September, 1999

To Toluwanimi Kingston,

My best friend, my lover, my husband, I've fought a thousand battles with you by my side, if you are reading this then I have failed, I lied and told you everything would be alright.

We might have lost this one, but believe me, as long as I once existed, once lived, once loved, I will never throw you to the wolves without a gun strapped to your back.

Writing Project Eden for almost ten years gave me the time to write a solution, a fail safe if it came to that, you will know when it is time to find out — just look at the rising sun.

Do you remember when we first met? I had been reading Sun Tzu's Art Of War and I had quoted a part of the book to you, somehow you stayed to listen, even quietly teasing me that no reasonable student went to the library to read the most boring book to have ever been written. Even then, you had never been able to stomach conflict and I have watched this conflict weigh you down, I wish I could have done different.

If you remember, I told you I would one day write my own The Art Of War and I have and I have entrusted it in the safest place I know, don't bother looking for it.

This would be the part where I say goodbye but what good will that do? Except cause you more misery. Instead, I want to swear an oath to you, I swear never to let the bad guys win, that was our motto, what we fought for.

I'm not letting you do this alone, you will find help in the most unlikely places and when you do, maybe they will remind you that you're not alone, because when I swore to you that you were stuck with me forever, I meant even after the unknown.

Live —
— Tamika Afolabi Kingston.

November, 1999

To my rising sun,

I haven't met you yet, and I will only get to stare into your face once before it happens. But you are my greatest creation, my eden. Your father wanted to name you after the most precious thing he could find, I wanted to keep calling you my sun and in the end we could never agree on a name, but whatever name you're called will not matter, you might named after the prettiest flower but you are ten times fiercer, ten times smarter.

I am proud of you, and I am sorry, you deserve better. But if you ever find the truth, know that I did everything with love in my heart for you, it is no excuse but the pathetic part of me hopes you will forgive me.

I am sorry because you will never grow up without having people who will do everything in their power to find you and haunt you. But you are my final attempt at redemption and you have your own art of war written for you.

Most important of all, you are loved, Sol Toluwanimi Kingston Afolabi. My sun.

— from your mother.

***

The lights flickered back on barely a second later, but fear was already slithering down her spine, and when she looked, Grace caught the slightest hint of that same fear flicker in Remilekun Phillips' eyes but he turned away too fast without another word  and his son followed.

They didn't even cast a glance of apology her way and when Grace looked at Ann and her colleagues, they were frantically trying to boot the computers in front of them.

"We're fucked." She heard Ann exclaim.

Grace didn't wait a second later, she left the room, bursting into the outer control room that was a cacophony of noise and movement, from what she saw, the computer screens were blank and all attempts to boot it failed. She caught one frustrated man jab at the keyboard before sending it flying out of his cubicle. His colleagues were rising from their office seats and milling in and out the doors.

She inhaled a sharp breath and headed straight for the door, she waited for anyone to stop her, to shout her name and demand that she returned but nobody did, it made fear crawl down her spine again, something really bad had to have happened for her to waltz around unnoticed. And she really didn't want to stick around to find out.

Quickening her steps on the plush crimson rug, Grace pushed open the swinging glass doors and almost rammed her face right into Kendrick's.

She huffed a laugh and the anxiety in her chest loosened slightly at seeing a familiar face.

"How did you know how to even find me?" Grace asked as they fell into step with each other, walking towards the elevator at the end of the hallway. "Where's my brother?"

Kendrick was quiet, chewing contemplatively on his lower lip, Grace gave him a gentle nudge as they stepped into the elevator together. The doors whirled shut quietly and Grace heaved another sigh of relief, another of her nightmares was being stuck in an elevator.

It was only when she cast another glance at Kendrick did she notice that he was frowning.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Did something happen to Sanmi?"

Kendrick met her eyes slowly. "No, nothing happened to him, last I saw, he wondered off with some guy whose lips looked like a clown paint."

Grace laughed again, then saw that he still bore he serious look on his face, it told her that he had meant his words seriously, not as a joke. Usually, when Kendrick joked he waited for her laugh before he indulged himself with a chuckle, he was far from laughing this time and slowly, all the relief ebbed out of her.

"Kendrick, what's wrong? I won't ask again." She snapped.

He sighed. "I hate to tell you this, but if I were in your shoes, I'd want someone to do the same for me, so I have to."

Her heart lurched in silly fear as the elevator came to a sudden stop, Kendrick stepped out of the doors that had now open on a new floor and Grace realized that they had arrived at the designated floor.

