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Tammy sat on her bed that night after leaving Setto’s office. She was looking at the three faces on her screen, feeling a deep, overwhelming wave of gratitude.
“I am telling you, Sister Tammy, do not listen to them,” Tope had said, his voice cracking through the phone speaker, his hand gesturing fiercely.
“Uncle is just looking for who to control. Since we were kids, he always felt like his word is yes and amen. If he says he won’t give his consent because Setto is from the north, then let him keep his consent in his pocket. We are your immediate family. We are the ones who share your blood, not some uncles who only appear when it is time to eat rice.”
“Tope, you and this your bad mouth” Shindara giggled trying to steady her phone on the night stand.
“But sister, the boy is right. I called Aunty Kehinde this afternoon to find out why she was screaming at you like that. You know I’m not scared of them. Do you know what she told me? She said I don’t have any atom of respect for her.”
She turned her face fully toward her camera, looking directly at Tammy.
“Then she went ahead to say ehhh instead of me to advice you not to enter a house where you will become the fourth wife, I am busy talking to her like she’s my mate. That if I don’t know, these mallams always hide their real families in the village until the wedding is over. Can you imagine the level of ignorance? They are not ready to listen, sister. If we wait for them to give their blessings, you will be fifty before you marry the man you love.”
“Exactly,” Temitope had chipped in, leaning closer to her phone, her voice dropping into a whisper.
“The three of us are here. We are your siblings. If Setto is ready, we are ready. We will stand as your family. You have Valerie and Purity. You have our husbands and friends too. We will occupy the front rows of that church, and Tope will walk you down the aisle. Let the uncles and aunties stay in their houses and eat their pride. We will have this wedding without them.”
Tammy felt like crying.
“Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. I love you guys so so much.”
“We love you too” They all replied in unison.
Her siblings loved her, and because they saw how Setto looked after her, they were ready to risk the family’s wrath for her happiness.
The morning sun broke through the glass blinds of Setto’s private office.
Outside, the characteristic hum of the city, the distant, rhythmic blaring of yellow danfo buses, the low rumble of corporate generators, and the sharp chatter of vendors down the street, felt miles away.
Inside, the central air conditioning kept the space at a crisp, sterile temperature that smelled of leather polish, high-grade bond paper, and the rich, dark espresso Setto had poured himself.
“The lawyer called me this morning,” Setto said to Tammy as she scrolled through Instagram on her phone.
“He went through the custody paperwork, the abandonment report from the welfare agency, and the final decree. He said I should relax. The law in this country does not favor a ghost who decides to become a mother after months of silence.”
Tammy dropped her phone on her lap and leaned her head back against the sofa she was lounging on, her eyes tracking the steady movement of his chest.
“I told you. She can not win custody over Eliana. It’s been two days now and she still hasn’t called nor contacted you. That just shows that she was making empty threats.”
“Yeah. But I still wouldn’t take chances. My lawyers have already filed a precautionary restriction order. She can’t gain access to her. That’s by the way, let’s forget about Chloe. What did Pastor Ade say when you called?”
Tammy let out a long, slow sigh, her fingers instinctively reaching out to hold her phone steady.
“He said we should hold on. You know he traveled with his family on a vacation. He said when lands back in Lagos next week, he would inform me so we come to the parsonage. He asked me not to be bothered about my family. He knows how rigid they can be but has promised to pray alongside us and also try to contact them after we meet him.”
“Okay, baby. We will wait for him,” Setto said.
“Left to me, Setto, let’s go ahead and do this wedding without my family being involved.” She hisses under her breath.
“Like I told you before, baby,” he leans his desk and comes close to her on the sofa, his eyes never leaving hers.
He holds her hands gently.
“I am not a boy hiding under a bed. I want to do this right. I want to meet your extended family and do the traditional rites. I want their blessing. No matter how angry they are right now, we must give them the respect of an honorable approach.”
