “Is it 328 or you’re wasting my time?”
He looked different at 6 AM without chalk dust on his shirt. Older. Scared. He was holding his phone. On the screen: A news headline.
*BREAKING: FUEN Lecturer Dr. Kene Obi Arrested in DSS JAMB Fraud Sting. 412 Results Corrected.*
“Ada,” Mr. Jude said again. He sat down slowly, like she was a bomb. “Is it true? The news... they’re saying a female student... a witness... 328...”
Ada didn’t answer. She pushed the DSS card across the table.
Mr. Jude read it. His hands started shaking. “God in heaven. Ada. You.”
He started crying. Right there in Midnight Bytes. A 52-year-old man who shouted at students for scoring 279.
“I told you 328,” he sobbed. “I told you that every day. And you got it. You actually got it. And that bastard—” He stopped himself. Looked around. Lowered his voice. “That bastard tried to steal it.”
Ada finally smiled. Small. Broken. “I didn’t let him, sir.”
“No,” Mr. Jude said. He wiped his face with his sleeve. “You didn’t. You saved 411 others too, Ada. Do you know that? Fatima Bello from my evening class. Her 290 was changed to 140. She was going to poison herself yesterday. Her mother called me crying.”
Fatima. 290 turned to 140. BALANCE ₦200k DUE.
Ada’s smile died.
The cafe door slammed open again.
Daddy.
He looked like he’d aged 10 years in 10 hours. Wrapper torn. Barefoot. Dust on his legs from trekking from the village to FUEN. But his eyes were alive.
He saw her.
He didn’t run. He walked. Slow. Like she was a dream that would disappear if he moved too fast.
He stopped at the table. Looked at her torn dress. The blood on her knee. The DSS card. Mr. Jude crying.
Then he did something Ada had never seen.
Her father, the strongest man in their village, the man who carried 50kg bags of garri without grunting, knelt.
On the dirty floor of Midnight Bytes.
In front of everyone.
“Daddy, no!” Ada scrambled out of the booth. To pull him up.
He held her hands. His were shaking. “Let me kneel, Ada. Let me kneel for the daughter who saved her own life. Let me kneel for the girl who said no to a billionaire. Let me kneel because I’m proud.”
Mr. Jude was full-on weeping now. The cafe boy pretended to clean tables but he was recording with his phone.
“Daddy, please stand,” Ada begged. “I’m not—”
“You are,” Daddy said. His voice was fierce. “You are Dr. Okoro. You were Dr. Okoro the day you were born. That man didn’t give you 328. God gave you 328. That man just tried to thief what was already yours.”
He stood then. Pulled her into his chest. He smelled like village rain and safety.
“We’re going home,” he said. “Your mother is cooking goat. The real goat. Not for celebration. For thanksgiving.”
For the first time since 11:03 AM yesterday, Ada laughed. A real laugh.
---
*8:00 AM. FUEN Teaching Hospital Gate.
It was a circus.
News vans. Students. Parents. Phones everywhere.
*JAMB OFFICIAL STATEMENT: TECHNICAL GLITCH CORRECTED. 412 CANDIDATES AFFECTED IN EASTERN CENTRE 3. ALL REAL SCORES RESTORED.*
No mention of Dr. Kene. No mention of DSS. No mention of “PERSONAL”. Just “glitch”.
Behind the scene stays behind the scene.
Ada held Daddy’s hand. They walked past the crowd. Past the cameras. Past the girl holding a sign that said “THANK YOU 328 GIRL”.
She didn’t stop.
Until she saw him.
At the edge of the crowd. Not in handcuffs. Not in a DSS car.
Dr. Kene Obi.
In a fresh suit. No dirt. No mud. Hair perfect. He was talking to a man in DSS uniform. Laughing. Signing something.
He looked up. Saw Ada.
And he smiled.
That same smile from Room 304. “Six months. That was the mercy offer, Ada. You should have taken it.”
He walked to her. Daddy stepped in front of her. Chest out.
Dr. Kene stopped. Looked at Daddy. Then looked at Ada over his shoulder.
“Mr. Okoro,” Dr. Kene said. Polite. Lecturer voice. “Congratulations. Your daughter is FUEN’s highest scorer. 328. Historic.”
Daddy didn’t move. “Stay away from my child.”
“I am,” Dr. Kene said. “DSS released me. Lack of evidence. The USB? Corrupted. Can’t open. The spreadsheet? Anybody could have made it. The ‘witness’?” He looked at Ada. “A traumatized girl with 180 who wanted to change her score. She made it all up.”
Ada’s blood went cold.
“The mercy offer stands, Ada,” Dr. Kene said softly. So only she could hear. “Six months. Starting today. Or tonight, JAMB announces a ‘new glitch’. Your 328 becomes 28. Not 180. Not 80. 28. Too dumb for polytechnic. Too dumb for life.”
He adjusted his suit. “You exposed me. Now I expose you. Behind the scene never ends, Miss Okoro. It just changes location.”
He walked away. Got into a black SUV. Not DSS. Private.
Daddy turned to her. “Ada? What did he say to you?”
Ada looked at the crowd. At the “THANK YOU 328 GIRL” sign. At Mr. Jude filming with pride. At the DSS card in her hand.
DSS said they had him. JAMB said glitch corrected.
But Dr. Kene Obi was free.
And 328 could still become 28.
She thought of Room 304. Of “PERSONAL”. Of Fatima Bello and 411 others.
She thought of Mummy’s BP drugs.
Then she pulled out her phone. Opened Dreame.
New Story.
Title: *Behind The Scene*
*Chapter 1: 180*
If Dr. Kene wanted to play behind the scene, she would write the scene.
For everyone to see.
She pressed POST.
- Writer
