"I promise you, Anwana, that's not my doing," Tade said, his voice raw with a desperation that clawed at her, a stark contrast to the composed man she thought she knew. He closed the distance between them, each step a plea. "Please… just this one time, please trust me."
Anwana's expression was a heavy, weary mask of hurt. Her heart, a battlefield of shattered promises, had been pummeled too many times to count, yet she couldn't deny the raw sincerity shining in Tade's eyes. It was an unguarded, searing light that pierced her defenses. She stared at him, her face a treacherous map torn between anger and a doubt so profound it felt like a physical weight. But beneath it all, something softer, something she had tried so hard to bury, was stirring.
"My dear," Tade's mother stepped in, her words weighed down by a guilt that twisted her features. "I'll handle this, I promise you. I caused this; I'll fix it." Her confession hung in the air, a final blow to the fragile trust Anwana had.
"Hmm… hmm," Ekere spat, fire in his voice, his rage a palpable heat in the room. "So this is the new method of hurting my sister? You know what? I've had it up to here and I'm done." He spoke in furious bursts, his head nodding with each word, as if punctuating the end of a long, painful chapter.
In that instant, Tade's pride, a fortress he had built over a lifetime, crumbled. He immediately dropped to his knees before them all. The sound of his knees hitting the floor was a sharp crack in the heavy silence. His entire being was an admission of defeat, a stripping away of everything he had used to protect himself.
"We've come a long way,"
he started, his voice a broken whisper that seemed to carry the weight of their entire shared history. His hands, clasped together in a desperate plea, trembled, a stark visual of his vulnerability. "I'm willing to do anything possible to marry your sister."
His gaze, a burning, singular focus, lifted to Anwana's. "Anwana," he whispered, a name that held all his yearning. "I don't have a ring, but I have a heart that beats for you alone."
His hands pressed hard against his chest, as if to prove the truth of his words. The room seemed to hold its breath, every single person frozen in the stillness of that moment.
Anwana's defenses, so meticulously constructed, cracked and then shattered. Her expression softened against her will, the anger and doubt melting away under the intense heat of his gaze. Her breath hitched, and her heart, a wild drum in her chest, began to beat a frantic rhythm, betraying her years of emotional restraint. A rush of heat surged through her, painting her cheeks a fiery red. In that moment, the noise of the world faded, and she could feel everything: his desperate longing, her own profound fear, the unbreakable, electric connection between them.
"I, Tade Oluwafemi Adebanjo, don't want anything in this life but you," he said, his voice shaking with the force of his emotion, yet firm in its conviction.
"I… don't want riches, I don't want glory. I just want your breath next to me. Your sadness for me to bury, your joy for me to share. To be your life, please… just let me."
For the first time in years, Tade's carefully guarded pride was stripped away. There were no pretenses, no defenses, just raw, naked truth. Her heart raced violently, a thousand memories rushing through her mind in a heartbeat ,the dreams she once held, the pain she buried, the fragile hope she had forbidden herself to feel. It all returned with a breathtaking force.
"Ta… de,"
she breathed, and his eyes, wide and searching, locked onto hers like a drowning man reaching for a single breath of air.
She surrendered, not to him, but to the truth of her own heart. She sank to the floor, her knees meeting his. Her head fell onto his shoulder, and in that simple act, it was as if she had finally found home. A gasp rippled through the room. Ekere, frozen in place, watched this raw, real moment unfold, unable to intervene, the fire in his eyes replaced by a stunned awe.
"I don't need a ring to believe you," she whispered, her voice muffled against his shoulder. "I just need your heart."
They stood up together, a single, unified entity, and wrapped their arms around each other.
The world seemed to fade away.
"Ohh myy my," Amara at the other end of the room shrieked in excitement, a hand pressed to her blushing cheeks. "I'm so proud of my cousin!"
Smiles, soft and warm, spread through the room like a wave. Tade's mom turned her face away, giving them the privacy she knew they needed. Guilt struck her like a knife, a sudden, sharp realization of the beautiful bond she had nearly destroyed. She had seen her son as a boy, but in this moment, he was a man.
"Get a room, please," Ekere teased, the tension in his voice replaced with a genuine, warm smile. "I've got kids who could be back from school anytime soon."
"No, don't you dare disturb this beautiful scene!" Grace, Ekere's wife, laughed. "The kids will be here by 12:03 or 2 p.m. today! Please, who's single? Leave the room!"she teased
Tade placed a gentle, tender kiss on Anwana's lips. Her world spun, a dizzying, beautiful vortex where only she and he existed. The soft pressure of his lips on hers sent a jolt, an electric current, through her entire body. She couldn't catch her breath, not because she was suffocating, but because she was finally breathing for
the first time in a long time.