I believed him.
Or maybe I simply wanted to.
Eight peaceful months passed.
The strange rule slowly became just another part of married life.
Until yesterday.
Obinna left before sunrise for what he called an urgent business meeting in Abuja.
He kissed me goodbye and promised to return the following evening.
That afternoon I was getting ready for a friend’s bridal shower.
I stood in front of the mirror fastening the diamond earrings he had bought for our fifth month anniversary.
As I reached for the second one, it slipped from my fingers.
I heard the tiny click as it hit the hardwood floor.
Then it rolled.
Straight beneath the bed.
I froze.
His warning echoed inside my head.
Never look beneath the bed.
Never.
I knelt anyway.
“It’s only an earring,” I whispered to myself.
I grabbed the flashlight from my bedside drawer and lay flat against the floor.
At first, I couldn’t see anything except darkness.
Then the beam reached the center beneath the bed.
The earring was there.
But it wasn’t alone.
There was no ancient family treasure.
