Billionaire’s Son PRETENDS To Be A Poor Construction Worker To Find True Love  

Uloma’s hands had calluses in places rich men’s daughters did not know existed. She had long since stopped counting the mornings she woke before the rooster in a house that measured her worth in unpaid debts. But there is a morning this story turns on an ordinary Tuesday, cement dust already thickening the air, when she looked up from a headpan of wet sand, and watched a stranger failed to lift a shovel correctly, and thought, not unkindly, that some men were born without the sense God gave a headpan of cement. She

did not yet know his name. I stopped counting these mornings a long time ago, what he would give back. This is the story of that morning and everything it broke open. Toby Alo had never once in 26 years had to lift anything heavier than an expectation. And it was starting to occur to him, watching the crystal light break across 200 guests in his mother’s ballroom, that the chandeliers alone might be the heaviest things in the room.

 They had cost more than most people in Lagos would earn in a lifetime, and Toby had spent most of those 26 years trying not to think about that. Tonight, it was hard not to. You are not eating. I ate before I came down. Fake is asking of you. I’ve done the reading on it. Allow holdings and my father’s infrastructure portfolio properly merged.

 We’re looking at a valuation nobody in this room could touch inside 5 years. You don’t have to pretend to be swept off your feet, Toby. I’m not going to pretend either. I think we’d be efficient together. And efficient is underrated. And love. Love is what people who can’t read a balance sheet call good chemistry. We have good chemistry, Toby.

 That’s enough to build on. Mother, I don’t want to marry a merger. Every marriage is a merger, Toby. The question is only whether you choose a good one. Your father built an empire from nothing. You will not build one from a heart that has not learned to be sensible. I don’t want an empire. I want You embarrassed your mother tonight.

I told the truth. The truth is a luxury, my son. Not everyone can afford it. What do you want, Toby? Say it plainly the way I taught you to negotiate. I want a year away from here. Away from Fake and the merger and every woman your friends parade past me at these parties. I want to find out if a person can love me for nothing.

Not the name, not the houses. Me. You want to disappear. I want to work, live in an ordinary room, and see what is left of me. And if there is nothing left, then at least I will know. I was 23 years old in worry with 400 naira and a stolen Daninsolon generator I did not know how to fix. Nobody loved me for my name in those days.

I have wondered whether the people who love me now um have found what back then. Perhaps that is exactly why I am giving you this year. Because I remember just barely what it felt like to still be looking one year. No card, no driver on call, no name that opens doors. Let us see what is under the gold. Toby, I have wondered itself sometimes.

Uloma the rooster in the next compound started before 4, which meant Uloma was already awake because in Auntie Beatatric’s house, the rooster’s mercy did not extend to orphaned nieces. She rose off the mat in the store room she shared with sacks of gar and a broken generator nobody had bothered to repair, and she worked in the dark because the single bulb in that room had burned out in February, and no one had thought it worth 400 naira to replace.

 By memory alone, she found the bucket, the wrapper, the small mirror shard she used to see her own face. 23 years old and some mornings the face in that mirror still surprised her. Thin, yes, and tired in a way that had settled permanently under her eyes, but not broken. Not yet. Where is my change from yesterday’s market? Don’t think I have forgotten.

Everything in this house I keep record. I gave it to Uncle J and Tanti. He said he would tell you. Uncle Jude tells me nothing. Everybody keeping secrets from Beatatrice. As if I did not raise you with my own hands from when your mother and father. They did not simply inherit a grieving child.

 They inherited her land and made her name disappear from it and had ever since been treated less as tragedy and more as unpaid invoice. It was not. Uloma had come to understand over the years entirely without its own dark arithmetic. Even if the arithmetic did not excuse what grew out of it, her father had spent 15 years building his generator repair business on a modest plot on the mainland.

 Land and workshop bought outright. Naira by Nara meant to pass to his only child when he was gone. When the fever took both her parents within the same season, Beatatrice and Jude as next of kqin, as the ones with a roof already standing nearby, had not simply inherited a grieving 11-year-old. They had brought in a mainland fixer named Chief Ozour, a man with the right friendships at the land registry.

 And between the three of them, the original title had quietly stopped existing, and a new one had quietly begun, one that did not have an orphan child’s name anywhere on it. Chief Ozor had kept his own insurance on the arrangement ever since a folder of the real documents, or perhaps only the sworn knowledge of exactly what had been done.

 Nobody but the three of them ever knew which, and he came by the compound perhaps twice a year to collect on it, unhurried and immaculately dressed, and Beatatrice always served him the good malt and laughed too loudly at whatever he said. And Uloma had learned, without ever being told directly, to make herself scarce on those afternoons, though it would be years before she understood exactly what was being paid for in that laughter.

  You go kiss her. Poke your yourself one day. Running like film star way them they chase beatrice again. Beatrice again. One day that woman go meet somebody with no feet take her nonsense again. Mark my word. A man who built a whole marriage around not being present. Take off the watch and the shoes. Especially the shoes.

