I can’t marry you, Amara.
Not today.
Not ever.
Kichi, my son, I have not even asked you the question.
Then don’t ask it, pastor.
The answer will not change.
5 years, Kichi, and you tell me at the altar.
Look at me and say it again.
Sandra, Sandra, what is he doing with your hand?
Sorry, my dear.
Your bridesmaid is taking your groom.
Is it a wedding or a Mollywood film?
Somebody should be selling tickets at the door.
Kichi, come back here.
This is the house of God.
Move this chair.
This morning you made me sign your papers in my wedding gown for our joint account.
You said papers?
The groom is running and she is still counting his money.
Then keep the account, Amara.
It suits you better than I did.
And keep the gown, my dear.
It never really fits you.
20 years I fed you since my sister died.
And this is how you pay me in front of the whole of Lagos.
Auntie, he left me.
He is the one who ran.
Why are you shouting at me?
Why are you shouting at me?
Because a groom does not run from a good girl.
What did you do to him?
Nothing, Auntie.
Sandra was my bridesmaid.
We shared one bed in boarding school.
I paid for that fuchsia gown with my own cake money.
Then you trained her well.
Then you trained her well.
She took the gown and she took the man.
Look everybody, the bride has finally found her table.
Sorry, sir.
He pushed you on his way out of my life.
He was raised better than this.
Leave the glass.
You’ll cut your hand.
Then it will match the rest of me.
Madam, the groom’s side has paid nothing.
The groom’s side has paid nothing.
Not one coobo.
600,000 naira balance before you carry one plate out of my hall.
Sir, every naira I saved from 5 years of cakes went into your deposit and this gown.
There is nothing left.
Then your cake stand and all your gifts stay here with me.
Please not the stand.
I deliver every order on that stand.
Without it, I cannot work.
Madam, the groom promised me 50,000 for the filming.
Now he has run.
Who will pay me?
50,000.
It is the last money I have.
You worked.
Somebody should be paid today.
Uhhuh.
She has money for camera boy but not for my hall.
Madam, the camera ran all morning, even in the bridal room, even in the corridor.
Delete everything.
I never want to see this day again.
1 hour, madam.
After that, my security carries your things to the road.
My mother used to say, “When the music stops, look at who stays.
It looks too good to cut.”
I baked it myself.
Three nights with no sleep.
Vanilla inside because he said chocolate is for children.
He was wrong about a lot of things today.
Kich’s people will come for their bride price tomorrow.
And I spent it on your wedding rice.
Every grain.
You will not walk back into my house as the girl the groom ran from.
Bring a husband home tonight or do not bring yourself.
Auntie, where will I find a husband in one evening?
In the car park.
Why the car park?
There is one sitting right there.
Let her marry the chair.
I will marry her if she will have me.
You see what you have brought on this family?
Even the chair is proposing.
You don’t even know my name.
Amara, it is written on your cake in gold next to a name I would scrape off.
Why would you do this?
You don’t know me.
Because when they all ran, you came back for a stranger’s glass.
That is not a reason to marry somebody.
It is the best reason anybody has given in this hall today.
Pastor, the hall is paid until 6:00.
Finish the service.
My daughter, you have known this man for 10 minutes.
I knew the other one for 5 years, pastor.
Look where that carried me.
What is your name, my son?
Toby.
Just Toby.
And the ring.
I’ll get you a proper one.
Then before God and these few witnesses, I pronounce you husband and wife.
Ladies and gentlemen, the bride of the chair.
Even a chair is better than nothing.
Just don’t bring it to my gate.
Sir, what did I just watch?
Toby, from today you call me Toby Dapo.
You are my assistant, not my announcer.
See Toby, you just married a stranger in a hall you own.
Ale Holdings owns this hall.
I only own Aunlaya Holdings.
The richest man in Lagos is going home in my cousin’s car with a wife.
She is not a stranger, Dapo.
She is the girl from the bridge.
Third mainland, the girl who pulled you out of that car.
Two years I looked for her face.
You found her name on a wedding card.
I came to say thank you.
Thank you and go.
And instead you said I do.
Not one of your own staff in that hall knew your face.
They know a man who stood.
Nobody looks at a man in a chair.
And to her, what am I?
My cousin with a borrowed car.
Yes.
See, Toby, welcome madam.
I am Dapo, his cousin.
The car is also my cousins.
Auntie, these are my baking tins.
My client’s orders are written in a book inside that house.
Your things are outside.
Everything that belongs to you is in that gutter.
And my oven, auntie, the oven stays.
