Dare's POV

"I didn't come here to build a relationship with you, I came here to help okay... You are not my father"

Mr. Bakare looked very hurt, but Dare didn't care, the man knows he hates it whenever he starts crossing the line like this. He needed to remind him. This is actually the first time he has done it in a while.

"Goodnight then" Mr. Bakare said, he was shaken but he tried to maintain his calm. He headed for the exit but when he got to the door, he paused then turned back to Dare.

"You know I find it baffling that I keep getting this treatment while your mother gets a free pass," He said bitterly.

How dare he bring his mother into this! Dare wanted to give him some sharp-worded response but he changed his mind. It would be a complete waste of his time arguing with him because the old Man is not even ready to take responsibility for his actions and inactions even after 35 years. Just look at him trying to apportion blame to his mother.

His eyes stung with tears as he walked up the stairs, he headed straight to the kitchen and poured himself a drink. Before he could take a swig though, his eyes landed on the wine, a glass, and the opener on the other end of the counter right in front of the fridge.

He froze.

He had moved the wine from the cabinet to the fridge earlier, just before he stepped out because, he knows the weirdo likes her wine chilled, he thinks it is an atrocity but he does it for her anyway. Things we do for love.

He moved closer and found the chocolate wrap too with a leftover piece she had taken a bite of.

Is she here? His heart started beating fast.

"Baby?" He called out then put his glass down quickly and hurried out to the room.

The door was bolted from the inside.

"Baby? Are in you in there?" He knocked on the door lightly as he pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed her number.

She rejected the call.

Shit! He thought to himself.

Judging by the chilliness of the wine bottle, she must have been in the kitchen just a minute or less ago and she must have heard them.

Just how much did she hear?

"Sofi please open the door. There are things I need to tell you," He said earnestly. But he knew he was done for, he knew he was in trouble. She heard them for sure.

He had no plans of telling her about the Alhaji Buba drama or the one he was currently working on. She doesn't need to know about all that ugly stuff!

But, he was going to tell her about him and Mr. Bakare, he just hadn't found the perfect time....situation to 'mention' it and this is in fact why he is yet to propose TBH.

The thing is, in the beginning, he actually thought she knew after all, she seemed pretty close to the Bakare Family.

However, when he saw the way she introduced him to Bankole (Banky) at the wedding, he realized that she might not be aware. In addition, Bankole didn't say anything or act like he had met him already.

He has made it clear that he doesn't want to be part of the family and they all understand and respect that. Except for Chief who says his blood runs through him and he is family whether he likes it or not.

He has always been close to Yinka though; She reached out to him on her own years back when she found out about him. She took the Eurostar from Paris to London then travelled to Oxford to come find him. At the time, he was 19 and she was only 15. He was fascinated by her boldness back then, she claimed she was in London with her Mum but he could tell her parents did not know she was there because she seemed a little bit apprehensive.

Anyway, over the years, they bonded via emails but they didn't even bond like siblings they are more like buddies, Yinka gets it.

When Sofi broke up with him the first time, he actually thought it was because she found out. He wanted to tell her that evening he confessed (Terra de pérola) but he was stunned when she said she cut him off because of Diana, and then he made a complete U-turn when she also said she had a problem with the fact that they are coworkers.

He knew she had problem with that from the beginning, she takes her career seriously, and he respects that. However, he pushed further because he knew he was not going to be with the Company for a long time and she kinda sensed that too, he is an interim CEO, Which is why she probably agreed to go out with him.

He didn't say anything about his paternity because he was afraid it would complicate things. He didn't want her to change, or be nicer to him because of Chief and he didn't want her to stop being herself or comfortable around him.

She was falling for him too at that point and it was just too beautiful for him to mess up with his 'paternity issues'.

***

Dare was around 9 or 10 years old when he started to sense that his father might not be his real father. It all started during one those Christmas holidays when the whole extended family would travel to their hometown to spend the holidays with their Grandmother (Paternal).

It started on this particular Christmas Holiday, the year Gombe State was created. Everyone came for 'December'. All the Uncles, Aunties and Cousins were present.

So, on one very cold harmattan night, the kids were playing by a bon fire that was set up by their parents to keep the children busy (So the adults could drink their alcohol in peace).

