Novels by Miszyf

The storm hit Ikoyi at ten at night.It came off the lagoon in a wall of black cloud, and within minutes the rain was hammering the windows hard enough to make the glass hum. Ada was in bed with a ledger on her knees when the lights went out.Every light. All at once. The house fell into a darkness so complete she could not see her own hand."Mrs. Okafor?" Mrs. Bankole's voice drifted up the stairs. "The generator is down. I am sorry. I have left candles in the hall.""Thank you!"Ada found a candle, lit it, and padded down the corridor in her cardigan. The house felt different in the dark, larger and older, full of creaks and long shadows. She told herself she was only fetching water.She found herself outside the study.A thread of gold light showed beneath the door. She hesitated, then pushed it open.Damian sat behind the desk with a single candle in front of him and his sleeves rolled to the elbow. He did not look surprise

"This is a terrible idea," Tobi whispered."You said that on the stairs.""It remains true.""Then why are you holding the door?""Because," Tobi said miserably, "I am a coward, and you are terrifying."Ada concealed a smile. It was past eleven at night. The Okafor Tower was empty except for security, a skeleton cleaning crew, and the two of them creeping down a service stair to a floor that did not appear on the lift panel.Sub-level three. Archive. Anything marked red."Mr. Okafor said you would have to ask permission," Tobi muttered."He said I had to ask him. I'm asking you to look the other way.""That is the same thing.""It is a very different thing, legally.""I will be fired.""You will be promoted," Ada said. "If I am right."The last door was steel, with a keypad and a small red sticker. Tobi hesitated. Then, with the air of a man signing his own death war

The officers left empty-handed.It had taken Damian twenty minutes, three phone calls and a lawyer's voice on speaker to send the Chief back to his car with a warrant that turned out to be missing a signature. Ada watched from the upstairs window as his taillights disappeared down the road."He will try again," Damian said behind her."I know.""Tomorrow is Zainab's surgery.""I know.""Whatever else happens between us." He paused. "I will be there."She turned. He was standing in the doorway with his tie loosened and his hair disordered, the same man who had told her she was a tool and a clause and a convenience. The same man who had brought her sister a first edition.She did not know what to do with him."Fine," Ada said.* * *The hospital at dawn was a landscape of pale corridors and low voices.Zainab was wheeled away at six-fifteen, small and brave against the white sheets, her last words a jo

The invitation arrived on thick, cream-coloured paper.Lunch. Just us girls. V.Ada should have thrown it away. Instead she found herself, at one o'clock on Thursday, seated across from Vivian Adeyemi at a corner table in the most exclusive restaurant on Victoria Island, watching a waiter pour sparkling water into a crystal glass."I want to apologise for the party," Vivian said."No, you don't.""No," Vivian agreed, with a bright, brittle smile. "I don't. But I do want to offer you something better."She slid a cheque across the tablecloth.Fifty million naira. Made out to Adanna Bello. The signature at the bottom was not Vivian's. It was a bold, familiar flourish, black as ink.Emeka Okafor."Take it," Vivian said, "and walk away. Today. Before the year is out. It's a very generous offer. More than you will ever be paid by my fiancé.""Your fiancé is my husband.""For now.""The contract says twelve months.""Yes, the contract." Vivian leaned forward on her elbows. "Has he explained

The email arrived on a Tuesday, and by noon half the building was whispering.CONFIDENTIAL: Okafor Holdings tender bid, Lekki Port Expansion. Sent from Ada's work account to a rival firm. Two hundred pages of pricing, margins and strategy, delivered to Marlowe Group at 2:14 a.m.Ada read it three times at her desk with her heart going cold.She had not written it. She had not sent it. She had been asleep at 2:14 a.m., in a locked bedroom, in a house she did not trust.Mr. Eze stood at her door with his hands folded."The Chief has called an emergency board meeting," he said. "He asks that you attend.""I'm sure he does.""It would be wise, ma, to prepare an explanation."He's enjoying this, she thought. He is not even pretending not to.* * *The boardroom was long and cold. Twelve men and two women sat around a table that could have hosted a state banquet. At the head, the Chief wore the look of a patriarch forced to discipline a child."Mrs. Okafor," he said. "I regret this. But the

Zainab's room smelled of antiseptic and lilies."You're late," she said, without looking up from her phone."Traffic.""You're always late now. Marriage is making you unreliable.""Marriage is a very recent development.""Hmm." Zainab put the phone down and studied her sister with the frank, clinical stare of a seventeen-year-old who had spent most of her life in hospitals. "You look different.""I look tired.""No. You look worried. There's a difference. Tired is in the eyes. Worried is in the mouth." She tilted her head. "Is he mean to you?""No.""Is he nice to you?"Ada hesitated a fraction too long. "He is... complicated.""That's the answer people give when it's worse than they want to say."Before Ada could reply, a knock came at the door.Damian stood in the doorway with a paper bag in one hand and the look of a man who had walked into the wrong building."I did not know visitors had hours," he said."They don't, for you apparently," Zainab said. "Nobody stopped you at the des