"I started sịeeping with brown G0ATS at the age of 18," Angela said in a whisper to her best friend, Sophia. "And that was how my bank account blew up."
"My goodness!" Sophia suddenly jolted in extreme shock. "You can't be serious, Angela… are you for real?"
Angela didn't answer immediately.
She scoffed quietly and adjusted her sitting posture, directly facing Sophia. Then she crossed her legs and gazed at Sophia.
"Let me ask you a simple question, Sophia," she began.
"How do you think I was able to get this ₦45 million duplex? Have you ever thought of my expensive outfits and iPhones? Have you?" Angela asked rhetorically.
"Wow! So… even that Range Rover downstairs, you got it by sịeeping with…?"
"Oh yes, Sophia." Angela cut in immediately.
"Jesus Christ!" Sophia shouted in disgust. "I can never do such a thing for m0ney!"
The moment Angela heard this, she glared strangely at Sophia, like she had just heard something funny, then she burst into a severe laughter.
"This is it… I knew you'd judge me," Angela muttered after she had recovered from the laughter. "This is the only reason I kept this away from you all these years… I expected this reaction."
"Stop it! Don't say this to me, Angela…" Sophia angrily stood up from the sofa.
"How can someone, the one person I've always called my best friend, be sịeeping with… oh my goodness ! Just for m0ney? I'm highly disappointed!" She yelled at Angela, who at this time was just staring in silence.
Sophia was disappointed, she was pained, she was hurt; mixed emotions.
She had always thought her friend got all her riches from a genuine source. And now, getting to know the opposite shattered her hope of survival.
She couldn't help it.
She was on the verge of storming out of the house, but reached an abrupt halt when her friend said something that struck her soul.
"Sophia," Angela called, softly.
Then she stood up and slowly walked up to the door, where Sophia was.
"I opened up because of how frequently you've been coming to my house crying for m0ney to pay your brother's hospital bill… I couldn't have told anyone this secret I just told you now, but I did to you because of what we share; you're my best friend, Sophia. So don't make me regret my actions."
Sophia's gaze was on the floor while Angela spoke.
Deep down, those words hit her so deep in ways she couldn't explain.
"If you ever change your mind to do what I do for m0ney, then feel free to come back."
***
That night at the hospital, Sophia found it difficult to think straight; she couldn't even blink, sleep vanished from her eyes.
Each time she looked at her brother on his sick bed, it made her flash back to all the debts she had taken just to complete the financial requirements for his surgery.
The doctors even said if the surgery wasn't done in the coming weeks, she might lose him.
****
THE NEXT DAY
Very early that morning, Sophia left her brother's Ward for Angela's place.
Where she lived was quite far from the hospital where Sophia's brother was admitted.
The moment Sophia arrived at Angela's apartment, she met the door wide open, which got her by surprise.
"Angy!" She called, as she slowly entered inside.
"Angela, are you home?" She asked, moving around the house. But still everywhere was silent. As if Angela wasn't anywhere close.
"Angela!" She called for the third time as she stepped into the kitchen, and that was when she saw it.
Her jaw dropped in shock, and her legs began to tremble.
She was in a pool of disbelief.
To be continued…