It was bought with my gas money.
Every cake I sold for 5 years came out of that oven.
That oven paid for your Christmas rice.
And whose gas cooked the cakes?
Whose roof was over the oven?
Pick your tins and go.
Look, the bride of the chair has come home with her chair.
Madam, she did what you asked her.
She brought her husband home tonight.
I said, “A husband who can carry her, not one she has to push.”
My mother’s own sister threw me out like a cake nobody ordered.
Go to your chairman and don’t bring that chair to my gate again.
I have the things.
Madam, get in the car.
The street has seen enough.
Toby, where are we?
Is this a hotel?
Where I work?
I look after this house for the owner.
He has been away since his accident.
Your cousin has a cold.
It is the Lagos Air.
Madam, it enters the chest at night.
Your gas pool is bigger than my auntie’s whole street.
He doesn’t swim.
Then why does a man who doesn’t swim keep a pool like this one?
For guests, he has many.
None of them come.
Will he not mind?
A strange woman in a wedding gown sleeping in his garden.
The owner will be glad you came.
That much I can promise you.
Who is that woman up there?
The owner’s mother.
She likes me.
Everybody likes him, madam.
It is his only fault.
I brought this to your wedding.
It was a gift for the bride.
It is still yours.
I married a man today, not an envelope.
Keep it, please.
Then tell me how you will live.
I bake.
Give me an oven in one week and the orders will come back.
The oven is right there behind you.
What about the rent?
Rent?
You told me this cottage costs you nothing.
It cost me nothing.
You.
I am afraid I will have to charge.
You watched me give my last must money to a camera boy.
Then one cake every Sunday.
Chocolate.
Chocolate?
You have not even tasted my vanilla yet.
I heard what he said about chocolate.
I want to prove him wrong.
Then it is a deal.
One chocolate cake every Sunday.
Good.
You take the bedroom.
I will take the sofa.
No, Toby.
I cannot push you out of your own bed on the first night.
Please, I am very good at sitting.
Look at her face, baby.
90,000 views in one evening.
Turn it off, Sandra.
I have seen it.
Why?
You are the star.
You and that chair.
I didn’t even see the man’s face.
He was just there in my way.
Nobody looks at those ones.
That is why they put them at the back.
Listen to me.
I am head of procurement at Aunle Holdings.
The auditors finished before the 20 years bar gala.
2 weeks.
40 million naira.
Million naira.
And my signature is on every payment.
Relax.
I already gave them a name.
Whose name?
You did the hard part today, baby.
You left her at the altar.
What does leaving her at the altar have to do with 40 million?
Everything.
Drink.
5 years I was with that girl, Sandra.
She baked my mother’s birthday cakes.
And I shared her bed all through boarding school.
She cried on my shoulder every time you forgot her birthday.
Now she can cry on a chair.
To the bride of the chair.
Good morning.
Nobody in this garden locks a door, so I stopped knocking.
I am Mama Fake.
The owner of this house is my son.
And this one has eaten in my kitchen since he was small.
You married her in front of Lagos.
Now you will sign for her in front of the law.
Ecoy registry 9:00.
Mama, a pastor already married us.
She said yes to survive one bad evening.
A pastor in an empty hall is a prayer.
A marriage is a signature.
Then at least give her time to think.
This bread has more sense than you.
Good morning, S Toby.
Good morning, mama.
S Toby, is that a new name?
It is how we greet in my village, mama.
Short and fast.
Then your village should slow down.
Mama, I have nothing to wear to a registry.
My clothes slept in a gutter.
You have a face.
Wear that.
9:00.
Dappo will bring the car.
She took my whole bread.
She took your bread.
That means she likes you.
Madam, the man’s arm will get tired.
Then let him rest it.
The last time I signed something without reading it, I was wearing a wedding gown.
You all saw how that day ended.
You told the pastor, “Just Toby.”
Just Toby was enough for a pastor.
The government wants the rest of me.
Like the big company.
Half of Lagos is Ounle.
My grandfather sold fish in Ecuation.
I will write cousin.
Cousin is an occupation.
I promised you a proper one.
It was my grandmother’s.
The wife of the fish seller.
She sold more fish than he did.
This one I keep.
You two would lose it inside a cake tin.
A cake tin.
Toby, look.
Three tears.
My first order since that video.
Somebody in Lagos still wants my cake.
Look at these flowers, Toby.
These people have money.
They will pay the balance with a smile.
You came.
Everybody, this is the bride I told you about.
I wanted the bride’s cake at my engagement.
