The Golden Leash from The Price of Gold. In this chapter, we shift focus back to Tonia Wale, who begins to understand the full cost of her success — that the power she thought she controlled has always been controlling her.
"Money doesn't free you. It just gives your cage a better view."
Tonia Wale had always considered herself untouchable.
She had the reach. The numbers. The networks. Her name was whispered in government halls and shouted in business conferences. She'd grown from a struggling intern to a kingmaker, controlling headlines that shaped elections and buried scandals.
But this morning, the leash tightened.
Hard.
She was reviewing scripts when her assistant barged into the office, pale-faced and sweating.
"Ma… something's wrong."
Tonia raised a brow. "What now?"
The assistant dropped a brown envelope on her desk. No name. No return address.
Inside were printed screenshots — her emails, bank transfers, voice notes from years past. Deals she thought were dead and buried.
One in particular stood out:
₦25 million wired from a defense contractor in exchange for killing a story on expired military weapons.
The very story that would've saved over 40 soldiers from dying in Sambisa forest.
Tonia stared at the proof — her silence had cost lives.
And someone wanted her to remember.
Moments later, her phone buzzed.
Private Number.
She answered, already knowing who it would be.
A familiar voice rasped on the other end. Calm. Cold.
"You're leaking, Tonia. And not from us."
She sat up straight. "Who is this?"
"You know who. And you know the rules. You were paid to protect names, not run crusades."
"I haven't leaked anything."
"Then control your platforms. Fast. Or you'll find out just how little protection money can buy you."
Click.
Silence.
Tonia dropped the phone.
Her mind raced through every deal she had made in the last five years. Politicians. CEOs. Foreign investors. Religious figures. She had buried enough truth to fill a thousand libraries.
In return, they gave her access — planes, estates, immunity.
But now that immunity was cracking.
Not because of her enemies.
But because of Jude Ikenna.
She received another message later that day.
From Jude.
"You thought you were holding the leash, but you've always been the dog. When you're ready to flip the table, you know where to find me."
Attached was a voice recording.
Her voice — from four years ago — laughing on a call with a senator after publishing a fake scandal to destroy his opponent.
Tonia clenched her jaw.
She had built her empire from secrets, lies, and favors.
Now someone else had taken control of those strings — and was pulling.
That night, Tonia met with her old mentor, Mfon Ekanem, a retired editor who once ran the last independent paper in Abuja before it mysteriously went bankrupt.
They sat on a rooftop bar, with city lights blinking like distant judgments.
"Is this how it ends, Mfon?" she asked. "After everything I've built?"
Mfon sipped his drink.
"Depends. Are you finally ready to stop building for them?"
"I don't even know who 'them' is anymore."
"That's the point," he said. "The higher you rise on their money, the less you know who owns your life."
Tonia left the meeting with one truth echoing in her mind:
She wasn't in power. She was rented.
All her influence. Her fame. Her network. It had come at the cost of her soul.
And now that they no longer trusted her to stay silent, they were ready to throw her to the wolves.
She was never the queen.
Just a pawn that had become too noisy.
Back at her penthouse, she opened her laptop and clicked on a folder she had avoided for years: "Unreleased Truths."
It was all there — stories she was paid not to run. Victims who never got justice. Evidence that could shake the nation.
She stared at the files for a long time.
Then she began to upload them.
Not all — just one.
A small leak. A test.
If she was going down, she would at least go down doing the one thing she once believed in.
Telling the truth.
Somewhere else in Lagos, Jude received the notification.
Anonymous source uploaded evidence to Free Will Server.
He smiled.
She was finally taking the bait.
The leash was breaking.