Chapter 3
I get home in time to see my children’s nanny, Mrs. Balogun, getting them ready for bed. Two 8-year-old girls who look like me, run excitedly to give me warm hugs. They look like adorable pink pandas in their matching pajamas.
“Mummy!” They scream in unison and wrap their little hands around my waist.
“Hey, babies,” I say with a happy smile. “How are you girls doing?”
“Great,” Zino, the older twin says.
“Super,” Kome adds with a toothy smile. “Where have you been?”
“Out with my friends,” I say vaguely as I begin to disengage myself from their firm grip. “How was school today?”
“Boring,” says Kome.
“School is always boring to you,” Zino tells her.
“Ok, girls. Time to go brush your teeth,” Mrs. Balogun calls out them.
The girls promptly obey and run up the stairs to do as their nanny says. Having the middle-aged woman as their nanny since the girls were born has been a huge blessing for me. She treats them with such love and care as if they are her grandchildren, and the girls absolutely adore her.
“Thank you, Mrs. B,” I say to her once the girls are upstairs. “I didn’t know I would stay out this long. My friends always like to take advantage of any opportunity to party and just do the most. If it were up to me, we would have wrapped things up earlier and gone on our separate ways hours ago.”
Mrs. B smiles at me and says, “You don’t owe me an explanation, Uzezi. You deserve this and more. You are finally getting your life back and that is something worth celebrating.”
I am touched by her kind words, so I walk over to where she is standing, and I hug her. “Thank you, Mrs. B. You’re a breath of fresh air.”
“You’re welcome, darling. Let me go and check on the girls before I leave. They’re probably playing at the sink instead of brushing.”
Some minutes later, Mrs. B goes home, while I tuck the girls in for the night. This is by far one of my favorite moments every day.
“Want me to read you a bedtime story?” I ask them.
They both frown. Zino and Kome are not identical twins, but their resemblance to each other is uncanny. They’re like two different mini versions of me.
“What?” I ask.
“We are not babies,” Kome says and rolls her eyes. “We don’t need bedtime stories to fall asleep.”
“Since when?” I ask in surprise. “We read one yesterday, didn’t we?”
“That was yesterday. Now we’re big,” Zino chimes in.
“Wow…” I laugh. “Why the sudden change?”
“Saraya in our class says big kids don’t need bedtime stories,” Zino informs me.
“Oh, I see. Ok then, goodnight to you two,” I say and kiss them on their foreheads.
“Goodnight, Mummy,” they respond.
I stand up to leave their room and as I lift my hand to flip the light switch off, Kome says, “You can leave the light on.”
“Yes, boss,” I respond and leave them to sleep.
After a warm shower, I dress in my nighty and lie down in bed with my phone in my hand. Remembering my encounter with the handsome strange guy at the restaurant, I click on my Google app to search for his name on the browser. When the search results show up, my jaw goes slack, and my eyes become huge like saucers.
Dominic ‘Dom’ Inyang is the son of a billionaire, Bassey Inyang, who has owned an oil block since the early 80s. He also owns a conglomerate of businesses that deal in consumer goods, with branches across Nigeria and a few other African countries. Dominic’s mother, Amb. Marilyn Inyang is a retired lecturer, former dean of the Nigeria Law School in Lagos, and the former ambassador of Nigeria to Egypt.
Despite being the only child of wealthy parents, Dominic has created his wealth from owning three successful nightclubs in Lagos, Abuja, and Dubai. He also owns a music record label, Dominate Music, a chain of high-end boutiques in major cities in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. He co-owns several popular restaurants in the country, including the one where I met him today. The guy appears to be raking in billions of cash annually from his numerous businesses.
As for his love life, the 32-year-old bachelor has dated the crème de la crème of women, ranging from supermodels to movie stars, to reality tv stars, beauty queens, businesswomen and he has been rumored to have dated the widow of a political big wig recently. His list of exes was endless, and my head is already spinning from reading all their names. Dominic is every woman’s dream; filthy rich, handsome, and single.
And… he is completely out of my league. I mean, let’s be honest – he is young and rich and moves with society’s upper echelon, whereas I am a divorced mother of two, running a small knick-knack store and four years older than Dominic. We are totally on the opposite ends of the spectrum here. We have absolutely nothing in common. Nothing!
I kissed a billionaire today! The thought pops up in my head like an alarm. I chuckle. If it hadn’t happened to me, I would not have believed it too. That must be the wildest thing I have ever experienced in my ordinary life, and it is going to be my dirty little secret.
With a smile, I drop my phone on the nightstand and snuggle into my pillow to sleep.