To Win A Heart

Divine storms the streets with megaphone and Bible, branding miniskirts sin and warning sinners of eternal fire. Pato, dreadlocked king of the area boys, watches her fearless tongue lash even him and feels something new: obsession. He bets his crew 200,000 naira that he’ll bed the “born-again” girl in thirty days. The chase is merciless; he snatches her tracts, blocks her path, terrorizes her corner. Divine fights back with Psalms and holy anger, declaring herself the Temple no demon can defile. When Pato invades her compound, her terrified roommate Julie throws Divine out to save her own skin. Penniless and homeless, Divine is hired the very next day as live-in maid by a rich widow mourning her husband. She steps into a palace she never imagined; only to look up and see Pato descending the marble stairs in designer agbada. The gangster is Patrick Johnson, heir to the empire he rejected years ago because his late father cheated on his mother and preached water while drinking wine. Now the will demands he cleans up or loses everything, so he’s back home playing prodigal son. Mrs. Johnson, clueless about their street history, begs Divine to help “save” her wayward son. Divine nearly faints; Pato nearly laughs. The bet is suddenly too easy: his target now sleeps three doors away, wearing apron instead of armor. Yet every time he corners her, every sly touch or whispered threat, Divine fires back scripture that hits harder than slaps. Slowly the game changes. Late-night arguments about grace, forgiveness, and hypocrisy crack Pato’s concrete heart. The same mouth that cursed streets starts quoting the verses she hurls at him. The thug who boasted “anything Pato wants, Pato gets” discovers one thing he can’t take by force: genuine repentance, and the love of a woman who sees the man beneath the monster. Under one roof, the hunter becomes the hunted; not for flesh, but for a soul neither of them thought could still be saved.