CHAPTER 5 — THE BIG NIGHT
Friday evening.
Abeni invited everyone:
• Zola
• Omari
• Malik (the drunken idiot friend)
• Malik’s loud wife
• Sila
• a few more witnesses
The table glowed with decoration.
The food was catered.
Abeni looked radiant.
Zola beamed proudly.
“This is exactly the standard I meant,” she bragged.
Dinner began.
Abeni lifted her glass.
“To honesty.”
Then she pressed play.
Zola’s voice blasted through the speakers:
“We claim the condo… she’s an orphan… bird in a cage…”
Silence.
Forks frozen mid-air.
Zola’s face caved in.
Omari went ghost white.
“That’s… fake,” Zola stammered.
“Oh?” Abeni asked coolly. “Then this must be fake too.”
She tapped another file—
Omari bragging to Malik:
“I paid for the condo, so when we divorce, I’m keeping it.”
Malik choked on his wine.
His wife stood and slapped him.
Chaos exploded.
Then—
The door opened.
SILA walked in.
Folder in hand.
Smile sharp enough to slice metal.
“Good evening,” she said. “I’m attorney Sila Brooks. Zola Ramos, you are hereby notified—”
“That’s enough!” Zola shrieked.
“No,” Abeni snapped, voice like broken glass. “It isn’t.”
She spread the documents:
• bank transfers proving her money
• tax returns revealing her father was not “a broke engineer” but head of a defense design division
• certified property titles
• notarized ownership transfers
“Omari,” she said quietly, “your entire plan falls apart if you challenge any of this.”
He swallowed hard.
“Please—let’s talk—”
“Pack your things. You’re leaving tonight.”
“Abeni—”
“You made your choice.”
