I will always protect someone dear to my heart

“How dare you?”

He wasn't speaking to me, he just had his head bent low in a mock bow. I wished I could take a journey into the chambers of his heart to see why he had done it.

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“I didn't do it” his voice was quiet.

I began walking around the house, rubbing my fingers on my forehead, trying to fight against the voices that were screaming at me to pick my phone up and call my mother.

“Sit down,” I said against every reasonable judgment. He lowered himself onto the edge of the bed, too scared to even sit properly. “I want to know everything. Do not…” I was pulling my ears at this point “...leave any stone unturned”.

“It wasn't me,” he said firmer this time. I rose to lock the front door to my one-bedroom apartment in case anyone thought to pay me a surprise visit.

“Treasure, I would never take money that doesn't belong to me,” this was the exact reason I didn't indulge the story that my younger brother had taken 500,000 naira from my mother's cousin and ran with it.

“He gave me the bag quite alright and asked me to keep it safe for him. The only place I thought to keep it was my bag of clothes. I went out to get fuel for the generator later that evening and when I returned, my clothes had been turned upside down. I alerted Uncle immediately and all he could do was grab my shirt and ask where his money was.”

The story wasn't making sense to me.

“Did anyone else know about this money?”

He shook his head and for the first time, the only expression I could read was a defeated one.

“But why did uncle not keep his money in the bank?” An incoming call didn't allow him to answer that question.

“Treasure” It was my mom, I saw my brother flinch when I greeted her “Has Flourish come to you? If he has please let us know, your uncle is threatening to call the police on us” I placed the phone on speaker, “Let us know so we can ask him what really happened with that money.”

I looked from my brother's pleading eyes to the phone in my hand where my mother's pleading voice called out from.

“I…I haven't seen him mummy” My voice got stuck in my throat when he stifled a sob, “If Flourish comes to me I will let you know”

Flourish was wiping tears from his eyes as I dropped the call.

“We have to leave this house as soon as possible. We'll head over to my boyfriend's place at Etinan” He nodded gratefully but didn't say a word. “Still, this story doesn't add up” I began, “Uncle had half a million and he didn't take it to the bank. Why didn't he give his wife to keep it for him? Why is he insisting that you took the money?”

I picked up some of the items I thought we needed to pass the night, then called my boyfriend and tried as quickly as I could to narrate the issue to him. We soon began the trip to the local government where he resided

“I'm sorry about what's going on,” he told my brother when we arrived and settled in. My brother just nodded. For a talkative, he didn't seem to have any more words. “The first mistake you made was running”

“He wanted to arrest me,” my brother reiterated.

“Let's just go to bed. When we wake up, we'll think of what to do”

My boyfriend and I stayed up late into the night even after my brother had slept, discussing the best line of action to follow.

It was about 8 am the next morning when my mom called again. I didn't take her call but after 5 trials, I knew she wasn't going to stop. My older siblings were also on the call.

“Treasure!” There was excitement in my mother's voice, “They've seen the money!”

According to the story, Her cousin's wife heard a loud noise from Flourish’s room, and going over to check, she discovered that his clothes bag had fallen from the wardrobe. As she picked it up, she saw her husband's bag in it and brought it out.

That was when she saw that the bag was filled with money and took it thinking Flourish had stolen some money from her husband.

It was upon presenting the bag to her husband and narrating what happened that he realized his money was never missing.

“My brother is not a thief” I suddenly blurted out on the call. “And he is not missing either. He's here with me”

“Treasure, you're dangerous o!” My older sister exclaimed “We were all here looking for someone and you lied to all of us when you were hiding him. What if he truly stole that money?”

“I was protecting my brother since you didn't deem it fit to do so,” I said and after bidding my mom farewell, dropped the call angrily.

My younger brother suddenly grabbed me from behind, sobbing. I turned around to look into his eyes.

“I will always…” I wiped the persistent tears from his cheek “....protect you” When he wrapped his arms tighter around me, I allowed my own tears to fall.

My brother was finally vindicated.