“No,” Tammy said immediately, her voice dropping into a cold, flat register.
She sat up straight, pulling away from his grip slightly, her eyes flashing fiercely.
“Setto, even my siblings are in support of us doing the wedding without my aunties and uncles .”
Setto watched her, his expression calm but serious.
“Baby, what happened to calling me Temi? You’ve called me Setto about 10 times today and it’s making me cringe”
Tammy squeezed his fingers apologetically with a pout, “Sorry, sorry, Temi.” She gives a small smile.
“No, babe. Say it like you mean it. Plus, you can call me babe, my love, baby, or even, my heart. It won’t hurt.”
“Urghhhhh!!” She groaned.
“I’ll try. But for now, let’s face the matter at hand. I don’t want my family involved in this wedding. If after P.Ade speaks to them, they don’t budge, we will go ahead and have the wedding. Like I said, my siblings are right behind me.”
“Your siblings are good people,” Setto said softly, his thumb rubbing small circles against her palm.
“I just hope your family doesn’t still acts adamant. But if it comes to that, baby... if the elders completely close the door in our faces, then I will gladly take you from the hands of your brother. But like you said, let us still hear what Pastor Ade says when he returns from his trip. Deal?”
“Deal,” Tammy murmured, her posture relaxing again as she leaned back into the sofa.
Setto let out a long breath and went back to his desk, pulling a thick blue folder toward him, flipping it open to reveal several pages of trade charts, port allocation logs, and financial projections.
He sat across from her on the sofa.
“On to other matters, the South African deal I told you of. Pieter van der Merwe’s board approved the demurrage clause yesterday morning. They are ready to sign the primary contract, but there is a major knot we need to untie before the first vessel leaves Durban.”
Tammy took the file from his hands and looked at the spreadsheets, her eyes scanning the columns.
“What’s the knot?”
“The currency fluctuation and the offshore tax structure,” Setto explained, his finger tracing a row of figures.
“We are moving high-volume natural resources through a multi-jurisdictional transit route. The capital will be coming from Johannesburg, clearing through a holding company in Mauritius, and landing in our local accounts in Lagos for the haulage operations. If our corporate tax structure isn’t entirely seamless, the local regulatory bodies will flag the transactions as capital flight. I need a top-tier corporate finance advisor, someone who doesn’t just know standard accounting, but someone who understands international trade compliance and maritime tax laws.”
He rubbed his chin, his brow furrowing. “I’ve looked at three different agencies this morning. Their retainers are ridiculous, and they are offering me standard, textbook solutions. I don’t need a textbook accountant, Tammy. I need someone sharp, someone who can spot the loopholes before the central bank even creates them.”
Tammy stared at the paper for a long second, her mind trying to think of who she could recommend.
Suddenly, her eyes widened, “Ah!”
She snapped her fingers, turning her head so fast her bun shifted slightly.
“Ehenn!! I know the guy for the job! Femi! Why didn’t I think of him since?”
Setto blinked, his eyebrows raising slightly. “Femi? Which Femi?”
“Femi! My friend nau,” she said, her voice rising.
“He studied international corporate finance and accounting for his master’s at Salford, and then he worked with one of the biggest forensic accounting and trade compliance firms in Manchester for a while before he moved back to Nigeria. I promise you, when it comes to offshore tax structures, Femi is an absolute demon. He literally does this in his sleep.”
Setto’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes narrowed just a fraction— the subtle, instinctual reaction of a protective man hearing his woman praise another man’s intelligence with so much enthusiasm.
He shrugged, his voice dropping into a slightly casual tone.
“Really? Femi. Okay. Is he that good, or is because he is your friend?”
Tammy noticed the tiny shift in his posture, the slight tightening of his jaw, and a small, mischievous smile played at the corners of her lips.
She reached up, patting his cheek gently.
“Temi, I promise you he is good. Very good. He consulted for two major oil servicing companies in Port Harcourt last month. If he looks at this deal, I believe that he will find the solution in thirty minutes.”
