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With his briefcase in his hand, Mike stood in front of the mirror to give perfect finishes to his appearance. 

"I am set for the board meeting. Or should I say for Sandra meeting? Whichever one is right," he giggled. "I am good to go." 

He reached out to his drawer to spray his body with perfume once again when Lydia called on him. 

"Don't make me arrive at my place of work late. My love, let's go." 

His phone rings and it was Chief Kunle that was calling. 

"I am not convenient for business conversation now. I will call you soon when I have the chance." He told Chief Kunle as he walked outside to meet his wife who was already seated in the car waiting for him to join her.

"Are we going to the airport?" Sule asked his boss. Sule had been serving the duo for more than a decade as driver.
 
"Do you need to ask? Whenever you see me and daddy in the vehicle, where do you used to drive us to?" Lydia responded to him. 

"Sweetheart, let him ask a question. What if today is different?" Mike queried. 

"Okay, Sir. We are dropping daddy at the airport before taking me to my office." Lydia tapped Sule and provided the details of their movement.

Mike and Lydia were career couples. Mike was into the hospitality business with branches of his hotel all around the country. The wife was a civil servant who had risen to the peak of her career as a permanent secretary. 

Mike travels a lot to oversee his businesses. Whenever he was going to the airport for early morning flights on weekdays, he joined his wife in her car. He would be dropped off at the airport before the wife proceeded to her office. 

He was going for one of such business trips. 

"Could you imagine these people are still on my neck regarding the investigation of the Minister?" She stretched her hands with phone to Mike to see the threat message that he received from an anonymous person. 

The Minister was suspended for an allegation of misappropriation of funds and being the most senior civil servant in the ministry, she was asked to act as the Minister for the investigation into the allegation to be concluded. She could be of help to cover up some secret dealings of the suspended Minister but she was adamant in compromising her integrity. 

"We know you. We know your family. If the suspended Minister is indicted by the panel, you will pay dearly for it." The message read. 

"You are the one causing this embarrassment to yourself and the rest of us in the family. I have been begging you to retire voluntarily in the past 10 years but you refused. The system is damaged beyond what you can change." Mike reminded her of his insistence to have her leave the job years ago. 

"We can't all run away from the problem of our country. It needs to be fixed and someone must fix it for the benefit of generations to come. Nothing will happen to us. I will forward this to the police commissioner immediately." Lydia assured her husband.

They arrived at the airport at a time when the schedule of the departure of Mike's flight was a few minutes away. 

"Please, be very conscious of your security while I am away." He advised his wife as he picked his travel bag and a briefcase and alighted.

"He deliberately wasted my time at home so that I wouldn't be able to escort him to the departure hall. I am suspecting this man." She complained to no one in particular. 
Though all she said were to the hearing of Sule, it wasn't something that he can comment about. She picked the dailies that she bought earlier in the traffic to read through.
 
About 30 minutes after arriving at her office, news began to emerge that a plane had just crashed a few minutes after taking off. 

"ABC aircraft had just crashed a few minutes after taking off. Efforts are underway to rescue the passengers and the crew members." A breaking news headline reads on the television in front of her.

"Nooooo. This can't be true. ABC aircraft? Mike, don't do this to me please." She screamed aloud. 

Sweats cover her immediately, her heartbeat running beyond normal. She held her chair's arm for a second, lost in the thoughts of what to do. She became pressed immediately and she dashed into the restroom. Before returning to her office, an update had followed the news of the crash. It was confirmed that no one survived the crash. 

She picked her car keys to drive to nowhere in particular to confirm the news. She barely stepped out of her office when she collapsed. The shock had triggered the high blood pressure and she fell for it. 

Lydia was rushed to the ministry clinic for revival before she was taken to a specialist hospital for proper care.
 
"Where is Mike? Mike! Mike!!" She kept asking the medical officials attending to her upon her revival. 

"Help me call Mike, I believe that he is a survivor." He instructed a nurse that was fixing a drip to her arm. 

"Please ma'am, don't trouble your mind, you need not to trigger your fragile situation again." The nurse pleaded with her.
 
"Please call Mike for me." She insisted. 

The nurse collected Lydia's phone and dialed Mike's number.

"It's ringing." The nurse gave the phone to Lydia. She placed the phone to her ears but nobody picked the call from the other end. 

"Could it be that the crash claimed the life of my precious husband and the phone survived?" She asked herself. 

In the span of another few minutes, the number was dialed without response. 

The aviation regulatory agency released the manifest of the passengers and crew members later that day. To the surprise of many, Mike's name was nowhere to be found. 
Lydia received the latest development with excitement. 

Information about the state of health of Lydia filtered into the media. The major online news platforms captured the headline of how the permanent secretary to the ministry of works collapsed at the hearing of the death of her husband in a plane crash.

---

Mike trailed his finger down the length of he sternum and her skin prickled at the touch. He was in an intimate session with Sandra when he got the news about the plane crash and the hospitalization of his wife. 

Mike had left home in the guise of going for a board of directors' meeting but only went to a hotel to have a good time with Sandra, his girlfriend whose number was saved as Chief Kunle on his phone. 

"There is fire on the mountain," he screamed, throwing Sandra's leg to one side and the blanket to another. 

"Baby, there is no fire that your queen right here can't quench." She played down the situation while she went close to rob Mike on his chest. 

"Does it look like I am joking?" Mike pushed Sandra away.

"What is the issue?"

"My wife has been hospitalized. Her health is fragile. You will be getting the details later." Mike picked his phone and ran outside.

---

With the information that Mike wasn't among the ill-fated air passengers, Lydia reached out to her glasses to be able to call Mike's number again. 

Coincidentally, her phone rang and Mike was the caller. 

"Which hospital are you, my love?"
 
"So, you are alive?" Lydia busted into tears. 

"It is a long story. Which hospital are you?"

"Bisi Specialist hospital."

Mike called a taxi and he was driven to the hospital within an hour. 

"I come with a plea for forgiveness." Mike collapsed himself on the floor to beg his wife about the whole thing.

It wasn't the first time that he had deceived his wife about going for a meeting, whereas he would deviate and catch up with a mistress in a hotel.

"I am sorry for what I made you pass through."
 
"I suspected you were up to something when you deliberately delayed our departure from home in the morning. This is heartbreaking. Your coming will fast track my recovery but your forgiveness is not here. I am glad that you weren't in the ill-fated aircraft." Lydia was with mixed feelings. 

That I see you once again is enough to forgive you. I nearly lost hope that you are dead. But, we will go and settle all that at home. She said to herself as she smiled at her husband who was still on his knees behind her bed.</div>