Tobi looked down at the table. His silence gave her the shape of an answer without any of its details. For the first time, Nkiru began to suspect that the fraud case and the secrets in their marriage were not separate burdens. She had spent eight months defending a man she believed had been betrayed by a company. Now she wondered whether he had first betrayed a rule of his own profession because someone from his past had asked him to.
The next morning, Tunde ordered a fresh forensic review of the forty-two-million-naira transaction. It was not a favor to Nkiru and could not be made into one; the company had an obligation to establish the accuracy of the records and account for missing funds. An outside audit team compared the approved request, vendor records, and electronic changes to the transaction after Tobi had signed. By late afternoon they had identified a modification from an executive-level terminal, made after the original authorization entered the system. That terminal was assigned to Temilade Akinwale.
When Tunde brought the finding to his father, Chairman Folarin did not immediately speak. He looked out at the city while Tunde read the technical summary, then asked whether the auditors had verified who was physically present at the terminal when the change occurred. They had not, and Tunde knew why the distinction mattered. A terminal could be used by someone other than its assigned owner, particularly in a company whose senior executives had grown careless with shared access. Still, the discovery made an innocent explanation less comfortable than it had been the day before. Folarin asked Tunde to continue the review without sparing anybody merely because of a surname.
Tunde returned to Meridian to speak with Nkiru again. This time he did not summon her without explanation; Ifeoma called first and asked whether she could spare an hour after her shift. Tunde offered her a three-month role with the group's guest experience team, evaluating how employees handled difficult situations and whether managers enforced service standards consistently. Nkiru listened and asked whether it was a promotion in exchange for defending his father. He said no, though he understood why she feared becoming the family's moral advertisement.
"An opportunity because you demonstrated judgment under pressure," he told her. "We'll put the duties, pay, and reporting arrangements in writing."
"And my husband? I won't take a job that comes with an expectation that I defend your company or abandon his case."
"The assignments are separate," Tunde replied. "But I should tell you that the forensic review has been reopened. The original amount appears to have been changed from an executive-level terminal after approval."
"Whose terminal?"
Tunde hesitated, then answered honestly. "My sister's."
Nkiru thought of Tobi's expression over the printed authorization, the way he had said Temilade's name. She asked whether the audit could establish who used the terminal and whether anyone else had access to it. Tunde told her the investigation would examine both questions and that no conclusion had been reached. He was speaking more carefully now, no longer with the confidence of an executive who could solve a problem by issuing an instruction. She accepted the temporary assignment on the condition that her pay and duties be documented, and she insisted on continuing her ordinary responsibilities until a replacement could be trained.