The Price of a Lie from The Price of Gold. In this chapter, Jude, Tonia, and Kelvin each confront the lies they've told — or sold — and how money makes truth negotiable. Stakes rise. Paths cross. And the line between justice and survival begins to blur.
"A lie, when funded well enough, becomes a truth the world believes."
The studio lights were hot.
Tonia Wale blinked once, twice, and smiled at the camera like nothing was wrong. Her script glowed on the teleprompter.
"Tonight, in a shocking revelation, new reports claim that activist-turned-economist Dr. Kelvin Dairo received foreign funding to destabilize Nigeria's economy…"
The words burned her tongue.
She had written it. Approved it. And now she was reading it out loud, knowing it was false.
It was a planted piece — purchased by a powerful lobby group threatened by Kelvin's growing influence. They wanted to ruin him before he grew wings.
And Tonia… she needed their money to keep her network alive.
She read the script.
Word for word.
When the segment ended, she turned away from the camera and walked straight to the restroom. She locked the door, leaned against the sink, and breathed hard.
In the mirror, she saw her reflection — flawless makeup, designer dress, perfect poise. But her eyes?
They were tired of selling lies.
She had always told herself the same thing: "It's just business. They'll forget."
But this time felt different.
Meanwhile, across the city, Dr. Kelvin Dairo sat in his small office reading the article that now labeled him a "foreign agent."
His phone wouldn't stop ringing.
Calls from friends. Students. Journalists. Sponsors pulling out.
His inbox was already flooded with hate.
"Traitor."
"Paid puppet."
"Enemy of the nation."
His heart thudded as he closed the laptop.
He wasn't shocked. He'd predicted this day. He had always known that speaking truth to power was a death sentence in slow motion.
But it still hurt.
Not because of the lies.
But because people believed them.
Later that night, he received a burner call.
Jude.
"Now you see it," Jude said. "One headline and your life burns."
"You think this is a game?" Kelvin snapped. "My family could be attacked. My students—"
"Exactly. That's how they work. Not with bullets. With lies and budgets."
Kelvin was silent.
"I offered Tonia a chance to flip the script," Jude continued. "She picked survival. Now you have a choice too."
"What do you want from me?"
"To help me break the system. Leak files. Expose them all."
"You think I haven't tried that?"
"But I have what you don't," Jude said calmly. "Access. And fear."
"Then why me?"
"Because people believe you. And if we combine my tools with your truth—we can burn their empires to ash."
Kelvin sighed. "You're still breaking the law, Jude."
Jude chuckled darkly. "And the law has never been used to protect the poor. Only to punish them."
Click.
The line went dead.
The next morning, #KelvinTheTraitor trended across the country.
Tonia watched from her office, sipping bitter coffee, unable to swallow.
Her staff praised the analytics — page views, ad revenue, media buzz.
But in her gut, something shifted.
She opened a drawer and pulled out a photo — one from ten years ago, back when she was a campus reporter interviewing a younger Kelvin.
He had said something she never forgot:
"Truth isn't profitable, but it's eternal. A lie is always on borrowed time."
Now, she wondered if that time had run out.
Later that day, she received another anonymous message:
"Tell one more lie about Kelvin, and we'll publish everything you've buried."
— J.I.
Attached were headlines never released, names she was paid to silence, bribes she collected under shell company accounts.
She froze.
Jude had access to everything.
Her power was now her vulnerability.
Meanwhile, Jude sat on a rooftop overlooking the city — a cigarette burning slowly between his fingers.
The skyline sparkled with glass towers and blinking ads. Each building, each billboard, was a monument to someone's lie.
He thought about Kelvin. About Tonia.
And about his father — the man who died for being broke.
Money had stolen his family.
Lies had built the nation.
Now, he would use both to shake it to the core.
The price of a lie wasn't always in naira.
Sometimes it was in blood, silence, or the life you never got to live.