Storytime | Part 2 of 2
This is a fictional story created for entertainment.
“Where is Chinedu?”
The question echoed in Adaeze’s mind.
She was still holding the phone when the woman on the other end repeated herself.
“Hello? Who are you? Where is Chinedu?”
Adaeze swallowed hard.
“This is his wife.”
Silence.
The woman suddenly hung up.
Adaeze stared at the phone.
His wife.
Those words kept running through her head.
For the first time in five years of marriage, Adaeze wondered whether she truly knew the man she had married.
She waited for Chinedu to return.
When his car finally entered the compound that afternoon, Adaeze was sitting quietly in the living room.
Chinedu walked in with a smile.
“Why are you so quiet?”
Adaeze looked at him.
“I found something in your car.”
His smile disappeared.
“What did you find?”
She placed the black phone on the table.
Chinedu stopped moving.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Then he slowly sat down.
“Adaeze, please let me explain.”
Her heart sank.
That was exactly what she had been afraid of.
“So there is something to explain?”
Chinedu rubbed his face.
“Yes.”
Adaeze stood up.
“Who is the woman who called this phone?”
Chinedu looked at her.
Then he said something she never expected.
“My sister.”
Adaeze frowned.
“Your sister?”
“Yes.”
Adaeze shook her head.
“You don’t have a sister.”
Chinedu took a deep breath.
“I know what I told you.”
He reached for the phone.
“My sister’s name is Amara. She has been living outside the country for years. But she recently came back.”
Adaeze stared at him.
“Then why hide her from me?”
Chinedu lowered his head.
“Because I was ashamed.”
He explained that Amara had been struggling with a serious financial problem after returning home. She had borrowed money from several people and was being pressured to repay them.
Chinedu had been secretly helping her.
The second phone belonged to Amara. But because of the people she owed money, Chinedu had kept it hidden and used it to communicate with her.
Adaeze remembered the messages.
“My Love ❤️.”
“What about those messages?” she asked.
Chinedu sighed.
“That is what I was trying to tell you.”
He explained that “My Love” was the name Amara had saved him under years ago.
Adaeze was still not convinced.
Then Chinedu opened the phone and showed her the photograph.
The woman standing beside him was indeed Amara.
But there was something else in the picture.
The building behind them was their family house.
Chinedu explained that Amara had secretly come to the house one evening while Adaeze was away visiting her mother. She had needed a place to stay temporarily.
Adaeze sat down slowly.
“So you lied to me for months?”
“I did,” Chinedu admitted.
“And you thought hiding all this was better than telling your wife?”
“No.”
His voice became softer.
“I was afraid you would judge her. And I was afraid you would judge me for helping her.”
Adaeze remained silent.
She was angry.
Not because her husband had another woman.
But because he had allowed her to believe something completely different.
“You should have trusted me enough to tell me the truth,” she finally said.
Chinedu nodded.
“You’re right.”
There was another knock at the door.
Both of them looked towards it.
Chinedu stood up and opened the door.
Amara was standing outside.
Her eyes were filled with tears.
“Adaeze,” she said quietly, “I’m sorry.”
Adaeze didn’t answer immediately.
Amara explained everything.
She had returned to Nigeria after her business collapsed abroad. She had borrowed money to start again, but things went badly. Chinedu had been helping her quietly because she didn’t want the rest of the family to know how badly she was struggling.
The mysterious messages, the secret phone and the hidden visits had all looked suspicious.
But the truth was much simpler.
There had been no secret lover.
There had been a secret family problem.
Adaeze looked at her husband.
“You could have told me.”
“I know.”
“And I could have helped.”
“I know.”
Adaeze took a deep breath.
She wasn’t ready to forget everything immediately.
Trust, she realised, was not something that returned simply because someone finally told the truth.
It had to be rebuilt.
That evening, the three of them sat together and talked for hours.
For the first time, Adaeze understood why Chinedu had been acting strangely.
And Chinedu understood something equally important.
Keeping a secret to protect someone can still hurt the person you love.
A few weeks later, Amara moved into a small apartment and began rebuilding her life.
Chinedu stopped using the second phone.
And Adaeze?
She kept one thing from the entire experience.
The lesson.
Sometimes, what we see is not the whole story.
A hidden phone can suggest betrayal.
A strange message can create suspicion.
And silence can make the truth look even darker than it really is.
But Adaeze also learned that trust does not mean never asking questions.
It means being brave enough to have the difficult conversation.
Because sometimes the truth hurts.
But a lie can hurt even more.
THE END
💭 STORYTIME — WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
Adaeze thought she had uncovered her husband’s secret affair, but the truth turned out to be completely different.
Chinedu had been hiding his sister’s problems from her.
But here’s the question:
If you were Adaeze, would you forgive Chinedu for keeping such a big secret from you?
👇 Tell us your answer in the comments.
And if you enjoyed this Storytime, should we bring you another story next week?