Chapter 1

The first thing Amara noticed about the wrecked Mercedes was the blood, the second was the man inside it.Rain hammered against the Abuja expressway, turning the road into a blurred ribbon of headlights and reflections. Amara stood frozen for half a second, her white hospital coat already soaked through, staring at the crushed front of the black Mercedes. The driver's side was almost completely destroyed, Smoke curled lazily from beneath the bonnet while the hazard lights blinked against the darkness.

Someone was screaming,Someone else was shouting for the police. A small crowd had gathered several metres away, watching the wreck as though getting any closer might make them part of whatever had happened.

Nobody was going near the car, amara dropped her umbrella,then she ran.

She wasn't thinking about who the man was, She wasn't thinking about the expensive car, the security implications, or the fact that she had no business putting herself in danger, She was thinking about one thing only, He was still alive.

She reached the driver's side and crouched beside the shattered window. "Sir? Can you hear me?"

Nothing,   "Sir!"

His head was tilted against the seat, blood running from a cut above his eyebrow, his breathing was shallow, almost imperceptible. Amara's training took over, she checked his airway, his pulse, his pupils, she shouted for someone to call an ambulance while trying to keep him conscious.

"Stay with me," she whispered, pressing two fingers against his neck. "Don't you dare close your eyes."

His eyelids fluttered, for one brief second, his eyes met hers, Dark, Unfocused, Frightened. Then they closed again.

Amara's heart slammed against her ribs, She had no idea who he was, She didn't know that the man bleeding in front of her was Daniel Adebayo, the only son of one of the most powerful politicians in Nigeria.

She didn't know that someone had been trying to kill him and she certainly didn't know that by saving his life that night, she had just stepped into a world that would eventually threaten her own.

By the time the ambulance arrived, the rain had soaked through everything she was wearing and by the time Daniel was wheeled into the emergency unit, Amara had blood on both hands and by the time she finally sat down in the hospital corridor, exhausted and trembling, she thought the worst part of the night was over.

She was wrong because twenty minutes later, a convoy of black SUVs pulled into the hospital compound.Men in dark suits entered first, Then came a woman whose face Amara recognized from television and finally, the man everyone in the country knew, Senator Gabriel Adebayo.

He walked into the hospital as though the building belonged to him, his expression was calm, too calm. 

Amara watched him approach the emergency unit, surrounded by security men, and felt an inexplicable knot form in her stomach.

The senator looked at the doctors,then at the nurses,then at Amara.He stopped, For a moment, neither of them spoke.

His eyes narrowed slightly, "Amara Ekong."

Her stomach dropped,She stared at him, "How do you know my name?"

He didn't answer immediately, His gaze moved over her face with unsettling familiarity, "You have your father's eyes," he said quietly.

Amara felt the corridor disappear around her, "My father?"

The senator's expression changed, but only for a fraction of a second, "You knew my father?"

"Yes."The answer came too quickly, Amara stood, "What did you know about him?"

Before he could respond, a security officer stepped toward him, "Sir, The senator turned, "The driver is missing."

Silence, Amara's chest tightened, "What do you mean, missing?"

The officer glanced at her before looking back at the senator, "The vehicle was found abandoned at the scene, We haven't located the driver."

Senator Adebayo's jaw tightened, "And the cameras? Three cameras along that stretch weren't recording."

Something cold moved through Amara. This wasn't an ordinary accident, She looked toward the emergency room where Daniel was still being treated.

"What happened to him?" The senator looked at her.

"Someone tried to kill my son." Amara swallowed.

"You're saying the crash was deliberate? "I'm saying," he replied, "that my son received a warning three days ago."

"What kind of warning?" His eyes held hers, "The kind you don't ignore." Amara suddenly remembered Daniel's face when she had first reached the car, the fear in his eyes, the blood,the crushed Mercedes, and the strange certainty that the accident had looked less like an accident the longer she thought about it.

"What does this have to do with my father?" she asked, The senator didn't answer.Instead, he reached into his coat and pulled out a business card.

"Call me tomorrow." "Why?" Because there are things about your father you deserve to know.

He placed the card in her hand, Then he walked away.

Amara stared after him, She should have thrown the card into the nearest bin, She should have gone home, She should have forgotten Daniel Adebayo and everything that happened that night. Instead, she slipped the card into her pocket.

Her phone vibrated,Once,Then again, Amara frowned and pulled it out.

Unknown number. One message, You should not have saved him. Her blood ran cold, A second message appeared, Now they know where you are.

She stared at the screen, unable to breathe.Then a photograph arrived, It showed her father, Younger and Smiling Standing beside Senator Gabriel Adebayo and between them was a teenage Daniel.

Amara's fingers began to shake, There was one sentence written beneath the photograph, HE NEVER TOLD YOU. She looked toward the corridor where the senator had disappeared and For the first time that night, Amara understood something terrifying.

The crash wasn't the beginning, It was only the moment someone decided to bring her into the story.