Prologue

Elena stood startled at the man who had been blackmailing her for over 5 months. He had been blackmailing her with just threats of knowing her secret in exchange that she dropped the business deal she had just finalized. 

Luis Mathew wasn't just her competition in business, but the head of one of the biggest law firms in Nigeria, and that was the reason he wanted her to drop the deal at any cost. 

She understood that she was a big threat to bigger firms as she started her firm only 3 years ago. and was already dominating bigger firms that had spent over 30 years in the country. But what she never expected was for those words of the threat to be backed up by evidence. 

He snarled, seeing her startled state. "What? You didn't think I'd find this did you?" He barked a non-humorous villain laugh.

"H- how d- did you g-get those?" She asked her dry voice stuttering.

"That's none of your business. I'm Luis Mathew, a man of power and a man who has his ways." 

There was a long silence.

"Now are you ready?" He asked, smirking devilishly at her.

"Ready for what?" Her voice was barely audible.

"To drop the deal." He paused. "Or what else? You want to compensate my smart digs for more?" He hummed in thought, his eyes trailing over her body. "Your body, maybe? You know, I always thought you were goddamn sexy." 

She bitterly chuckled inwardly, men will be men. She was used to advances from men as old as the over 50 years Bennet, or even older, a man of 74 had offered her a job once, with the condition that she let them have their wicked ways with her, and that was in her past life when she was barely 20. 

There was a time in her life where she would have let him do whatever he wanted with her, in exchange for his silence on her past, but that was a time when she was tired of life and threw herself into something she would forever regret. Something the 32-year-old her had struggled to bury and had thought she was successful in hiding well... after all it had been almost 7 years with no word from her past, and now that she was doing well in life, having strived hard to climb up the ladder it was all going to go to waste. 

No. She couldn't let it. She wouldn't let years of studying, more years of struggling for a registered company, and 3 years running a law firm of her own go to waste. 

"What's the price for your silence?" She asked with newfound boldness and determination.

His brows furrowed in confusion, thinking her a fool perhaps. "I told you already missy, drop the deal, and then let me fuck you." 

She visibly cringed at his use of the word, the old man had no shame in his bluntness. 

"I propose half a million," she said, purposefully ignoring his proposal. 

He laughed out loud, pointing at her comically like she was some clown. "You think I want your money? Half a million naira? That's the price of the suit I have on, darling." 

"2 million," she countered. 

"That's my daughter's monthly wardrobe allowance." He stopped short, clicking his tongue on his teeth. "And I'm thinking of adding another 2 million to it, she's a big girl now." 

Of course, he had to be talking of his daughter, while debating having sex with someone almost her age. 

"7 mil—"

"Hey listen, the whole money you're worth is chicken feed to me. I don't want your poor money, just drop the fucking deal and spread those fine long legs of yours," he said, cutting her off. 

She bit her lips nervously, thinking of another route to go through, this was her career in jeopardy. She couldn't drop the deal she had just finalized the evening before, that was her big break, and she had no doubt the man whose case she was taking on will ruin her career if she should decide to drop the deal. He was a big politician, and his type will take her dropping the case as an insult. 

"I know you're thinking about it, especially spreading your legs wide open for me." He opened his teeth in a wide smile, his yellow incisor making her cringe in irritation. 

She watched as he picked an apple from the table to cut a piece of it with a knife. "Care for?" He offered and she shook her head no.

He muttered an 'okay', putting the apple in his mouth and chewing like somewhat a ruminant animal. 

He dropped the apple and the knife back on the table and began walking towards her. "Come on now. You horny missy, I saw you licking your sweet lips. I wouldn't know if it's really sweet now, would I? Unless I have a taste of it myself."

He was at her front the next minute, grabbing her shoulder and trying to claim her lips. She struggled, crying 'let me go' repeatedly, but he kept on urging her. She managed to break free from his hold, moving to the other side of the table he had been. 

"Eh. Playing hard to get now, are we?" He started walking towards her. 

"Don't come near me," she warned, picking up the knife from the table and pointing it at him in a threat. 

The man had the guts to chuckle, like the knife she held firmly in her hands was a toy of some sort. 

"I'd drop that if I were you," he said sternly, still walking towards her. 

He got to where she was and maneuvered her, forcing her back to rest on the table, the knife clattered somewhere above her head. She was panting rapidly, scared that she was going to go all through it again. 

The forceful penetration, the tears, and the pleas. She wasn't just going to lose her firm, she was going to get raped too. She closed her eyes, bracing herself for whatever he had in mind. 

Lius tore her blue blouse open with so much force that the button scattered all over, to the ground and table. She cried silently as the cold breeze hit her bare skin. Not again, she prayed for a miracle, slowly giving up the fight. She blamed herself inwardly, this is what you get for coming to meet a man in a hidden location with the excuse of a meeting. 

She sighed in a contrary acceptance that it wasn't her fault, she had to know what information he had in her. 

"Please Luis.. p-please," she begged as he shifted her skirt to gather around her waist, her blue thong now exposed to his eyes. 

He chuckled, running his tongue through his bottom lips like he had a delicacy in front of him.

"Psycho," she muttered, hating herself for begging. She should've have known men like him feed on fears. 

His hands found the band of her thong and yanked it down. 

"Let's hope you're wet" 

She closed her eyes, he was going to do it. He was going to rape her. But then she remembered, she was no longer the 20-year-old Elena that had allowed herself to be raped with no fight. She was the Elena who found vigor to fight her way out of her wretched life and had an opportunity to start all over again. She wasn't going to let this man take it all away from her. 

With newfound vigor, she found the knife that had clattered out of her hands, she watched as him prepare himself to enter her, and as he guided his length to her entrance she attacked, shoving the knife into the left side of his chest. Hoping she got his wicked heart. She removed the knife and stabbed again, much more forceful than before. 

His eyes opened in shock as his dying body fell on her. 

Elena fretted with the realization of what she’d done. 

The urge to get the dead man off her gave her strength she didn't know she’d left. Grimacing, she pushed the lifeless body off her. Her eyes widening in another wave of realization. She’d shoved a knife into his heart, not once, but twice. 

She did it to defend herself, that was her excuse, but deep down, she knew she did it for liberation, for selfishness, she did it anyway. To protect myself, she concluded inwardly.

"To protect myself." she continued to chant as she dressed herself up quickly and removed the knife that now had her prints from the man's chest, cleaning it on the shirt, and putting it into her bag. 

She tied the ruined shirt and held it tightly with her hands in an attempt to cover herself.

She looked around the old room, sighing in relief that there were no cameras. Taking the picture of her in lingerie and the envelope that held any other evidence Luis Mathew could've been using to blackmailing her, she made her way out of the house. 

"To protect myself," she chanted almost dementedly, as she climbed into her car driving away in speed. 

All the while, she was ignorant of the eyes that watched.