With every step he took, everyone turned to his direction, and Adam felt like they could all see. Like they could tell what he'd done and how he'd broken every vow he could think of. He didn't believe it could get any worse, but the weakness just kept piling up and up and up till he couldn't even see the world before him.

Evelyn was supposed to visit that Saturday, but Adam couldn't host her. Not when she might take one look at him and figure out just how depraved his entire week had been. No. Instead, he'd chosen to spend the weekend in deep penance and prayer, begging, pleading, asking for some form of guidance. He needed a reason to believe he'd been forgiven. A reason to move on. To not feel like a man who was molded and carved from ingredients sourced out of a dumpster fire.

On some level, he knew he was forgiven. God's mercy was everlasting. But who was he to accept it? Who was he to even ask for it? A blind man would be excused from walking into traffic. What was Adam's excuse if he had full vision, wide range and extra focus to know exactly when to avoid an accident?

Monday morning was torture.

Somehow, when his driver greeted him, Adam was sure he could hear a bit of judgment in the greeting. When the receptionists said hello, there was a tone he didn't quite like. Even the documents on his table felt off. Just as if the people seeking supplication had somehow gotten news of the things he'd done and somehow fitted their thoughts on his personal life into corporate documents.

"Sir?" Ekamma said. "Havana Limited has been calling all day. They want to speak to you."

Adam sighed, sitting back in his chair as he stared up at the ceiling. One trouble after another.

"Tell them that if they want to support my bid for presidency, there are state-sanctioned avenues for financial aid."

"I told them that but they claim to want to support the Eden Initiative."

He'd heard that before. That was always people's fancy way of wanting to offer money they knew not to be offer. It was as if they assumed that if Adam didn't want to take their money, then they would somehow be able to find a loophole in Eden's finances. But there wasn't. Eden was a transparent endeavor. Subject to federal and state audits. No one was going to hide money in Eden, as surely as no one was going to bribe their way onto Adam's ticket, campaign, or presidency. If he ever became the president.

"Ask them to speak to Obot."

"I did."

"They refused?"

"Yes, Sir," she said. "They want to speak to you."

Because they knew that Obot would file the money and actually use it to fund the initiative. As insulting as it was for them to believe in Obot's objective values, while thinking that Adam would be a better option, he couldn't even find the strength in his heart to get annoyed.

After all, considering recent events, Adam was a sinner who deserved judgment and a man who didn't deserve moral respect.

"Tell them I'm in a meeting."

"Yes, Sir."

He managed two whole minutes of quiet peace before his phone buzzed at his side. He opened up a text message from a strange number, to find a video attachment. He clicked on the video file as everything in his head went blank for a second. It took him a few moments to realize that he was looking at video footage of his bare buttocks as he moaned and whined on the massage table, while Gregory's hands opened up and closed his cheeks.

Screaming, he shoved the phone off his desk, heart pounding in fear as the video continued to play, ringing through the office with his voice that sounded nothing like Adam every thought he could sound.

There was a knock at his door.

Not knowing what to do, as the door started to open, Adam jumped right over the table and picked the phone up, just as Ekamma looked into the office, worry etched all over her face. He managed to shut the phone off with only a few seconds of his moans filling the air and no doubt finding their way to Ekamma's ears.

"Are you okay, Sir?" she asked.

"I'm fine."

"Did you just jump off your table?"

"I wanted to get my phone," he explained, waving the phone at her as she continued to look at him with concern.

"Okay," she said, retreating from the room.

He waited for a moment. Trying to pretend that he could forget what he'd just seen. Because, surely, Gregory would never violate him like this. Gregory would never do such a horrible thing as to record Adam in such a vulnerable and private moment.

Pulling the phone out again, he opened the message and closed the video so that he could see the number.

Beneath the video was a new message.

-100 million naira. In 24 hours-

Followed by a bank account number.

His knees went weak as he sat on the floor, reading and re-reading the message. Everyone was going to know what he'd done. Gregory, his trusted friend, had gotten possessed by some demon, for sure. Because how could he have chosen such a time to record Adam? How could he have gone further by trying to blackmail Adam? Strange number or not, Adam knew it had to be Gregory.

He called Gregory's actual number, but it was switched off.

He called Gregory's wife, but she hadn't seen her husband since Friday.

He called the massage parlor, but they had the same thing to say.

Which left Adam with one simple conclusion: Gregory had abandoned his family and duties on the fact that he was about to cash out a hundred-million naira from Adam.

Adam didn't have one-hundred-million just lying around to pay off Gregory. Even though he was the governor, the only time he'd ever seen that kind of money was on paper, when he was approving projects that would only better his constituents. Never in his life had he accumulated that much money for himself. There was nowhere he could go to get it. No one he could call that would just hand him that kind of money...

He hated himself for even thinking about it. Havana had been calling for a while, trying to get his attention. They wanted to speak to him. They wanted to give him money. They wanted to "help".

"God forgive me," he said as he reached over his desk for the intercom.

"Sir?"

"Call Havana," he whispered, his throat scratchy and aching from the request he'd just made.

"I don't understand, Sir-"

"Call them and give them my personal number." He was really about to do it. He had no choice, but he had to do it. "I'll talk to them."

***

-Done-

The message came from the Havana representative. One-hundred-million naira, sent to Gregory's bank account. It was over. At least until Gregory ran out of money and wanted more. In the meantime, Adam had to deal with the fact that he was now one pocket deeper in trouble because the day would come when Havana came to collect the favor their money paid for.

Pocket change, in the grand scheme of things. Adam was sure if he hadn't requested that amount of money, Havana could have offered more. But now, he'd sold his soul for money that the CEO of Havana probably spent in a week.