She vaguely remembered being on this floor and Joshua telling her that it was a floor of offices that were almost never used.

Grace reached out a hand and grabbed onto the collar of Kendrick's shirt, drawing him closer to her.

"You better tell me what the hell is going on. Now."

He suddenly stopped looking serious, his shoulders slouched before he straightened himself again. Kendrick's eyes darted around the empty hallway as if he was waiting for someone to jump out and scare him.

Then he scrunched his eyes shut and slipped to the floor in front of the first black door and patted the cold tiled ground besides him. Grace hesitated before squatting to sit besides him.

"Okay, talk now." She commanded.

"What do you know about your family?" He asked.

Grace was taken aback. "My family how? Wait, did Sanmi finally find out the truth about our parents divorce and told you to warn me? If that's what you want to talk about, then don't bother, I already know."

Kendrick looked the least bit irritated but not at her. Instead he nodded and pulled out his phone, the sight of it gave her a jolt of reminder that she didn't have one and she felt a swell of resentment.

"I thought our normal networks don't work in here." Grace pointed out.

"They don't, but the dome's protective server is down so they do work for now." He told her, typing something into his phone browser, when she leaned closer, she caught the last of the words before he swiped on the search icon — Afolabi Kingston.

Then she leaned back and watched him click on several articles and save them offline. He pressed the power button and the screen went dark.

"I was in the middle of a tour of the dome when I was taken to the hall of fame, a whole ass hall dedicated to ORION'S greats. I caught a name on one of the plaques that seemed familiar." Kendrick began.

"Afolabi Kingston?" Grace asked.

He nodded. "Tamika Afolabi Kingston."

Kendrick paused for a second too long and met her eyes, searching for something she didn't know.

"I don't recognize the name if that's what you're asking."

His shoulders slouched in disappointment for a brief second before he resumed his story. "I recognize that name because my mother runs a party planning business and she once worked with a foundation named after that. I called her to confirm."

"Then I wondered what such name was doing in ORION'S hall of fame, I was curious then I decided to browse the name."

He paused again, this time to unlock his phone, uncaring that she saw his password, then he handed the phone to her.

"Look at that article, and this, this is Tamika Afolabi Kingston —"

Kendrick was saying something else but she couldn't hear it over the ringing in her head, Grace was staring into a picture of herself, no, it wasn't even herself, it was an older looking woman with the biggest smile on her face.

Tamika Afolabi Kingston was the carbon copy of Grace Ilori, or maybe it was the other way around. Grace looked up at Kendrick, suddenly glad that she was sitting.

"Who is this woman, Kendrick?" Her voice cracked. "Why does she look so much like me?"

Kendrick's eyes were soft, pleading but nothing made sense anymore.

"I think she's your mother, Grace. I'm sorry."

Grace wiped away angry tears, she wasn't even sure why she was angry, only that she was. She might have been angry at this woman, who the article clearly said died in 1999, December — the same year and month Grace had been born, she might have been angry that her life, the life she had known was nothing more than a lie. She didn't know, all she knew was that she was angry.

"I've seen this woman before, someone snuck a picture of her in my backpack many weeks ago, I thought it was me, I thought it was Photoshopped."

"I'm a fucking fool."

"No, you aren't, although you are allowed to feel this way."

Grace shook her head, her voice rising in hysteria.

"Fuck, everything makes sense now, everything about The ORION Project makes so much sense."

"She created Project Eden." Kendrick said quietly.

Grace stood, feeling the weight on her chest grow until she couldn't help but clutch it as if it hurt visibly. She wasn't even sure what the truth was, who was lying and who wasn't?

"Is Sanmi even my brother?"

Grace thought she spoke too soon, because the elevator doors whirled open and Sanmi stepped out, a frantic look set in the furrow of his eyebrows.

Then he stopped, noticing the tears on her face, he looked from her to Kendrick, then anger made him clench his fists as he resumed his steps, barrelling straight for the Chinese boy.

"Hey, no, no, this isn't his fault!" Grace screamed, stepping in front of Kendrick before Sanmi's blow could land.

"Then why the fuck are you crying?" Sanmi hissed. "I swear if the Phillips laid a single hand on you, I will end them."

"No, it's much worse than that." Grace scoffed, she had no idea why she told Sanmi the truth, only knew that it was slowly but surely becoming another weight in her chest. "It's Tamika Afolabi Kingston."

