A Dynasty Of Deceit

Ajegunle, soaking the air with that unmistakable weight of something that is about to snap, and by the tim

he watches his mother fight the wind for control of her faded wrapper. Her name was Amara, a woman who was once envied and feared in elite circles, no

lways listening, watching, and storing everything away for later use. Zayn, his mother calls him, though no one really

with memories she never dared to share, not even w

at night and heat smothered every breath by day, and yet Amara kept it spotless. She sweep

sence. She was quiet, elegant in a way that didn't belong here, like someone who had once worn perfume an

dy, but with every lie she could weave, every secret she could bury and so Zayn grew up surrounded by half-truths and sharp looks, by men who spat on the ground when they saw him and women w

ed, like he already knew the answers and was just testing you. Even the teachers at his overcrowded public school didn't know what to make of him. One mome

result of a union that had never been meant to exist, the shameful product of lust, the illegitimate child of Chief Alaric Maduako, the most ruthless and revered billionaire in the country. A man who built his empire on blood

that had already decided it didn't want him but she never told him the truth, not until that night, when the storm broke and the streets flooded and they had no more bread and no more hope, when s

of his hotels. How he had seduced her with soft words and expensive gifts. How she had fallen too fast and too hard and blinded by his charm and unaware of the monster beneath his tailored suits. How she had kept the pregnancy a secret

lculating years ahead seeing the face of the man who had given him life and denied him identity. He was hearing the whispers of the dynasty that had pretende

ad been stolen from him not just the wealth

hem kneel, and make them choke on the b

on, Zayn, but you will be nothing like him," she said, and he took her hands in his, and replied with the voice of a boy who had just been born again, "No, Mama, I'll be worse because I'