It felt right.
Your planner ordered three tiers.
I baked all night.
Pay me the balance and I will go.
Balance for this?
My planner said you would take any order now from anybody.
She was right.
Darling, I don’t eat leftovers.
Film it properly, my people.
Tag her page.
Let Lagos see where her cakes end up.
Three tears.
She always did too much.
That was always her problem.
And you must be the husband.
Congratulations on your chair.
I bought every egg in that cake on credit.
Sandra, pay me for the flower.
You can keep the insult since you are begging.
Pick it up, Amara.
Pick it up, Amara.
You used to pick up everything I dropped.
5 years I picked up after you kili.
I have finished picking.
If that dough had a face, I think I know whose face it would be.
It has two faces.
Like everybody at that brunch.
You know, my chair has better brakes than your kelete.
At least it stops when it should.
My mother died when I was six.
My auntie locked My auntie locked her gate.
5 years with Kichi and he ran.
Everybody I love leaves or pushes me out of the door.
I’m not built for running, Toby.
That is not funny.
It wasn’t a joke.
A friend of mine at Ugan Holdings needs a cake for their 20 years gala.
The gala is in less than 2 weeks.
The tasting is tomorrow and 50 of their staff will taste with their eyes covered.
Mama, did you beg somebody for me?
I don’t want work that pity found for me.
I begged nobody.
Five bakeries, 50 blindfolds.
If your cake loses, it loses.
Kichi works there, mama.
In that very tower.
Then let him taste.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I am here for the cake tasting.
I know this face.
My whole office shared that your video.
Deliveries are at the back bride of the chair.
Deliveries are at the back bride of the chair.
I am not delivering.
I am on the list for the tasting.
Amara’s cakes.
Every week, one of you people from the internet comes to take photos in my lobby.
Amaras, this list is longo.
Nah, this list is longo.
Cake number four.
The lift is that side.
Don’t drop anything on my marble.
Amara, what are you doing in my building?
Who let you pass the gate?
Sir, she says she is on the list.
Cake number four.
Working Kilichi through the front door.
Good afternoon everybody.
Five bakeries, one gala cake.
Before we start, one small correction to the list.
We are not buying a cake from a wedding leftover.
This woman made a scene at my own wedding.
Do we want her anywhere near our chairman’s gala?
Ah, Kichi.
First you left her at the altar and now you want to leave her at the plinth.
Taste it before you throw it away.
Kichi, that is all your staff came here to do.
Security can carry number four out.
The panel has decided.
Which panel?
The memo from the event office says the blindfolds decide.
I beg.
I came downstairs for cake, not for your wedding.
H I am not telling anybody which one I chose, but I have eaten two pieces of it.
Cake four.
31 votes out of 50.
31 people who could not see my face.
Kilichi only my cake.
Wear it well.
10 days is a long time in this building.
Pin it straight, Kichi.
Your hands are shaking.
Amara’s cakes.
What a lovely name.
31, Toby.
31 of 50.
And every one of them had their eyes covered.
Then I demand a fair test.
Cover my eyes and bring me the winner.
Hm.
Jolof rice with a little fried plantain.
It is vanilla and lemon, you terrible judge.
Then pepper soup.
I am almost sure it is pepper soup.
I am almost sure it is pepper soup.
He called me a wedding leftover on a microphone in front of all of them.
And then 31 people ate the leftover and asked for more.
31 certians.
Congratulations madam.
The chair.
The chair will love this cake.
Your chair.
I I mean your own chair.
It is a very hungry chair.
Five tiers.
20 sugar flowers.
One for every year of the company.
Do you think the chairman will even taste it?
This one will taste it.
Put a little blue on it.
Blue is lucky for me.
Why blue?
Everything in that building is gold.
Ask me after the gala.
Mama, I don’t want to put flour on your fine cushions.
My cushions have seen worse things than flour.
Sit back and drink your tea.
My son was engaged once, a beautiful girl from a big family.
When trouble came to him, she visited one time.
She stood at his door, looked at what had changed in him, and promised to come back on Sunday.
And did she come back?
Mama a courier came on Monday with his ring in a brown envelope.
Money is a loud guest, my daughter.
It brings everybody in.
They come with gifts.
They laugh at every joke.
They remember your birthday.
Only the quiet things make them stay.
Then she never loved him, mama.
She loved the life around him.
And you?
What would you love?
A man who stays when it costs him on the night of the gala.
I want you at my table.
Not in the kitchen.
Not behind your cake.
At my table.