Setto shrugged again, trying to look entirely objective.
“Okay. If you say so. If he’s that good, call him. Let’s see if he can come over for a preliminary meeting.”
Tammy picked her phone from her lap, unlocking it. She dialed the number and put it on speaker, resting the device in front of them so Setto could hear the conversation.
The phone rang three times before Femi’s voice erupted through the speaker, carrying that distinct, slightly polished British-Nigerian accent.
“Ahnahnn! Look who is calling me! Tammy of the Most High! It’s been a while”
Tammy laughed.
“Femi Femooo! How are you? How are things?”
“I am good, darling, living the Nigerian dream, which mostly involves fighting with traffic and electricity bills,”
Femi laughed over the line.
“But wait, you’ve been completely off the radar for a while. I spoke to your brother and he told me you were resting. Is everything fine with you?”
“Yes, yes, everything is fine,” Tammy said, her eyes shifting to Setto, who was staring at the phone with a completely unreadable, stoic expression.
“I’ve just been resting and taking care of myself. You know how the Lagos stress can accumulate.”
“Ah, that’s nice. You definitely need it,” Femi said, his tone turning warmer, genuinely fond.
“ So, to what do I owe this rare privilege of a phone call?”
“Well, I’m actually calling because of Setto, my man,” Tammy said with a small smile as she looked at Setto.
“He has a major logistics and transit project with a South African mining conglomerate, and there’s a complex multi-jurisdictional tax and currency bottleneck. I told him about your expertise in it. Can you come over to his office for a meeting?”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, the sound of papers shuffling in the background.
“Uhhh... is everything fine? No regulatory fire or anything urgent?”
“No, no, everything is fine,” Tammy reassured him.
“It’s a clean slate. We just need a top-tier financial advisor to build the offshore structure from scratch before the contracts are signed. I just know you can handle it.”
“Wow. “ Femi gasped.
“I would love to handle that, Tammy. But here’s the hitch. I’m actually not in Lagos at the moment. I traveled to Abia State on Monday morning for a regional business and investment summit. I’m speaking on a panel here, and I have two follow-up consultations with some manufacturing clients in Aba.”
Tammy’s face fell slightly.
“Oh, really? When will you be back in Lagos?”
“I’ll be back this weekend,”* Femi said.
“So the earliest we can meet in the office would be Monday morning. Will that work, or is the timeline too tight?”
Tammy looked up at Setto, trying to gauge his reaction. Setto simply leaned back, his face expressionless.
“Three days is fine, Femi,” Tammy said into the phone.
“We will schedule the preliminary session for Monday morning at 10:00 AM. Safe travels.”
“Perfect. Thanks, Tammy. See you on Monday. Tell your man I’m looking forward to it.”
The call disconnected with a sharp beep.
Setto immediately let out a short, impatient breath, leaning his head forward.
“Monday is too far. The South Africans are signing soon. If we wait until Monday to even start designing the structure, we will be rushing the compliance filing.”
Tammy drew closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, her face inches from his.
“No nau, Temi. Don’t worry. I promise you, it is worth the wait. Femi is incredibly fast. Once he sits down with the raw numbers, he will give you a clean blueprint before the close of business. Trust me on this one. Just wait for him to be back.”
Setto stared at her beautiful face.
Hearing her call him Temi had completely neutralized whatever jealousy he felt.
A helpless, soft smile finally broke through his features, and he shook his head in complete surrender.
“Okay, Your Lordship,” Setto grumbled softly against her hair.
“It’s because of you, actually. If anyone else told me to wait so long for a consultant while a multi-million dollar contract is hanging, I would have fired them. You are using your remote control on me, Tamilore.”
Tammy laughed, she leaned forward and pressed a warm, lingering peck against his cheek.
“It’s not remote control, my love. It’s called efficient resource management.”
