I

One and half years ago…

“Promise me you will take care of yourself, dear,” Gina says as she follows Neriah into the already moving train.

“I promise, mom,” Neriah says for the one millionth time today.

Tears run down Gina's face ruining the perfect face Neriah hopes to remember for a long time. “And you promise to always call right?” She asks, making Neriah’s heart hurt even more.

Neriah pulls her into a tight hug, “I’ll call; I promise I’ll call every week as much as I can.” She vows, before pulling away and helping to wipe her tears away.

She gently takes Neriah’s hands making her look into her eyes, trying to insert assertiveness. “If things get bad, you know you can always come back home okay?” she reminds her.

Neriah nods, biting her lips. Gina seems to be making it as though this is a final goodbye, which she knows isn’t true. “I know, and if things don’t work out well after two years, I’ll come back home and find a decent job in the town, and get married. I promise, now stop crying and causing people to stare."

Gina nods, wipe her tears off and kisses Neriah on her forehead, “Take care of yourself, okay?” she says with a small whimper.

Neriah nods before collecting her other bag and Gina gets off the train and waves at her.

***

NOW...

“Please, Mr Tony, just one more week and I’ll find a place to move go to, I promise." Neriah practically begs as she follows Tony out of her apartment.

Tony is the caretaker of her apartment, this is the thirteenth month since she has been in this apartment and it is the last month she has here.

The Middle Eastern man gives her a pitiful smile, “I like you, Miss. Gomez, but my hands are tied here. Mr Inferno, the new buyer of this house hopes to have everyone out before Friday so that he can tear down the building and begin a new one."

Neriah rubs her forehead vigorously as she felt a migraine coming in, “Mr Tony, that’s tomorrow —" she tries to speak but he interrupts her.

“Don’t do this to me, Neriah,” he pleads, “you’re one of the best tenants this building has ever had, but you got to move out before Friday."

Her eyes grow glassy and her lips trembles, “I don’t have anywhere to go,” she mumbles pathetically.

 

The fact that this notice came suddenly, robbed her of the chance of finding another good place to move into and she didn't have the luxury of staying in a hotel.

Tony groans, “I’m sorry, Miss Gomez” he apologizes once more before walking out of the room.

When Neriah had stepped into the big city eighteen months ago, she wanted to pursue her dream which had always been fashion and clothing design and there was no better place to pursue that but in the large city of Lagos where all dreams could come true.

Upon her arrival, she settled in and began working at some of the industries she'd read about while she was still at home, but none of them would approve of her work. Determined, she continued to go further, but the more she believed, the more she failed and the more heartbroken she became.

Her dreams are almost over, having already spent eighteen out of the twenty-four months she’d initially set out to pursue this dream and now to make matters worse, she’s now being asked to leave the house with the refund of the six months advance she made on the house.

She scrambles to the cold tiled floor, burying her head between her legs and tears sting her eyes as she contemplates what to do next. Life couldn't be worse for someone like her. All her life she had to fight through every moment and from one battle, she was tossed into another. She wonders if it will ever end.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce this year's man of success, Mr Cainan Inferno,” announces the man on TV and the clapping of a multitude follows next as the the the camera shows the young man getting up from his seat and going over to the stage where the host is.

Why does the name sound familiar? Neriah wonders on the floor, where else has she heard the name.

She pauses a moment trying to recollect and then! It occurs to her like a flash of lightning. Inferno is the name of the man that Mr Tony said bought the building from the landlord.

Neriah grabs a pen and piece of paper before moving in front of the TV and seeing his name boldly written on the screen where he’s being interviewed, she quickly writes it down. She goes to her laptop and types the full name in, before pressing the search button and patiently she waits as the web displays the basic information about him to her. Apparently, the broadcast is a rerun and she’s grateful that it is being aired now.

