CHAPTER 2 — The Paper She Never Signed
After that 4 a.m. night, Richard tried to touch Christiana.
“You misunderstood,” he said immediately.
Christiana stood in the hallway with one hand around her belly, tears silently running down her face.
“I heard you clearly.”
Richard sighed.
Not the sigh of a man who felt guilty.
It was the sigh of a man who was annoyed.
“It was just a stupid joke between men. Shola was drunk. I only said it to play along.”
“You called me a foolish woman.”
“Christiana, you’re sensitive because of the pregnancy.”
That sentence made her heart turn cold.
Sensitive.
He always used that word whenever she questioned something.
When she asked why he had changed the safe password, he told her she was being sensitive.
When she asked why the accountant was sending reports to him instead of her, he told her she was being sensitive.
When she noticed that several longtime staff members had been dismissed without her approval, he told her she was being sensitive.
She had once believed that maybe she really was overthinking.
But tonight, there was nothing left to lie to herself about.
Richard stepped closer and softened his voice.
“You need rest. Go back to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“No,” she said.
One small word.
But it was the first time she had refused him without hesitation.
Richard’s eyes darkened.
Only for a second.
Then he smiled again.
“Fine. If you want to talk now, we’ll talk now. I’m sorry for that stupid joke. But you know I love you.”
Christiana looked at the man in front of her.
He was still handsome. Still calm. Still wearing the expensive silk pajamas she had bought him for his birthday. But all of it suddenly felt unfamiliar, like beautiful paint covering a rotting wall.
She wanted to scream.
She wanted to ask how long he had been lying.
She wanted to smash the phone in his hand and force Shola to confess everything.
But then the baby moved again inside her.
Christiana lowered her gaze and placed both hands over her belly.
No.
She could not fall apart.
Not now.
Not in front of him.
She took a deep breath, wiped her tears with the back of her hand, and said:
“I’m tired. I’m going back to the room.”
Richard watched her carefully.
“I’ll walk you back.”
“No need.”
This time, her voice was stronger.
Richard did not follow her. He only stood there and watched her walk down the hallway. Christiana could feel his stare on her back like a cold hand resting on her neck.
When she reached the bedroom, she locked the door.
Then she slid down to the floor.
Her tears broke free silently.
She was not only crying because she had been betrayed.
What hurt the most was the baby inside her. Her unborn child had been turned into a tool. A tiny life that had not even entered the world yet had already been used by its own father as a lock to trap its mother.
Christiana opened the drawer beside her bed and pulled out an old spare phone she had once used for work.
She turned on the screen.
Thirty-one minutes of recording.
She stared at the audio file, her heart pounding.
She had pressed record the moment she heard Richard mention Shola’s name.
Not because she had planned it.
But because lately, inside her own house, she had started to feel like she needed proof of her own reality.
She played the recording.
Richard’s voice came through clearly.
“I got this foolish woman pregnant.”
Christiana closed her eyes.
The pain cut just as sharply the second time.
But this time, beneath the pain, something else began to rise.
Not despair.
Clarity.
The next morning, Richard placed a glass of warm milk, a plate of sliced fruit, and a thin stack of documents in front of her.
He sat opposite her with his gentle smile back in place.
“I think I scared you last night,” he said. “I’m truly sorry. I want to make it up to you.”
Christiana looked at the papers.
“What is this?”
“Just some family paperwork. After the baby is born, certain legal matters should be prepared. So if you’re tired, I can handle things for you.”
She did not touch the pen.
Richard pushed the gold pen toward her.
“It’s nothing serious. I already had a lawyer review it.”
“Which lawyer?”
He paused for half a second.
“My lawyer.”
Christiana looked up.
“I want Aunt Talia to review it.”
Aunt Talia was her mother’s younger sister and the Adebayo family’s personal lawyer. She had once warned Christiana that she was marrying too quickly. After that, Christiana had been upset with her, and the two had grown distant.
Richard’s smile stiffened.
“You don’t need to involve your aunt in everything.”
“This concerns my family’s assets.”
“We are family now.”
“Then you won’t mind Aunt Talia reading it.”
The air in the dining room immediately turned cold.
Richard looked at her for a long moment before taking the documents back.
“Fine. When you’re calmer, we’ll talk again.”
He stood and walked away from the table.
But Christiana had already seen one line on the first page.
“Authorization of asset management in the event of pregnancy-related incapacity.”
She placed a hand over her belly as nausea rose inside her.
May you like
Not because of the pregnancy.
Because she had finally seen the true shape of the trap.