He was so excited because he was an only child and it felt so good to have family that were around his age bracket to play with.

At a point they started sharing cool stories and Nathan (8), was schooling them about fighter jets, then he went on and on about how his father was an Air force pilot and how cool it is. Then another cousin said his father was a professor or something, Dare sha couldn't wait for his turn to present his great father.

"My Daddy is a surgeon!" He finally said with pride. He enjoyed the brief confusion on their faces because he knew they didn't know the meaning of the word surgeon.

"What's a surgeon?" Nathan asked.

He smiled then balanced very well before going on to school them on what his cool dad does for a living. They were impressed and a floodgate of questions opened up on him. Suddenly he became the Centre of attention among the holidaying kids.

"But he is not your real father" Elijah (11) the oldest in the group said tauntingly.

"Uncle Amos is his Father," Nathan and another cousin chorused.

"Yes but uncle Amos is not his real father, my mummy said his real father disappeared before he was born and Uncle Amos just...." His big sister who was passing by cut him off, she smacked his head and told him to shut the fuck up.

Everyone looked confused but they kinda brushed it off, after all, they were kids they didn't know anything. Dare just brushed it off as jealousy.

That episode passed and he even forgot it happened.

But Alaye Elijah didn't stop there.

During the year that followed, they travelled again for a wedding and Elijah kicked him out of the area reserved for the kids because he wasn't a real Madaki. Elijah kind of controlled the pack so he was able to get the other kids to join him in tormenting Dare.

Now here is the messed up part of it all. When Dare asked that Elijah's sister if it was true she confirmed the gist but warned him not to say anything to his parents or else his father would send him and his mother away. She warned him to 'behave' and be a 'good boy'.

He was dumb enough to believe that so he lived with this fear of being 'sent away' for years.

The last time they visited their hometown, they left abruptly on the same day they arrived at night after his Father had an argument with his grandmother. He recalls this one vividly because they had to sleep in a hotel before travelling back to Abuja the following morning.

Months after that his mother was transferred to Auckland so he moved with her while his father stayed back in Abuja because of his job. He was restless during this period because he thought it was his father that 'sent them away' as predicted by his cousins.

So when the time came for him to move back to Nigeria for Secondary school, he was happy. He bonded with his Dad during his early secondary school years and with time, he stopped worrying about being 'sent away'. However, he never healed from the bullying and stigmatization.

*****

One day, at the peak of his teenage rebellion, he decided to go find his real father after a big fight with his mother. The woman was back in Nigeria and she was stressing him out.

Prior to that, he had broken into her safe and found his original birth certificate. So, the only information he had about his real father was the name, which was stated as 'Mr. Deji' on the birth certificate.

He waited for his parents to leave for work, before he broke into the safe again. He did not find anything new in the safe this time around but when he rummaged through her drawers, he found a sealed letter she had drafted to post to a 'Deji Bakare'.

He tore it open and saw that it contained updates about him; his current height, copies of his report card, a recent medical report he received the last time he suffered an asthma episode and a passport photograph.

He copied the address, stole one of her gold set, sold it in Wuse Market (at a discount), then took the next available ABC Transport to Lagos. He had only his backpack with him but he didn't care, he just wanted to get away from 'that woman'.

They got into Lagos after midnight, he slept in the motor park that night as advised by fellow travelers, and when he woke up in the morning, he started freaking out. He couldn't believe what he had done.

He was confused and overwhelmed by the madness and chaos in Lagos but going back was not an option he was in Lagos already; he had to find this Deji guy. He commuted aimlessly for hours and he was hungry but he didn't want to buy anything outside because the gutters were an eyesore, people peed everywhere and the disgusting smell killed the hunger.

The people he asked for directions gave him conflicting answers, half of them told him to take a bus while the other half told him to just take a Taxi straight to get to Victoria Island. But the Taxi drivers were giving him crazy quotes and they all looked shady and high. He was not stupid he knew he couldn't let his guard down Lagos is wild.

By noon he found himself in a place called Maryland, and he spotted a Familiar eatery; Mr. Biggs! He was starving but he knew he had to manage the money he had on him so he decided to buy just one meat pie and coke.