She takes her time and downloads all the available information about him, which she is still surprised are good things he's done. From everything written here, he’s a self-made billionaire, who is heavily invested in humanitarian work and research. According to this article, he’s a selfless enthusiast who hopes to change and make the world a much better place and many other wealthy billionaires in the country have joined him in the quest.

How bad can he be?

Neriah washes her sobbing eyes and puts a little makeup on and ties her messy hair into a side ponytail. She grabs her sneakers and after putting them on, she walks out of her apartment.

The Inferno group which happens to be the real name of his company is luckily just a few minutes’ walk from her house according to what she'd written down earlier on the web, which explains why he wanted to buy the building over.

Neriah is a little amazed by the fact that she’d lived in this neighbourhood for close to two years, but had never bothered to even know anyone or anything around her. She immediately blames herself for being too driven by her dream to get to enjoy life and hopes to make a change about that from now on.

Neriah finally comes to a stop at 14th street Avenue where the company is supposed to be and as she looks, her mouth drops open and she knows she’s soon going to fall on her butt if she keeps starring up and hoping to see the top of the building.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” a young man in a blue suit says, brushing past her and hurrying into the building and she hears him murmuring, “I’m so fired already." Under his panicking breath.

Neriah swallows down on nothing and looks at her wristwatch and it’s only three minutes past eight a.m., she tells herself before entering the building.

The inside is even more organized than the outside with each staff on their position, on their desk highly focused on their works. She approaches one of the workers on his computer at the corner of the room and smiles a little as she reaches his table.

The blonde-haired, twenty-something-year-old man stops typing and glances up at her with the ‘I can’t be bothered’ look before asking, “Can I help you?”

“Yeah, good morning, I’m actually looking for Mr….”

“Oh my gosh, he’s here,” comes the stuttering voice of the man she’s standing before, “can you move away from this desk? I don’t want to get into any trouble with the boss.”

Neriah turns around from the blond and rather rude young man and as she does this, she sights the man she’s been hoping to see before coming here.

Cainan Inferno.

Everything in his path seems to stop moving and so does she. She doesn't want to but she knows she has to admit that he is handsome maybe even beautiful in this case. Mixed, rich olives and skin, thick black hair, well-sculpted nose, chiselled and hard jaw, green eyes and swollen red lips and she think she can guess what he's been doing in the last few minutes.

"Hey, everyone!" Cainan calls out, bringing the attention of everyone on the floor to him. "Say hello to Shawn," he says, pulling the young man Neriah had seen outside earlier when coming in by the arm.

"Hello, Shawn," everyone says in unison.

The twenty-something-year-old, brown eyes, dark skin, black hair man who looks like he's about to pass out head drops and he stares at the floor.

"Shawn is late again and everyone knows the first one is a...?" He pauses after asking.

"Warning," the staffs reply again like automatic answering robots.

"So everyone says goodbye to Shawn," the young man's eyes widen in sorrow and looks like he's about to break down in tears.

"Goodbye, Shawn."

Cainan pats his shoulder, "Go and clear your table, Mr Ola."

"Sir, please give me one more chance." Shawn ramble helplessly, "My mom's admitted at the hospital I need this job so we're not thrown out." he says in tears.

Not showing any bit of sympathy, Cainan says, "Not my business, Shawn, go clear your table or I'll call the security to throw your things out."

Unable to say anything else Shawn bows his head and walk away from him in sorrow.

Cainan who doesn't seem to be done yet continues to speak, "Let this be a warning to every one of you, if you do your best, you'll be rewarded, if not, you'll be fired. Carry on people."

Neriah saw her opportunity and she decides to take it. She begins to approach him only to be blocked by two men out of nowhere.

"Let me through!" She says, after being unable to make them move even as she pushes at them.

"Who are you and what do you want?" One of the tall heavily built men asks.

She tiptoes to make sure Cainan isn't completely gone yet. "I just want to speak to your boss."

He folds his arms, "He doesn't want to talk to you."

