The Man I Was Supposed To Hate – Story By: Florinuke
The first thing Sharon noticed about her kidnapper was his voice.
It was calm.
Too calm for a man who had just pointed a gun at her.
“Don’t scream.”
Sharon stared at him through the darkness.
Her wrists were tied behind her back. Her head throbbed. Her expensive work dress was covered with dust, and one of her shoes was missing.
She tried to remember how she had gotten there.
The road.
The headlights behind her.
A vehicle cutting across her lane.
Men surrounding her car.
The sound of glass breaking.
Then a cloth pressed against her mouth.
More Read
Nothing after that.
Until now.
“Where am I?”
The man said nothing.
“Who are you?”
Still nothing.
Sharon’s breathing became faster.
“Please. I have done nothing to you.”
The man finally stepped closer.
He was tall, broad-shouldered and dressed entirely in black. His face was partly hidden by the dim light, but his eyes were unmistakable.
Cold.
“Your father knows why you’re here.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will.”
He turned toward the door.
“Wait!”
He stopped.
“Are you going to kill me?”
For the first time, he looked directly at her.
“No.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because your father has something that belongs to me.”
He walked out.
The door locked behind him.
Sharon screamed until her throat hurt.
No one came.
DAY THREE
His name was Blade.
At least, that was what the other men called him.
Sharon had learned very little in three days.
She was being held somewhere outside the city, probably in an unfinished building. There were no windows in her room. Her phone was gone. Her jewellery was gone. Even the small watch on her wrist had been removed.
She had been given food twice a day.
Rice.
Water.
Sometimes bread.
She hated every bite.
She had also discovered something strange.
Blade never ate with the other men.
He brought her food himself.
He never entered while she was changing.
He never touched her.
And he never allowed the others to come near her.
That did not make her trust him.
It made her more suspicious.
On the third night, she deliberately pushed the plate away.
Blade stood at the doorway.
“You need to eat.”
“I’d rather die.”
“That isn’t going to help you.”
“Neither is feeding me.”
His expression remained blank.
“Your father is negotiating.”
Sharon’s stomach tightened.
“How much does he want?”
“Twenty million.”
She stared at him.
“Twenty million?”
“Yes.”
“My father won’t pay.”
Blade’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because my father doesn’t negotiate with criminals.”
Something almost resembling amusement crossed his face.
“Then you don’t know your father as well as you think.”
He left.
Sharon stared at the closed door.
For the first time, a terrible thought entered her mind.
What if this wasn’t really about money?
WEEK TWO
The ransom negotiations failed.
Sharon knew because Blade stopped pretending everything was under control.
He began making more phone calls.
He slept less.
He argued with someone almost every night.
And sometimes, when he thought Sharon was asleep, she heard him say the same name.
“Emeka.”
One night, she finally asked.
“Who is Emeka?”
Blade froze.
“You heard nothing.”
“I heard you say his name.”
“Forget it.”
“Is he the reason I’m here?”
Blade looked at her.
“No.”
But Sharon knew he was lying.
She had begun studying him.
Not because she liked him.
Because understanding her captor was survival.
She noticed that Blade checked the locks twice every night.
She noticed that he never carried his gun when he came into her room.
She noticed that whenever someone mentioned her father, anger flashed across his face.
And she noticed something else.
He had a scar running from behind his left ear down his neck.
One night, Sharon asked about it.
Blade touched the scar unconsciously.
“Someone tried to kill me.”
“Who?”
“My father’s enemies.”
Sharon frowned.
“You said your father died.”
He stared at her.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You did. Two nights ago.”
Silence.
That was when Sharon realised something.
Blade was not telling her the truth.
But neither was he telling the same lie twice.
WEEK THREE
Sharon became sick.
She had barely eaten for days and had developed a high fever.
Blade brought a doctor.
A real doctor.
The man examined her while Blade stood outside the room.
When the doctor finished, he whispered something to Blade.
Blade immediately left.
An hour later, he returned with medicine.
Sharon looked at him suspiciously.
“You hired a doctor for me?”