His phone buzzed again, a message from Gregory's strange number.

-Money received. Last request and you get the memory card-

-What do you want?-

Adam was willing to offer anything to get it.

-200 million naira-

Adam cleaned his eyes and read the message again. He cleaned it and re-read and repeated the action, over and over again. Because, there was no way this was real. He'd just scraped the last bit of dignity he had for the 100 million. Where did Gregory think Adam was going to get double that amount? What the hell was going on? Why now? How could this be happening?

"God, why?" he asked, as silent tears flowed from his eyes.

He should never have fallen for the first trap. He should never even have tried to hide the first sin with another sin. If he'd told the truth from the beginning, if he'd come clean and apologized, Gregory wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. But as it was, not only had he broken his chastity, he'd succumbed to bribes. He was a man covered in filthy rags and he hated himself for it.

He didn't have the money. He didn't have the will. And for the life of him, the only solution he could think of was a single phone call away.

To have been so naïve as to believe that he could attain his dreams without bending and breaking his values had been such a blissfully ignorant time. He should have known better. He shouldn't have had such lofty dreams. He should have stayed in his place and been grateful for what he had accomplished.

But Lucifer was right. He hadn't needed a fixer before. He definitely needed one now.

***

Throughout the next day, Adam stayed home once again, pacing and calling Lucifer and pacing and calling some more. He'd been lucky that Lucifer was eager to handle the case.

"I told you to use me anyway you want," Lucifer had said. "You should have called me the moment the first text came."

He was right. Lucifer kept people in check. He dealt with dirty-handed people like Gregory. But in his pride, Adam had thought he could handle it without being discovered. Like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he'd stood there and taken a gentle berating from Lucifer. He needed help. He wasn't in any position to defend himself.

"You'll let me handle this my way," Lucifer had said.

"Your way," Adam replied. "What does that mean?"

"It means when I ask you to do something, you'll do it without question."

How many blank cheques was he going to sign before all this was over? Taking a blind leap had landed him here, so Adam wondered what was one more foolish decision? After all, Lucifer was on his side. He was a devious, evil man who'd done horrible things to Adam in that office, but Adam understood what that night had been.

Lucifer was putting Adam in his place. Message received.

But now, he needed Lucifer. He needed the devious mind to find Gregory and make sure the contents of that memory card were never released.

"I'll do what you ask," he said with a nod.

And so he waited. The whole day, he waited for Lucifer to call and tell him he'd handled it. He waited for help, for reassurance, for support, praying that this would be the last dreadful thing he had to do in order to stay afloat.

When his phone rang, he nearly dropped it as it startled him out of his thoughts.

"Hello?"

"I'll send you an address. Come."

As soon as Lucifer cut the call, the address entered his phone. Adam didn't question it. Didn't even blink twice, before he was out the door.

***

Adam arrived at an abandoned mechanic's shop, just outside of Uyo. It was evening and the street had no lamps as it was off the main road. He'd driven himself, asking SSS to stay fifty yards away from him at all times. It wasn't much, but it was as much as they were willing to go.

Lucifer's car was the only shiny car on the premises, in the midst of car parts and engines just hanging out, in rows and rows of dilapidated material. When he made the turn into where Lucifer's car was, his headlights illuminated the figure of a man kneeling in the middle of the way. Adam shut off his lights and got out of the car.

"Is this Gregory?" Lucifer asked.

Needed to verify, Adam switched on his phone's light and moved closer. Surely enough, it was Gregory. His hands and feet were bound together at his back. He was kneeling and his mouth was tied with a gag. His head was bleeding down the side and his eyes were swollen shut. There was also blood seeping through his shirt.

"What did you do to him?"

"I had to question him, didn't I?" Lucifer asked, moving closer to Adam as he stood behind Adam, leaning his chin over Adam's shoulder, but never quite initiating contact. "Would you like to know what I found out?"

"We don't need to torture him."

"He's blackmailing you. From what I heard, he touched you." Lucifer walked around, coming to face Adam, his eyes steely and angry, even in the moonlight. "Is this true?"

"What does it matter?"

"Is..." Lucifer asked, fitting his hand into the waist of Adam's jeans and pulling him close. "This true? Hmm?" he prodded. "Did he touch you like I did?"

"It wasn't like that," Adam said, not knowing why he felt the need to explain himself.

"Did you like it?"

"Lucifer-"

He tried to turn away but Lucifer turned his face back till they were looking at each other again.

"Did you like it more than when I touched you?"

"No," he answered honestly. But also because he knew that was what Lucifer wanted to hear. Because it wasn't enough to invade Adam's body, Lucifer had to play mind games too.

"If you wanted someone to fuck you," he said, fixing his hand into Adam's trousers as he grabbed him by the crotch. "Why didn't you call me?" he asked, his breath hot against Adam's skin. "I would have come to you in a second."

Adam held Lucifer's hand to keep him from rubbing along Adam's length.

"This isn't what we came here for."

"Right," Lucifer said, a hard sneer appearing on his face. "We came here to deal with your other lover."

"He's not my lover."

"Not what I saw on that memory card."

Adam hissed, pulling Lucifer's hand from his dick as he stepped away. "You watched it?"

"I had to know what I was getting myself into." He smiled at Adam. "Time to deal with the issue."

He stood behind Adam again, this time, wrapping an arm around Adam's waist.

"How do we do that? Are we going to give him the money?"

"God no," he said with a scoff.

"Then what?"

Lucifer lifted Adam's hand and to Adam's greatest shock, he put a gun in it.

"You're going to get rid of him for good. So that he never bothers you ever again."