This is where I leave you. OA chief said one year I will come only if you send word and even then only as your father allows. I won’t send word. That is what all of them say. You will not last one week. Oimbo nox this p don’t fl better men. Rob for night. Every man we built for me now with hand

like that them starts and you no go quit. Every man who ever built anything for me started with hands like that. The ones who quit quit in the first week. You never quit. So the shortfall is 11 bags, not nine. Two different grades priced at the same rate. Where a man like you go learn to read invoice like that? I kept books for a trader once before Lagos.

 Oh god, the mixer is waiting for me. the realest thing I have seen in years. Everything in this house I keep record. So what is this one I did not record? You are saving money under my roof. Money from where? Eh after midnight. Everything I spent to feed you. You get it is empty. Auntie, we will finish this conversation. Go before you are late and bring your full wages tonight.

Please, I am only small minutes late. I will work harder than two men today. I swear to you. Last time you disappoint me one more time. No more chance. Go and help the new man. He is slowing everybody. You will hurt your back like that. Bend the knee.

 Let the ground carry the weight, not your shoulder. Thank you. I’m Toby Hulma. Try to keep your knee bent. Toby. Gh will not carry you to hospital if your back breaks. So who be this one? Since when they give free shovel lesson to fine boy where no cement from Gary? He was going to hurt himself. Mhm.

 And that concerns you because because a man with a bad back is one more manga you will blame me for. That one and the woman they treat will get legs. I ordered too much. I’m not very hungry today. You would be helping me if you took it. Thank you. She not get anybody. No mama, no papa, no brother to stand for her.

 Only that woman collecting her wages like rent for being alive. You go hurt her, I go find you. I know. And I won’t better. You they caught trouble. Which trouble? The kind they bring plenty questions. I don’t build houses for 20 years. I f with something not the bus. I f on the balance. Who is that? Chief Ozor.

Chief, save Janio. Greet Madam for me. Jude, Chief’s payment did not enter today. My patience is not a well, Jude. It has a bottom. Whatever debt she carries into that house every evening, it is not only the emotional kind. You should go. Please, Toby. Not tonight. She never let me come this far. Now I know why.

Toby, stop. It is too full. It will spray the whole yard. Step back. You should watch the sky above you, not only the ground. I remember that. Thank you, truly. Aasan, slowly aasan. No, slowly. Aasanasan. Ah! Oh god! I bego my ears again from the beginning. All right, teacher. Let’s go for once. I am only here not measuring

the hour, not counting what it will cost me after. I will sell it. What did you want to be before all of this? A seamstress like my grandmother. I used to watch her hands guide the cloth, the needle, and the pedal. A seamstress. My mother kept a single machine. She let me guide Anchora under the the noodle while she worked the pedal.

Then I will buy you a machine. You cannot even afford your own rent this month. I found this in the rubble. I don’t know why I kept it. It’s probably nothing. Fake, cheap, somebody’s lost trinket. What if it isn’t foolish to keep hoping about a ring? I don’t think it’s foolish. I think most valuable things look like nothing until somebody bothers to clean the dust off them.

A kindness with no invoice attached. So, I hold on. Since morning you smile talk. I just did think my own. He took me to the lagoon. He asked about my dreams, not my body. That kind of man. We go sit for lagoon and ask about your dreams instead of your body. That kind of man. We go sit for lagoon and ask about your dreams instead of your body.

Olma that kind of man is either very good or he’s hiding something big enough to need that notch goodness to cover it. I don’t know which one be your own yet. Just don’t close your eyes too quick. My eyes don’t see enough. That’s all I did beg you. He has nothing to hide. Wrong. He has nothing at all. I will sell it eventually.

Ask Toby. He get eye for that kind thing. Follow me. Which bank you rob? I told you I kept books for a trader. For a trader. Toby, I done did this business 20 years. Toby, I did this business 20 years. I don’t see plenty men were wrong from wife, from police, from debt, from them own mistake. Now normal thing for Lagos and I ask you what you they run from because not your business but no lie to my face again but make you not lie to my s again like I did mumu your hand tell me one thing your mouth tell me another

and today your head just tell me the whole yard say true whatever this be I hope say now only your own life you gamble with and not another person on too. Leave her out of it. I know go expose you only want make you understand. I watch I’m not going to hurt her. Make sure of that. I could hear none of the words, only the shoulders.

 I will carry this like a stone in my shoe. Toby, the day G took you behind the office, what did he want? It was nothing. Aloma, nothing leaves a mark. It was nothing. Ghana does not pull men behind the office for nothing. He thought I was skimming payroll figures. I explained myself. It’s finished. All right. What are you not telling me? Not yet.

Not until I know for certain this is love and not just the easiest kindness Lagos has ever shown me. Only tiredness, the ordinary tax of carrying cement instead of contracts. Oimbo, you know. Well, go house. I’m fine. Oga, I finish what I start. Not yet. Not yet. Let it be love that saves me and not the name.

He never come today. No message, nothing. That kind man, you know they miss work like this. Nobody don’t go check on your friend. Mama, I watched you burn like this. I was 11. I am not 11 now. The chemist two streets over. Malaria medicine. Tyade. Run. Swallow. Small. Small. Swallow it. You will not leave.