She realized, with a small jolt of self-awareness, how frequently she had been calling him pet names today.
First Temi, now my love.
She sat there, her fingers tracing the neat stitches on his shirt collar, a sudden wave of warmth hitting her chest.
She remembered her conversation with Valerie the previous night.
Valerie had called her around 11:30 PM, ostensibly to check on her, but the conversation had quickly degenerated into Valerie’s relationship advice.
“Tammy, let me give you a serious warning” Valerie said through the phone,
“If you call that man ‘Setto’ one more time in my presence, I will officially unfriend you. You are acting like those old Yoruba mothers who call their husbands ‘Baba Tunde’ or ‘Aremu’ with zero romance. The man is helplessly in love with you, he treats you like a delicate glass ornament, and you are there calling him by his name like a contractor. Change your ways, madam! Find a sweet name for that fine man!”
Tammy had laughed it off, but sitting here right now, she realized Valerie was right.
She had spent so many years being the survivor, the iron lady who handled everything with so much vigour, that she had forgotten how to just be a woman who softens for her man.
But with Setto, the wall was melting. Calling him pet names didn’t feel like a performance again it was beginning to feel very easy.
“What are you thinking about, my girl?” Setto asked softly, his cheek still resting against her hair.
“Nothing,” she whispered, her smile widening as she leaned into the hug.
“Just thinking about how much I like being right here.”
Setto’s grip tightened, his heart doing a slow, heavy flip in his chest.
The intercom telephone on his desk rang with a sharp buzz.
Setto reluctantly wiggled out of the hug, went to his desk and snapped the receiver up.
“Yes, Linda?”
The voice on the other end wasn’t his secretary. It was the frantic, breathless voice of Musa, the head of corporate security for the entire building complex downstairs.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Bello! Sir, I am extremely sorry to disturb your office, but we have a very serious situation at the main pedestrian security gates downstairs. That woman...Madam Chloe. She is here, sir. The security guards refused her entry because her temporary pass was flagged and deleted from the central system yesterday morning on your orders.”
Setto’s jaw clenched.
“And so? If she is refused entry, tell her to leave the premises.”
“Sir, that is the problem,” Musa groaned, the sound of loud, chaotic screaming faintly audible in the background of the call.
“She has refused to leave. She is standing right at the main entrance, blocking the cars from coming in. She is creating a public nuisance, sir. She is shouting, calling you names, screaming that you have kidnapped her daughter, and she is threatening to call the press. People are gathering on the street, sir. It is attracting a crowd.”
Setto stood up to his full, towering height so fast his leather chair rolled back and slammed into the glass credenza.
“I am coming down,” Setto said, his voice dropping into a register so low it sounded like distant thunder.
“Musa, do not touch her. I will handle this myself.”
He slammed the receiver down, his hands immediately moving to button his suit jacket.
“Chloe is downstairs,” he told Tammy, his voice vibrating with a dangerous energy.
“She is at the main gate creating a scene, blocking the entrance and shouting that I kidnapped Eliana. I am going to have the police arrest her for public disturbance and malicious defamation right now.”
Tammy stood up smoothly from the chair.
“Don’t go down there alone with that level of anger, Setto,” Tammy said, her voice calm.
She walked around the desk, her heels clicking firmly against the floorboards until she stood right in front of him, her small hands resting flat against his chest to ground him.
“If you go down there with this rage, you will give her exactly what she wants— a scene. She wants you to lose your composure so she can use it against you in court. Let’s go down together.”
Setto looked down at her, his breathing heavy, but the solid touch of her hands on his chest slowly brought his mind back.
He took a deep, ragged breath and nodded.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
The elevator ride down to the ground floor was silent and tense, the digital numbers ticking down like a countdown to an explosion.
When the doors slid open into the expansive, marble-floored reception lobby, the chaos from outside was already bleeding through the doors.
Several staff members and visitors were standing near the windows, whispering and peeking through the glass. Outside on the driveway, right before the security gates, Chloe was standing like a theatrical phantom.
