𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ¹

twenty one.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
entitled father

Jamal

next day

Jamal was trying to sleep, but the sunlight was shining on his face and it was uncomfortable. It didn't help that the birds were chirping loudly.

Damn, it was morning already?

He rolled over with his eyes still closed. When he did, he felt someone's presence in his bed. Jamal grew alarmed, so he quickly sat up and looked at the person. It was Mateo.

Jamal let out a relieved sigh and heard Mateo say, "Good morning to you too?"

Jamal rubbed his eyes. "Hey."

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just a little startled. I forgot you stayed the night."

"Finally!" Mateo laughed happily. "I can't believe you have your own place now. Feels unreal, huh?"

"It does. Dad did good. I mean, look at this place. It's everything I've ever dreamed of. There's even a big ass piano in the middle."

"You do love pianos."

"Right?" Jamal laughed. He kissed Mateo and it felt so good to finally have some privacy. It felt good not having to sneak him in anymore either. That was getting tiring as hell. And most of all, it felt good not hearing Lucious' mouth.

Speaking of Lucious, he was still on Jamal's mind. He had been super cold yesterday, and he was always cold, but something about it felt different. It was as if he was mad at Jamal about something, but Jamal didn't know what it could be. He didn't do anything.

"So what's the plan for today?" Mateo asked.

"I wanna try to convince Lucious to let me perform for Ma, but he's not trying to hear it." Jamal looked at Mateo. "Do you think he's mad because I wanted to move out?"

"No. He wanted you gone."

"I know, but he seemed so angry yesterday. He made me rush to pack my things."

"Because he wanted you gone," Mateo repeated.

"Yeah. But deep down, maybe he's a little sad I'm gone. He is dying."

"Or maybe he's jealous because you wrote a song about Cookie and not him," Mateo joked. He laughed, but that made Jamal's eyes widen because he was spot on. Lucious didn't start acting cold until after Jamal had showed him the song.

"Oh my god. You're right."

"No. I was joking."

"But it makes sense. That's why he said I had to perform a different song; because he's jealous."

Mateo was confused. "That makes no sense. Why would you write a song about him when he constantly treats you like shit?"

Exactly. "Yeah, but Lucious doesn't care about that. He's entitled. He probably feels like he deserves a song because he raised us on his own."

Jamal sighed and got out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"To Empire."

Lucious

Lucious was minding his business, but here goes the one son he didn't want to see right now. Jamal. "Dad!"

Lucious didn't even look at him. "Is there a reason why you're bothering me, Jamal?"

"I wouldn't be bothering you if you'd let me perform on Saturday."

"I didn't say you can't perform."

"But you said-"

Lucious cut him off. "I said you can perform as long as it's a different song."

"Why does it have to be a different song?"

"I think the better question is, why does it have to be that song?" Lucious questioned angrily.

"Because I wanna show Ma how much I appreciate her."

Lucious scoffed. "You could've done that by cooking her a nice meal or something. You didn't have to write a song about her."

Jamal scowled. "Are you seriously jealous because I wrote a song about my mother?"

"The same mother who wasn't there for you for seventeen years!" Lucious reminded him. "But I was, Jamal. So where's my song?"

Jamal laughed. "Are you serious? You've been treating me like shit since I was five. So, no, you don't get a song."

"Then you don't get to perform." Lucious walked away from him because how disrespectful could that boy be? He'd been raising Jamal for the past seventeen years, not Cookie. But she was the one getting a song?

Where was Lucious' appreciation? Because he could've been way harsher on Jamal. He could've kicked his ass out of the house as soon as he saw the signs that he was gay, but he didn't. He could've killed Jamal right then and there when he found out about him sneaking Mateo in, but he didn't. But he was such an evil father, right?

Yeah, okay. Like he had said before, the things Jamal did were so unspeakable.

Lucious got a call from security. They told him Cookie was at Empire, and they didn't know what to do with her. Lucious walked to the entrance and there she was, wearing a fur coat. "Cookie, what are you doing here?"

"Why are you walking around, Lucious? Don't you need to be sitting down before your legs give out?" she asked back.

Lucious rolled his eyes. "The world doesn't need to know about my illness. They'll make me retire early."

Cookie smirked. "Well, if you do, I'm here-"

"Why are you here?"

Cookie looked around. "I have to prove my worth somehow. How am I going to be CEO if I don't know what the hell is going on at this company?"

"That's if you become CEO," he corrected. "But fine; you can stick around. But please don't start with Hakeem again."

"I was being civil yesterday. You know that."

"Just stay away from him, Cookie. Let him make his music in peace."

"Oh, you mean that garbage music?"

"It's not garbage, Cookie."

"It's horrifying, Lucious! How could you let him write that trash?!"

"Because it sells."

Cookie shook her head in disgust. "You should be ashamed of yourself. Corrupting our son for money."

Lucious huffed. "Look, Hakeem's writing a new song, and I heard a little bit of it. It has nothing to do with killing."

"It better not, or I'mma shut it down!" Then she fixed her coat. "Anyway, what should I do first?"

"You can shadow Andre today. He'll show you around."

Cookie spotted Andre. "Oh, there he goes! Andre, baby!"

Andre walked up to them, confused. "Hey, Ma. Pop. What's going on?"

"Your mother's going to follow you around today. She needs to get familiar with the company."

Andre didn't look happy at all.