My son is coming home that night.
Me, mama, the bride of the chair at a table with big people.
The bride of a good man.
You will sit where I put you.
Don’t stop, madam.
Your hands are the best shot in this whole building.
I know you.
You are the camera boy from the hall.
I’m Jay, the camera boy you paid when the groom didn’t.
And what are you doing in Victoria Island?
After your video went round, people tagged me under it.
Now the Gala team has hired me to film their 20 years video.
Your 50,000 paid my rent that month.
Then at least one good thing came out of that day.
Madam, about the wedding footage.
I didn’t delete it.
I can’t delete good light.
Then keep it, Jay.
Just never show it to me.
Good afternoon, sir.
Dapo.
Since when are you a sir?
Madam, they think I am somebody.
It is the suit.
I only came to drop the kaka papers in this building for your cousin’s corola.
That corolla has many papers, madam.
Very many papers.
Eight.
Nine.
Hold it or go.
Hold it.
10.
Good.
I brought you my moy and rice.
You will finish all of it after this.
Uhhuh.
Feed him well, madam.
He fights these bars like they insulted his mother.
You said 10 last time too.
And then you asked me for five more.
Because last time you were complaining, today you are showing up for madam.
Why do you push so hard, Toby?
Your face is shaking.
The doctors say my legs may never come back.
My arms I can still argue with.
Madam, two years since the bridge and this man has not missed one session.
Rain, traffic, Christmas.
Not one.
Which bridge?
Third mainland.
At night in the rain.
Amara, why do you ask?
Nothing.
Lagos has too many bridges.
You cross the garden in this rain.
Your shirt is wet through.
Where do you keep a towel?
In the side bag.
The left side.
These are my mother’s initials.
She stitched them herself.
Two years ago, I tied this scarf around a man’s leg on Third Mainland Bridge.
I never saw his face, only blood and rain.
I held his hand until the ambulance took him, and my mother’s scarf went with him.
You sang to me the same song again and again.
My mother’s lullabi.
The only song I could remember with my hands shaking.
I looked for that voice for 2 years last month.
Dappo found your name on a wedding invitation.
I’m just starting to attest.
I love friend Tim before I contraint.
Why didn’t you tell me in the hall?
Then you would have married me to be polite to a man you saved.
I wanted to be the man you chose.
So that is why blue is lucky for you.
I told you to ask me after the gala.
You asked early.
Our winning baker.
31 fks out of 50.
The whole 15th floor is still talking about your vanilla.
They can talk about it at the gayla.
What do you want, Kichi?
What do you want, Kichi?
Nothing for me.
It’s a vendor bank form so Finance can pay you.
Sign at the bottom and your money goes out this week.
Since when do you read forms?
Since my wedding morning.
This says Amara Cakes and Events Limited.
My business is Amara’s Cakes.
No events, no limited.
Just me and one oven.
It’s only a format.
Finance likes long names.
Then fix the format and bring it back.
You were sweeter when you didn’t read.
I was cheaper.
Be careful in this building, Amara.
Cakes fall here long before anybody taste them.
Then keep your hands off my table.
And mind your tie, Kichi.
It is in my icing.
Madam, I don’t remember booking an appointment with you.
Nobody books me, Mr.
Kilichi.
That is the whole point of me.
Your largest supplier this year was paid 40 million naira for 11 events.
We cannot find one guest who attended any of them.
Events are hard to photograph.
In Lagos, every party in this city has three cameramen and a drone.
Your 11 events have no photograph, no venue, and no guest.
Not one auntie who went home with a plate of rice.
I approve what the department send me.
If a vendor lied on her papers, ask the vendor.
I will.
My report goes to the gayla with the name of whoever owns that company.
The chairman hasn’t shown his face in 2 years.
He won’t open a red folder in the middle of a party.
He reads, “Sandra, listen to me.
The auditor just left my office.
She wants a name for the chairman’s desk, and Amara wouldn’t sign.
She sat in my office like she she owned it.
Sandra, she says the chairman reads, then let him read.
Read this one first, baby.
That is Amara’s signature.
Of course it is.
She signed the papers in her wedding gown.
Kichi.
Kichi, you put the pen in her hand yourself for our joint account.
Remember, it’s her name on it, not ours.
You made me leave her at the altar in front of 200 people so that so that when the auditors come looking, they find a bride with a grudge.
The girl the groom ran from, screaming about papers while the whole hall laughed.
I thought you left that hall with me because you wanted me.
I wanted you, baby, and I wanted you to stay out of prison.
