Chapter Six – Secrets We Carry
235 Words
Korede winced as Adaora helped him sit on the edge of her dorm’s back veranda. It was dark and quiet, the other girls still at prep. She wiped the dried blood at the side of his mouth with her handkerchief, eyes focused.
“Thanks,” he muttered.
“I didn’t do much,” she said, sitting beside him.
“You saved me.”
A heavy silence passed between them.
Then Adaora said, “You know… I used to think silence was safer.”
Korede looked at her. “Why?”
She hesitated, then spoke, voice barely above a whisper. “My dad… he’s a senior staff here. Very respected. But behind closed doors, he’s not what people think. That’s why I never talk. I’m always scared.”
Korede’s fists clenched.
Adaora continued. “I’ve spent years hiding. Pretending. But Gbenga’s death… and what I saw that night—I can’t pretend anymore.”
She pulled something out of her backpack: a folded piece of paper. It was a crude sketch of the figure she saw arguing with Gbenga.
“It’s not perfect,” she said. “But I remember the shoes. He wore white Nikes. Samuel’s the only one I’ve seen with them.”
Korede stared at the drawing. “Then we start with him.”
Their silence was no longer protection.
It was a weapon used against them.
And they were done being quiet.
- Writer
