CHAPTER 599: MAYBE, JUST... MAYBE

Her desperation hung thick in the cold dungeon air.

Nnenna shook her head slowly. "I can’t promise you that. I’ll try my best, but I can’t do it alone. Not right now. He needs your husband, the Prime Minister, everyone in this household who has always cared for him. And most of all... he still needs you. You’ve never let him down over the years. Don’t start now."

For the first time, Nanny’s composure cracked. Her lips trembled as she whispered, "You don’t understand... it’s either him or her." Her voice broke, thick with pain. "What kind of mother would I be if I let her down?"

"Her?" Nnenna latched onto the word instantly, eyes narrowing. "Who is her?"

But Nanny shut down again, lips pressed tightly together. No matter how much Nnenna waited, no reply came.

Still, it was enough. The slip had given her a thread to pull.

"I understand," Nnenna said carefully, her voice gentler now. "But it goes both ways, doesn’t it? What kind of mother would you be if you let Carl down?"

Nanny flinched but kept quiet.

"I can’t pretend to know what you feel as a parent, maybe one day I’ll understand, but I do know this: every mistake a child makes belongs to them, not to their parents. Even the Bible agrees. ’No longer shall it be said, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’"

Her voice dropped, steady and firm. "The soul that sins shall die. Not the parent. Not the guardian. Carl shouldn’t have to pay for the sins of your child."

Silence filled the dungeon, heavy and unbroken. Nnenna wondered if her words had reached her at all. Then—

"Cynthia," Nanny whispered. The name slipped out like a wound being opened. Her shoulders shook, tears streaming as the walls of her strength crumbled.

Nnenna froze, stunned. Of all the names she expected, that one cut the deepest. Cynthia?

Finally, she found her voice. "But... how? How did she even get the password to the medicine box?"

Nanny let out a broken laugh, bitter and trembling. "It’s not just the box," she confessed. "She has the password to Carl’s room too."

Nnenna’s stomach twisted.

"I made a mistake," Nanny admitted, her voice soaked in regret. "I always dreamed that one day... one of my daughters would marry Carl."

"I mean... no matter how much I care for Carl, as long as he isn’t my blood, there’s always that fear." Nanny’s voice cracked, her hands twisting together in her lap.

"He might decide not to see me as a mother anymore. He might one day push me aside. But if he became my son in law... if Cynthia married him... then he would be tied to this family forever. I could be his mother forever."

Her eyes glistened as she continued, shame mixing with longing.

"So I gave Cynthia access. Not just to his room, but to everything, his food, his belongings, his trust. As for the medicine box, I... I had been by his side long enough to see the password. He doesn’t even bother to hide it from me. I even knew which fingerprint could unlock it. I told Cynthia. I thought... if she could use these little things to get closer to him, maybe one day he would finally look at her."

Nnenna stood frozen, her heart thudding.

"Carl grew suspicious once," Nanny admitted, voice dropping. "But I told him I needed help caring for him... and that Cynthia could be trusted. With his permission that year, she was added to the few allowed to handle his food and other personal things."

Her tone turned hollow, full of regret. "But over the years, no matter how present she was, no matter how good she was to him... he never reciprocated her feelings. I understand that love cannot be forced. But Cynthia..." she shook her head, "Cynthia doesn’t understand that."

Nnenna’s breath caught in her throat, a cold realization crawling over her skin.

"When my husband was arrested," Nanny whispered, "and he said he was doing it to protect someone... I couldn’t fathom who. Not at first. But in the courtroom, when the clues started pointing at me one by one, I looked at him, and then I realized. He must have discovered what Cynthia was doing. He wanted to take the blame... to keep you, and everyone else investigating, away from her."

The words fell heavy into the silence, like stones sinking into water.

"When you arrived here, I realized it even more," Nanny confessed, her voice trembling. "That Cynthia might never have a chance. It made me resent you. I thought... if I could get you away from Carl, I would be helping my daughter. But I was naive."

She gave a bitter smile that quickly broke into sorrow.

"Carl trusts you. He truly sees you as his little sister. And I was afraid... afraid it might one day turn into something more. But who am I kidding? Even if you weren’t here, he probably wouldn’t love Cynthia. He never has."

Nnenna stayed quiet, her throat tightening.

"When I realized Cynthia must have done something stupid, when I told her to give up, I decided to plead guilty. What parent wouldn’t sacrifice their life for their child?"

Her words cracked as she pressed a hand against her chest. "And I blamed myself. We gave birth to them, but the time my husband and I gave Cynthia and her younger siblings isn’t even half of what we gave Carl. Maybe she blames me. Maybe if I had been more present, I would have taught her to be better. If I hadn’t fed her those foolish dreams of marrying Carl, maybe she wouldn’t have become this delusional."

Her tears finally fell, raw and bitter.

"I don’t know why she’s trying to kill him. But when you presented that evidence, I knew, it must have been her. That phone... it was registered under my ID...."