The Rise of Damola

Chapter 11- Ajala

Ajala had been living the fly life until just recently, a job gone wrong he'd like to think.

He had heard the rumors going around in the village. Even though no one had the audacity to say it to his face and as much as he did not want to come to terms with reality, most of them were true.

Indeed, he had lost all of his money in the so-called forex trading as people liked to gossip.  However, the people in the village were all oblivious to what was truly going on. The forex trading was only a cover up for his real business; which was yahoo yahoo. He had come up with different strategies over the years  and spent time perfecting them through trial and error, some proved more effective than the others.

He had always perceived himself as a very wise man thus, adopted the number one strategy that he was sure would give him victory in almost all circumstances. His target audience; women.

Women that lived overseas to be precise, Women that were unfortunate to fall for him,
Women who had just experienced some sort of event that would cause them emotional distress, vulnerable women.

He would scam women in different countries around the world by pretending to be in love with them before devising schemes to extort money from them. He always came out  victorious; until he met Julia.

Julia was your typical twenty-one year old born and bred in Poland. She was a college student who worked part time to pay for her tuition. She had also just lost a parent which in Ajayi's opinion made her vulnerable and a perfect target.

He met her on a dating website called Your Match. Initially, he wondered "What was a girl like that doing there, Was it her grief coping mechanism or just her secret life?," he could not say. What he was surely positive about was that there couldn't have been better timing.

Upon identifying her, he proceeded to do his research by stalking her on social media. He gathered as much information as he deemed necessary before making a move; such as her taste in men and the things she liked and disliked as well. The only thing left now was for him to morph into most of those things, if not all. Swiftly reaching out to her on the application and two lengthy conversations later, he realized that there was a big linguistic gap between the two of them. She claimed that she could not speak English very well and at that time, he actually believed her. If only he was smarter and read all the signs in front of him, maybe he would not have fallen down this dark hole.

At that time, Ajala thought he could use the language barrier to his advantage. He decided to play it easy by asking her to send money to him because he wanted to come and see her.

It was the first red flag for Julia; they had only just met and this man did not even know her but was claiming love all of a sudden. Plus he was taking advantage of her lie; the fact the she could not speak English. She just could not wrap her head around it.

Yes! Love was blind but she could not ignore her sixth sense. Something fishy was going on and being her curious self, she made it her mission to understand the game he was playing. She resolved to leading the poor guy on and expertly remained steady on her lie.

Sending him $400 at first, Julia knew there was a high chance of him scamming her but she wanted to take the chance. Things like this excited her. If only she could have a sneak peak into his plan then she would have known; he was after far more than mere $400.

He looked and behaved like her dream guy, fitting into most of her high standard boxes exceptionally well until this outrageous request. Ironically, she could not say no because it was hard to come by an all rounder.

"Maybe he is the one," she thought.

If her gut was right then the best thing to do was to cut him off. Ultimately, she decided to play it safe by giving him a little amount first.