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Adesuwa O’man Nwokedi’s A Love of Convenience is an intricate romantic drama that explores the themes of long-term unrequited love, the sacrifices made for the “American Dream,” the devastating impact of medical trauma, and the redemptive power of honesty. The narrative follows Ezioma (Ezi) Bello, a high-achieving Nigerian-American investment banker, and Okwudili (Dili) Dike, the son of a once-wealthy family friend, as they navigate a sham marriage that evolves into a profound, life-altering connection.
The Foundations of Invisibility and Success
The story is rooted in Ezioma’s childhood in Nigeria, where she grew up as the eldest of four siblings in a modest Yaba household. From the age of five, Ezi was head-over-heels in love with Dili, the son of her father’s wealthy childhood friend. However, while Dili lived in an Ikoyi mansion and was treated like a “king,” Ezi felt entirely invisible to him. She struggled with severe self-esteem issues, noting that while her siblings inherited their father’s caramel skin and dainty features, she took after her mother’s darker complexion and “severe” facial structure. This sense of being the “ugly duckling” was compounded by the fact that Dili often flirted with her more conventionally beautiful sisters, particularly Ebere.
To compensate for her perceived lack of beauty, Ezi poured herself into her studies, eventually earning a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. She arrived in America in 1995 with only $600 and a determination to succeed. During her undergraduate years, she experienced her first major heartbreak with a fellow Nigerian student named Eze, who left her for a more beautiful freshman. This betrayal spurred her to excel further; she graduated Summa Cum Laude and eventually earned an MBA from Wharton, leading to a lucrative career at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan.
As an adult in New York, Ezioma underwent a transformation, using her high salary to fix her dental issues, refine her fashion sense, and develop a “killer” personal style. She entered a long-term relationship with Seth, a Jewish investment banker. They were engaged for five years and co-owned a luxury apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but the relationship ended amicably in 2012 when Seth chose to leave Wall Street for a teaching position at Duke University. By 2014, Ezioma was a successful, single, 37-year-old woman with a popular anonymous column in the Manhattan Buzz titled “Soundtrack of My Life,” where she matched her daily experiences to specific songs.
The Chance Encounter and the Sham Marriage
The trajectory of Ezioma’s life changed in April 2014 when she spotted a “hapless” looking man across a street in Manhattan. It was Dili, whom she had not seen in twenty years. Over coffee, Dili revealed a tragic fall from grace: after his father died in 2002, the family discovered he was hundreds of millions of naira in debt and had thirteen illegitimate children with various women. Dili had spent a decade working like an “animal” to clear the debts and support his large, blended family, eventually losing his bank job in Lagos. He had come to America on a visiting visa to find work, but after a year of struggling in California and New York, his visa had expired, leaving him undocumented and penniless.
Despite his dire circumstances, Dili remained devoted to his fiancée in Nigeria, Onyeka, a beautiful younger woman who had waited years for him. Moved by his struggle and still harboring her childhood crush, Ezioma made a radical proposal: she, an American citizen, would marry him so he could obtain a Green Card. Dili accepted the offer with immense gratitude, viewing Ezi as a “life saver” and a “sister”.
They were married by a Justice of the Peace at City Hall on May 15, 2014. The wedding was an “understated” affair with no family present, and immediately afterward, Dili called Onyeka to tell her how it went, leaving Ezi standing alone on the sidewalk feeling “overdressed” and reminded that she was merely a “marriage of convenience”. Dili moved into the guest room of Ezi’s luxury apartment, and they began the “waiting period” for his immigration papers.
The Guest and the “Baby Making” Turning Point
For the first year of their arrangement, Ezioma and Dili lived as “moonlighting strangers” and platonic companions. Ezi helped Dili secure a remote IT contract, which allowed him to earn money for his family and study for his PMP certification. They developed a comfortable routine, bonding over shared memories of Nigeria and a mutual love for music, despite Dili’s initial teasing of Ezi’s preference for “white music” like Keane and Maroon 5. Dili even tried to match-make Ezi with his friend Madufuro, a doctor in New Jersey, though the connection was stalled when Madufuro had to return to Nigeria for a year following his parents’ deaths.
The dynamic shifted on their first wedding anniversary in May 2015. Dili prepared a romantic “home service” dinner to express his gratitude. During the meal, Ezioma, panicked by her upcoming 38th birthday and her persistent loneliness, impulsively asked Dili to father a child for her. She proposed that he could walk away after the birth and that the child would be hers alone to raise. Though Dili initially rejected the idea as “too messy,” he reconsidered a few days later, viewing it as the “least he could do” to repay her kindness.
They agreed to try “organic” conception, and their relationship took an intimate turn. What began as “sex for a purpose” quickly evolved; Ezioma found herself more physically aware of Dili, and after several unsuccessful cycles, they stopped using procreation as an excuse and began a passionate, secret affair. By late 2015, they were “deliriously happy,” spending entire weekends in bed and sharing a level of intimacy that surpassed simple sex. Ezioma began to daydream of a “proper” wedding and a permanent future together.
