We arrived at a homeless shelter in Elephant & Castle where we were greeted by Nick's old friend, Daniel Kwamé, the shelter manager. Daniel was a former resident at the shelter before he was properly tended with jobs and a home. Nick suggested we spend a night here as our temporary less conspicuous sanctuary.

We were then greeted by Daniel's kids, a boy and a girl as we approached the reception. Both looked just like their dad, about a couple of years apart from each other but in their primary school. They recognised Nick instantly from his previous visits and pulled him to the side for some chats.

While Nick got himself busy catching up with the kids, I went further in to appraise the property. Behind the reception was a hallway leading to more rooms and halls such as the cafeteria, library, study area and common rooms. I walked up to the second floor and found a large hall to my left. The hall occupies the entire floor, with inflatable mattresses flanking in rows of five for the homeless residents to spend their night resting.

"Nick funded the mattresses here. We had them changed a year ago," Daniel told me later that day.

                     ☘️✨🍀🌟☘️✨🍀

It was already past midnight, but I couldn't get myself to sleep. I was either had too much nap during the road trip or wasn't used to sleeping in a hall full of strangers despite the separate beds. I should have been on a plane by this time leaving all these behind. But if what Nick said was true, I might not be able to get on that plane anyway. I might be dead by then.

I got up, skimming through the dimmed hall for Nick but was nowhere to be found. Thinking that he might be at the cafeteria, I carried along my wallet and my phone inside my Captain Marvel clutch purse before leaving the hall.

Nick was outside having a smoke. He already changed into his favourite Real Madrid white sweater jacket, grey sweatpants and his Lanvin sneakers for the night. I exited the shelter and joined him as he turned to acknowledge my presence. I detected anxiety in his fatigue face as I watched him.

"What's wrong? Too much nap along the way?" he asked.

"I guess so," I shrugged. "How about you? Why can't you?"

"I don't think I can," he responded. "I just need to make sure that we're safe."

"I thought you said here is safe," I pointed out.

"I hope so but knowing Dad and his connections in London, I can't be so sure that we are safe," he said, sucking his burned cigarette before exhaling the smoke. "I always feel that we're being followed."

"There's something you didn't tell me," I began my riddle. "And something that you didn't tell Hussaini which triggered all this. Apparently, you left him the same day you left me. I don't think this is coincident."

"There's nothing coincident about it. He knows I want out, but he just can't accept it."

"Why can't he just get another Pholadi as his successor?" I suggested. "Your male cousins maybe?"

He laughed quietly but wasn't in mood to ridicule me for my dumb idea. "He wanted me, sister. No one else."

"But you're not doing a good job either," I said bluntly.

"That's why I'm running away from him, making you my exit," he proclaimed.

I was surprised by his confession, somehow it made me flustered with anger. Never have I expected that Nick intended to use me for his own personal gain. All the while, I regarded him as my special, my one and only without realising that he had deceived me. It turned out that he was just as fake as Abs.

"So that's what I am to you, an exit?" I raised my voice while he remained silent. "How dare you, Nick? I was feeling sorry for you. You made me miserable for the past couple of months thinking I was the selfish one, but you too have something out of me, haven't you?"

Nick only responded with a shrug, suppressing his thoughts as though it could cause a massive destruction if he was to unleash it. "Maybe I have," he said unenthusiastically.

"Brilliant!" I groaned. "Assume all of your plans failed, what will become of you?"

"Dead," he answered.

"Then, why didn't Hussaini just kill you straight?" I queried in dissatisfaction. "He's going to lose his family business with or without you. Why can't he just end you right away?"

At first Nick didn't answer. He looked down on the pavement, indulging his last puff from the cigarette before flicking it away. I immediately felt bad for probing him with such questions when the answers I sought for could lie in Hussaini's mind, not his.

But Nick slowly responded, "He knows that if you die, there is no exit for me."

"What is that got to do with me?" I snarled.

"If you die, I won't be able to find... love and purpose for me to live," he explained. "If you die, I'll be consumed with hatred. I'll grow heartless and hostile just like him. And by that time, I'll be ready. That's what he wants."

I looked at him speechless. I thought I was just a distraction to Nick's battling between his heart and Hussaini's wishes but I never thought I became an integral part of his decision that my life and death could depend on it. Nick looked weary from sleep deprivation, tired of plotting escape route in his head. Just like a python, he was facing the battle alone with no bodyguard by his side.