Matured minds

My Mother In Law Paid My Husband To Marry Me And I Smiled At Their Wedding Table Not Knowing I Was A Business Deal

# # Chapter 8

Mr. Eze came back with more than we expected.

He was a quiet man — mid-fifties, glasses, the kind of face you would forget in a crowd. He met Ngozi and me at her office on a Wednesday evening after work. He placed three printed pages on the desk between us without any preamble.

The first page confirmed Agnes's two-million-naira cash withdrawal — dated eleven days before my introduction to Charles, exactly as the document stated. The second page confirmed the three-million-naira withdrawal made four days after our wedding. Both amounts matched the agreement perfectly.

But the third page was what made me grip the arms of my chair.

Agnes owned a two-bedroom flat in Surulere. The property had been registered in Charles's name eighteen months before our marriage — long before he and I had even met. It was not a gift between a loving mother and her son. The timing, the documentation, the pattern — it was all part of the arrangement. Part of the payment.

"She gave him property too," Ngozi said quietly, looking at me. "This was not just about cash. She was building him. Setting him up financially so that he would have something to protect. Something to lose if he stepped out of line."

I thought about the locked drawer. The carefully typed document with both their signatures. The clause about repayment if Charles failed to maintain the conditions.

Agnes had not just paid a man to marry me. She had built a system. A trap with financial walls. Charles was both the hunter and the bait — depending on which way you looked at it.

"She controlled him too," I said slowly. The realisation was arriving in pieces.

"Yes," Ngozi said. "Which means when this comes out, you need to be ready for him to position himself as a victim."

I had not thought about that. I had been so focused on the betrayal that I had not considered how Charles might react when he was exposed — whether he would fight, confess, or cry and beg.

"What do I do now?" I asked.

Ngozi leaned forward slightly. "Now we prepare. But first — and I need you to answer this honestly, Adaora — what do you want? Do you want to save this marriage? Or do you want to burn it down and walk away clean?"

The office was very quiet. Outside the window Lagos hummed and moved without stopping.

I took a long breath. I thought about the woman in the white dress who had stood in front of that mirror and thanked God.

"I want the truth," I said finally. "I want them both to look me in the eye and admit what they did. Everything else can come after that."

My Mother In Law Paid My Husband To Marry Me And I Smiled At Their Wedding Table Not Knowing I Was A Business Deal

# # Chapter 7

Acting normal was the hardest thing I had ever done.

Every morning I woke up beside Charles and looked at the side of his face — the jaw I used to trace with my fingers, the eyes I used to think were kind — and I felt something cold settle in my chest. Not hatred. Not yet. Just distance. Like I was watching a stranger who had borrowed someone else's face.

I kept performing anyway.

I cooked his meals. I ironed his shirts. I responded when he reached for me at night. I did not pull away. I could not afford for him to sense that something had shifted. Agnes was already watching me — that much was clear from her message. If Charles reported even the slightest change in my behaviour, she would start covering their tracks and all the work Ngozi was doing would be wasted.

So I smiled. I laughed. I was a perfect wife.

But I was also watching.

I began to understand for the first time just how carefully I had been selected. Agnes had not chosen me randomly. She had picked me because I was the right type. I was from a quiet family — no powerful connections, no father in politics, no uncle who was a lawyer who would ask uncomfortable questions. I had always been a peacemaker. I disliked confrontation. I was the kind of woman who would manage and overlook because she had been raised to believe that a patient woman held her home together.

Agnes had done her research before Charles ever said my name.

That thought made me feel sick. But it also made me feel something else — something sharp and focused that I had no name for yet but that sat in my chest like a quiet fire.

Ngozi called me on a Thursday to say the private investigator — a man named Mr. Eze — had already confirmed the first cash withdrawal. Two million naira pulled from Agnes's personal account eleven days before Charles and I had our introduction. The timeline matched the document exactly.

I was in the car when she called. I sat in the parking lot of a supermarket and listened and said very little. When I hung up I sat there for a few minutes and breathed.

Charles sent me a message right at that moment. A simple one. *What are you cooking tonight? I'm craving your jollof.*

I stared at the message.

Then I typed back: *Your favourite. See you at seven.* With a small heart emoji at the end.

And I went into the supermarket to buy the ingredients like a woman who had nothing on her mind.

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💎49 DAYS WITH THE BILLIONAIRE💜
(Hearts Collision…..💋)

🔥 CHAPTER 19 TEASER 🔥

Lyra thought surviving one night in Rowan Carson’s mansion would be easy…

Until she woke up tangled in his sheets.

Wait—
How did she even get there?😳

And why was Rowan staring at her like she already belonged to him?

Just when Lyra plans to escape before sunrise, Sheila suddenly returns home… and what she sees might destroy everything.💔

Meanwhile, the twins are already calling Lyra “mom” behind closed doors 👀

But Rowan Carson?
He’s beginning to realize something dangerous…

Maybe this was never just attraction.
Maybe he’s already falling hard.

And when Carl starts suspecting Lyra is hiding something from him…

A storm is coming.🌪️

Will Lyra finally leave Rowan’s mansion?
Or is she already trapped in the billionaire’s world?

🥀DON’T MISS CHAPTER 19🥀