"We spend years afraid someone won't love us back and no time at all preparing for what it means when they finally do."

Short Story — Two Cups of Coffee"

Every morning for nine years, he made two cups of coffee. One for him, one for her even after she left for work before he woke up, even on the mornings they'd fought the night before.

Then one day, she didn't come home. Not because she left him she passed suddenly, on an ordinary Tuesday.

The next morning, his hand reached for the second mug out of habit. He caught himself halfway, staring at it.

He still makes two cups. He just drinks them both himself now slowly, one after the other, like finishing a conversation that got interrupted.

Comment below: is habit the deepest form of love, or the hardest thing to let go of?

What would you have done in her position apologized, or explained yourself first?

She read his message three times: "I think we should talk."

Four words. No punctuation to soften it, no explanation to prepare her. She typed back: "About?"

He didn't reply for two hours. When he finally did, it wasn't a breakup. It wasn't a proposal either. It was: "I keep choosing you every day, and I don't think you've noticed. I need you to notice."

She sat with that for a long time. Not because it hurt but because it was true. She'd been so busy waiting for grand gestures, she'd missed all the quiet ones.

And they were waiting till I reach this age before I could recieve the money. Which kind life I de live like this? 🤔🙎🏼

A young man accused of impersonating Nigerian businessman and social media personality Blord on TikTok has been arraigned over alleged fraud involving millions of naira.

In the video, he explained that he visited the court over a case involving the suspect, who allegedly created a fake TikTok account while posing as him.

According to Blord, the suspect allegedly used the account to defraud unsuspecting individuals of millions of naira and carried out several transactions through the fraudulent account.

He said he initially reported the alleged impersonation to the police after discovering what was happening, leading to the suspect's eventual arrest.

Blord also advised members of the public against impersonating other people online, warning that such actions could have serious consequences.

However, he said the suspect had been cooperative since the issue began and that efforts would be made to assist him within the limits of the law.

Part 4 (Final): The Clockmaker Who Stopped Time for No One

Spring came to Veyland the way it always did, though this year the town square felt different, quieter the great clock tower standing empty and silent where its ticking had marked every hour for forty years. The townspeople had grieved its loss briefly, uncertain what it meant for a town that had built so much identity around its steady, unwavering rhythm.

But inside Aurelio's workshop, something new was taking shape.

"You don't have to rebuild it," Iris said gently, watching him sketch designs at his workbench, six months into relearning a world that had moved on entirely without her. "You've already given so much."

"I'm not rebuilding the old clock," Aurelio said, setting down his pencil to look at her properly. "I'm building something new. Not out of longing this time. Out of gratitude, instead."

Iris moved closer, studying the sketches with growing curiosity — smaller than the original tower, more intricate, designed with mechanisms unlike anything Aurelio had built before. "What is it?"

"A garden clock," he said, smiling. "For the courtyard behind the workshop. Not meant to mark hours for the whole town anymore. Just for us. A quiet, ordinary way to mark time together, moving forward instead of waiting."

Iris's eyes filled with tears, moved by the quiet symbolism of it no longer built from forty years of hopeful longing, but from genuine, present devotion, chosen freely now that both their futures finally belonged entirely to themselves.

Over the following months, Aurelio built the small garden clock with Iris working alongside him, learning his craft with genuine enthusiasm, the two of them slowly building not just a mechanism, but a life together patient, deliberate, entirely their own after decades of separation neither had chosen.

On the day they finally set the small clock into motion, its gentle ticking filling the quiet courtyard for the first time, Aurelio turned to Iris with something he'd been carrying carefully in his pocket for weeks.

"I know we're not exactly starting young," he said, a little nervous despite decades of quiet devotion behind him. "I know forty years is an enormous gap to bridge, and that we're both still learning who we've become on either side of it. But I don't want to wait any longer to ask this properly, the way I never got the chance to before you disappeared."

He knelt carefully, opening a small box to reveal a ring crafted from the same delicate gears and springs as the garden clock itself devotion turned into something wearable, permanent, entirely theirs.

"Iris, will you marry me? Not because a fae bargain brought us back together, and not because I'm afraid of losing more time. Simply because I love you, clearly and completely, and I don't want to build one more single thing in this life without you beside me."

Iris laughed through fresh tears, pulling him up before he'd even fully risen, kissing him soundly in the quiet courtyard beneath their newly ticking garden clock. "Yes. Obviously, completely, unreservedly yes."

As their small clock ticked steadily behind them no longer built from forty years of desperate hope, but from a present, chosen love finally free to move forward exactly as it pleased Aurelio realized, holding Iris close, that some things really were worth losing everything else to protect.

