From A Producer To A Global Superstar

Luna sat in the driver’s seat for several minutes without starting the car.

The engine was already running, but she had not touched the gear. Her hands rested loosely on the steering wheel while she stared through the windshield at the road ahead. The afternoon traffic had started to build around them, but none of it seemed to reach her.

Amanda sat beside her and waited.

She had learned a long time ago that there were moments when asking too many questions only made things worse. Luna had left the house with tears already close to her eyes, and now that she was back, the redness around them was impossible to miss.

Amanda finally turned toward her.

"So?"

Luna swallowed and looked down at her hands. "I don’t know."

"You don’t know what?"

"I don’t know if he listened."

Amanda watched her carefully. "Did you talk to him?"

"Yes."

"And?"

Luna leaned her head against the seat. "I told him not to do it."

Amanda stayed quiet.

"I think he understood," Luna continued. "But with Dayo, sometimes understanding something doesn’t mean he’ll actually do what you want."

"Did he say he was going after them?"

"No." Luna paused. "He said he wasn’t going to."

Amanda’s shoulders relaxed slightly. "Then maybe that’s enough."

"Maybe."

"You don’t sound convinced."

"I’m not."

Amanda looked through the windshield for a moment before turning back to her. "Luna, you stopped him. You went there, you spoke to him, and he listened. That’s something."

Luna wiped beneath one eye with the side of her finger. "I know."

"But?"

She didn’t answer immediately.

The problem was that she knew Dayo too well. When he made up his mind, he could become frighteningly quiet. He didn’t need to shout. He didn’t need to explain himself. He could simply decide that something had to be done and then spend the next few hours making it happen.

That was what scared her.

"I just hope he doesn’t do it later," she said.

Amanda reached across the center console and rested a hand over Luna’s wrist. "I don’t think he will."

Luna looked at her.

"Are you sure?"

"No," Amanda admitted. "I’m not inside his head. But you got through to him. He came down from whatever he was about to do. That matters."

Luna looked away again.

Amanda let her hand fall back to her lap. "You also told him something he needed to hear."

"What?"

"That Jennifer needs her father."

Luna’s eyes lowered.

"I know."

The words came quietly.

Amanda studied her for another moment. "You still love him."

Luna closed her eyes.

That was the part she didn’t want to discuss.

She loved him. She was angry with him. She was afraid of him in a way she had never been before, not because she believed he would hurt her, but because she had seen how far he could go when someone threatened their daughter.

She was also hurt.

The words she had spoken earlier were still sitting between them. She had called Jennifer her daughter and made it clear that she did not believe Dayo had protected the family the way he promised he would. She meant what she said then.

She still meant it.

That did not mean she wanted to lose him.

Luna picked up her phone.

Amanda noticed but said nothing.

For several seconds, Luna stared at Dayo’s name on the screen. She opened their conversation, typed something, stopped, then deleted it.

Another attempt followed.

Deleted again.

Amanda glanced over. "You don’t have to send anything."

"I know."

"You can wait until tomorrow."

"I know."

Luna stared at the blank message box.

"I just want him to understand something."

"What?"

She thought about it before answering. "I don’t want to go back like nothing happened."

Amanda nodded slowly.

"But I don’t want him thinking I’m leaving either."

That was the message she had been trying to find.

Luna typed again, taking her time this time.

She read it twice before sending it.

*"As much as I don’t want to come back right now, I don’t want to lose you either. If you want me and Jennifer back, then do it the right way. That’s all I’m asking. We need to do this the right way. If you can do that, then you can have us back."

Her thumb hovered over the screen.

She almost added an apology.

Instead, she stopped.

Not yet.

She pressed send and locked the phone.

Amanda didn’t ask to read it.

"Done?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Good."

Luna placed the phone face down between them and finally shifted the car into drive.

Neither woman spoke much during the journey back to the house. Luna kept her attention on the road, but her mind kept returning to the same thought.

She had not forgiven him.

She was not ready to.

Still, she had given him a way back.

Whether he took it was now his choice.

****

Across the city, Dayo sat inside the car with Max and Bella.

The three of them had barely spoken since Luna left.

Max was in the passenger seat, staring ahead. Bella sat in the back, looking out through the window. The anger that had filled the car earlier had disappeared, leaving behind a strange quiet that none of them knew how to break.

Dayo looked down at his phone when it vibrated.

Luna’s message appeared on the screen.

He opened it.

His eyes moved slowly across the words.

He read it again.

Max noticed the change in his expression but didn’t ask what the message said. Bella looked toward the front for a moment before looking away again.

Dayo locked the phone and placed it on his thigh.

He didn’t respond.

There was nothing he could say right then that wouldn’t sound wrong.

Luna hadn’t apologized. He hadn’t expected her to. She was still hurt, and after everything that had happened, he couldn’t blame her for that.

At the same time, she had not closed the door.

That was enough for now.

Dayo leaned back in the seat and looked at Max through the rearview mirror. "Let’s go."

Max turned slightly. "Back?"

"Yeah."

Bella looked toward him. "You sure?"

Dayo nodded. "We’re done for today."

The drive back was quiet. By the time they reached the house, the afternoon had already started slipping toward evening. None of them had slept properly, and the exhaustion that had been pushed aside by adrenaline was finally catching up.

Dayo stepped out first and waited for Max and Bella to come around.

"Both of you go home," he said.

Max looked at him. "What about you?"

"I’m going to rest."

Bella didn’t seem convinced. "You should actually rest."

"I know."

"We can stay for a while."

Dayo shook his head. "No. Go. You’ve both been awake too long."

Max looked at Bella, then back at Dayo. "We’ll regroup tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

Bella adjusted the strap of her bag. "You need anything before we leave?"

"No."

She studied him briefly. "You’re sure?"