The quick way Sanmi stumbled back would have been funny, if Grace didn't know him like the back of her hands — Sanmi knew, he knew.

It was her turn to recoil back in shock.

Then she turned to Kendrick, her words slurring in urgency. She heard Sanmi shout her name, standing there and shaking like she was but not daring to come the slightest step closer.

"Please, Kendrick, take me away from here."

***

There was a limo across the street from the dome waiting for him. Sanmi crossed the empty road, waiting for his legs to give way and let him sink down to the asphalt road. The guilt in his chest was suffocating, so suffocating that his hands shook, seeking the familiar grip of a cigarette between his fingers.

He wanted anything to take away the shame and when he reached the limo, the back door opened and it wasn't until he collapsed into the plush leather seats did he realize that even the best comforts wouldn't ease the sinking feeling in his chest.

The interior of the limo was lit brightly and he had to blink several times to notice the frowning man typing away on the laptop on his laps. Toluwanimi Kingston did not say a word until the limousine began to drive.

"Tope said you had gone missing." Sanmi greeted.

Mr. Kingston looked surprised. "Oh, my sudden disappearance, I do it to keep my enemies on their toes, I was merely out of the state."

"And really? A limo?" Sanmi asked tartly as he glanced around the spacious limo. "Might as well come in with a danfo."

Tolu Kingston cast Sanmi a shrewd glance.

"Contrary to what you think, a limo isn't irregular in places like this." He answered. "Remilekun Phillips arrived in an helicopter." He added bitterly.

Sanmi couldn't wait a second later. "Grace knows. Fuck, she knows the truth."

Toluwanimi Kingston froze slowly, his tapping halting at once and when he lifted his eyes to meet Sanmi's, there was a cold fury in them that scared him.

"What truth?" He asked. "Which of the truths does she know?"

It was almost funny how many she didn't know of, so funny that it wasn't funny.

"The truth about her real family." Sanmi snapped.

Something flashed briefly in Tolu Kingston's eyes before they faded and the irritation returned in the furrow of his brows.

"Jesus Christ," He blew out a breath and snapped his laptop close. "How did you manage that?"

"I didn't tell her, if that's what you mean, I think the Chinese boy told her and I didn't tell him either." Sanmi deadpanned, he slapped his hand to his forehead, feeling the onset of an headache. The way everything was slipping out of his hands was disorienting, he hated it.

"Kendrick Yong." Tolu Kingston said, then he swore under his breath, something that shocked Sanmi, he didn't think that CEOs swore, although he had never met a CEO before. "I've done business with his family, I might have met him once."

"This is bad, very bad. Where is she now?"

"Damned if I know, she ran off with what's his name, my best bet is her returning home soon, Grace never sleeps out." Sanmi said, trying to sound sure but knowing if he was in the one in her shoes, he would want to get so wasted that he couldn't think, Grace wasn't like him though, he had admired that, now it scared him.

He didn't know what she was capable of.

"You need to find her first and talk her, make her understand that she has to keep that secret to herself." Tolu Kingston said, he looked like he wanted to shake Sanmi silly.

"Why don't you talk to her yourself?" Sanmi shot back, he ran a hand through his hair, feeling anger on Grace's behalf, he didn't understand how this man could be so indifferent, so seemingly uncaring. "For fuck's sake, you are her motherfucking father!"

"Talk to her," Tolu Kingston repeated but his jaw was clenched tight. "Because just a few minutes ago, she unlocked the first password for The ORION Project, they'll know she has an inkling about the rest of the answers. And if they know she knows who she really is, then all bets are off — because they will force her, threaten, cajole, nothing if off limits anymore."

"You don't have a copy of the Project Eden, you have no idea what you are fighting."

Tolu Kingston flashed a grim smile. "I do now, I have always kept an uncompleted version for myself, but by breaching into their defence I have a completed program — which means I can begin the process to dismantling it or finding a way to corrupt it."

"Work harder on that," Sanmi said flatly. "I need to go home and find her, Grace does the rashest things when she is furious."

Toluwanimi Kingston gave the barest of shrugs. "Sounds like her mother."

Sanmi narrowed his eyes at the man. "No matter how hard you try to avoid it, you will have to meet her one day."

"I look forward to it." He only quipped in return. "I am nothing but a patient man."

Sanmi wanted to smack the man over his head until he saw reason, that there was no reason to keep secrets anymore, that the truth would help them now.

Toluwanimi Kingston raised his head from the laptop he was now staring at again as if he had heard Sanmi's thoughts.

