Episode 9
1572 Words
Part 1
This Time, I Choose Myself
The news kept looping.
The same photos.
The same headlines.
Words that never asked the truth from the woman living it.
Amika turned off her phone.
Placed it face down on the table.
She sat still on the edge of the bed.
The room was quiet.
Small.
But it was the only place where no one judged her.
No tears came.
Not because it didn’t hurt—
but because it hurt too much to cry.
She stood.
Walked to the mirror.
The woman staring back at her had red eyes.
Pale skin.
But her gaze was not broken.
“Enough,” she said to her reflection.
Soft.
Steady.
Enough of letting others define her life.
Enough of letting someone “protect” her
in ways that erased her voice.
The next morning, she went to the hospital early—
before the news could reach her there.
Her father looked at her, worried.
“Am… is something wrong?” he asked, his voice rough.
Amika sat beside him.
Held his hand tight.
“I’m okay,” she said.
This time, it wasn’t a lie.
“I just need to handle something on my own.”
He studied her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
“If it gets too heavy,” he said gently,
“don’t forget—I’m still right here.”
Simple words.
But they warmed her heart
in a way money and power never could.
That afternoon, Nicholas stood outside the building.
No cameras.
No staff.
No entourage.
Just him—
and the guilt that never left.
Amika saw him.
She didn’t stop.
She walked straight toward him.
“We need to talk,” he said.
His voice quieter than she’d ever heard it.
“Yes,” she replied.
“But this time,
I’m the one who speaks.”
Nicholas went still.
Then nodded.
He accepted it.
Amika inhaled slowly.
Deeply.
“I never asked you to stand in front and protect me,” she said, calm and firm.
“And I never asked you to stay silent either.”
He looked at her.
Listening.
“What I needed,” she continued,
“was to be asked.
To be trusted.
And to be allowed to choose for myself.”
Her words weren’t angry.
They weren’t loud.
They were simply too true to deny.
“I—” Nicholas started.
She raised her hand.
“Listen first,” she said, eyes steady.
“If you still believe love means deciding for me,” she went on,
“then no matter what you do,
you’ll keep hurting me again and again.”
He swallowed.
Pain cut through him.
Because she was right.
Every word.
“From now on,” Amika said,
“I won’t hide.
I won’t run.
And I won’t let anyone use me as a tool again.”
She paused.
Then said the final line.
“Including you, Nicholas.”
It wasn’t a goodbye.
It was a boundary.
One he had never seen before.
Nicholas stood there.
Didn’t reach for her.
Didn’t offer pretty words.
For the first time, he understood—
A real apology
isn’t spoken.
It’s knowing when to step back
so the person you love
can stand on their own.
As Amika walked away,
her back straight,
her steps steady,
she didn’t know what waited ahead.
But she knew this for certain—
This time,
she chose herself
before anyone else.
Part 2
An Apology That Asks for Nothing
Nicholas did not return to the estate that night.
He stayed in his office.
One light on.
Stacks of documents spread across the desk.
This time, he wasn’t reading to win.
He was reading to understand.
Files from the legal team.
Source names.
Money trails.
Shell accounts.
Layered transfers designed to disappear.
All of it led to one person.
Selena.
“File the lawsuit,” Nicholas said.
His voice was steady.
Not angry.
Not rushed.
“Defamation.
False information.
Document manipulation.”
The legal team hesitated.
“If this goes public,” one of them warned,
“your personal history will be exposed. All of it.”
Nicholas nodded.
He accepted it.
“Open everything,” he said.
“All of that belongs to me alone.
Amika has nothing to do with it.”
That order was not protection.
It was accountability.
The next morning, a new statement was released.
“King Corporation initiates legal action against the source of false information.
The CEO confirms that his wife has no involvement and will not be subject to further inquiry.”
Amika’s name slowly disappeared from the headlines.
Not because something bigger replaced it—
but because he had finally pulled her out for real.
At the same time, Amika walked into a law office.
Alone.
No cameras.
No escort.
No one speaking for her.
She sat straight.