I can carry two things at once.
And now she is baking the chairman’s cake, and she won’t sign anything.
Then she walked into the trap on her own feet.
We don’t need her pen.
We need one voice who knows her.
Somebody who raised her.
Somebody who already spent your family’s bride price on rice.
Small smile, madam.
This is for the 20 years video.
The chairman himself will watch it.
The chairman has not shown his face in 2 years.
He will not watch a woman a woman glue flowers.
Then smile for the cake.
It is working harder than both of us.
19 white flowers and one blue.
20 for 20 years.
Don’t film the blue one.
Somebody told me blue is lucky for him.
Amara Okafo.
That depends on who is asking and whether they came to buy cake.
Do you own a company called Amara Cakes and Events Limited?
My company is an oven and a table in a cottage in Ecoy.
I don’t do events.
I don’t do limited.
I do cake.
Has anybody asked you to sign for that name?
A man brought me a form last week.
I read it and gave it back unsigned.
Who are you, madam?
Somebody who counts.
And somebody wanted you to say yes.
Madam, I think I should stop filming now.
Angoi, I did not come as Kelich’s woman.
I came as a daughter.
A daughter who took the groom of my own of my own sister’s child.
Is the fruit for me or for your conscience?
Amara and her chair husband are stealing from Kelich’s company in a company with her own name on it.
Amara, that girl cried for one whole week when she broke my china plate.
Shame changes people.
Auntie sign that she told you she would take his money.
Only that.
And Kelich’s family will forget the bride price.
But she never told me anything.
Not since she was 15.
Not since she was 15.
She told me.
She would have told you too if you had opened your gate.
Same truth, auntie.
Saving it time.
You are only saving it time.
I spent that bride prize on her wedding rice and her guests laughed at my family with their mouths full.
Then let them laugh at somebody else.
Now that girl always wanted more than my house could give.
Thank you auntie.
You have done a mother’s work today.
Wash your hands, my daughter.
What is inside this bag does not like flour.
Mama, this is for me.
For my table.
I told you I want you at my table on gala night.
And my table does not eat in an apron.
Mama, I cannot take a gown like this for nothing.
I will wear it if you let me pay for it in cakes.
Good.
Then I want 40.
40 cakes.
I will still be baking at your grandchildren’s weddings.
Then start tonight.
Not chocolate.
This one says chocolate is his rent and he does not share.
Mama, I never said I don’t share.
You said it with your face.
After the gala money comes, I’ll rent us a real flat with a ramp at the door.
You won’t live in your orgas backyard forever.
He can keep his big pool.
We will have a small door that opens wide enough for your chair.
The owner of this house will hear about that ramp.
I will make sure of it.
Tell her before somebody else does.
The company that took the 40 million, Amara Cakes and Events Limited, director Amara Okafo.
The date on this is her wedding morning.
She signed the papers in her wedding gown.
She shouted it at the altar, Dapo, and everybody laughed.
I thought she was talking about a joint account.
So did she.
He made her sign in the morning and he left her at the altar in the afternoon.
A dumped bride with her name on the money.
Who would look any further?
I met her today, chairman.
Flower to her elbows.
Thieves don’t usually ice the cake of the company they robbed.
But my report is due at the gala and whoever’s name is on that company, the police will have it the same night.
Then they will not knock on Kichi’s door.
They will knock on the cottage.
Keep the folder closed until the gala.
Nobody touches her.
And Mr.
Kletchi, let him keep walking.
A man who thinks he has won stops looking behind him.
Tonight I tell her everything.
Dappo.
Everything.
See?
Everything.
The auditor sent me a copy.
Her report reaches the chairman at the gala with the owner’s name.
Then we don’t wait for the gayla.
Move the cake rehearsal to 9:00 tomorrow morning.
It was set for 4:00.
Now it is set for 9.
You hold the folder.
I’ll bring her auntie.
If her name doesn’t hold by Saturday, the next name that woman reads is mine.
It will hold, baby.
And if she talks, she always talks.
Who listens to the bride of the chair?
Close your eyes properly.
You will not cheat tonight.
They are closed.
I swear it on my chair.
Now you can look.
20 sugar flowers on the tears below for their 20 years.
And up here, our bridge.
Our story sitting on top of their 20 years.
And nobody in that tower will know what it means except you and me.
You made the scarf out of sugar.
Four nights.
It broke three times.
The fourth one decided to obey me.
Then it is stronger.
Stronger than it looks.
Like the woman who made it.
I want to my treses separate to guest on time.
