CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE “CONVINCED”

©Opeyemi Akintunde
Inspired by the Greatest Storyteller

Beauty’s POV

My host closed the book on her lap and looked at me with the calm patience of someone who had delivered this explanation many times before.

“Now that you know who you are,” she said slowly, “and you understand the source of your new life… you must also understand our expectations.”

Her words were not harsh. They were not shouted. But they carried the quiet authority of a contract that had already been signed.

“I am your sponsor,” she continued. “I brought you in. Just as someone opened the door for you, you must open the door for others.”

I did not speak. My throat had gone dry.

“You will advertise your life,” she said. “Your house. Your beauty. Your success. Your lifestyle. Make it attractive. Make it desirable. Make young girls look at you and wonder how your life became so perfect.”

I stared at her, trying to convince myself that this was still some kind of metaphor.

“You will present yourself as a mentor,” she went on. “Start a mentorship platform. Invite them to learn from you. Teach them about confidence, branding, and self-transformation.”

She paused for a moment, allowing the words to sink in.

“Gradually,” she added, “you lure them in.”

My stomach tightened.

“If you fail to do this,” she said calmly, “your life will become worse than it was before.”

The sentence sat between us like a cold blade.

“In one year,” she continued, “you must sponsor at least twenty-five girls.”

Twenty-five.

Not one.

Not two.

Twenty-five.

In that moment, I felt uglier than I had ever felt when I believed I was ugly.

Because now I understood something painful.

Before, my face had been the problem.

Now my soul was.

I had become a disguised witch.

There was no point asking if I could opt out. She had already answered that question before I even asked it. If I walked away, the life I had just entered would collapse, and the fall would be far worse than the poverty and rejection I had once known.

I did not want to imagine what “worse” meant.

Would my skin decay?

Would my beauty vanish overnight?

Would I become something twisted… something people would run from?

Fear has a way of making terrible choices look reasonable.

That day, I stood up and accepted a fate that was far worse than the one I had been running from.

Before, my face was ugly but my life was honest.

Now my face was beautiful… but my life was ugly.

And so I began doing what was required of me.

My social media grew quickly. I posted carefully curated pictures of luxury vacations, elegant dinners, beauty treatments, and motivational messages about self-worth and transformation. Young women began sending messages, asking how I had changed my life so quickly.

I answered them with just enough mystery to keep them curious.

Just enough hope to keep them chasing.

Just enough illusion to keep them believing.

But the cost of that life followed me everywhere.

The dreams continued.

The meetings.

The strange gatherings.

The invisible obligations.

Until one night, everything took a darker turn.

It happened during a physical gathering disguised as a cruise party.

To outsiders, it looked like a group of wealthy young professionals enjoying themselves on the water. Music played softly. Glasses clinked. Laughter floated across the deck.

But those of us who belonged knew the real purpose.

I was seated beside Kalunga.

The world knew him by another name.

Imade knew him as Daniel.

But among us, he was Kalunga.

We were not close friends, but we had crossed paths several times during these gatherings. In that environment, alliances formed easily between people who shared secrets too dangerous to explain to anyone else.

That night, while music drifted across the water, I sat scrolling through my phone.

Then I saw something.

A photograph.

A pre-wedding shoot.

Imade and Teju.

They looked radiant.

Peaceful.

Hopeful.

For a brief second, I simply stared at the screen.

Then bitterness rose inside me like poison.

As witches, something happens to your mind over time. Darkness does not only change your actions; it begins to reshape your thoughts. You begin to imagine harm before kindness. You begin to see destruction as opportunity.

Evil begins to feel… natural.

I turned my phone toward Kalunga.

“Can you help destroy a marriage?” I asked quietly.

He looked at me, amused.

“Why?” he asked.

I shrugged slightly.

“Just for the fun of it.”

He laughed softly.

“I like fun,” he said. “But what’s in it for me?”

The idea came to me instantly.

“You can claim her womb,” I said. “Everything that should ever come out of it.”

His eyes sharpened.

“Their union carries potential,” I added quietly. “Great potential. If it is broken early enough, you can dominate what would have come from it.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then he extended his hand.

We shook on it.

And just like that… the plan began.

We designed everything carefully.

My appearance at the hotel.

His presence on the same flight.

His emotional engagement with her.

His sudden disappearance.

Her obsession.

Her search.

The destruction of peace between her and Teju.

It was meant to unfold over five years.

A slow dismantling.

But something happened that none of us expected.

Just after the first year…

I met the Lord.

And when light enters a place that darkness has occupied for too long…

A battle begins.

A mighty battle.

To be continued

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