THE END ⏳💍💛

Part 3: The Clockmaker Who Stopped Time for No One

Thistlewood circled slowly, considering the offer with the deliberate patience of a creature who had all the time in existence to weigh his decisions. "The clock represents forty years of a devotion that never wavered, never doubted, even in the face of complete uncertainty. That kind of magic is rare, old man. Rarer than you likely understand."

"Then take it," Aurelio said firmly. "Every gear, every spring, every hour I spent building it while hoping, against all reason, that she might somehow return. Take the whole thing, and leave both our futures untouched."

Iris gripped his arm tighter, torn between gratitude and fierce protest. "Aurelio, that clock is your life's work. Forty years of your identity, your purpose. I can't let you give that away for me."

"It was never really my life's work," Aurelio said gently, turning to face her fully for the first time since she'd walked back through his door. "It was built entirely for you, Iris. Every gear, every spring — all of it was just my way of hoping you'd hear it ticking and somehow find your way home. If giving it away means you and I both get to keep our futures, then it's already fulfilled its true purpose. The rest was just clockwork."

Thistlewood watched the exchange with something almost like reluctant respect flickering across his ancient features. "Careful, clockmaker. Sentiment like that is precisely the kind of thing fae bargains feed on."

"Then feed on it," Aurelio said, unwavering. "Take the clock. Take the devotion built into every mechanism. But leave her future, and mine, entirely our own from this point forward."

Thistlewood considered for a long, tense moment, gold eyes flicking between the two of them with calculating precision. Finally, he extended one long, elegant hand. "Agreed. The clock, in full mechanism, magic, and forty years of devoted craft in exchange for releasing any remaining claim on either of your futures. Shake on it, old man, and the bargain is sealed."

Aurelio didn't hesitate, gripping Thistlewood's cold hand firmly despite everything ancient and unnatural radiating from the fae's touch. The moment their hands separated, a visible shudder ran through the workshop, through the town beyond it and in the distance, Aurelio heard the unmistakable, impossible sound of the great clock tower's mechanism unwinding itself entirely, gears and springs dissolving into golden mist that rose slowly into the night sky.

"It's done," Thistlewood said, satisfaction evident in his ancient voice. "The clock belongs to the fae realm now, its magic and devotion both. You're free, songbird. Both of you. No further debt remains between any of us."

Without another word, Thistlewood dissolved into the same autumn-scented wind that had announced his arrival, leaving Aurelio and Iris alone in the workshop, the distant tower now silent and empty against the night sky for the first time in forty years.

"You gave up everything," Iris said softly, tears streaming freely now. "Your whole life's work. For me."

"I gave up a clock," Aurelio corrected gently, reaching for her hands. "I got to keep the only thing that ever actually mattered — the chance to finally have a real future with you, instead of just quietly hoping for one from a distance for the rest of my life."

Iris laughed through her tears, moved beyond words by the quiet, complete devotion he'd just proven beyond any doubt. "I'm forty years behind, Aurelio. I don't know this world anymore. I don't even know who I am outside of that forest."

"Then we'll learn together," Aurelio said simply, pulling her gently into an embrace decades in the making. "Slowly. However long it takes. I've already proven I'm patient enough for that."

to be continued... ⏳💛

Abuja-based lawyer, Stan Alieke, has sparked a debate online following his position on the legitimacy of a DNA test to determine the paternity of a child.

In a video shared online, Stan argued that a DNA test is not recognised by the laws of Nigeria as a way of proving the paternity of a child.

According to him, any child born during the course of a marriage is automatically presumed to be the child of the husband.

He stated that even if a marriage is dissolved, if a child is born within 280 days after dissolution, the child is still presumed to be fathered by the man.

He mentioned that the court has also noted the customary practices in Nigeria. He said the Supreme Court has noted that in the Yoruba culture, if a man has accepted the pregnancy of a woman or publicly acknowledged the child to be his own, that child will automatically be presumed to be the child of the man. He said if the man alloed the child to take his last name of conducted a naming ceremony for the child, it doesn’t matter if the child is the legitimate child of the man, he will be presumed in law as the son or daughter of the man in question.

Alieke said the court has also noted the same thing for the Hausa/Fulani culture.

He said the Igbo custom is quite different. He said what determines the paternity of a child is if a man pays the bride price of the woman, he will be presumed to be the father of any and every child born by the woman,

He said in Nigerian law, DNA is foreign to Nigerian laws and is always treated as a secondary source of evidence.

Credit: stanalieke