"Who you really are?" Ezinwanyi parroted, conveying her inability to comprehend what he had said. "Whatever might you mean by that?"

Onochie swallowed, the words stuck in his gullet. He needed to tell her the truth, but it was so difficult to let it spill out of him when he knew what the repercussions would be.

He was aware of her past experience, and the hatred she had for the royal who had tried to hurt her. She'd sneered at talks of royalty and noble blood. He had no doubt that her hatred would flow towards him also. And for that reason, he was scared.

While she'd pushed him away countlessly, Onochie was aware her actions did not spiral from a well of hate. Rather, it was from because of the mutual attraction they shared and the many walls that stood against them acting on the myriad of emotions they felt.

Onochie did not want to imagine a world where this beautiful, wise, and capable woman hated him. If not for her, he wasn't certain he would be at peace with his mother's state of health. Not even a week after her arrival in Zoro, she'd swooped in and saved the day, ensuring the queen mother did not come to harm.

As king and son, Onochie would ever appreciate her for saving his mother and the dowager queen of the kingdom. That single act had placed her on a high pedestal. She'd been stunning the first day he met her. Now, she held the place of a goddess before him. A goddess he dearly desired.

It was awful of him to be this selfish, but Onochie could not quell the urge. He could not dissipate the sentiments that'd grown in him for both women. Ugegbe and Ozioma were vastly different in their ways, attitudes and how they carried themselves. Yet, both women held large chunks of his heart.

Truth was Onochie felt indebted to Ozioma. He'd touched her and done things that a man should not do to a woman unless he planned to be yoked to her till the end. While he'd disguised his actions at the time to be necessary acts to ascertain that Ozioma had not cheated or been unfaithful to him in any manner, deep down, he was aware he'd only done so to satisfy his licentiousness.

He knew she was true to him. Most of the cases where they'd met, he'd had no reason to question her sincerity. He'd only done so because of his lascivious desires. For this reason, and even more owed to his history with the first woman he'd truly loved and respected, Onochie could not simply toss Ozioma aside. It did not matter that she'd recently been giving him the cold shoulder and acting noticeably strange; not so long ago, he'd promised to marry her.

Nevertheless, this didn't mean the feelings he'd nursed for Ezinwanyi were any less sincere or genuine. However, Onochie had to ponder their authenticity when he recognised that he'd indeed lusted after Ezinwanyi when he first met her.

There were many attributes Onochie had discovered to be attractive in Ezinwanyi—characteristics that went beyond the surface. They proved that Ezinwanyi's beauty was not merely physical, but was also rooted in her; it stemmed from the inside. Onochie did not want to think of losing her. He was terrified that outing this revelation about his roots would cause her to cut off ties with him. And, oh, how this prediction horrified him.

"Are you a thief?" Ezinwanyi's face popped up incredibly close to him. Onochie stumbled back, disarmed by the bewitching eyes and fleshy lips that'd taken him by surprise. He couldn't comprehend how she managed to catch him off-guard like this. He'd assumed her effect on him would have dissipated by now. Especially after she'd dismissed him countlessly. Clearly, it hadn't.

"W-What?" He stammered, and Ezinwanyi straightened, restoring the much needed space between their bodies.

"You are scared to tell me who you are. Might it be that you are a thief?"

Onochie was visibly taken aback, astonishment penned on his features. "A thief?"

Ezinwanyi shrugged, clearly unfazed. "I cannot envision any more reason for your reluctance to say what you planned to all along."

"The thing is..." Onochie trailed off. He couldn't do it. He could not tell the truth. He could not reveal that he'd been deceiving her all along. Swallowing, he decided on half-bread being better than none, as he started afresh, suddenly renewed. "What I have been trying to say is I am a coward."

Shrewd eyes pierced into the fabric of his soul. Onochie swallowed as Ezinwanyi appraised him with a solemn graveness. "Is this what you dragged your feet for, and refused to say?"

She wasn't impressed in the very slightest, but Onochie preferred it this way. He preferred her disappointment to her abhorrence. "Yes. Yes, that is what I had wished to confess, Ezinwanyi." He asserted, more confident as the boulder crushing him down to the earth rolled off his shoulders and his breath eased out of his chest.

Ezinwanyi donned a thoughtful mien, one hand akimbo on her waist. "I do not think you a coward."

While her statement warmed him from the inside out, Onochie was reluctant to accept the truth. He did not want her to continue with this illusion of him. She was the only person who could treat him as an ordinary man, and he wanted her honest opinion of him. He craved the candidness his position as king had deprived him of.

"You say that, Ezinwanyi, because you do not know who I truly am. You have not seen the height of my cowardice."

Ezinwanyi smiled softly. "You are correct. But I have seen cowards and how they act. You do not act like one."

"Ha!" Onochie scoffed. He was bent on hearing what he desired from her. In his opinion, he was a failure, both as a man and a king. Why didn't she view him the same way? Weren't the demeaning things he believed of himself reality? Weren't they what others also thought but were too scared to admit because he was king?

A small hand wrapped around Onochie's arm, jolting his mind to the present. "Why do you judge yourself so harshly, Onochie? Why do you put yourself down at every chance?" Onochie looked away. Why? Her question was one he had no answer to. And perhaps, he was a tad embarrassed that she'd caught onto the negative sentiments he bore towards himself.

"I do not know." He muttered, adamant about not regarding her further.

