Chapter One: A New Beginning*
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The air in the city of Ibadan was thick with the scent of rain and red dust as Adaeze stepped down from the bus, her worn-out travel bag in one hand and her mother’s voice echoing in her mind: *"Don’t trust anyone too quickly, Ada. Focus on your books."* She wasn’t new to warnings. Life had taught her that people break promises the same way they blink—without meaning to.
She arrived at the university gates with a mix of nerves and hope. The campus buzzed with students laughing, rushing, living. Adaeze adjusted her headscarf and pushed forward. She wasn’t here to make friends or fall in love. Her father had left her mother for another woman, and ever since then, love to her felt like a trap.
Her hostel room was quiet, shared with a soft-spoken girl named Ifunanya who was kind but always on her phone. Adaeze didn’t mind. Silence had always been her friend.
The first week passed quickly. Lectures, new faces, unfamiliar streets. Then came a change no one expected.
Midway into the second week, a guy walked into her Literature class. Tall, light-skinned, a quiet presence that made heads turn. His name was Leo. He wore black and didn’t talk much, but something about him felt... off. Not in a bad way—more like he had seen too much.
When the lecturer paired Adaeze and Leo for a project, her heart sank. She hated attention. Leo simply nodded at the announcement and returned to his seat like it meant nothing. But when class ended and he stood by the door waiting, she knew her peace was over.
“Hi,” he said. His voice was calm, deep, and polite. “I guess we’ll be working together.”
She blinked, then nodded. “Adaeze.”
“Leo,” he replied, and something in the way he said it made her stomach turn—like his name was hiding a story he wasn’t ready to tell.
They decided to meet that weekend to plan the project. That was when it began.
That night, Adaeze returned to her room to find a folded note tucked under her pillow. No name. Just a handwritten message:
*“Your silence speaks louder than the loudest voice in this room. And I hear you.”*
She looked around. Her roommate was asleep. The door was locked. Her heart raced. Who wrote this?
---Authored by:
Ibiteye khafayat oluwaseun
*End of Chapter One
NBD/SP/AG/IV/PT151
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