His Old Money World

Chapter 18 - The Adeyemi Board

I came back to Ikoyi on Monday. The mansion was quiet. Too quiet.

Adrian was not home. Mama Adeyemi was in the living room with three men in suits. Board members.

"Amara, come here," she said.

One of the men looked at me. "So this is the girl? Adrian has refused to sign the Lekki Estate deal because Chioma's father is involved. We are losing 2 billion naira because of a... domestic staff."

The insult was clear.

Mama Adeyemi stood up. "My son is in his study. He has not eaten since you left. He told the board he will not marry Chioma. He told them he will marry you."

My knees almost gave way.

"He is giving up everything, Amara. His inheritance, his position. His father built this for 40 years. And he is throwing it away for a 19-year-old girl from Mainland who wants to be invisible."

She walked to me. She took my hands. Her hands were cold.

"So now I ask you, not as his mother, but as a woman who once stood where you stand. Do you love him enough to let him lose everything? Or do you love him enough to leave?"

Before I could answer, the study door opened. Adrian came out. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. But when he saw me, his whole face changed.

"You're back," he said.

He walked past his board, past his mother, and pulled me into his study and locked the door.

"I made my choice," he said again, that same line from Chapter 14, but this time he was not protecting me from his mother. He was asking me to protect him from his whole world.

"They want me to choose, Amara. Old money or you. Tell me what to do."

And I stood there, 19, broke, from Mainland Lagos, with the most powerful man in Ikoyi asking me, a maid, to decide his future.

The same girl who once planned to be invisible now held his entire old money world in her hands.