She was dressed in another tight, sultry outfit— a short designer dress with sky-high stilettos. Her hair perfectly styled, but her face distorted with a venomous, hysterical rage.
She was pacing back and forth in front of an idling black car, screaming at the top of her lungs at three uniform security guards who were standing in a defensive semi-circle, their hands up to prevent her from pushing past the biometric turnstiles.
“Call him down here!” Chloe screamed with dramatic flair as she slapped her leather handbag against the iron gate.
“Tell Setto Bello to bring my daughter out right now! He is a kidnapper! A thief! Y’all are protecting a criminal! I have full parental rights over Eliana, and he is hiding her! If you don’t open this gate right now, I will make sure this entire company is shut down by the embassy!”
A small crowd of passersby, street vendors, and drivers from neighboring offices had gathered across the road, watching the drama unfold with intense interest.
The doors of the lobby swung open with a loud whoosh, and Setto stepped out onto the tarmac, radiating an aura of pure destruction.
Musa, the head of security, immediately rushed toward him, his face covered in sweat.
“Mr. Bello, sir! I am so sorry,” Musa gasped.
“We were about to call the police division from Maroko, but she kept shouting about the embassy and…”
“It’s fine, Musa,” Setto cut her off, his voice dangerously leveled.
He took two steps forward, ready to have her dragged away in cuffs.
But Tammy stepped right past him.
She didn’t hesitate. Her heels clicked against the floor with a slow, deliberate, and terrifyingly confident rhythm.
As she approached the gate, the security guards automatically parted.
Chloe stopped her screaming the moment she saw Tammy walking toward her.
She adjusted her sunglasses, a sneering, condescending grin breaking through her rage.
“Oh, look. The new side piece is here. Tell your man or whatever he is to you, to bring my child right now, sweetie, before I lose my patience.”
Tammy stopped exactly two feet away from Chloe, her face completely expressionless, her arms crossed over her chest.
She just locked her eyes onto Chloe’s face with a cold, unblinking intensity.
“Are you done with this disgraceful behavior?” Tammy asked, her voice low, steady.
Chloe let out a loud, dramatic scoff.
“Excuse me? Who do you think you are speaking to? I am Chloe and I am still the legal wife…”
“First of all, in your miserable life, never you call me sweetie ever again. Secondly, you are a nuisance,” Tammy interrupted her, her voice dropping into a cold, flat register.
“Listen to me, and listen very carefully, because I will only say this to you just once.”
She leaned in slightly, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits.
“This is not Europe, and this is certainly not a stage for your cheap theater. You left a baby to suffer while you went to chase your life. For almost a year, you didn’t care about her, you didn’t care if she existed. Now you wake up from whatever hole you were hiding in, put on clothes too small for you, and come to the gate of a reputable corporate institution to shout like a rabid dog?”
“How dare you!” Chloe shrieked, lifting her hand to slap Tammy.
On instinct Setto moved but stopped when Tammy caught her hand in the air.
“Don’t try it! Don’t even try to raise your hand at me! O dà bí ẹni pé o ti ya wèrè abi ọpọlọ rẹ kò pé rárá. (It is as if you have gone mad or your brain is not complete at all)” Tammy barked, dropping her hands violently.
“If you think you have madness, I promise you that my own madness is institutionalized! You come here again to create a scene, to disturb the peace of my man, or to mention Eliana’s name with that your dirty mouth, and I will personally ensure I beat you up and the immigration service will pick you up from your hotel room before midnight!”
The security guards behind her exchanged wide-eyed looks.
Setto stood a few feet back, his jaw slightly open, his heart doing a violent, ecstatic dance in his chest as he watched his woman completely take charge of the battlefield.
“I have the backing of her real father!” Chloe screamed back, though her voice lacked its previous confidence, her eyes shifting nervously under Tammy’s fierce gaze.
