I Rejected the Richest Guy in Church—Here’s Why I Don’t Regret It: Episode 14

I Rejected the Richest Guy in Church—Here’s Why I Don’t Regret It: Episode 14

EPISODE 15: The Stranger Behind the Text

I arrived at Sade’s Café ten minutes early. My heart pounded in my chest like it was keeping time with every second ticking on the wall clock. The place was quiet—just a few people sipping coffee and tapping away on laptops. I chose a table in the corner and sat facing the entrance.

5:00 PM.

No one I recognized had walked in. I kept checking my phone. No follow-up message. No clue. Just that one cryptic text.

Meet me at Sade’s Café this evening. 5 PM. It’s urgent.

5:06 PM.

And then she walked in.

Tall, poised, light-skinned. The same lady from Charles’ “engagement” picture in the youth WhatsApp group. The one everyone thought was his fiancée.

My breath caught.

She walked straight to my table like she had been watching me from the moment she entered.

“Hi,” she said with a small smile. “You’re Chinaza?”

I nodded slowly. “Yes. And you are…?”

“Let’s just say… I’m someone who’s about to tell you what you need to hear.”

She sat across from me and folded her hands. “I know you don’t know me, and this will sound strange, but everything that’s happening right now… is not what it seems.”

I stared at her. “You’re the girl Charles is marrying, right?”

She laughed—cold, almost mocking. “That’s what everyone thinks.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So, you’re not?”

She leaned in. “It’s not real. None of it is.”

I didn’t know what to say.

She continued, “Charles and I planned the engagement post together. It was never about love or marriage. It was a setup.”

I sat back in disbelief. “Why?”

“Because he thinks you’ll come running back if you feel like you’ve lost him. It’s about control. Power. Winning.”

The café suddenly felt smaller, tighter. My throat was dry.

“So you agreed to fake a whole engagement just to help him manipulate me?” I asked, my voice low and sharp.

She looked away. “At first, it was a favor. I owed him something. I didn’t know the full story. But when I found out the real reason, I felt sick. That’s why I reached out.”

I swallowed hard, trying to steady myself. “Why tell me now?”

“Because you deserve to know that this whole thing—the proposal, the engagement post, the way the church is looking at you like you made the worst mistake of your life—it’s all part of a script he’s directing. And you’re not the first girl he’s done this to.”

My hands clenched under the table. The Charles everyone adored, praised, envied—he was a fraud. And now he had dragged me into his mess to prove a point?

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. But I did neither.

I looked her straight in the eye. “Thank you. I needed to hear this.”

She nodded, stood up, and dropped something on the table—a small folded paper. “That’s his real name. Look him up. You’ll find more than you expect.”

And then she was gone.

I stared at the folded paper, my heart pounding all over again.

What am I about to uncover?

To be continued…