After the gala, whatever it is, it can wait until after the gala.
It should not wait.
You should hear it from me.
The last time I planned a happy day, 200 people laughed at me.
Tonight, let me be happy for one whole night.
One whole night then.
Then you can tell me the owner is a ghost and I will still bake for him after the gayla.
I hope he waits for us.
Good morning everybody.
Before we rehearse with this cake, you should know what this cake has cost us.
40 million naira of this company’s money went to a company called Amara Cakes and Events Limited.
11 events and not one guest.
And its director is standing right there baking our cake.
That is not my company.
My business.
My business.
My business is Amara’s Cakes.
One oven in a cottage.
I refused to sign that name on your own form, Kichi.
You refused because you had already signed it.
Here is somebody who knows her better than any of us.
Her own auntie.
Auntie, what are you doing in this place?
I, Mazi, her late mother’s sister, state that my niece told me in my house that if Kelichi ever left her, she would take his money, all of it, and make him pay.
Auntie, you raised me for 20 years.
When did I ever say that to you?
I have signed it, Amara.
Don’t make me read it again.
On my wedding morning, he gave me papers for a joint account.
I signed them in my gown.
Ask him again.
The wedding.
Every time this woman opens her mouth, it is the wedding.
Security her badge and take this cake out of my atrium.
We are not serving the chairman’s stolen sugar.
Are you Amara Okafo?
I am and I have never stolen one naira.
Not from him, not from anybody.
Then you will say so at the station on Monday morning.
Madam, do not leave Lagos.
Bride of the chair.
Now the bride of the cell.
No, Toby.
If the police come for me at that cottage, they will take you too.
A man in a chair in a cell because of my name.
I will not carry that.
This is the place, Mommy.
Two years ago, a car lay broken right here, and I tied your scarf around a stranger’s leg.
Today, I learned what my name is worth.
40 million naira, and not one naira of it ever touched my hands.
Auntie pushed me out of her gates.
Kichi left me at the altar.
Sandra took my groom.
And now she has taken my name.
You told me to look at who stays.
Mommy, this time I am the one leaving.
If I go first, nobody can push me.
As nobody speaks in this video.
As nobody speaks in this video.
You chose a hard bed, my daughter.
Concrete does not even give you a pillow.
Mama, how did you find me here?
Toby said if she is not at the gate by morning, she is on the bridge.
He has not slept.
He sat at that gate in his chair the whole night in the rain with his phone in his hand.
Then tell him to go inside.
The police want me on Monday.
I don’t want them to find him to find him standing beside me.
My son keeps the best lawyer in Lagos.
One call and that man will be at your side before 9:00.
It is already paid.
No, mama.
I won’t let your son buy my name back for me.
It is the only thing I own that nobody gave me.
Good.
Then come home and fight for it with your own two hands.
Toby told me what your mother used to say.
When the music stops, look at who stays.
Lost grade.
You’re saying to be new to this disc screening.
What might this sell?
Madame, madame, I saw the atrium video.
Half of Lagos has seen it.
I picked this up from the marble after you left.
And I told you, madam, I can’t delete good light.
Jay, I said I never want to see that day again.
Please, only this part.
That morning, my tripod stood in the bridal room behind the mirror.
Just sign here, my love, for our joint account.
The bank needs it before church.
Relax.
Once she signs, it’s her name on it, not ours.
Then he leaves her at the altar, and the whole of Lagos sees a bitter bride with a reason to steal.
She pinned my veil.
With her own hands, she pinned my veil.
And then she walked into that corridor and sold me.
Jay, copy it.
Two copies on two different drives.
Two copies.
I’ll start now.
And bring one tonight.
You are filming the gayla.
Not so.
Every minute of it.
Mama.
Amara.
Bake the cake again.
Now Muja experience big use.
Tonight you go to the gala with mama.
Wear the blue.
Whatever happens in that ballroom, trust me for one more night.
I trusted a man with my signature once.
Toby, you saw how that ended.
Then don’t trust me.
Trust the footage.
One more night.
Then whatever you try to tell me about the owner of this house, you tell me all of it.
No more waiting after that.
Before tomorrow morning.
All of it, I promise you.
And you are you coming to the gala in your cousin’s Corolla?
No, in my own car.
Since when do you have a car?
Years.
Tonight it finally leaves the garage.
The Lagos Air again, Dappo.
It enters the chest in the afternoon, too.
Madam Gday has one copy for the big screen.
This one stays in my pocket next to my heart.
And why does the big screen need you?
