He Promised Me Work In Lagos, Na Trap I Enter (EPISODE 7)

EPISODE 7 – The Call I Shouldn’t Have Picked

The call came in the afternoon, on a day that felt ordinary.

Unknown number.

I almost didn’t pick it. I rarely answered numbers I didn’t recognize. Too many people had already disappointed me. But something — curiosity, maybe exhaustion — made me swipe the screen.

The voice on the other end was calm. Too calm.

He greeted me by name. Not just Nkiru, but Nkiruka. My full name.

That alone made my heart skip.

He said he was a family friend. Someone who had known my parents for a long time. He spoke respectfully, carefully, like someone who didn’t want to scare me.

At first, I gave him short answers. I didn’t trust him. How did he get my number? Why now?

Then he started mentioning things he shouldn’t know.

He talked about my mother’s sickness. He mentioned Umunze. He even remembered the small mango tree that used to stand behind our house before it was cut down years ago.

That was when I sat up properly.

“How you take know all this?” I asked.

He laughed softly and said some friendships last longer than people realize. He said my mother spoke about me often. Too often.

That made me uncomfortable. But it also made me curious.

He asked how I was coping. He asked about my plans. When I mentioned Onitsha, he dismissed it gently. He said I deserved better. He said Lagos had opportunities. Real ones.

He spoke like someone who already understood my frustration.

Before the call ended, he told me to think about what he said. He said he would call again.

When the line went dead, my room felt smaller.

I tried to tell myself I was being paranoid. Maybe he really was a family friend. Maybe help had finally come.

But deep down, something didn’t feel right.

Episode 8 Coming Soon
That night, I asked my father about him — and the answer I got didn’t bring peace.