Chapter 11: Moving Into the Estate
1035 Words
The Okafor estate didn’t look like a house. It looked like a fortress wearing a mansion’s clothes.
Ada stared out the tinted window of Daniel’s Maybach as the iron gates swung open. 3 guards saluted. CCTV cameras tracked the car. Manicured gardens stretched for acres. Fountains. Marble. Everything screamed `money` and `you don’t belong here`.
“Welcome home,” Daniel said beside her. Voice flat. Like he was commenting on weather.
Ada hugged her small handbag tighter. One handbag. That was all she was allowed to bring. “Home” felt like a threat when he said it.
The car stopped at the entrance. 2 maids in uniform stood waiting, heads bowed. Daniel stepped out first, then opened her door like she was a queen. But his eyes said `prisoner`.
“This is your wing,” he said, leading her through marble halls. His footsteps echoed. Hers didn’t. “East wing. 6 bedrooms. Private nurse on call 24/7. Gym. Pool. Library. Anything you need, you ask my PA.”
Ada stopped walking. “I have my own apartment. I don’t need—”
“You need this,” Daniel cut her off, turning to face her. “You need security. You need doctors. You need to stop pretending you’re fine living on garri and panic. My children won’t be born in stress.”
`My children.` He said it again. Like she was just the container.
They reached a double door. Gold handles. When Daniel pushed it open, Ada gasped.
The room was bigger than her entire Surulere apartment. Cream walls. King bed with silk sheets. Baby crib already assembled by the window. Maternity dresses hung in the walk-in closet. Vitamins lined the marble bathroom counter.
“Did you… do all this today?” she whispered.
“I did it last week,” Daniel said. “The day the DNA result came in. I don’t wait, Ada. I prepare.”
Ada walked to the window. The estate looked like a postcard. But the 10ft wall around it reminded her: she wasn’t a guest. She was kept.
“I want my job back,” she said without turning. “I’m not a decoration. I can still work from here. I’m only 5 months pregnant—”
“You can work,” Daniel said behind her. Close. Too close. “From the home office. 4 hours max. My doctor said no stress. No long hours. No Lagos traffic.”
He was right. But it still felt like a cage with golden bars.
That night, Ada couldn’t sleep. The bed was too soft. The silence was too loud. No danfo horns. No neighbor’s generator. Just… quiet. And fear.
At 2am she gave up and walked to the kitchen for water. Bare feet on cold marble. The estate was dark except for security lights.
She wasn’t alone.
Daniel sat at the island, shirt unbuttoned, glass of whiskey in hand. He wasn’t drinking. Just staring at it.
“You’re not supposed to be wandering,” he said without looking up.
“I can’t sleep in a palace,” Ada said honestly. “It feels like I’m waiting for punishment.”
Daniel finally looked at her. In the dim light, he didn’t look like the ruthless CEO. He looked tired. Human. 33 years old with the weight of an empire on his shoulders.
“Are you afraid of me, Ada?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” she answered just as quietly. “You control everything. My job. My mother’s hospital bill. Where I sleep. What I eat. Now my children. What’s left for me to control?”
Daniel set the glass down. Stood. Walked around the island until he was 2 steps from her. Close enough to touch. He didn’t.
“Control this,” he said, lifting her hand and placing it over his chest, right over his heart. His heart beat steady, strong, fast. “You control this. I haven’t slept properly since I saw your test results. Not because of the baby. Because of you running yesterday. Because of David looking at you like he remembers something.”
Ada pulled her hand back like she was burned. “Don’t. David has nothing to do with—”
“Don’t lie to me,” Daniel’s voice hardened. “I saw CCTV. I heard you say ‘Yes’ in the elevator. Room 1204. 5 weeks ago. Eko Hotel. Was it him, Ada? Was David the man from that night?”
Ada’s blood froze. The twins kicked hard like they felt her panic.
She opened her mouth. Closed it. Truth was on the tip of her tongue. One word would destroy Daniel. Would destroy the brothers. Would destroy her safety.
“I… I don’t know,” she lied. First real lie to his face. “It was dark. I was desperate. I didn’t see his face.”
Daniel studied her eyes for 10 seconds that felt like 10 years. Searching for lies. She’d gotten good at lying in 5 months.
Finally, he nodded. But his eyes said he didn’t believe her.
“Go to bed, Ada,” he said, voice soft again. “My doctor will check you at 8am. And Ada?”
She paused at the stairs.
“If it was him,” Daniel said quietly, “if David is the father… I’ll still raise those children as mine. But I won’t share you. Ever. Understand?”
Ada didn’t answer. She ran upstairs before he saw her tears.
In the guest wing across the compound, David stood at his window watching the east wing light turn off. He’d heard everything through the open window. Daniel’s threat. Ada’s lie.
He clenched his fists. The hotel receipt was burning a hole in his wallet.
`Room 1204. A. Okafor.`
It was her. He was sure now. But Daniel had already claimed her. Claimed the babies. Had lawyers, money, power.
David whispered to the darkness: “I won’t let him take what’s mine too.”
Upstairs, Ada lay in the king bed and cried silently. Not for herself. For the 2 babies inside her who were about to be born into a war between two billionaire brothers.
And she was the prize neither would surrender.
- Writer