He paid for it and as he slipped the change into his wallet, a very loud ear-piercing scream hit everyone in the eatery. It was a little girl about 7 or 8 from the other counter throwing a tantrum because the outlet had ran out of meat pie. Onlookers were shocked and their ears were bleeding. Her embarrassed and mortified father could be seen begging and pleading with her to stop.

"We can get a doughnut for you instead," The man said.

"Nooooooo!" She threw herself on the floor as she continued thrashing and screaming "You promised!"

Dare quickly handed his meat pie to the girl it was still in the pack. "This is the last one, I'll take the Doughnut," He said to her father.

Her father shook his head "No no no you will not take another person's lunch" He scolded the little girl who was now magically quiet and was clutching the meat pie defensively.

"It's okay I don't mind the doughnut" Dare said seriously.

The man sighed with appreciation because Dare had saved him a lot of embarrassment. The Man turned to the Cashier "Please return his money will pay for whatever he is buying"

Dare tried to turn down the benevolence but the Man insisted.

"Ire, what do you say to this young Man here?" The Man signaled his daughter to say 'thank you'.

The girl said thank you begrudgingly and absentmindedly, her attention was on the meat pie she was unwrapping.

"You're welcome" Dare chuckled.

What a little monster!

"What's your name young Man?" The girl's father asked him as he sorted the cashiers.

"Dare"

"Okay...." He pulled out a note from his wallet "Here Dare, you can use this for transportation"

Dare shook his head vehemently. "No, thank you" He needed spare cash but haba, meat pie that is overrated sef.

"I insist! you don't know what you have done for me, and everyone enjoying their meal here" The man laughed.

Dare collected it and looked at the note. It was weird, for a second he started wondering if Lagos had a special currency like the other cities, he has followed his mum to, but then he saw that naira was clearly written on it.

N500

There's a 500 naira note?

"It's the new 500 naira note" The man said.

"Don't worry I am a banker it's not fake, these are the first ones in Lagos, we received them this morning." He added when he saw that dare was still skeptical.

"Oh" Dare smiled as he realized the portrait on the it was Zik, then he flipped to the other side and frowned.

"That's an..."

"Offshore oil-rig!" The cry cry that was now eating HIS meat pie chipped in.

"That's right Ire" The man nodded.

Dare had no idea what that meant so he just smiled.

A/N: Dare does not even remember this part of his adventure.

****

The taxi dropped him at the end of the street so he could find the particular number he was looking for because the numbering on the street was chaotic. Everything in this Lagos is chaotic.

After walking up and down the street a couple of times he finally found the number 15, There was no signboard on the building, he wasn't sure if it was an office or a residential building.

"Yes?" A cranky looking Man appeared when he knocked on the gate.

"Urrm I am looking for Mr. Deji Bakare" Dare said nervously, scanning the man's face to see if he had any resemblance to him.

"Do you have an appointment?" The man asked.

What?

"No Sir" Dare answered politely.

The man slammed the gate in his face.

Some minutes later, the gates flung open because a car was leaving and he was able to get the attention of another guy. This one was shorter but had the same uniform the other one was wearing so he figured they were the security men.

"Please I want to see Mr. Deji Bakare" He said to man, this one he seemed nicer because he let him and they went into the security post. He told him to sit down then he started interrogating him.

"You need an appointment to see Oga" The man said to him seriously. It seemed the cranky one had informed him that he didn't have an appointment already.

"He is my Father" Dare said and the man laughed weakly.

The man pulled out a pack of gala from his pocket and bit half of it at a go. "He is our Father too, but even we sef cannot see him without an appointment," bits of the gala flew out of his mouth as he struggled to speak.

When he finally swallowed the gala in his mouth. He paused then scanned Dare's face with suspicion.

"Who sent you here?" He asked Dare dauntingly.

"No one sent me!" Dare was crying already at this point.

Before he could come up with his next question, his second called for his attention.

He saw them through the windows running around fervently the Security guard returned to grab an umbrella then disappeared again. He didn't even realize it was drizzling till he saw them escorting a Man carrying a little boy and a girl to a car. They carried his briefcase for him and held the umbrellas over the kids.

They saluted and bowed enthusiastically as the car drove out. Dare just knew that was him but he didn't know what to do, he was surprised so he just froze there and watched the car drive off.

