We Made Love Before I Knew the Cameras Were On

CHAPTER 1

The first time I met Tunde, I didn’t even know he was my landlord’s younger brother.

I just saw one tall, fine man standing at the edge of the compound, holding his car keys like he had no other problem in this life.

He was in his early thirties, broad shoulders, clean haircut, the kind of skin tone that made you wonder if he bathed with honey.

That day, I had just moved into the self-contain at the back, carrying my gas cooker and one bag of clothes. I greeted him politely and passed. He nodded, smiled a little, and went back to pressing his phone.

We didn’t talk much at first, except for the occasional “good evening” or when PHCN took light and I was struggling with my generator. He was the quiet type, but not in a cold way. More like someone who was always calculating things in his head. I later found out he had a wife in Port Harcourt, but they had been “on a break” for months. That break became the silent background of our conversations, like the way rain smells in the air before it falls.

By the second month, he started lingering whenever I was outside. Sometimes he would help me carry things from the market. Sometimes he would just sit at the plastic chair by my door, talking about random things — football, his work, or how Abuja girls were not like Lagos girls. The more we talked, the more I noticed the small things: the way his eyes rested on me longer than necessary, the way his voice softened when he asked, “You don chop today?” It felt harmless. At least that’s what I told myself.

It was one Saturday evening, I was washing clothes at the back, wrapper tied loosely around my waist, when he came back from somewhere and just stood there, watching me. Not in a rude way, but in that way a man watches when he’s thinking something he’s not ready to say. He asked if I could help him with food since he hadn’t eaten all day. I laughed and said he should come and collect rice if he didn’t mind the stew being small. He followed me inside.

I don’t know how food turned into gist, and gist turned into touching, and touching turned into something I didn’t even plan. All I remember clearly is the sound of his breathing, the smell of his perfume mixing with mine, and the way everything in my head went quiet for the first time in months.

It was only after he left, and I went to pick my phone from the bed, that I saw the small red light blinking from the corner of the wardrobe.

For a second, I froze.
I didn’t even breathe.

The tiny red light was blinking in the dark corner of the wardrobe like an accusing eye. My heart started racing. At first, I thought it was just some random charger or forgotten device. But when I got closer, I saw it clearly — a small black camera, the kind you see in spy movies, fixed into

My hands went cold. My legs felt like they were not mine. I bent down and yanked it out, my fingers trembling. The little screen on its side showed something that made my stomach turn — a timestamp… today’s date… and my own r

I sat on the bed, clutching it, my mind spinning. Who put it there? How long had it been recording? And worse — who had been wat

A million possibilities flashed through my mind. My landlord? One of the workers who had come to fix the leaking roof l

I grabbed my phone and called my best friend, Kemi.
“K

CHAPTER 3 – The Confrontation

Kemi arrived thirty minutes later, eyes wide as I showed her the camera. She checked it like she was defusing a bomb.
“This is not a cheap

Her words made my skin crawl. I glanced at the open door.

We decided to check the other corners of the room. That’s when we found another camera — hidden inside the smoke detector. My chest tightened. This wasn’t random. This was deliberate.

Kemi’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Babe… are you sure Tunde is not involved?”

Before I could answer, we heard footsteps outside. The knock came, slow and heavy.
“Na me,” Tunde’s voice called from outside.

Kemi shot me a look that said, Don’t open that door.
But something in me snapped. I wanted answers.

CHAPTER 4 – Truth in the Shadows

I unlocked the door. Tunde stepped in, his usual calm expression replaced by something unreadable. His eyes moved from me to Kemi, then to the dismantled camera on the bed.

“You found it,” he said quietly.

My heart dropped. “So it was you?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly. But I knew.”

The air in the room felt heavy. Tunde explained in a low voice that the cameras had been installed long before I moved in — by the landlord himself. He claimed he discovered them weeks ago but didn’t know how to tell me without scaring me away. He said the landlord had been recording female tenants for years, keeping everything on a hidden server.

I didn’t know whether to believe him. My anger and fear blurred together. “Why didn’t you tell me the moment you found out?” I demanded.

He hesitated. “Because… I thought I could handle it. I thought I could protect you. But… after today…” His voice trailed off.

CHAPTER 5 – The Decision

Kemi grabbed my arm. “We can’t stay here tonight. This man has been watching you for God knows how long.”

We packed my essentials in silence, my mind still trying to process everything. Before leaving, I looked at Tunde one last time. I didn’t know if he was my ally or part of the trap.

As we stepped out into the night, one thought echoed in my head —
The cameras might be gone, but the images… the images could already be anywhere.

And I knew this was only the beginning.