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The first two videos were boring, nothing interesting but I didn’t give up because I had all night. Sleep became alien to me ever since Dubem died. I was shocked by the third video; Dr. Charles was dressed in a dark tuxedo.

“I was angry when I found out that Nanya was pregnant for another man. Dr. Kachi Obi, her father never liked the man that got his beloved daughter pregnant. The man is French and Dr. Kachi didn’t want a white man for his daughter so he encouraged me to woo his daughter. I succeeded; Nanya had no choice because I told lies against the French man René Jean-Michel. I told Nanya that René said he wasn’t ready to settle down with a woman of color. I hired two different ladies to pose as René’s lovers and they told lies about him. Nanya is so dumb; she believed all what the girls said.”

I was filled with rage and I wanted to know more about René Jean-Michel. I remembered that Prof Nanya had travelled out of the country. I came to a conclusion to tell Prof Nanya about what I had just found out “but why did her daughter keep mute?” I blurted out. I didn’t know how I was going to get in touch with the French man. I remembered what Dr. Charles had said, he talked about a pregnancy. I became confused “wait a minute, Dubem’s not Dr. Charles’ daughter, I am sure Dubem was preventing a scandal.”

I was confused because Dubem didn’t look mixed. I played another video; it was a confession about how Dr. Kachi planned to kill the child that Nanya was carrying. The original plan was to kill the child immediately the child had been born he connived with Dr. Charles but it didn’t work out. I gathered from the confession that the baby was nowhere to be found after Nanya had been delivered of the baby. Dr. Kachi lied to his daughter, Nanya that the baby had died.

“I don’t know what went wrong, the baby was nowhere to be found, Dr. Kachi and I had to cover it up, and we lied so as to prevent any suspicion. One investigation could lead to another so we just told Nanya that the baby had died and we had already buried him.”

I skipped one video and played another, in this video, Dubem’s father confessed that he had a son with another woman. Dr. Charles just kept surprising me. I knew I had to tell Dubem’s mother about my discovery. Unknown to me, Prof Nanya had come back to Nigeria, she called me that night. I made a mistake by telling her about her husband’s illegitimate child over the phone.

The next day, Mom came to knock at my door to invite me for breakfast and when I opened the door, she was horrified by my looks. My eyes were swollen because I had been crying, I looked so pale. Mom came into my room, “I need you to have your bath because we are going to see a psychologist.” she said.

Mom sat me down and talked to me for about two hours, she told me that I should be strong and she asked me a question that touched me, “will Dubem love to see you this way?” I shook my head when she asked the question.

That question made me remember what Dubem asked me to do. “Mom we don’t need to go and see a psychologist. Dubem would be sad to see me this way. I promised her that I would be there for her mom.” My mom looked relieved. I went to bathe, I had breakfast with the family and I was determined to find out about René Jean-Michel.

That evening, Mason visited, I was contemplating on telling him what I had found out when he handed me a box of chocolate. I sat down beside him; while he was talking my mind was far away. I was still contemplating on telling him what I found out about Dubem’s family. He pulled me closer to him; he removed the hair strands from my face and told me to accept the fact that Dubem was no more.

“I know, I just discovered some horrible things about Dubem’s family. I can’t keep all these to myself.” I blurted out.

I brought the laptop to the sitting room. I played him one of the videos and he was surprised “a video diary? Who does that?” he asked “I can imagine what will happen if these videos are taken to the press or police.”

I thought about it and smiled but before I could voice out my opinion, Mason said, “don’t even say what you have in mind.” he told me to inform Prof Nanya Obi about the situation on ground. I told Mason about Dubem’s father’s child, “he has a son from another woman, and I am sure Dr. Charles will make him the sole heir of his wife’s Estate. I searched for the video that contained Dr. Charles’ confession of how he planned to steal Prof. Nanya’s unborn child.”

“There is still hope; we have to search for Prof. Nanya’s child.” he replied.

“What if he/she is dead?” I asked

“We have to be optimistic but where do we start from?”

“We have a name, Rene Jean-Michel.”

Mason told me to visit Prof Nanya, “search her house, I am sure we would find something.” I was scared “next option.” I chorused. Mason told me that was the only choice. “Or better still send a copy of these videos to Prof Nanya.” I snapped. Mason believed that the idea was preposterous.

“You will be putting Prof Nanya’s life in Danger, she’ll confront her husband and he would terminate her and Dubem would be angry at you.” said Mason.

“But I already told her about her husband’s illegitimate son.”

“How did she take it?” he asked

“She took it well; she said something about meeting with her lawyers. I am sure she’s going to erase Dr. Charles’ from her will.”

“She’s going to need proof.”

“I am ready to provide one, I have evidence. Her supposed husband planned to kill her unborn child.”

Mason told me to be careful, “I can’t lose you. Before I met you, I was one sad dude. I was depressed, yesterday evening was like the best evening I had had in years. I can’t lose you babe.”

I was lost and I told him that he never looked depressed, “can you see my soul?” he asked. I shook my head. I begged him not to hide anything from me and I also promised that I would be careful. “You won’t lose me, you are the light I have in this dark tunnel. I am still here, this strong because of you.”

He hugged me and told me that I was also the light in his life, “my life isn’t as perfect as you think. You make me happy, the mere thought of you makes me smile. I can confidently say that life would suck without you.”

Dad came back from Dubai and I was so happy to see him. I really missed him while he was away, to think that we were always at logger heads when he was around. Dubem’s parents’ anniversary was coming up in the next two days.

A day before Prof. Nanya’s wedding anniversary, Mason and I went to get her a gift. Mason wanted to get her a box of chocolate and a purple scarf

“I have a better idea, let’s buy her a card.” I said.

“It is too simple.” he replied.

“I am going to put René Jean-Michel’s name on the card, and I will also give her a flash drive containing the videos then I will pay her a visit.”

“I don’t want you to go to that house again. If something awful happens I won’t be able to handle it.” he replied.

We got a beautiful card and sent it to Prof. Nanya including a flash drive containing the videos.

Written by Kezi Angela Patrick