"Can you go ask him at least?" Neriah knows she's sounding desperate but she can't help it, she really needs more time in her apartment and the only way to get it is by talking to Cainan.

"Who's that?" Cainan demands, his voice deep and commanding attention.

"This Lady here want to talk to you," one of the men replies.

He walks over to where the three are, "Let's hear it then," he pauses and folds his hands

Neriah is taken off guard, not expecting it to be that easy and so she asks, "What?"

He rolls his eyes, "You're not deaf are you?"

She shakes her head, "I'm not, I stay at the mainland, 17th street avenue." She begins to say.

He growls and Neriah is sure he's losing his patience, "You're inviting me to your house now? Cause I have better offers."

The guards chuckle and he glares at them, and once again Neriah dismisses his rude and arrogant response. "N-no... No" she stutters, shaking her head even as her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "You're the new owner of the property and you're are asking us to leave because you're hoping to tear it down tomorrow."

"I believe I gave you all extension and also gave a double refund of your rents."

She nods, "Yes you did, but finding a house in the city is not as easy as you think it is," she explains, her frustration dawning on her

He shrugs casually, "Then move back to your home town, young lady."

Her eyes widen and she scoffs, "Thanks; I just need a little more time and I'll leave that's all."

"Twenty four hours is my most generous offer to you young lady." He says with no trace of pity in his tone as he walks away from her.

Her eyes widen and she follows him out of his office, "But that's unfair."

"Unfair is demolishing the house on you while you're still inside and believe me that's what I'm going to do if you don't get lost in twenty-four hours."

She scoff, not knowing if the man she's talking to is a man or metal. How can he not sympathise with those in difficult situations? Sure things might come easy for him, but that wasn't the case for a lot of other people.

This man was the complete opposite of what the news and sources said about him. He didn't have a good heart, he had the heart of stone and he may help the less privileged, but he seems to do that for the attention that brought him. She thought.

"You're unbelievable." She shook her head.

"Being unbelievable is what has brought me here today." He agrees with a nod.

"And being an idiot is what will take you to where you will be tomorrow, cause you might be a billionaire, but you sure are an idiotic one." She does not realize she'd said that out loud until she finds the whole room quiet and the eyes of all the staffs in the room on her, including the murderous eyes of the one she just called an idiot.

He looks like he's about to unleash all hell down on her after what she said about him and she didn't think she would make it if he did that.

 

She doesn't say another word before walking away, more of running.

She meets Shawn as she walks outside and he's still holding the box that contains his personal belongings, "Hey, I saw what happened to you inside and I must say no one deserves to go through that."

He smiles a little and he looks down, "Thanks and I heard what you told him inside, thank you for saying it to his face, most of us wish we had that much courage. So on behalf of all of us who didn't have enough guts to speak, thank you."

She can't help smiling even though her day is already messed up and not going to get better, "No problem."

She was unable to do what she came to do, but at least she was able to bring a smile to the face of someone.

The two begin to walk down the road, "So what are you going to do now?"

She shakes her head, "Going home and pack my bags and look for where I can move to before tomorrow comes."

"There's a house on lease close to where I live, you can come and check it out today if you're not very busy." He casually suggested.

Her face lightens up, as she turns to him, "Really?"

He nods, "Definitely. I know it isn't luxurious but it's something."

"Okay sure."

"The idiotic billionaire, I hope someone writes something my mean ex-boss someday."

...

There comes a knock on the door and Cainan drops the pen and closes the file he's reading through, "Come in," he says.

The tall, forty-three years old wearing a black suit named, Ben, who is Cainan head of security enters the office, crossing his hands behind his back as he comes to a halt. "I was told you needed me."

He nods and lays his back against his seat, "I have a job for you."

"What is it, boss?"

He rubs his jaw slowly, "I want you to keep an eye out for someone and feed me back everything you find out about them."

"Okay, sir, who's it?"

"Her name is Neriah Gomez."