Ezinwanyi's hands came up on the shape of a chalice. She reached up, and they curled around his face. Onochie sighed, enjoying the sensation of her soft skin against his.

It felt good to have her this close to him. He was aware pulling her into his embrace as he did earlier would be unwarranted, and so he settled for this. It was the best option, as in the end, he could not risk getting carried away. The feel of her body against him had nearly driven him to madness earlier.

While Ezinwanyi was not as shapely or voluptuous as Ozioma, Onochie could not stop his body from reacting to the perfect bend of her slender build; her waist was narrow enough that both his hands would span most of its length. In her two-piece wrapper, she was as delectable as a dark ripe pear straight from the farm in its season.

"You must stop thinking the worst of yourself, Onochie. The whole world does not hate you. Perhaps, there might be a few who do, and continue to search for your faults, but that should not be your concern. You must learn to not put your worth in other people's hands. They will reduce you to nothing, utterly ruining the perception you have of yourself, if care is not taken."

Onochie nodded, and she let him go. He only wished what she'd said was that easy. He was already too deep in this pathetic way of reasoning. How could he extricate himself from its clasps?

Depleted of his reserves of energy, Onochie shut his eyes for a beat. When he opened them, he found Ezinwanyi beaming, a bright star in the midst of his darkness. He wondered why she was smiling. Had he done something to be jested for?

"Why do you grin so, Ezinwanyi?"

At this, she giggled. It was the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard. Onochie could not help but return her high spirits with a smile.

"You are too precious, Onochie." She said when her giggling bouts had subsided. "Never have I met any this troubled by their deeds and seeking perfection in them to the point that they forget there exists no human who is perfect. We all err, and it makes us no less good or human than we are. In short, it is only expected that we do. You mustn't continue to hurt yourself over the inevitable nature of humans."

Ezinwanyi's admonition rambled long, but the king was stalled behind. He'd seized on the adjective she'd described him with, and nothing else could permeate his mind's soil. Precious. She deemed him so. "You–Ezinwanyi..." The statement caught in his throat. Over and again, she stunned him. In a most pleasant way too.

Smiling with a full mouth as if he were a goat being roasted for Alusi's festival, Onochie unearthed the strip that differed between a sunny and gloomy day. It was Ezinwanyi. He worried less about his dismal fate when she was around. He laboured less over his pathetic rule as king when she spoke to him. He yielded to his self-loathing and berating notions less when she clung to him. It was the greatest of all truths that Ezinwanyi made him happy.

"Why do you keep silent, Onochie?  Is something wrong?"

Onochie shook his head to show nothing was awry. "You will be the end of me, Ezinwanyi."

Her brows knitted in confusion. "How so?"

"You make me a different man."

A beat sidled by. Ezinwanyi's expression of bafflement transformed into a staid apathy. "Perhaps that is not a good thing in of itself."

Onochie had to consider what she'd said carefully. "Whatever do you mean?"

"That I caused you to change might not be a good development."

Vehemently, he opposed. "It is! You make me bolder and less afraid of the unknown. I do not know how you do it"—he shook his head—"but somehow, you lend me your strength. I am more confident in myself because of you. You make me want to be better."

"But you should do all of these not for me but yourself, Onochie. You must stop concerning yourself with what others think of you, or you may not find real happiness. That kind of joy is not one any can give you. Not I nor the best person in the world. Thus, changing for another is not an effort that should be applauded."

Determined to bare out his soul to her, so she would see what he was trying to say from his biased view, Onochie blurted out, "I was once a womaniser."

"You were?" Ezinwanyi asked. Onochie hesitated as he could not decipher the cause of the guardedness that had translated into her body language. Her lips were pinned firmly against each other, and her body was suddenly a thousand miles apart from

"I was. Ozioma changed me. Sometimes, changing for others is the right thing. I am a better man now than I was before."

Ezinwanyi scoffed, a terse shot of air from her lips. "So, Ozioma is her name—the name of the woman you love." Onochie recoiled at her icy tone. It was frigid, whipping at his bare torso. Even in the humidity of the afternoon, he felt the razor lash cut into his flesh. "I hope you have a good day, Onochie! Please, extend my greetings to the woman to be your wife."

Onochie watched as she picked up her basket from the ground. He could not understand why she was angry. Had he voiced something inappropriate? This was not the first time he'd spoken about Ozioma. Yet, it was obvious he had enraged her. Maybe he could rectify this.

"Ezinwanyi! Wait!" He tugged on her arm, but he must have misinterpreted the magnitude of his strength as he'd pulled too hard and the content of her basket was on the sand. "Forgive me, Ezinwanyi," he reached to help her with the white wrapper that surely was stained with dust but was deterred by a stern "leave it be" from her.

He shuffled awkwardly on his feet as he waited for her to rise again. Mysteriously, she remained crouched on the ground, her head bowed low. Onochie could only see the top of her head, which was crowned with plaits.

"What is going on? Ezinwanyi, are you alright?" He extended a hand down to her, but all it did was complicate matters. A frown was high on Onochie's face when Ezinwayi scrambled away from him, feet digging into the brown sand.

"S-stay away from me!" She stuttered, stretching out a hand to keep him away. Her eyes were white with terror as if he were a ghost. Onochie was speechless as she turned on her heels and hastened away from him.
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A/N: Hello, lovelies! I can't put into words how much your comments and messages mean to me. I am grateful to each and every one of you for your support and encouragement. Thank you all for reading my book, loves. It means the world to me💛