"If it were up to me, she would never find out the truth, she would go on living unaware because it was her mother's last wishes, that she grow up safe — I've managed that for the nineteen years of her life and I intend to keep it that way, I refuse to bring her into this life of hide and seek."

"And let's say I tell her the truth, the whole truth, then she becomes a weapon for them to use, and also creating problems for us, because the only reason Tamika left those answers, her own The Art Of War for Grace is so the answers will not be lost forever."

"The ORION Project could still tell her." Sanmi pointed out.

Tolu gave a shrug. "The ORION Project are forbidden from telling certain secrets to an outsider — which Grace is, no matter how hard they try to integrate her into their society, it just isn't possible, just like how you can never become a full member."

Sanmi felt a stab of resentment at the reminder.

"If there is proof that they do so, Remilekun Phillips will have to step down as punishment, it's the only law he cannot dance around because ORION has a council that will not allow it."

It was almost two hours later when the limo pulled into the Iloris compound, as the tinted window wound down, Sanmi caught Rafe rolling in the sand with his star wars obsessed best friend; Bayo and thought that he would do the same thing for the people dearest to him.

As he made to climb down from the limo, he felt Toluwanimi Kingston's firm grip on his shoulder.

"Talk to her, make her see the truth, the only one she needs to know."

***

It was already ten in the night when the uber pulled in front of Kendrick's apartment building and Grace was numb. Kendrick had to shake her several times to jolt her to the present and when his hand on her waist guided her out of the car, the feeling she had been trying to avoid slowly flooded back into her veins.

She wasn't Grace, she wasn't an Ilori, she didn't have a name and her real mother was dead.

It was funny that that was as much as she knew about herself.

She couldn't even envy Kendrick's well organized flat or the fact that he had cable television, couldn't even feel the burn of the hot cup of tea he forced into her hands.

When he returned, he wasn't wearing a shirt and his hair was floppy with water. He had a towel slung over his bare shoulder and was speaking in rapid Yoruba to whoever was on the end of the phone.

Kendrick caught her questioning stare and gave a bashful shrug. "I was speaking to the housekeeper that comes around when I'm not around. She left us something to eat, hungry?"

Grace shook her head, placing the cup on the glass center table, she looked up to see the flat screen television playing a muted Taylor Swift music video, she thought of Tope and was almost smiling when she remembered Sanmi.

Kendrick caught the sudden change and his own expression fell.

"Shit, are you going to cry?" He asked. "If you want to, I have two shoulders."

Grace shook her head in amusement, she was too tired to summon a smile.

"Oh, the tears will come later, when I'm alone and hyperventilating." She said bitterly. "I don't even know what's wrong with me."

"Nothing's wrong with how you're reacting." He told her.

Grace felt a stab of irritation. "Stop telling me, stop justifying my emotions or a lack of them. If you really want to know, then I'll tell you, I feel a stupid happiness, a new family means a do over right? Then I feel stupid again for thinking the problem isn't me."

"My so called mother is dead, I don't know who my father is, he must not care if he gave me away, I feel stupid because if Linda and Raymond Ilori didn't love me, then who can?"

She huffed a watery laugh. "I'm still as lost as I was, nothing has changed, this isn't groundbreaking."

"Except that your mother used to work for ORION." Kendrick pointed out jokingly, and it was then she noticed that he was sitting next to her, close that there was barely any space between them.

She sucked in a breath, suddenly registering that he really wasn't a shirt, he might not have the most defined muscles, but it showed that he did work out, his biceps of his arms were obvious when they brushed her arm to reach for the remote on the coffee table.

"Yeah, she did." Grace answered a beat too late. "I'm not sure if she was that good of a person if she worked with ORION."

Kendrick hummed a reply but he was staring strangely at her.

"Why are you staring at me?" He asked self consciously, touching a hand to his face, dangerously close to his lips. "Is there something on my face?"

Grace startled. "Of course not, why would I be staring at you?"

But still, she stared. And he stared. Then the both of them were grinning like children.

"C'mon, I'm going into the kitchen and I'm coming out with food, then we'll talk about your crazy family."

He stood up and winked, Grace watched him go and rubbed her face tiredly, thinking that something had changed in the slightest between the both of them.

"Put on a shirt!" She echoed after him as she leaned back on the sofa. For my sanity.

"Scared, aren't we?" He called after her and she shook her head, thinking that he was right in more than one way.

Grace muttered low after he was gone. "You have no idea, I am scared."