Chapter 7 The Online Romance

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Olayemi sat in the small internet café near campus, her heart pounding as she stared at the screen. The room buzzed with the low hum of old computers and murmured conversations, but all she could focus on was the flashing message on her screen: "Jane Maya, you have a new message."

It was from him-Albert.

At first, chatting with Albert had been awkward. She barely knew what to say, fumbling through conversations that felt strange and unnatural. Ovie had warned her, "Make him fall in love. Keep it sweet. Make him trust you."

But Olayemi wasn't a con artist. She had no experience deceiving anyone. Each time she spoke with Albert, a wave of guilt gnawed at her heart, even though she told herself it was just temporary-a way to survive.

Albert, on the other hand, seemed genuinely smitten. His messages were long and affectionate, filled with jokes, compliments, and questions about her "life"-the life Ovie had crafted for her, full of half-truths and invented details.

He asked about her hobbies, her dreams, her favorite books.

"I imagine you sitting under the sun, reading poetry," he had once written. "You seem like someone who finds beauty even in sadness."

Olayemi had stared at that line for a long time, feeling a strange lump form in her throat. How was it that a man thousands of miles away, a stranger, could seem to understand a part of her that even people close to her never noticed?

As the days turned into weeks, their conversations grew deeper. Albert sent her songs he liked, photos of beautiful places he promised to take her to someday, and voice notes filled with laughter and warmth.

In his voice, Olayemi found a dangerous comfort.

Some nights, when she sat in the dark, her mother asleep in the next bed, she would reread his messages and wonder what it would have been like if everything had been real. If she had met Albert by chance, honestly, without all the lies and manipulations.

But reality always crept back in.

Ovie was watching. He would message her after every interaction: "Did you ask about the money yet?" "Make sure you keep him interested." "Don't mess this up, Olayemi."

The pressure weighed on her like a heavy stone around her neck. Still, she couldn't deny that part of her was starting to enjoy talking to Albert. It scared her how easily she could forget the truth for a few stolen moments, pretending she was just a girl chatting with a man who adored her.

Meanwhile, Albert's feelings deepened at a frightening pace.

He sent her gifts-flowers delivered to the internet café with a simple note: "For the most beautiful soul I've ever met."

He wired small amounts of money to "help her family," apologizing profusely that he couldn't do more yet because of "legal issues" he was dealing with back home.

Olayemi thanked him politely, never asking for more than Ovie instructed, but it made her stomach twist with shame each time she collected the cash.

She kept her replies cautious. She smiled when she had to, flirted when she needed to, but a wall stayed firmly around her heart.

Albert noticed.

"You always seem so far away sometimes, Jane," he wrote one night. "I feel like you're hiding a part of yourself from me. I want to know all of you. Please don't shut me out."

Olayemi's fingers hovered over the keyboard.

She couldn't tell him the truth:

That her name wasn't Jane Maya.

That she wasn't living a glamorous life filled with travel and adventure.

That she was sitting in a cramped internet café in Lagos, dressed in secondhand clothes, desperate and afraid.

So she typed back, "I'm just shy sometimes. But I care about you too."

And with every lie she told, she felt herself sinking deeper into a web she didn't know how she would ever escape.

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