ALONE ROAD

Episode 2: THE ACCOUNT

Amara didn't sleep that night. She couldn't stop thinking about the photograph of the woman who looked exactly like her. The message kept haunting her: “Ask your mother about her.”

But her mother had been dead for nineteen years.

Then her phone buzzed.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: 'Check your bank account'

Another message followed: 'Daniel left something for you'.

Amara opened her banking app.

Her heart stopped.

There was an account attached to her name that she had never opened.

BALANCE: ₦185,000,000

The account had been funded by Cole Holdings, Daniel's family business.

But there was something even more disturbing.

The money could only be accessed if Daniel Cole was declared dead.

Amara immediately contacted Daniel's best friend, Michael.

When she confronted him, he finally admitted that Daniel had left something for her. A flash drive.

Inside were three files:

THE ACCOUNT

ELENA

THE NIGHT OF THE ACCIDENT

Elena was her mother's name.

Amara opened the first video.

Daniel appeared on screen.

“If you're watching this, something has happened to me.” Then he revealed the truth.

“The money isn't mine. It belongs to someone who was supposed to be dead.”

Amara's heart pounded.

“Your mother.”

The video continued.

“Your mother didn't die in that accident. She survived.”

Before Amara could process it, someone knocked on her door.

Three slow knocks then her phone buzzed.

DON'T OPEN THE DOOR.

Then another message: THEY KNOW ABOUT THE ACCOUNT.

Amara looked through the window. A black SUV was parked outside, it was the same SUV from her wedding. She returned to the laptop.

Daniel's final words made her blood run cold.

“The account wasn't created four years ago.”

A pause. “It was created nineteen years ago.”

Amara stared at the screen.

Nineteen years ago??? The year her parents supposedly died.

Then she noticed something hidden on the bank document:

ORIGINAL ACCOUNT HOLDER: ELENA COLE

Her mother, the woman she had mourned for nineteen years.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

UNKNOWN NUMBER.

She answered.

A woman's trembling voice whispered:

“Amara…”

“Who is this?”

The woman took a shaky breath.

“I'm sorry it took me nineteen years to find you.” The call ended.

Amara stood frozen. Her mother might still be alive.

And someone had spent nineteen years making sure she never found out.

TO BE CONTINUED…