“More than a few.”
“What kind?”
“Construction. Energy. Technology.”
Catherine stared at him.
“And you let the village believe you were just a strange man looking for a wife?”
He gave a faint smile.
“Sometimes people show their true character when they think you have nothing.”
She looked at him a long time.
The mystery had just become much larger.
The truth reached the village a few days later through a television broadcast in a roadside bar.
An evening news segment announced a new regional investment by Bario Holdings, one of East Africa’s most powerful infrastructure and technology groups. Then a photograph appeared on the screen—Moses in an expensive suit, standing beside government officials.
The bar exploded in disbelief.
“That’s him!”
“The man who married Catherine!”
By morning, the whole village knew.
The awkward stranger they had mocked was not poor, not foolish, not ordinary. He was one of the wealthiest businessmen in East Africa.
At Beatice’s house, the revelation did not bring shame.
It brought greed.
“If Catherine is married to a billionaire,” she told Joseph, “then our family is connected to that wealth.”
Joseph looked uneasy. “That is dangerous thinking.”
“It is opportunity,” she replied.
Meanwhile, back at Moses’s home, Grace turned on the television for Catherine. She watched in stunned silence as reporters described Moses’s companies, his reach across multiple countries, his thousands of employees, his influence.
When Moses walked in and saw the news on the screen, he understood at once.
“I see you’ve discovered the truth,” he said.
“Billionaire,” Catherine whispered.
“That is a word journalists like.”
“That is not an answer.”
He sighed.
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