A/N: I tried my best to make this chapter as long as possible.

Enjoy

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Noah's POV

I glanced at my wristwatch. It had been ten minutes the first batch walked into the examination hall. Due to the numerous amount of people writing the exam, people were allocated batches in order to write. The examination was scheduled to start at 7:00am and Ijeoma was to write by 9:00am as part of the second batch but Nigeria being Nigeria, there was an hour long delay.

The delay pushed back the time allocated and disorganized the whole system that was initially put up. We waited patiently in my car while the first batch marched into the high school building that was allocated for the exam.

There was a large crowd huddled up in front of the gate and a long line of people perched against the walls that surrounded the main school building. The crowd held people with different agendas; some were parents who were either waiting for their children who had just gone into the hall or were waiting alongside their children to go in as the next batch.

There were also petty traders who cashed in on the opportunity of a crowd and brought out their goods which categorized of an assortment of stationeries, snacks and drinks.

Some candidates who came alone without any parent or guardian found their selves perambulating around the vicinity and like every crowd, there were people with diabolical intentions like pickpocketing from innocent, unsuspecting people.

"Don't you want to use this time to revise some more?" I said to Ijeoma after seeing some candidates huddled up in a corner, going over some notes.

"Nahh, I'm good. I don't really do well under pressure so whatever I'm trying to read now won't stick. I'll just be wasting my time" She said casually glancing out the window.

"Really? I'm the exact opposite then. Whatever I read before stepping into the exam hall, I'm more likely to remember than the rest" I said

"What would you want to do while we wait?" I asked

"I think I'm going to catch up on my sleep. I stayed up a little bit into the midnight." She reduced the chair into a lying position and leaned back.

She picked up her phone, briefly glanced at the screen before placing it by her side. "Wake me up in an hour, please"

"Sure" I replied and then she closed her eyes.

I watched her breathing get even as she delved into sleep. A couple minutes into her sleep, I noticed her run her hand along her arm before settling back to sleep. I instantly knew she was getting cold and made to reduce the intensity of the air conditioner. She had a short sleeved, round neck top and a pair of skinny jeans on, she was going for a simple look.

I luckily had the day off so I could actually wait it out with her and after she had gone in for her examination. While she slept, I busied myself with looking through my emails and occasionally glancing up at the crowd, just in case of any changes.

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Ijeoma had finally gone into the examination hall and it had been an hour now. The time allocated for the examination was two hours so I knew that she would be out in an hour. I was in the middle of mentally deciding whether to get something to snack on when my phone vibrated in the cup holder beside me.

It was my dad.

"Hello, dad" I briefly glance at the dashboard for the time. "Good morning"

"Morning, son" His voice was gruff like he was just woken from sleep.

I made a mentally calculation of what the time would be over there. I knew we were six hours ahead of them so it would be around 5am in the morning.

"You're up quite early" I pointed out.

"Yeah..." I heard the static humming of the coffee machine through the phone. "The PI called a couple of minutes ago, he has found a lead."

A feeling of excitement spread through my chest as soon as my father uttered those words. It felt like fire was ignited in my chest.

"Are you serious?" I couldn't contain myself as I adjusted in my seat.

"He didn't say much because he's still working on it. He wanted to inform me because I asked for immediate reports as soon as any changes occurred." He said

"Yeah"

"He sounded very confident and I guess that's promising" a quick slurp of liquid was heard after his statement.

"It is" I stated firmly.

"A call would be made later today. I think then we would have a complete breakdown of what he's found out and how useful this information would be" he said

"That would be great. I can assure you that Ijeoma would be waiting by the phone as soon as I let her know" I said

He chuckled. "I can imagine. Your mother would too"

We spoke for ten more minutes. He briefly asked about Ijeoma and I told what he needed to know. After which I offered to leave so he could get back to sleep but knowing him, he would be grabbing his laptop to work.

As soon as I placed the phone down, the passenger door was pulled open and Ijeoma sat in. She looked exactly like someone who had just written a hell of an exam. Her formerly neat bun was a little out of place like she had tugged on it, her face drained off color and countenance completely dull.

"Was it bad?" I asked immediately. "I mean, how was it?"

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. "It was okay... I guess"

"Okay?" I said monotone. "You look like it was terrible"

She managed to let out a soft chuckle. "It was fine, Noah. I'm just tired... and very hungry"

"Ohh" I chuckled. "Do you want me to get something for you?' I gestured to the traders selling snacks ahead.

"Nahh, I'll just wait till we get home" she said

"Are you sure? Not even a Pepsi or Sprite?" I asked. "You know mentally work is more tasking on the body"

She scrunched her eyebrows as she considered my proposal. "You know what, I'll have one but I want Mirinda instead"

"Kay"

I started the engine of the car and drove towards the young lady who was selling snacks and drinks by the roadside. The lady had the drinks in a cooler with large blocks of ice in it so the bottle of Mirinda had a little droplets of waters falling from it due to the melted blocks.

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As I predicted earlier, Ijeoma had been glued to my side ever since I told her about the lead. According to her, she wanted to be available when the phone rang and every single time my phone so much as beeped, she would ask if it was them.

We were both situated in the living room. Ijeoma was laid idly on the sofa while I was on settled the little four sitter dining table we had. We hardly used it because of the high stools in the counter in the kitchen. I busied myself by looking through some files on my laptop.

"What's taking so long?" ijeoma huffed out in frustration whilst staring at the ceiling.

"Calm down. The call is going to come" I said to her

She groaned and turned to me. "It's taking too long. I'm getting really impatient"

I chuckled and shook my head at her. In the same moment, a text came in from my father asking me to head to my Skype account.