“You’re worth more alive.”
The answer was cold.
But she noticed his eyes.
He was worried.
She hated that she noticed.
Over the next few days, Blade became strangely quiet.
He left books for her.
He allowed her to shower alone.
He gave her ten minutes each evening to sit outside her room.
He even let her call her mother.
But Sharon could not enjoy any of it.
Because every kindness came from the same man who had stolen her freedom.
One evening, after the call with her mother, Sharon broke down.
“My mother sounded like she was dying.”
Blade said nothing.
“She kept asking if I was eating.”
Silence.
“She thinks I’m scared.”
“You are.”
Sharon looked at him.
“Yes.”
Blade lowered his eyes.
“I know.”
Something inside her shifted.
Not love.
Not yet.
Something much more dangerous.
Understanding.
She began to wonder what had happened to him.
And she hated herself for wondering.
WEEK FOUR
The truth finally began to surface.
Blade was not the leader of the kidnapping.
He had been hired to bring Sharon to the location.
But he had changed the plan.
Sharon discovered this accidentally.
She woke one night to the sound of shouting.
She moved silently toward the door.
“You were supposed to hand her over!”
It was another man’s voice.
Blade answered.
“She stays with me.”
“You’re losing your mind.”
“She stays.”
“You know what the boss will do.”
“I don’t care.”
The other man laughed.
“You think you’re protecting her?”
Blade said nothing.
“You’re protecting yourself.”
Footsteps approached.
Sharon rushed back to the mattress and pretended to sleep.
The door opened.
Blade entered.
He stood over her for several seconds.
Then he whispered:
“I’m sorry.”
Sharon kept her eyes closed.
But she heard him.
And for the first time, she wondered whether she had completely misunderstood the reason she was there.
THE SECRET
Two days later, Blade told her everything.
Not because he trusted her.
Because he had run out of time.
Years earlier, Blade had worked for a security company owned by Sharon’s father.
His real name was not Blade.
His name was Daniel.
Blade was the name the criminal network had given him.
Seven years earlier, Daniel’s younger sister, Ada, had disappeared after becoming involved in an investigation into one of Sharon’s father’s companies.
The official story was that Ada had fled the country.
Daniel never believed it.
He investigated.
What he found led him into a world of corruption, illegal land seizures and murdered witnesses.
Then he discovered something worse.
Ada had been investigating a secret transaction involving Sharon’s father.
But before Daniel could expose it, his sister disappeared.
Everyone told him to stop searching.
He didn’t.
That obsession destroyed his career.
His relationships.
His life.
Eventually, the people he was investigating found him.
They gave him a choice.
Work for them or die.
Daniel chose survival.
For years, he became Blade.
A man who carried out dirty assignments while secretly collecting evidence against the people who had destroyed his family.
Then Sharon became part of the plan.
Her kidnapping was supposed to force her father to reveal where Ada’s evidence had been hidden.
But Blade discovered something the others didn’t know.
Sharon had nothing to do with her father’s crimes.
She didn’t even know about them.
And suddenly, he couldn’t use her.
“You kidnapped me because of my father,” Sharon whispered.
“Yes.”
“You knew I was innocent?”
“Not at first.”
“And when did you find out?”
“The first week.”
Sharon’s eyes filled with tears.
“Then why didn’t you let me go?”
Blade looked away.
“Because by then, the people behind this knew you were here.”
His voice became quieter.
“If I released you, they would kill you.”
Sharon stared at him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
“Then what do you expect?”
“Nothing.”
That answer hurt more than she expected.
WEEK FIVE
The danger changed.
Sharon was no longer simply a hostage.
She was a witness.
The men who had ordered the kidnapping wanted her dead.
The police were searching.
Her father was hiding something.
And Blade was caught between the people who controlled him and the woman he had kidnapped.
Their relationship became increasingly complicated.
Sharon still hated him.
Some mornings she woke up and remembered the first night.
The gun.
The ropes.
The locked door.
And she would look at Blade with disgust.