“We will take you guys to court! We will destroy your name!”
“Go to whatever court you like, puppy” Tammy said, her voice dropping back into a devastatingly condescending whisper.
She took a step back, looking down at Chloe from head to toe with pure disgust.
“But until then, pack your under aged clothes and get out of this entrance. You are blocking the driveway for actual taxpayers. Look at you, standing under the sun like a mad dog that lost its owner.”
Tammy turned her back on Chloe completely, refusing to give her another second of her attention.
She walked gracefully back up to Setto, her face softening into a beautiful, easygoing calm the moment her eyes met his.
She reached out, wrapping her arm securely through his elbow.
“Musa,” Tammy called out to the head of security, her voice carrying absolute authority.
“If she remains outside this gate for another sixty seconds, call the police and report a case of aggravated public nuisance and attempted extortion. Clear the driveway immediately.”
“Yes, ma! Right away, ma!” Musa shouted, his chest swelling as he immediately pulled out his walkie-talkie.
Tammy didn’t look back. She gently pulled Setto’s arm, guiding him back toward the glass doors of the lobby.
Setto walked beside her, his head spinning, his entire soul filled with a helpless adoration for the small woman holding his arm.
Behind them, Chloe let out one last, frustrated shriek of pure rage.
“This is far from over! Do you hear me, Setto?! This is far from over! I am coming back for my child! You cannot keep her from me!”
She spun around on her high heels, stomping furiously back into her idling black Uber.
She slammed the door with a loud, violent thud, and the car accelerated away from the curb, its tires screeching against the asphalt as it vanished.
Setto stood against the mirror-lined wall of the elevator cabin, his eyes fixed entirely on Tammy, who was calmly adjusting the her hair as if she hadn’t just single-handedly dismantled someone on the ground floor.
The doors slid open on the executive floor, and they walked back into his private office.
The door clicked shut behind them, restoring the quiet, cool sanctuary of the room.
Setto didn’t even let her reach the desk. He grabbed her by her waist, his hands lifting her slightly as he brought her into a hug.
His face was flushed, his eyes burning with a mixture of intense relief, deep amusement, and a love so profound it was entirely helpless.
He leaned down, pressing several pecks against her cheek, holding her close against his chest.
“My small pepper,” Setto breathed, his voice vibrating against her ear, his chin resting comfortably on her head.
“Mennnnn!! Look at you. See how you just went down there and completely changed it for her. I was ready to call the commissioner of police, only for my woman to dismiss her like a mischievous schoolgirl.”
Tammy laughed quietly, her arms wrapping securely around his waist, her body completely relaxing into the solid frame of his embrace.
“I told you. She thinks because she is a foreigner, she can come here and intimidate us with dramatic shouting. She doesn’t know that I have a PhD in handling mad people. I cannot sit down and watch her stress you like that.”
Setto’s heart did a violent, ecstatic flip inside his chest. He pulled back just a fraction, looking down into her face with a frantic, beautiful longing.
He cleared his throat, his voice cracking slightly with emotion.
“I love you so much, baby. I love you” Setto breathed, his hands resting on her shoulders, hanging on her every word.
Tammy looked at his face, a beautiful, unreserved, and easygoing smile completely lighting up her features.
She reached up and placed a gentle, sweet peck on his jaw before looking directly into his eyes.
“I love you so much more, Temi,” she said clearly, her eyes locked onto his.
Tammy the small pepper🤭🤭🤭
Hi babiesss!!
Our new posting days will be Sundays and one other day. I’ll decide soon and inform you guys.
Ps: I owe you guys a bonus episode and it features Koda and Femi.
You will love it 😂😂.
Get this post to 100 likes, 50 comments and 30 restacks before noon, and the bonus episode will drop.
It's the way she called Chloe's clothes undearage dress for me 😹😹😭
tammy that sent all her siblings to school they now want to be telling her one tribalistic excuse, tope is right that consent is really for their pocket