"So you don't even know the face of 'your father' that you are claiming?" The Security man said to him when he returned. "Go home young man"

***

Dare felt anger as he left the premises under the rain. Honestly, he didn't know what to expect when he came looking for the Man but seeing that the man was alive, hale and hearty, doing well and even has a family pissed him off.

For years, he has made excuses for the man in his head, he imagined perhaps the man didn't have the means to take care of him, he imagined his parents paid the guy off to stay away, he imagined a lot of things but he never expected.....accepted this possibility. Also for some reason he assumed the man was from his Mother's village.

Why then did the Man give him up and why was he hiding and communicating secretly with his mother when clearly he can afford to come check up on his son, his damn self.

He walked aimlessly for some hours that evening before he found a hotel that was willing to lodge a 15 year old at a reasonable price.

He had no intention of going back home, he hated everyone so much at that point.

After 2 days of just moping around in his hotel room, he realized he was running out of cash so he had to leave the hotel.

He went back to the motor park because that was the only place he knew, but he really didn't feel like going back home. So he sat on an empty bench and observed the activities in the park. There was another part of the park where trucks were bringing in tomatoes and other vegetables and he saw that groups of young boys were offloading the goods and they were being paid for it. They were spoke Hausa so it was very easy for him to join them.

The pay was ridiculous but it took care of his feeding and he could sleep in the park for free since the off loaders were like unofficial staff of the motor park.

After 2 days of intensive manual labour under the humid heat and heavy rains of Lagos he gave up. He decided that manual labour was not for him plus he was laboring way too hard for dirty and worthless five and ten Naira notes that only took care of the biscuits and soda he had been surviving on (Because he refused to eat Mama Put food).

He told himself to be like that Banker he met in Mr. Biggs who probably mints clean five hundred Naira notes for a living and earns in that denomination too. Also, he was hungry and wanted to eat good food so he decided to go back home. Lol.

He got a free ride home on a Unilever truck transporting FMCG to Abuja. During the trip, he got talking with the truck driver and he told the man his story. The man scolded him for running away and gave him some unsolicited advice. When he asked him where he was headed in Abuja and Dare said Asokoro the guy was surprised, he quickly figured he was some big man child so he offered to take him home to his doorstep. Of course, his distressed parents rewarded the driver handsomely.

His Mum cried tears of joy but still had the energy to scold him for running away, she accused him of 'trying to kill her'-naija mother style. His Dad was just glad he was back, he felt sorry for putting them through such distress, especially his father who had high blood pressure at the time.

They never asked him where he went because they knew. They didn't talk about it and his mother didn't say anything about the letter.

They just carried on like nothing happened.

Later that night.

Chief's POV

When Lydia (Dare's Mum) called to inform him that Dare was back home (One week after he went missing) he was relieved but a little bit disappointed because he wanted to find the boy first and not send him back to Abuja. He was still upset she called him 48 hours after the boy went missing and not immediately. He had never been so anxious before in his life.

He had the commissioner of police on the case, over 100 men were searching the whole of Lagos for him.

"Lydia, if you let this to happen again..."

"Please spare me. He is a teenager," She said irritably but he could tell she was still traumatized.

He didn't even bother arguing with her because he knew deep down that she was right. They are doing a great job with the boy, this is the first time they've had a major crisis like this. Dr. Madaki is a good man and a good father, he couldn't say the same for himself.

He was about to embark on a custody battle for Yinka and Segun. His wife had served him divorce papers weeks back and had moved out with the kids to her father's house. He couldn't understand why she would leave him, she had everything! She does not even know about Dare, no one knows about Dare.

He started reconsidering the custody battle. He couldn't even be a good father with her here, how is going to be good father to them as a single parent. His sisters who were egging him on to fight for custody are not even an option to look after them, they hate Nnenna (Yinka's Mum) because she is Igbo and they will extend that hate to his Children for sure.

'They are my blood, they will surely come back home to find me when they grow up' He said to himself.

A/N: So i had to squeeze in alot into this part because i cut 43 short. Had to cut out alot of irrelevant scenes.

You guys will find a lot inconsistencies in the timeline of this book and Playing House (TY & Osaze's story), it is a complete mess right now but I will fix it after the third book (Gowon and Yinka's story).

Anyway we have 6 more chapters to go!!!!

⬇️⬇️⬇️Don't forget to vote ;)