I thought the ride to Ikoyi would clear my head. I thought the wind through the open window, the quiet of early morning Lagos, the soft hum of cars around me, would help me breathe again.
But nothing felt normal...everything inside me was loud.
My heartbeat.....
My thoughts....
My memories of him...
Darian!....
Even the sound of his name in my mind felt like a wound I was pressing my fingers into. I hated how my body still reacted to him, how the pain in my chest tightened whenever I remembered the way he looked at me before he pushed me to safety.
Like I was the only thing in the world that mattered but he still left.
He always leaves, and yet… I still wanted to believe he was alive. Hope is a stupid thing, It burns even when you try to kill it.
By the time I reached Ikoyi, the sun was rising. Soft, calm light washed the buildings and the empty street ahead, Nothing dangerous, Nothing strange... just quiet, but I didn't trust quiet anymore.
I followed the coordinates from the last files,his last message until the road opened into a large compound that looked abandoned. Faded paint, tall wire fence,no guards,no signboard.
Just a single metal door half-hidden behind broken concrete.
"This can't be the place," I whispered, but my chest tightened the way it always does when something is connected to him. My fingers trembled slightly as I pushed the gate. It opened with a long, slow sound that scraped across the silence.
Inside, the air smelled like dust and old wires and something else..... something familiar.
I stepped deeper....slow, careful, aware of every sound my foot made.
My hand brushed against the wall and I felt it....
Darian had been here.
I don't know how....
I don't know why....
But I knew....
It was like his presence lingered in the air, quiet but heavy, the same way he used to stand behind me without touching me, yet I could always feel him.
"Focus, Adanna," I murmured.
The room opened into a long hallway with blinking lights overhead. A hum vibrated faintly through the floor,machines running far below.
Not abandoned.....
Not dead.....
Working.....
The servers....
My breath caught.....
This was what he wanted me to find.....
I walked in slowly, my fingers sliding across the walls. The entire place hummed like a quiet heartbeat. I reached a metal door and pushed. It opened into a cold, wide server room with rows of blinking machines, blue, red, green lights dancing.
The air smelled like chilled steel and electricity, then I saw it....
A small console in the center with a black screen.
A single sticky note on top....
My name! In his handwriting then i froze.
The world felt like it fell away from my body. My legs shook. My throat tightened. I wanted to move closer, but I couldn't at first. My heart ached in that sharp, familiar way, like it was trying to find something it had lost.
I stepped forward finally, slowly, and picked up the note.
"Play it."
Just that? Just those words?....
My stomach trembled. I pressed the power button on the console, and the black screen flickered before a recording started to play.
His voice filled the room....
Soft.....
Calm.....
Steady....
Painfully familiar.....
"Adanna… if you're hearing this, it means I couldn't stay."
My knees weakened and I grabbed the edge of the desk to hold myself up, then his voice continued.
"I know you're angry. You have every right to be. I made choices that hurt you, even when I tried to protect you."
My breathing broke...
I wasn't ready.....
I had told myself I was ready....
I lied....
"But I need you to listen carefully," he said, voice low, like he was standing right behind me whispering into my neck. "Everything you are about to find here… it will change how you see me. How you see your father. How you see the Board, and how you see yourself."
My heart slammed against my chest.
"Adanna… you were never meant to be part of this."
I shook my head, whispering, "Then why am I in it?"
His voice softened, almost broke.
"Because of me."
I felt the world tilt...
Because of him?
Because of him, everything in my life had shifted, my wedding night, the secrets, the chases, the danger, the loss. Because of him, I had seen things I shouldn't have. Felt things I wasn't prepared for.
Loved someone I shouldn't have loved...
The recording crackled slightly.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "This is the one truth I wanted to tell you in person. But life doesn't always give second chances, and if you're hearing this… I might have already lost mine."
My breath disappeared...
"Darian…" I whispered, touching the screen.
The recording continued....
"You will find the files you need in the folder marked D-9. They will explain everything. But Adanna… whatever happens after this, I want you to know something."
He paused.....
The silence stretched....
Then softly, painfully..
"You were not a mission to me. You never were. You were… the one thing I wished I met in a different life."
My hand covered my mouth as tears blurred my eyes.
"I hope you forgive me one day," he said. "Even if you don't, I hope you live. I hope you fight and I hope… I hope I don't have to stay in the shadows to watch over you anymore."
The recording ended.
The silence in the room swallowed me whole....
