EPISODE 12

EPISODE 12

She took a taxi to Ikoyi and spent the ride telling herself to stay calm. Whatever it was she could handle it. She was not a woman who fell apart. She had been taking care of things since she was sixteen years old and her father left and her mother’s knee started going and her siblings needed school fees. She was built for harder things than heartbreak.

He opened the door before she knocked. He had changed from his work clothes into a plain dark t-shirt and he looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with sleep.

She sat on the sofa. He sat across from her rather than beside her and that told her everything before he said a word.

“Shade wants to try again,” he said. “For Zara.”

Amara looked at him. “And what do you want?”

He was quiet for a moment. “I have spent three weeks asking myself that. I do not love Shade the way I loved her before. That is the honest answer.” He met her eyes. “But Zara.”

She understood. She understood completely and she hated how much she understood.

“You do not have to explain,” she said.

“I want to.”

“Dami.” Her voice was steady. She was proud of that. “She is six years old and she has her father’s eyes and she showed me her horse drawings. You do not have to explain anything to me.”

Something crossed his face. Pained and certain at the same time.

“I am not ending this because I want to,” he said.

“I know.”

“You are the most—”

“Please do not finish that sentence,” she said quietly. Because if he finished it she was not going to be as steady as she was currently being and she needed to be steady tonight. She needed to walk out of this apartment on her own feet.

She stood. She picked up her bag. She crossed to where he was sitting and she held his face in her hands for a moment, his jaw warm under her palms, and she looked at him.

Then she walked to the door.

“Amara.”

She turned around.

“This is not the end of the story,” he said. And the way he said it did not sound like comfort. It sounded like fact.

She walked out into the Ikoyi night, the warm air wrapping around her, Lagos going on around her the way it always did, unbothered and permanent. She did not cry until she was in the taxi. And even then she kept the sound small because the driver did not need to know.

But she thought about what he said all the way home.

This is not the end of the story.

Three weeks later, Shade found a text. And everything Dami thought he had quietly resolved came apart at the seams in a way that none of them were ready for.

End of Story 1: The CEO’s Intern Follow leakarena.com for the next series.

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THE CEO’S INTERN A Lagos Adult Romance Series 11