I know the man who plugs it in, madam.
And the cake comes to my table.
Straight to my table.
Past everybody who laughed.
Thank you.
This part I do myself.
Thank you everyone.
This year, somebody tried to steal from this company and procurement caught her.
But tonight is not for thieves.
Sandra, my love, come up here.
Good evening, Ounle Holdings.
Two weeks ago, many of you came to a wedding where I was only the bridesmaid.
Well, tonight the bridesmaid has the ring.
People ask me, Sandra, how could you?
I tell them, some women marry chairs.
I marry futures.
A wise woman checks the road before she walks down the aisle.
Tell them, my sister, check the road.
And please don’t worry about the bride of the chair.
She is resting at home tonight before the police meet her on Monday.
No cake for us this year, I’m afraid.
Our baker had other appointments.
My aunting goi is here with us.
She raised that girl for 20 years.
And tonight even she sits at my table.
That tells you everything you need to know.
So lift your glasses with me.
Tonight we celebrate 20 years of honest work.
To honest work.
Security.
That woman stole 40 million naira from this company.
And look everybody, she brought cake.
Young men, go back to your door.
This lady is my guest and she sits at my table.
Madam, that woman has a police report against her name.
She cannot sit at the top table.
Then come down from your stage and lift her out of that seat yourself.
Good evening, auntie.
The mustard suits you.
You tipped my last cake into a bin, Sandra.
This one was never baked for you.
Mr.
Kichi, sit down, please.
The chairman will speak to this matter himself.
H Emmen, the chairman hasn’t been seen in 2 years.
Will he speak to us through the screen?
Let her sit up there, baby.
Is the last good seat she will ever have.
Dapo.
Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time in two years, our chairman, Satobi Aunle, the chair.
Is that not the man from table 9?
Two years ago on Third Mainland Bridge, my car went over the barrier in the rain.
A girl climbed.
She pulled me out, tied her mother’s scarf around my leg, and sang to me until the ambulance came.
Last month, we found her name on a wedding card.
So I went to her wedding to say thank you and go.
At that wedding, a man shoved my chair aside and shouted, “Move this chair.
That man is my head of procurement.”
Many of you were there.
Many of you laughed.
You remembered a chairman who stood so nobody looked twice at a man in a chair.
Everybody ran for the doors.
One woman came back for my glass.
My mother says money is a loud guest.
So I came quietly and I stayed quiet too long.
I told my wife my grandfather sold fish in Ecu.
That part was true.
You called her the bride of the chair.
Her name is Amara Oun.
My wife J.
Play it.
Once she signs, it’s her name on it, not ours.
Then he leaves her at the altar.
Her wedding morning from the tripod she paid for when the groom would not pay me.
That was a joke.
Somebody cut that video together.
It was Sandra’s idea.
She made me get her to sign the papers in her wedding gown.
She made me leave her at the altar.
Your signature is on every invoice.
Kichi, I never held your pen.
You chose the company.
You chose her name.
And you put the pen in her hand.
She signed the papers in her wedding gown because she trusted you, not me.
11 payments, 40 million naira.
Naira.
Everyone approved by the head of procurement.
Every naira moved the same day to one account.
And the only person who controls that account is Sandra.
She told me my own niece was a thief and I signed it with my own hand for a bride price.
You pinned my veil with your own with your own hands, Sandra.
You could have asked me for anything.
I didn’t want anything you had.
I was tired of standing behind you holding your flowers.
Move this chair.
Not this time.
This chair doesn’t move for you.
You can’t keep me in here.
I am a guest at this gala.
You were a guest at her wedding, too.
You left with the groom.
Tonight, you leave with the police.
Khichi, your badge.
Sir, please let me explain myself to the board.
Give me one meeting.
You explained yourself at the wedding.
I was in your way.
You no longer work for Aune Holdings.
Amara.
Amara, please.
We had 5 years.
Tell them I was good to you once.
Not today, Kilichi.
Not ever.
Amara, tell them we shared one bed in boarding school.
You shared my bed, Sandra.
Then you sold my name.
Madam, you will not need to visit my station on Monday.
These two will be waiting there for you.
Stop filming me.
Uh-uh.
You liked every one of my wedding videos, my dear.
This one is already viral.
Amara.
Amara.
Our cake has waited long enough.
You said I brought cake, Sandra.
I did.
Mama is asking for you inside.
She wants a photograph with her daughter-in-law.
Then mama can wait for one photograph.
I waited 2 weeks for the truth.
You let me carry flower sacks past your own pool.