Dayo gave her a tired smile. "I’m sure."

Max finally opened the car door. "All right. Tomorrow, then."

"Tomorrow."

They left without another argument.

Dayo stood outside until their car disappeared from view before going inside.

For the first time since the kidnapping, the house was quiet.

There were no phones ringing.

No urgent updates.

No Felix going through information.

No Max asking about the next move.

No Bella waiting for instructions.

There was only the ordinary silence of home.

Dayo closed the door behind him and stayed there for a moment.

His shoulders dropped.

He rubbed his face, then walked toward the living room. The house still carried small traces of Jennifer being there. A toy sat near the edge of the carpet. One of her blankets had been folded over the arm of the sofa. A small cup was sitting on the table where someone had left it.

Dayo stopped when he saw it.

His daughter had been here.

Safe.

That was what mattered.

He walked over, picked up the cup, and put it where it belonged.

For a few minutes, he considered going straight to bed.

Instead, he walked toward the piano.

He sat down without turning on the brighter lights.

His fingers rested above the keys.

Nothing came at first.

Dayo stared at them.

Then he pressed one key.

The note filled the room and faded.

Another followed.

He started playing something simple, almost absent-mindedly. There was no plan behind it. He wasn’t trying to write. He wasn’t searching for a melody that could become another hit.

He just needed the room to have another sound in it.

His hands slowly found a familiar progression.

The music moved quietly through the house.

As he played, his mind wandered.

He thought about Jennifer sleeping in his arms after the rescue. He remembered the fear in her face when he found her. He remembered holding her and promising himself that nobody would ever take her from him again.

Then Luna came to mind.

Her face when she had taken Jennifer from him.

The anger in her voice.

The way she had told him he had no right to hold their daughter after what he had done.

Dayo stopped playing.

His hands remained on the keys.

For a moment, he thought about the day everything had changed between them.

He had spent so much time protecting the people around him that he had convinced himself he could carry every problem alone. Whenever something threatened his career, he dealt with it. Whenever someone came after his company, he dealt with it. Whenever someone tried to hurt him, he found a way to respond.

But Jennifer was different.

There had been no stage.

No cameras.

No contract.

No business problem to solve.

Someone had taken his daughter.

And for a few hours, he had been powerless.

That scared him more than he wanted to admit.

Dayo lowered his head.

Luna was right about one thing.

He had to think differently now.

Not because he was afraid of losing a fight.

Because there was a child who would grow up watching what he did.

His fingers moved again.

This time, the music was slower.

He played until the tension in his shoulders began to ease. Every now and then, a wrong note broke the flow, but he didn’t stop to correct it. He simply continued.

There was something about playing that allowed his thoughts to settle without forcing them into words.

He thought about his family.

His mother.

His father.

Janet.

Jeffrey.

They still knew nothing about Jennifer.

The thought sat heavily in his mind.

One day soon, they would have to know.

He didn’t know how that conversation would go. He didn’t know what his mother would say when she found out he had kept an entire part of his life from them.

Dayo looked toward the hallway.

That was another problem for another day.

For now, he needed to sleep.

After another few minutes, he stopped playing.

The room became quiet again.

Dayo remained seated for a while before finally standing. He switched off the light near the piano and walked upstairs.

His phone was still in his pocket.

He took it out once more before getting into bed.

Luna’s message was still there.

He opened it.

He read it one last time.

If you can do that, then you can have us back.

Dayo stared at the sentence.

There was no promise that everything would be fine.

There was no apology.

There was no guarantee that tomorrow would be easier.

But there was a door.

He placed the phone on the bedside table.

"I’ll do it right," he said quietly to the empty room.

Then he lay down.

Sleep did not come immediately.

His mind kept moving through the events of the last few days. Jennifer disappearing. The phone calls. The money. The rescue. Luna’s anger. The decision he had almost made.

Eventually, exhaustion took over.

Dayo fell asleep without setting an alarm.

His dreams came in pieces.

He was standing in a large room.

Jennifer was somewhere ahead of him, laughing.

He tried to reach her, but the distance kept changing.

Then he was back inside the house.

Luna was standing near the piano, watching him.

He wanted to say something to her, but no words came.

The scene changed.

He heard music.

Then a child’s cry.

Dayo turned.

A door slammed somewhere behind him.

He ran toward it.

The sound of Jennifer calling for him grew louder.

He reached the door and opened it.

There was only darkness on the other side.

Dayo stepped forward.

The darkness disappeared.

He was standing on the O2 stage.

Thousands of people were watching him.

No music played.

Nobody moved.

Then, somewhere in the crowd, Jennifer laughed.

Dayo turned toward the sound.

He couldn’t see her.

"Luna?"

Nothing.

He called again.

Still nothing.

Dayo started walking through the empty stage, searching.

The sound of the piano returned.

One note.

Then another.

He followed it until he found himself sitting at the piano again.

This time, Luna was sitting beside him.

She didn’t look angry.

She didn’t look happy either.

She simply looked tired.

Dayo opened his mouth to speak.

Before he could, she said quietly, "Do it the right way."

He woke up.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

The room was dark.

His breathing was steady, but his heart was beating faster than it should have been. Dayo stared at the ceiling, trying to remember where he was.

Then the memory returned.

Home.

Safe.

Jennifer was safe.

Luna was safe.

Nobody was coming through the door.

Dayo turned toward the bedside table.

His phone was still there.

He reached for it, but stopped before picking it up.

There was no need to check anything yet.

For once, the world could wait until morning.

Dayo closed his eyes again.

The last thing he thought about before falling back to sleep was Luna’s message.

Not the anger.

Not the argument.

Not the threat of what could happen if he failed.

Just the simple part she had given him.

A way back.

And this time, he knew he would have to earn it.