CHAPTER 5

DOUBT

Doubt is a quiet poison. After the photograph, everything changed. Amara started checking Clara's page every day. Clara posted every day. A new dress. A new angle with Daniel in the background.

At work, Amara became distracted. Her boss asked if she was okay. Daniel tried. He really tried. He sent flowers to Lagos. He did video calls. But every call turned into an argument about Clara?

"Why is she still around you?"

"She works here, Amara! I can't fire her!"

"You can tell her to stay away from you!"

"I did!"

But he hadn't. Not really. Because Clara was useful. She brought clients. Her father knew people. Daniel's boss liked her.

One night, Amara was crying on the phone. "Maybe we're forcing something that isn't working," she whispered. Daniel froze. He was standing on his balcony, looking at the city.

"Don't say that."

"I'm tired, Daniel. I'm tired of fighting over a woman I have never met."

"So am I. But I don't want to lose you.

"Then don't," she cried.

Silence. Heavy, painful silence.

"Amara, I love you. Only you. You have to believe me."

"Show me," she said.

"I will. When you come back."

Amara returned a week early. She wanted to surprise him. She didn't tell him she was coming. She took the first flight from Lagos to Port Harcourt, her heart full of hope.

She expected Daniel at the airport with flowers, like before. No one was there. She called him. No answer. Again. No answer. She took a taxi to his house, dragging her suitcase, still in her work clothes. His car was not there. The gateman said Oga had not come home since morning. At 8pm, Daniel finally appeared, looking exhausted, shirt dusty. When he saw her suitcase, his face changed. "Amara? You... you said next week!"

Amara stared at him. "Where were you?" "I had an emergency at site. The wall collapsed. I... I'm sorry. I forgot the date."

She felt something break inside her.

"You forgot I was coming home?"

He reached for her hand. "Amara, please..."

She pulled away.

"I need time," she said, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know if I can trust you anymore."

Daniel's heart sank. He realized then that distance had not been their biggest problem. He had been.

THE BREAKUP

"I need time" turned into two weeks.

Amara moved back into her mother's house in Rumuola. She didn't go back to Lagos for the final handover - her boss understood. She threw herself into freelance work from her small room, designing flyers for petty traders for 5k each. Anything to not think.

Daniel tried every day.

Day 1: _Good morning. I know you're hurt. Can we talk?_

No reply.

Day 3: He came to her mother's gate with flowers. Mama Nkechi met him outside.

"My daughter is not ready, Daniel. Give her time. She loves you, but she is wounded."

Day 7: He sent a long voice note, his voice breaking. "Amara, I swear on my mother's life, I never touched Clara. I never wanted her. I was stupid. I was tired and I let a client get too close because I wanted to look professional. But I never betrayed you."

Amara listened to it at 2am and cried into her pillow. Part of her believed him. But the other part - the part that watched her mother wait for a father who never came back - said:

Men always say that._

On the 15th day, she agreed to meet him at Café Liora. The same café where they met.

He was already there when she arrived, looking thinner, his beard overgrown.

They sat at their table.

"Amara," he started.

She cut him off. Her eyes were red but dry. She had no more tears.

"Daniel, I think we need to let each other go."

Daniel stared at her. "No."

"Daniel, listen-"

"No! We don't give up because things became difficult! That's what people who don't love each other do!

"I don't know how to trust you anymore," she whispered. "And without trust, what are we?"

"I never betrayed you!" he slammed his hand on the table, then immediately regretted it when she flinched. "Amara, please..."

"You're asking me to believe in something I can no longer see," she said, standing up. "I have to protect myself."

She walked away. She didn't look back this time. If she had, she would have seen Daniel put his head in his hands and stay like that for a very long time.

Outside, it started raining again. But this time, there was no one to run into a café with.

TWO BROKEN HEARTS

Months passed. Harmattan came.

Amara became a ghost of herself. She worked, she ate, she slept. She stopped going out. Her friends said, "You need to move on. Meet someone else."

She tried. One guy from her church took her for ice cream. She spent the whole time comparing him to Daniel - how Daniel laughed, how Daniel listened. She never saw the guy again.

She kept one thing: the first white lily Daniel gave her, now dried and pressed inside her Bible.

Daniel did worse.

He worked like a madman. He took every site supervision, every night shift. His mother was worried.

"My son, you will kill yourself," Evelyn said when she visited and saw his apartment full of takeaway packs.

"I'm fine, Mama."

"You are not fine. You haven't shaved. You haven't been to church. Where is Amara?"

Daniel said nothing.

He kept the photograph from their first date - the one the waiter took at the rooftop restaurant. Amara laughed, him looking at her like she was the whole world.

Neither dated anyone else. Neither admitted how much they still missed each other. Pride is a heavy thing.

Then one Tuesday afternoon, Amara's phone rang.

Unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Amara, it's me, Evelyn. Daniel's mother."

Amara sat up straight. "Mama Evelyn? Is everything okay? Is Daniel okay?"

There was silence on the other end. Then a sigh.

"Amara, he had an accident. He's in the hospital. It's not too serious, but... he kept calling your name. He needs you."

Amara didn't ask any more. She grabbed her bag and ran.