The next day was a Saturday so there was no alarm to wake me. It was
no surprise therefore, that I woke up past 9.30am. I had slept deeper than a
foetus in its mother’s womb.
Immediately my eyes opened, I shot out of bed, a smile shaping my lips. And at once began looking around for my much expected bounty. I checked my dresser top, table tops, drawers, chairs, work bag, closet and every inch of my apartment. No money there. Then I moved to my phone. No credit alert.
I was not alarmed though, I went back to searching the apartment, more
thoroughly this time, even checking the toilet and within the WC. No stack of
money anywhere. The only money in the whole apartment was the loose change I
had in my wallet.
I blinked. I could remember very clearly Ify had said anyone involved
with Daniella would get back double the money they gave her that very same day,
and that is what I had been experiencing till now. So what could be wrong?
It must be in your account,
maybe you did not get an SMS alert because of network problems, an inner
voice reassured me.
So I grabbed my ATM and rushed off to the nearest ATM machine. But I
did not meet good news there either. My credit balance had not increased from
what it had been after my last withdrawal yesterday.
“What could be happening, what could be happening?” I kept muttering,
but did not even want to entertain the thought that no money doubling had happened.
I picked up my phone and dialed Daniella’s number. Could something
have happened to her? Was she safe? Had she lost the money?
She did not pick. I called again; same thing.
As I walked back to my apartment, I tried to reason with myself various reasons why I was
yet to see any money. Maybe it was because it was weekend; maybe because
Daniella had left later than usual last night so the doubled money was still on
it’s way to me; maybe, maybe…
“Bros, everything dey okay?”
I looked up to see my neighbour looking at me worriedly. I looked back down at
myself and saw that in my hurry, I had left the house in only sweat pants. No
shirt, no singlet.
“Ah, everything is kuku
okay,” I quickly replied and hurried into my apartment.
I called Daniella again, and again. Yet she did not pick.
Now I was going out of my mind. Either she was deliberately avoiding
my call or something had happened to her. Either way, it was bad news for me.
I decided to call Ify. She did not pick either. Not even after I had
called her 7 times.
Something was really wrong! I threw on the first shirt my hand fell
on, grabbed my car keys and was soon driving down to Ify’s and Daniella’s
school at top speed. When I got three, I called Ify again, still no response. I
shot into the hostel, hoping I could still locate her room. I had visited her
there more than once when I was still dating her. And that was not up to a year
ago, so there was every possibility she had not changed rooms yet. Since it was
a Saturday, visitors were free to go into the hostel.
I knocked the door of the room I felt she stayed in. “Come in,” a
young feminine voice called out and I burst in.
Ify and some girls were sitting about all over the four bunks in the
room while Daniella was standing, she appeared to be comically gisting the
girls on something and they all were finding it very interesting.
At first, I was filled with relief to see that Daniella was okay, then
anger suffused me. So she was fine? So why had she and Ify been dodging my
calls?”
Both girls looked shocked to see me, but tried to mask it.
“Paul!” Ify jumped in front of Daniella. “What do you want?”
At that moment realization flooded me;
These girls have pulled a fast one
on me. But how? I had witnessed my money get doubled twice, so how?
I turned to Daniella, shaking from head to toe in anger and something
else… fear? Yes, I was filled with a heart-goring fear that I had just lost
five hundred thousand naira; two hundred and fifty thousand naira actually. But
it felt like five hundred thousand naira for I had already been fantasizing about
the five hundred thousand naira I would be getting.
“Daniella…. Where is my money? Where is my five hundred thousand
naira.”
Daniella laughed. “Oga, did
you give me five hundred thousand naira?” the other girls joined in too,
including Ify. My head felt like exploding.
“I gave you two hundred and fifty thousand naira last night, it was
meant to double to five hundred thousand naira before morning, but…” all the
girls burst into laughter again. I knew how foolish I sounded. I started
hyperventilating. I turned to Ify.