Other mornings, she remembered the man who had sat outside her door when she was sick.
The man who had given her his jacket when she was cold.
The man who had risked his life to keep the others away from her.
She hated that contradiction.
She hated that her heart could hold two truths at once.
Blade had saved her life.
Blade had destroyed it.
One night, she finally confronted him.
“Why do you look at me like that?”
Blade didn’t answer.
“Say it.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“You look at me like you regret everything.”
“I do.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Because I don’t trust anyone else to keep you alive.”
Sharon stepped closer.
“You’re not my protector.”
“I know.”
“You’re my kidnapper.”
“I know.”
“And I hate you.”
Blade nodded.
“I know.”
She expected him to argue.
He didn’t.
That frightened her more than anger would have.
THE NIGHT EVERYTHING CHANGED
The attack came at 2:17 a.m.
Three vehicles stopped outside the building.
Blade heard them before Sharon did.
He grabbed his weapon.
“Get behind me.”
“What is happening?”
“They’re here.”
“Who?”
He looked at her.
“The people I was supposed to protect you from.”
The door exploded inward.
Gunfire filled the building.
Blade pushed Sharon to the floor.
One bullet struck his shoulder.
He fell.
“Blade!”
“Run!”
Sharon froze.
He had been shot.
Blood spread across his shirt.
One of the attackers entered the room.
Blade raised his weapon.
The attacker fired.
Blade fired first.
The man fell.
Blade grabbed Sharon’s hand.
“Move!”
They ran through the darkness.
For the first time since her kidnapping, Sharon wasn’t following her captor.
She was running beside him.
They escaped through the back of the building.
By sunrise, they reached a small police station.
Blade stopped outside.
Sharon turned.
“Come inside.”
He shook his head.
“If I go in, I’m going to prison.”
“You should.”
He looked at her.
She expected anger.
Instead, he nodded.
“I know.”
Then he walked inside.
MONTHS LATER
The trial lasted months.
Blade confessed.
He did not excuse himself.
He gave the police everything he knew.
Names.
Locations.
Bank accounts.
Evidence.
He also gave them the information that finally revealed what had happened to Ada.
Sharon’s father was arrested.
Several senior officials were implicated.
The kidnapping network collapsed.
Blade was sentenced to prison.
Sharon visited him once.
He looked thinner.
Older.
But strangely peaceful.
“You didn’t have to come,” he said.
“I know.”
“Why did you?”
She looked through the glass between them.
“I don’t know.”
He smiled faintly.
“That sounds like the beginning of a bad decision.”
She almost smiled.
Then her expression became serious.
“I loved you.”
Blade’s smile disappeared.
“Loved?”
“I don’t know what to call it.”
She looked down.
“Maybe it wasn’t love. Maybe it was trauma. Maybe it was loneliness. Maybe it was the strange attachment that happens when the person who frightens you is also the only person making you feel safe.”
Blade remained silent.
“But whatever it was,” Sharon continued, “it was real to me.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I never wanted you to love me.”
“I know.”
“Because you deserved someone who met you freely.”
Sharon nodded.
“Yes.”
She stood.
“Maybe someday, when you’re free, we’ll meet again.”
Blade looked at her.
“And if you don’t want me?”
“Then I’ll walk away.”
“And if I do?”
Sharon smiled sadly.
“Then you’ll have to convince me you’re no longer the man who kidnapped me.”
She walked away.
This time, there was no locked door behind her.
No gun.
No ropes.
No fear.
Just freedom.
And somewhere inside the prison, Blade finally understood the cruelest truth of all:
The woman he loved had been his prisoner.
If he truly loved her, he had to become the kind of man who could let her go.
And Sharon?
She still didn’t know whether she loved Blade.
Perhaps she never would.
But she knew one thing.
She would never again confuse being protected with being loved.
And if they ever met again, it would have to be as two people who had chosen each other freely.
Not because one had captured the other.
But because, finally, neither of them was trapped.
To be continued…
| For Advert Placement on the Midnight Story Section; Kindly WhatsApp or Call: 07033268427.