"Was that them?" Ijeoma asked craning her neck from the sofa.

"Yeah" I said. "They want to do a Skype conference call"

"Eeeei" she squealed as she rolled down from the couch and unto the ground before scrambling to my location.

The moment she got to me, a call came in through Skype. She pulled one of the chair closer to mine so that they could have a good view of the both us.

"Hi. Good evening" Ijeoma said once both men's faces appeared on the screen.

"Oh, I forgot about the time difference." She said when she noticed the sunlight that seeped into my dad's office. He had his system facing the blinds. "Well, good evening from our side"

"It's fine" My father said with a smile.

"Hello, you must be Miss. Ijeoma. I'm Steven, the private investigator and a friend of Mr. Wilson here" the PI said to Ijeoma.

"Hello, nice to meet you" she said politely

Mr. Steven was around my father's age but he looked much older due to the amount of tobacco he smoked. He had grey hairs taking over his originally dark hair and a decent amount of beards surrounding his thin lips. I noticed his usual pale skin looked even paler like someone who hadn't stepped out into the sun for quite some time.

"Let's head straight to business" my father said

"Yes, of course" Mr. Steven said

"After Mr. Wilson had brought my attention to your case, I had the accounts of that of the Judge and Miss Ijeoma's ex-boyfriend's family tracked just in case there were any movements of money between the two parties." He started

"When I couldn't find any suspicious activities on both accounts. I did some background checks on both parties to find some type of ground that could've been used as emotional blackmail on the Judge. I also came blank on that end and I was beginning to lose my wits until I noticed the movement of 5 million naira into the judge's account from an off-shore account."

"I tracked that account and it turned out to be an account owned by the Judge. He had used his middle name to open that account and deliberately didn't link into his usual accounts. I did some backtracks on that account to find the source of the money and I was led back to a Nigerian account owned by a Seyi Akinbiodun. Seyi happens to be the P.A to Miss Ijeoma's ex's mother and it's obvious the money had been moved on her command."

"I have emailed all these information and bank statements to both Mr. Wilsons emails. My deduction is the judge was bribed to change his verdict and he seemed to have waited for a little time to pass before moving that money into his main account in order not to raise suspicion. It was actually a well thought out plan they had going." He concluded

"Thank you so much, Mr. Steven for the very efficient work. I have received the files you sent to me and I would be sending the findings to our lawyer." My father said

"My pleasure" Mr. Steven replied as he nodded.

"Wow" I heard Ijeoma mutter underneath her breath as she looked down at the keyboards transfixed.

"Thank you very much for your help" I said to Mr. Steven

"Yeah. Thank you so much" Ijeoma added as she snapped back to reality

"You're welcome" he replied with a tight lipped smile. "It was very nice meeting you" he said to Ijeoma before leaving the group call.

"I'm afraid I have to leave as well but I would make sure to call you guys later" My father said. "I'm sure your aunt would be contacting you very soon"

"Sure. We'll talk soon" I replied

"Bye" Ijeoma said

"Bye" he replied before cutting off.

"Wow" Ijeoma repeated astonished.

She stood to her feet, pulled her chair back into its previous position and walked further into the living room.

"That was... I can't believe they went through all that trouble just to take my daughter away from me" she turned to me.

"I know" I agreed as I stood up as well

"I'm so glad that we now have grounds to get Zozo back and all this would soon come to an end" Ijeoma sighed in relief.

"Yeah, me too"

She surprised me by walking over to me and wrapping her arms around my torso. "Thank you" she whispered into my chest.

"For what?" I was genuinely confused.

She lifted her face from chest and looked me in the eyes. "For everything, for your help, for basically going above and beyond to help me get my daughter back, for putting your life on a hold to be here for me when I wasn't myself. If it wasn't for you, I don't know what I'd have done" As she spoke, tears pooled in her eyes.

"Stop. It's nothing" I said as I caressed the sides of her face.

"It's not nothing. Most people pray for love that doesn't have to come with suffering or baggage and I'm the complete opposite of that. Ever since you've met me, it has been one hurdle after the other, one dark secret after the other and I don't think I could've handled all that if I were in your place" she said

"I'm genuinely sorry that loving me had to come with all that and I'm also extremely glad that you decided to stick with till we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel" she quickly wiped the tear that escaped her lids and returned her arm to my side.

I was completely overwhelmed by her speech. "You really have your way with words" was all I could say.

She chuckled. "I guess words just seem to come out properly when they come from my heart" she paused a while before saying. "Sometimes, I just wonder how I got so lucky"

"You're looking at me like you want some kind of explanation" I pointed out, when her gaze on me intensified

She laughed lightly. "I don't know if I'm looking for an explanation... I guess I'm just trying to figure you out"

"I feel like if you love someone or you choose to be with someone then you've chosen to be there with them through thick and thin. And for that decision to be made, you have to search within yourself to know if you can handle the beautiful and ugly parts of that person" I stated

"When I first met and eventually got to know you, I realized that you weren't going to come free of challenges. You were not easily trusting, very reserved and sometimes insecure about yourself. I already had an inkling that you had gone through some nasty things in your past, just by studying you so I guess I had already decided within me that I was capable of being with you come what may" I concluded

"I don't think I've ever loved anyone the way I do you" she said

"That would make the both of us" I said as I dipped in and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

She leaned into me and deepened the kiss. We were interrupted by the irritating shrill of my ringtone, I groaned as I walked over to the dining table to grab it. It was Aunt Chisom.

I lifted the phone to Ijeoma and showed her the caller ID. She nodded and mouthed that she would be heading into the kitchen.

I wasted no time in picking up the phone. "Hello"

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One more chapter to go before the epilogue

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