Hands folded on her lap.
“I want to file a petition,” she said calmly.
“To protect my reputation as an independent individual.”
The lawyer studied her.
“You’re certain?” he asked.
“This means you won’t rely on your husband’s status at all.”
Amika smiled.
Soft.
Certain.
“That’s exactly what I want.”
That evening, Nicholas stood outside her apartment.
Like before.
But this time—
He didn’t knock.
He placed an envelope at the door.
Then stepped back.
No message.
No explanation.
Inside the envelope were all documents related to the case.
Witness lists.
Evidence summaries.
And a short handwritten note.
I’m not asking you to trust me again.
I just don’t want to be the reason
you have to protect yourself alone.
Amika read it.
Silent.
Her heart trembled slightly.
Not because she was falling back—
but because this was the first time
he asked for nothing in return.
That same night, Selena sat in her apartment.
Her phone wouldn’t stop vibrating.
Court notices.
Messages from lawyers.
Breaking news of the lawsuit.
The confident smile she once wore
slowly disappeared.
“So he really dared,” she muttered.
Her gaze hardened.
“Then let everything burn.”
She pulled out another file.
Old.
Worn at the edges.
On the cover, faded handwriting read:
KING FAMILY — 20 YEARS AGO
Selena smiled.
Slow.
Cold.
“If he wants this to be about the truth,” she whispered to herself,
“then I’ll show him all of it.”
As Amika sealed the envelope and took a deep breath,
she had no idea—
The truth about to surface
wouldn’t belong to Nicholas alone.
It would shake the roots of the debt.
The contract.
And every relationship she thought she understood.
Part 3
The File That Shouldn’t Exist
The rain wouldn’t stop.
As if it were trying to drown the past.
But the harder it fell,
the louder the truth became.
Amika sat in her rented room.
Nicholas’s envelope lay open on the table.
She read every page.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Names.
Numbers.
Timelines.
All of it pointed to Selena’s case.
But something didn’t fit.
One company name appeared again and again—
in older documents.
Before she signed the contract.
Before her father collapsed.
Before the hundred-million debt existed.
A.K. Holdings.
Her heart started racing.
The initials felt familiar.
Too familiar.
Across the city, Nicholas opened an old folder.
One he hadn’t touched in over ten years.
Yellowed paper.
The smell of dust.
Signatures that weren’t his—
his father’s.
King Family — Confidential.
He read.
A real-estate deal twenty years ago.
A rival company’s sudden collapse.
Debt transfers hidden in layers of legality.
And one name—
deliberately crossed out.
A.K. Holdings.
Nicholas froze.
He remembered now.
That company had belonged to Amika’s father.
“No…” he murmured.
Low.
Tight.
If what he believed all along was wrong—
if the debt hadn’t come from her family’s failure—
then he had been taking revenge
on the wrong people.
That afternoon, Amika met her lawyer.
The file was clenched in her hands.
“I need you to look into this company,” she said, placing the papers down.
“I think it’s connected to my family’s debt.”
The lawyer read.
Slowly.
His expression changed.
“These documents,” he said carefully,
“were never meant to surface.
Some sections were sealed by court order.”
Amika’s chest dropped.
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” he looked up at her,
“someone didn’t want you to know
how this debt was really created.”
That evening, Nicholas called.
Amika stared at her phone.
Then answered.
“Do you know A.K. Holdings?” he asked immediately.
No detour.
No excuses.
She paused.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Tight.
“We need to talk,” Nicholas said.
His voice was different.
Not a command.
A request.
Amika closed her eyes.
“This time,” she said,
“I’ll listen.
But if you lie—
or hide anything again—
I walk away. Immediately.”
“I swear,” he replied.
Fast.
Honest.
They set a time.
A place.
Neither of them knew yet—
the truth about to be uncovered
wouldn’t just change their relationship.
It would destroy the meaning of the debt.
The contract.
The revenge.
And most dangerously—
it might reveal that Amika
was never a woman chosen by accident.
She was someone
who had been chosen
from the very beginning.
- Writer
