CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Aisha was almost asleep when her phone vibrated on the bedside table.
She reached for it, expecting a message from Amaka. Instead, she found an unknown number.
You should stop asking questions about Robert Cole. Your mother made that mistake once, and look where it led her.
Aisha sat upright.
She read the message again, hoping she had misunderstood it. But the words remained the same.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she took a screenshot and sent it to Daniel.
His call came less than a minute later.
"Aisha, are you home?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Lock your doors and don't go outside. I'm coming over."
"Daniel, you can't just show up at my house in the middle of the night."
"Someone is threatening you, Aisha. I'm not taking chances."
She wanted to argue, but the fear in his voice stopped her.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel arrived with a worried expression. He checked that the doors were locked before sitting beside her on the sofa.
"Have you told your mother?" he asked.
"Not yet. She's asleep."
"We should tell her in the morning. And we need to report these threats."
Aisha nodded, staring at her phone.
"Why is this happening to us?"
"Because someone believes we are getting too close to the truth."
She looked at him. "Are you scared?"
"Of course I am."
His honesty surprised her.
"But I'm more worried about what might happen to you," he added.
For a moment, she forgot about the message. She noticed the tiredness in his eyes and the way he kept checking whether she was all right.
"You really don't have to stay," she whispered.
"I know."
"Then why are you staying?"
Daniel looked directly at her.
"Because six years ago, I lost the chance to be there for you. I won't let fear make me disappear again."
Aisha's eyes softened.
She rested her head against the sofa and closed her eyes, exhausted by everything that had happened.
Daniel remained beside her, keeping watch until she finally fell asleep.
Just before dawn, his phone vibrated.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
Tell Aisha to ask Grace what happened to the original documents.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Whatever Robert Cole was hiding, it was connected to something that had happened long before Aisha and Daniel understood the meaning of their families' secrets.