 Do you hear me, Toby? You will not leave like this. Don’t let them find me yet. Nobody sits with a sick child in a big house. They send a doctor. They send a nurse. Nobody sits. So this is what you have become out night. Which man did you go and disgraced this family for? Tell me.

 Tell me now before I auntie please. A man has died. Naoli. Go to somebody. Don’t stay for street. Go to somebody. Uloma. That woman, her time is coming. I don’t tell you before. Mark my word. You go go back there today. I have to get my things and I need to see if he is. I know. Say you go go see your Oimbo man

first. Just after come back after if that house not is safe for you. My door no lock against you. You understand? Thank you Ron for all of it. No mushi for my house so early. Just drink your tea. Go and check your man. Come back and tell me everything after you hear me. Everything. Three apologies for three different disasters.

 None of them was the right one. You are awake. Olma, who did this to you? The gate was locked when I reached it. Auntie was waiting with the cable. Uncle Jude pushed a rapper through the bars. Ranke kept me till morning. Listen to me. Trust me one more day before you decide whether to hate me for not telling you sooner. What are you talking about, Toby? My name is Toby Allo.

 My father is Chief Femi Allah. I am not the laborers. I came to find that out if someone could love me without knowing that you did. I let you carry a beaten for me because I was too proud to end it early. I am ending it today. None of it was a lie. Exactly. Ron said it very good or hiding something big enough to need that much goodness to cover it.

You’re right. I am telling you now 4 months late. Let that be enough today so I can make sure no one ever raises a hand to you again. 4 months from now, you will have to tell me the rest of it properly. All of it. Not the four sentence version you give a person you are afraid of losing. I promise you the long version.

 Every embarrassing part of it. Good. Go and make your call to be allow. I will still be here when you finish. A number I promised myself I would not use until the year was finished. The year is over. Bring the cars. Bring the lawyers. Bring out my father. And Babaokun, bring my father. Tell him his son found what was under the gold and he needs to come and see it himself.

I fit reach Lagos before nightfall. Orega. Give me 3 4 days and I go do I’m so tight. Beatric lawyer. No go find crack. You hear what I talk? Just relax. Small gist before I forget. for like it don’t already move on. She they see one oil minister’s son. Now God don’t answer that particular prayer.

 Oh God, you fit face front. Whoever this babakun person be, he know they do anything by half measure. 3 days. I need you somewhere safe while my father does this properly. And if she comes looking for me before then let her look, let her wonder. Ron’s gate is stronger than her patience.

 And in a few days, it will not matter what Beatrice thinks. Cha beginner now my turn to serve you I don’t know how to sit and be served wrong one question make I ask him I’m straight family like they allows you know things say them feet change mind about the laborer’s promise I don’t know a Family like that can change its mind. And where would I put my hope then? Off somewhere with that laborer. No doubt.

Ungrateful. Her mother’s blood. Always ungrateful at last. Good riddance to the both of them. She will come back. She always comes back, chief. And when she does, the arrangement stands exactly as we discussed. A respectful girl, hardworking. In exchange, the old paperwork stays exactly where it has stayed for 12 years.

 It stays buried the day she is my wife and not one day before. A wife cannot testify against her own husband’s business partners. Beatrice, think of it as the last brick in a very old wall. today. So this is what was under the gold. So now this kind foundation you’ve been

they hide I’m sorry I lied to you oga you know lie you just don’t tell me the whole truth I watch you carry cement it nearly kill you rather than shame yourself money if you build another house if the first one collapse but that kind of woman wants now once no waste Ma’am, you beat a woman half to death for the crime of saving my life.

You have spent 12 years taking a child’s inheritance and calling it a debt she owed you for existing. That ends today. Chief, sir, you are a reasonable man. Surely we can discuss this quietly as families without lawyers, without all these cameras. I intend to discuss it. That is precisely why the lawyers are here.

Madam, reasonable men use lawyers so families do not have to. I built everything I have out of resentment. Madam, I know its taste better than you do. You spent yours beating a child for being loved more than you were. That is never a debt. That was only grief that never learned another name. You did not raise me, auntie.

 You kept me. There is a difference, and I have known it since I was small. The lawyers will ask what you did that night. Tell them the truth. All of it. I told you I would end it. I will spend a long time making up the four months it took to be brave. You already started the day you gave me half your lunch and told me you weren’t hungry.

I they tell Uno from that very first roasted con talk I know say something serious they cook. I sabi from the first week say that soft hand oimbo go come to something not another empire a room multiplied you were not what I imagined for him I imagined a name a portfolio I never imagined my son needed somebody who would love him the same in ibuda with nothing I did love him just the same.

 Ma, I only found afterward what he had to give up to let me. Welcome to this family properly then. Late at the Thank you for the rapper that night. Any regrets? only that I waited a year to go looking for what was already the realest thing I would ever find. Her. You asked me once what was under the gold.

 Sir, her. I remember.