The Arrival of Onyeka and the Great Split
The fantasy was shattered in early 2016. Upon returning from a romantic Easter trip to the Maldives, Ezi and Dili listened to an answering machine message from Onyeka. She had unexpectedly obtained a two-year U.S. visa and had already purchased a ticket to join Dili in New York. Dili immediately reverted to his “status quo,” becoming impersonal and distant toward Ezioma as he prepared for his fiancée’s arrival.
Ezioma accompanied Dili to JFK to pick up Onyeka, only to find that the woman was even more beautiful and radiant than her photographs suggested. Onyeka, who idolized Ezioma as a “real angel” and a “Katie girl,” was completely unaware of the affair. However, the tension in the apartment became unbearable. Onyeka eventually noticed Ezioma’s perfume lingering on Dili’s sheets and bedding, leading to a confrontation. When Ezioma admitted the affair, Onyeka was livid, but Dili driven by a promise made nine years prior and a refusal to be like his unfaithful father chose to stay with Onyeka.
In June 2016, Dili and Onyeka moved out of the apartment. Devastated and unable to live in a home that “smelled of him,” Ezioma trashed all her furniture and linens, booked a hotel room, and eventually accepted a proposal from her ex, Seth, to move with him to Durham, North Carolina. She took a sabbatical from Goldman Sachs and enrolled in a certificate program at Duke University, trying to convince herself that she could be happy in a “comfortable and familiar” relationship with a man who truly wanted her.
The Shadow of Cancer and Friday Harbor
Ezioma’s attempts to move on were interrupted in March 2017 when a routine mammogram revealed a “suspicious shadow”. Further tests confirmed she had Stage 2, Grade 3 breast cancer. The diagnosis felt like a death sentence to Ezi, as she had already lost her mother in 2005 and her sister Uchechi in 2007 to the same disease.
Determined to die in her “happy place” and unwilling to put Seth or her siblings through the trauma of another cancer death, Ezioma broke up with Seth and fled to Friday Harbor, Washington State. She leased a cottage on the ocean and began an aggressive treatment plan alone, including egg freezing, six cycles of chemotherapy, and a double mastectomy.
The isolation and the physical toll of chemotherapy were brutal; Ezioma suffered from violent nausea, mouth sores, and significant weight loss, eventually shaving off her hair and looking “skeletal”. In July 2017, after her third cycle, she collapsed on her doorstep and was discovered by Dili, who had tracked her down after learning she had left Durham.
The Caregiver and the Reconstruction Crisis
Dili immediately took charge of Ezioma’s care, moving into her cottage and refusing to leave her side. He had broken up with Onyeka months earlier, as their relationship had collapsed under the weight of constant fighting and Onyeka’s eventual infidelity with a developer in Atlanta. Dili spent four months nursing Ezioma through her final chemo sessions, bathing her, feeding her, and acting as her “personal DJ” to make the treatments bearable. He declared his unconditional love for her, but Ezioma plagued by low self-esteem remained convinced that he was only with her out of guilt and a sense of duty.
The relationship reached a breaking point following Ezioma’s surgery in late 2017. Her doctor revealed that because of the depth of the tumors, she was not a candidate for breast implants, but only for “flaps”. This news crushed Ezioma, who felt she had been “rendered unlovable” and a “freakshow”. In an act of self-sabotage, she used Seth as a “catalyst” to push Dili away, calling him to the cottage and telling Dili she had chosen Seth over him. Hurt and defeated, Dili left for New York without saying goodbye.
The Vow Renewal and the Soundtrack of Forever
Ezioma returned to Manhattan in early 2018, having been given the “all-clear” from cancer and in a surprising medical turn successfully undergoing breast reconstruction surgery with implants. Despite regaining her health and starting a new, less stressful job at a private equity fund, she felt a “painful hollowness” inside. She realized that everything Dili had done for her was out of genuine love, and that she had thrown away her “platters of gold” due to her own insecurities.
In May 2018, Ezioma visited Dili at his new townhouse in Brooklyn to apologize and confess her lifelong love. Dili, however, was cold and guarded, stating that he had finally “picked up the pieces” of his life and that they were now “even” in terms of heartbreak. Refusing to give up, Ezioma published a raw, personal letter to Dili in her Manhattan Buzz column, referencing their favorite scene from the Sex & the City movie and promising to wait for him on the Brooklyn Bridge every Sunday at noon until he showed up.
On the first Sunday of her vigil, Dili arrived on the bridge. He admitted that he had been “scared of loving her” but that the “emptiness and loneliness” without her was worse. They were finally reunited for good.
The book concludes in October 2018 with a lavish vow renewal ceremony on a Manhattan rooftop. Surrounded by their families and friends, Ezioma wore her dream Monique Lhuillier gown and walked down the aisle to Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon in the Sky“. In December 2018, they received the final “gift” of their journey: their gestational carrier was confirmed pregnant with twins using the eggs Ezioma had frozen before her treatment. The story ends with Ezi and Dili looking forward to a life together as parents, having transformed a “love of convenience” into something “very beautiful”.