I stood there shaking, tears slipping down too fast for me to wipe. My chest felt like it was opening and closing at the same time. My mind was spinning.
He's alive...
He has to be.....
Messages don't sound that clear if someone is dying.
He's alive.....
He's alive.....
He's alive....
I repeated it to myself until I could breathe again, but along with the hope came confusion so strong it felt heavy in my stomach.
Why did he stay away?
Why hide?
Why leave another message instead of coming to me?
Why say things like he didn't deserve a second chance?
I wiped my tears and moved to the console again. I opened the folder he mentioned..... D-9.
Files....
Hundreds of them...
Pictures....
Documents.....
Audio clips.....
Videos....
I clicked on the first one and a picture of me, taken months before I even met him.
Taken from far away and my hand shook.
He'd been watching me long before the wedding night.
I clicked another file and another picture, another angle, another date.... all before he "accidentally" entered my life.
My throat tightened painfully.
"What were you doing, Darian…?"
I clicked on a video file, and the screen showed a dark room. A voice in the background.... one of the Board members.
"…she's the only one who can activate it."
Activate what?
Another voice replied....
Darian's.
"No. She doesn't need to be involved. She doesn't even know what she is."
My blood turned cold...
What she is...
Not who she is....
What!
I clicked another file and my father's voice filled the screen.
"Keep her safe, Darian. That's all I'm asking. If she finds out the truth before she's ready, it will destroy her."
My legs started shaking again, but I forced myself to keep moving.
I clicked audio file after audio file until the truth layered on itself.
My father....
The Board....
The experiments.....
And me...
All connected....
All twisted.....
All waiting....
The more I listened, the more questions filled my head. My emotions tangled so tightly inside me I didn't know what to feel.
Anger....
Confusion....
Fear.....
Hope.....
Love...
Loss...
Everything pressed against each other until my chest ached. Then I saw a final file, timestamped only 24 hours ago.
My fingers hesitated then I clicked it.
The video loaded....
The screen showed a dimly lit room. A bed, Bandages, A man sitting with his back to the camera.
Breathing hard....
Shirtless.....
Scarred....
Fresh wounds on his shoulder and side....
My breath caught....
He turned slightly....
It was him!
Darian!
Alive....
Injured....
Hidden..
"Adanna…" he whispered without looking at the camera. "If I don't make it out of here tonight, at least you'll know I tried."
He coughed, winced, grabbed his side.
"I won't come near you, Not yet, Not like this. But I'll keep you safe from here. I promise."
His voice broke....
"I'm sorry for everything."
The video ended...
I covered my mouth again and sank slowly to the floor.
He was alive....
He was hurt.....
He was fighting....
He was still protecting me....
And I had no idea where he was.
The confusion inside me twisted sharply. I wanted to scream. I wanted to find him. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to hold him.
I wanted everything at once.
Instead, I whispered into the empty room...
"Where are you, Darian?"
My voice shook....
The servers hummed quietly around me, almost like they were answering. Like he was still here, somewhere close, watching from the shadows like he promised.
I closed my eyes and breathed slowly.
I hadn't lost him....
Not fully....
Hope flickered again....small, painful and warm.
I wanted to stay in that moment, but the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed in the hallway outside.
I froze....
Not his footsteps....
He had a quiet, controlled walk....
This one was heavy, fast and coming closer.
My heart slammed as i wiped my face, grabbed the console's drive, shoved it into my pocket, and ran to the side door just as the metal main door burst open.
Voices....
Men....
Searching....
"Check everywhere! She's here!"
My pulse raced as I ducked into a narrow passage, pushing through dark corridors until I reached a back exit.
I pushed the door and slipped out into the open air, breathing hard.
I could hear them inside.
They were close....too close.
I turned to run, but froze. A car was parked outside, a black SUV.
No driver! But the engine was running and on the dashboard, through the glass, a phone screen lit up.
My name..... a single message.
"Go. Now."
My heart jumped, it was him.
He was still watching and still protecting and still here.
Without thinking, I ran to the car, opened the door, jumped in, and slammed it shut. The moment I touched the steering wheel, the car moved.....automatic, self-driving, pulling me away from the danger.
I looked around wildly, breath shaking.
"Darian… where are you…" I whispered.
No answer.....just the quiet city passing by.
Just the ache in my chest....just the hope that refused to die, and the confusion that refused to let me breathe fully.
I leaned back and whispered into the moving silence...
"Come back to me."
No answer, but I felt it that somewhere out there… he heard me.
To be continued.....