1. NIGHTMARE IN DAYDREAMS

JENETA’S POV

“Hi, I’m here for Mr Agu. I’m his wife,” I said, setting down the lunch flask on the receptionist’s desk. The secretary smiled politely, her expression was warm as she pointed toward Nonso’s office.

She didn’t say a word. Odd.

Still, I assumed he was free because the usual she would have to inform Nonso herself. My heels clicked softly as I walked down the corridor. When I reached the door, I gave it a light push and stepped inside and I froze.

My feet moved backwards and paused.

There was a man before me, draped in a white shirt that clung to his body, and brown trousers that gripped his waist. It was almost as if he knew I was staring and he turned and my heartbeat thundered, but I met his gaze. And for a heartbeat, I forgot how to breathe.

If he wasn’t a man. I would have assumed he was a god carved in the likeness of ruin, so terrifyingly beautiful.

Then, he moved like a living shadow and his step was light with no sound.

He held his head high with his posture relaxed in a way that spoke of total command. His gaze cut across the room sharply, without blinking. When those brown eyes landed on me again, I felt myself shrink inside my own skin. It felt as if I was nothing but a shadow in his presence or like a child before a storm.

He didn’t need to raise his voice or speakfor fear to seize my heart. It was his radiance itself. For a moment, I thought I’d walked into the wrong office.

He looked like he was that nightmare dressed in daydreams. His hair was dark and, brushed back but slightly undone, as though his hands had run through it once too often. A pair of glasses rested on his face, gold thin-framed and with clear lenses. They did nothing to soften his gaze only sharpening the intensity of his gaze as they saw too much.

His chest was sculpted beneath the crisp lines of his shirt, the faint stretch of muscle visible beneath the thin fabric.

There was something about him, an energy that filled the room before he even spoke. It was so expensive, elegant, and so regal.

“You are?” I asked, trying to sound composed, though my voice came out harsher than I intended.

He didn’t answer. His gaze swept over me slowly like a predator assessing his prey, not admiring. Again, those gorgeous brown eyes that were supposed to be warm were cold and piercing instead. More like they warned me to run.

My palms went damp and the silence stretched as seconds passed enough to make my heartbeat echo in my ears.

I lowered my gaze unable to keep his stare. Maybe he was Nonso’s co-worker.

“You must be Nonso’s co-worker,” I tried again, forcing a small and polite smile.

Nothing. Not a word.

He just stared, hands buried deep in his pockets, as though I’d intruded on sacred ground.

And then, just as I was about to repeat. His lips curved into a faint smile too rehearsed to be kind.

A familiar voice broke the tension. “Jen, what are you doing here?”

I turned and relief washed through me fast. Nonso was approaching with a file tucked under his arm. He looked up, but the instant his eyes landed on the stranger and his expression changed. He stopped short and gave a small bow.

“Mr Maynard.”

I almost dropped the flask. My mouth parted slightly, my mind piecing the name with the face in front of me. Mr Jinhai Maynard.

Of course, I knew him. Nonso’s boss. His mentor. The man who dominated his late-night phone calls, meetings that stretched till dawn, and countless dinner cancellations.

Mr Jinhai Maynard, CEO of the Simao Group of Companies. He was ruthless. Brilliant. Feared. His name alone could silence an entire room.

And Vancouver was like a chess piece in his hands.

And I had just walked in on him like a fool.

Nonso leaned close, whispering harshly, “What are you doing here?”

“I came to give you your lunch. I was passing by,” I murmured, heat flooding my cheeks as he slipped an arm around my waist in a quick, nervous gesture.

Then came his voice, so low, I barely heard a thing. Controlled, and smooth enough to cut through glass.

“It seems I’m interrupting. I’ll leave you two.” Every word was vibrated with authority and carefully arranged. What was he? I had never seen someone so composed and filled with elegance before.

Nonso’s arm dropped from my waist immediately. Panic flickered across his face as he stepped forward, clutching at Jinhai’s arm like a drowning man reaching for his saviour.

“No, Mr Maynard. My wife was just leaving. Please, come in. We can discuss the promotion.”

The word promotion landed like a slap. My stomach twisted with happiness. Finally, the promotion he wanted, but something about the gaze Jinhai gave me. It made humiliation burn like an incense, slowly.

I stepped back with my head lowered and humiliation burning through me. When I looked up again, Jinhai’s eyes were still on me.

I didn’t know if I wanted to open the ground and bury myself in it.

“Jeneta Arinze, right?”

I nodded.

He chuckled. His voice was deceptively gentle as he spoke. “Beautiful. So beautiful.”

His lips with the most seductive smirk I have ever seen on a man. He didn’t address me as Nonso’s wife, but by my own name. I froze as he walked toward me.

He took my hand. His touch. God, his touch was somewhat electric coated with divinity. I watched as he lifted it to his lips. And as soon as the faint brush of his lips against my skin sent a jolt of some kind of electricity straight through me.

A smile flickered at the edge of his mouth. His gaze dipped to my throat, and I tried not to swallow, but fear had a taste, and it was bitter and metallic as soon as I swallowed.

“It was lovely meeting you,” he said, his eyes holding mine far too long.

No one had ever looked at me like that, not with that kind of desire. For one dizzying moment, I forgot to breathe.

He let go of my hand and turned back to Nonso as though I no longer existed.

That was my cue to leave.

I forced my legs to move. My fingers trembled on the doorknob before I finally slipped out, the cool air of the hallway hitting my flushed skin.

Don’t look back, I told myself.

But I did.

One glance. Just one.

And that one glance stretched into eternity.

Because when Jinhai Maynard looked at me. It wasn’t a look at all. It felt like possession. Something like a warning. A dare. Ruin... or like a devil hunting his next target.

It felt so sinful I never wanted to see him again. In my years of marriage. I had never felt the look of a man so deeply.

That’s what I told myself. But I didn’t know that by nightfall, those words would come back to choke me.

Just as the apartment smelled faintly of overly reheated stew and the light flickered across the room with the fan hummed lazily, stirring nothing but stale air.

I sat across from Nonso, my fingers still sticky from cutting vegetables.

He looked exhausted with his shirt wrinkled and eyes sunken. But there was something else in him tonight. Something like hope had drained out of him.

“Jeneta,” he began, “please, you have to. I promise everything is going to be fine. After that, we’ll be happy. We’ll be rich. He’s offering ten million dollars.”

I blinked. The air between us was so absurd and poisonous.

“What?” My throat felt dry. “Are you... Are you insane?”

He rubbed his hair, a buzzcut, pacing the small living room. His movements grew restless. “I think you’re the one being unreasonable! Ten million dollars could change our lives forever. We could get a house. A new car. Move somewhere better than this... this filth we call home. It’s not like your body is gold!”

My heart stuttered. “Nonso!” I called out loud, my voice cracking with disbelief and betrayal.

The sound startled him but only for a moment.

“You listen to me!” he shouted back, louder than I’d ever heard him. His tone hit me like a blow. My body jerked before I could stop it, instinctively recoiling from the man I thought I knew.

He had never raised his voice at me. Not once. It hurt, burned. How? Why?

And now here he was, screaming for me to sell myself.

Tears welled up, hot and fast, blurring my vision. My chest heaved as I stared at the man who had once promised to protect me, to love me, to build a future with me.

“You want your boss,” I whispered, my voice shaking, “to have sex with me…" I shook, the words couldn't leave my mouth, but anyway, they did. "...while you watch?”