You let me promise you a flat with a ramp.
I was counting cake money to rent a house for the richest man in Lagos.
I wanted one person to choose the man before the money.
Then hear what you got, Toby.
Khalichi had 5 years of me and he chose money.
He dropped me at an altar like a bag he was tired of carrying.
And I chose a stranger with nothing.
No car of his own, no house of his own, no name but Toby.
In front of everybody who was laughing.
You did.
I was there.
That day was the test.
I passed it with 200 people watching.
So no more.
I will not be tested again.
Not by you.
Not by your mother.
Not by your money.
No more hiding.
Not your name and not mine.
No more hiding.
You have my word and you have my name.
Mama keeps the paper.
Mama keeps the paper to prove it.
The flat with the ramp.
I’d still like to see it.
Good morning, my daughter.
This estate has more gates than my whole street has houses.
I knocked on three before this one.
Good morning, auntie.
You found the right one.
I brought your oven.
I told you it was bought with my gas money.
It was never my gas money.
Your mother bought it the year before she died.
She said, “Keep it for the child.
You kept it from me while I knelt in the gutter in my wedding gown.
Auntie, with the whole street watching, I know.
And then I signed my name against you for a bride price I had already cooked as rice.
I beg, forgive me.
I forgive you, auntie.
But you will never sign my name again.
Not for anybody.
Not for anybody.
I told you not to bring that chair to my gate.
Now see me standing at his.
Bring the oven in.
Our gate is open.
The day that screen said gala in 10 days, 50 of you tasted five cakes in this atrium with your eyes covered.
31 of you chose cake four.
Nobody told you whose it was.
From today, Hotels has a head of pastry.
Not because she married me, because you chose her with your eyes covered before any of you had seen my face.
Thank you.
And to the colleague who ate two slices of cake four with a blindfold on, I know it was you.
One more name.
Gday, the man who never deletes good light.
From today, you run the group’s new media studio.
Sir, I came here to film the applause.
Nobody told me to stand inside it.
Madam, please let me carry this for you.
I didn’t know who you were.
Deliveries are at the back.
Come, I’ll show you how we do them.
The last man who pinned a badge on you did it with his jaw tight.
Look at mine.
You refused this once on this counter on our first night.
Open it this time, please.
For the woman on the bridge, thank you for my life.
I couldn’t take it from a stranger.
I’ll take it from my husband.
And who will carry all these boxes up the path?
Your cousin in his borrowed car.
Dappo has been promoted.
Now he borrows a bigger car.
Sunday rent.
Chocolate.
The last one I bake in this kitchen.
I have eaten it every Sunday.
And he was still wrong about chocolate.
No more rent.
Nobody pays rent in her own house.
Come up to the big house, my daughter.
My son has slept on that small sofa long enough.
I told her, “Mama, I am very good at sitting.”
On one condition, my mother’s oven comes with me.
It is already in my kitchen.
My cook walks around it like it might bite her.
Auntie’s house was where I lived.
This is where I belong.
Welcome.
The groom’s side is chairman.
Sir, I didn’t know when you sat at table 9 that day.
I didn’t know.
You weren’t meant to.
That was the whole idea.
600,000 naira.
The balance from my first wedding, from my own salary.
Madam, please.
This hall belongs to your husband.
There is no balance.
There is no balance.
There was a balance the day you kept my cake stand.
I always pay my way.
Then take all the hours you want today, madam.
Every one of them.
Madam, may I film?
Only if you say yes this time.
Sit at table 9.
Film it all and post it.
Table 9.
That is where the man in the chair was sitting when we when everybody laughed and he stayed.
It is the best seat in this hall.
Same tripod, madam.
Same corner.
This time I am keeping every minute.
Go and stand at the back.
My daughter, your husband has been waiting at that altar for one whole hour.
My daughter, are you ready time?
The hall is full.
Ready, pastor.
Nobody is running today.
The last time I stood here, nobody let me ask the question.
This time I will ask it and I will wait.
Toby, do you take Amara to be your wife?
I do.
I stayed when the music stopped.
I’ll stay even when it never plays again.
Amara, do you take Toby to be your husband?
I do.
I came back for your glass.
I’ll come back every time.
Then before God and a full hall this time, I pronounce you husband and wife.
Ladies and gentlemen, the bride of the chairman.
Congratulations, sir.
Toby.
Toby.
Just Toby.
It feels like driving your car without a license.
Then drive slowly, Dapo.
It is a wedding, not a race.
When the music stopped.
Shops.
Look at who stays.