“Ify, you know what you told me about this girl being a supernatural
money-doubler. Well, I tested it… twice.
And confirmed it to be true. The first time I gave her 5k, I got 10k that night.
The second time I gave her 20k and got 40k that same night too…”
Ify did not let me finish; “Eeeeh, Bros Paul. I thought you said it
did not work, that it was a lie so which one are you saying again? And I
thought you told me it was your friend that went out with her and not you.”
“I-I just told you those things so that you will not feel bad that I
am seeing her after dating you… like I was saying... twice, it worked. So
yesterday I decided to go higher. I gave her 250k.” I turned to Daniella. “Lie…
lie that I did not give you two hundred and fifty thousand last night. And
since then till this moment I have not gotten back any money not to talk of a
doubled sum of five hundred thousand naira.”
At this narration of mine, another round of laughter burst forth in
the room.
“Ah, you are so funny. As educated as you are, you actually fell for
it. Men, Paul, you have been outsmarted,” Ify informed me, confirming my worst
fear. “There is no money doubling power in Daniella. Ha ha ha. Money doubling
ko, money tripling ni.”
More laughter went off.
“But it worked twice, before my very eyes….”
“Guy, let me tell you, you were set up and you fell for it clean and
clear,” Daniella spoke up this time, looking nothing like the innocent little
thing I had taken her for. “When Ify told me how you had dumped her after using
her for months, and how you were stingy to her even when dating her, I came up with
a plan to teach you a lesson and make you pay for the way you had maltreated
her. Imagine, who sleeps with a girl for a weekend and gives her just 2k for t-fare? You don’t care if she fares well
in school, has any financial problems, needs to get provisions or get her hair
done, nothing. You were just fooling her with love and when you were done with
her, you dumped her.”
Daniella continued, “She also told me how much you love money and how
intelligent you are, so I knew we needed to have a very good plan and bait you
with your weakness… money and free sex. And I must say, for a so-called smart
guy, it was not too difficult to get you. We started watching out for you at
that eatery Ify knew you always go to. She told you the money doubling story,
knowing that once something involves money, you will somehow be interested.
However, to gain your confidence we had to make it seem like your money was
truly getting doubled!
“Remember that first night? Well, after you gave me the 5k, before I
left, I dashed into your room when I said I wanted to use the toilet and
dropped the ten thousand naira on your table. Then when you gave me 20k, Ify
had someone in Agidingbi send 40k to you via ATM so you would be unable to
trace the sender. And that was it, you were hooked like we expected. And like
all greedy, money-loving cheapies like you, you decided to raise the stake. And
that was how maga dropped two hundred
and fifty cool thousand naira.”
With that last statement, she did a small dance while her friends
hailed her. “Daniella the brain!” they chorused.
I was shaking uncontrollably. I could not believe all I had heard. My
two hundred and fifty thousand naira gone just like that? Even if I subtracted
the 25k the girls had dashed me when they were baiting me, I had still lost a whooping
two hundred and twenty-five thousand naira.
“Bros, no shake na. At least
you enjoy small kerewa with Daniella.
That one too dey,” one of the girls
chided me, to the amusement of everyone but me.
Kerewa? What was kerewa where money was involved? I, who
had never paid any woman above 3k for sex? What was three sessions of intimacy
compared to the over two hundred thousand I had lost? My blood boiled beyond its
boiling point at that last straw, and I made to charge at Daniella. “You little
witch, you must return my money.”
The other girls pushed me pack. “Oga,
take your time and leave or we will pour palm oil on you and still call
security to bundle you out,” one of them, a thick giant of a girl, warned me.
“And if you try anything funny with me or Daniella, all our roommates
know you. If anything happens to us, your name will be all over social media.”
I dragged myself out of the room to prevent further embarrassment,
shame soaking through my whole being.
And that was how my love for money had me falling for a money-doubling
scam that saw me losing ten times what I had gained.
Copyright, Sabigirl.com.
All Rights Reserved!
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