Adanna shot them a sharp look. “Stop it.”
She turned back to Chinedu. “What’s your name?”
“Chinedu,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Chinedu,” she repeated, as if tasting the name. “God bless you.”
Then she got back into the car and drove away, leaving him staring at the money in disbelief.
---
**Three Years Earlier**
Chinedu Okoro had once been a rising star. A brilliant mechanical engineer from a modest family in Enugu, he had won a full scholarship to study at MIT. After graduating with honors, he returned to Nigeria with big dreams. He started a small renewable energy startup focused on solar solutions for rural communities. Investors loved him. His prototypes worked. Everything was falling into place.
Until the accident.
A drunk driver slammed into his car on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Chinedu survived. His fiancée, Nneka, did not. The company collapsed while he was in the hospital fighting for his life. Medical bills drained every kobo he had. By the time he recovered, depression had swallowed him whole. He lost his apartment. Friends disappeared. Family tried to help, but he pushed them away in shame.
He ended up on the streets.
Now, three years later, he was barely surviving — sleeping under bridges, eating once a day when lucky, haunted by nightmares of twisted metal and Nneka’s final scream.
Until Adanna Eze changed everything with one act of kindness.
---
**The Turning Point**
That night, Chinedu used part of the money to buy a proper meal — jollof rice, chicken, and cold water. For the first time in years, he slept without nightmares.
