𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

three.

CHAPTER THREE
not safe

Royalty

Royalty and Tiana were walking around because Royalty had too much on her mind right now. Lucious was putting her in charge of Empire when she didn't want that. The shitty part was that she couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't change his mind or anything. She was stuck being CEO, but at least she'd have Cookie helping her. That was the only upside to this.

"Your performance was amazing, Ro. So amazing that I'm actually glad we didn't do Let Me Rock," Tiana praised.

"Thank you. I wanted it to be a shocker."

"It was, but I have some concerns. How do you think Blake is going to react?"

"We already saw his reaction. He stormed out."

Tiana said, "Yeah, but you cut up the boy's jackets and threw them at him in front of everyone. You really think he's not gonna confront you?"

"If he does, my parents will kill him." Tiana looked at her worriedly and Ro said, "Look, I'm not worried about Blake anymore. If he wants to confront me, then let him. I'm standing by my actions."

"Really? What if he starts apologizing again? You forgive him every time."

"Not this time. He can have that Heather."

Tiana grew sad. "I'm really sorry he cheated on you with that basic bitch. But I want you to know you're so much better than her."

"Oh trust me, I know he downgraded."

Tiana laughed as Royalty's phone started ringing. Andre was calling, and she rolled her eyes and hit deny. He was another person she was done with, and it was a shame because he was her brother.

"Don't tell me that's Blake."

Ro shook her head. "Nope. Andre."

"Since when does Andre call you?"

"Doesn't matter. I'm not answering. He's not gonna say anything important anyway."

Tiana raised an eyebrow. "Damn. You sound angry with him."

"The whole family is, and it's well deserved. He can't be trusted."

"What'd he do?"

Royalty looked at her, unsure. "I would tell you, but then I'd have to tell you about Lucious' secret, and I don't wanna get in trouble."

"I know Jamal's secret; that he's gay. Hakeem told me."

Ro gasped. "He told you that?!"

"Yeah, and I still haven't said anything. You can trust me."

Royalty guessed she could. "Fine. Lucious is dying."

"What?!"

"He was diagnosed with ALS and he has three years to live. Because of that, he had to choose a new CEO of Empire. He made us do a competition, and Andre thought being CEO was more important than keeping this family together, so he sabotaged Hakeem and Jamal's relationship. He made them hate each other."

"Wait, all of that fighting was because of Andre?" Tiana asked.

"Yup."

"So who won the competition?"

"Me and Mom. We're going to be Co-CEO's, but I don't even want to be CEO! I never did!" Ro complained.

"I hope your brothers aren't mad at you for winning."

"I thought they would be, but they're not. They're 100% mad at Andre because he's the one who made them look bad, not me. He fucked up their chances, and his own."

Tiana still couldn't believe it. "Wow, that's a shock. I didn't know Andre was sneaky."

"None of us did, and that's why it hurts so much. Andre's supposed to be our big brother, the one we all look up to, but we can't trust him now."

Tiana frowned. "I'm really sorry."

"Yeah, me too." Royalty's phone vibrated a hundred times because someone was spamming her. Blake. He was cursing her out, calling her a stupid bitch for humiliating him. Royalty could entertain him, but na. His cheating ass wasn't worth her time.

Andre

Andre paced around while holding his phone to his ear. "Come on! Pick up the phone, Ro!" But he got that same order, telling him to leave a message at the beep. Andre hung up the phone angrily because he didn't know what to do. He had called Cookie, but she didn't answer. He called Royalty, she didn't answer. His family clearly didn't want to talk to him, and he hated it.

He needed Royalty to hear him out. His brothers hated him, and he couldn't let his sister hate him too. It wasn't like he had sabotaged Ro; she won the competition. She should be happy!

Andre called her again, but Rhonda walked through the door with her stuff. "Rhonda, what are you doing here?"

"I live here, Andre."

"Yeah, but I didn't know if you were coming back or not."

"I said I was leaving for the night. Not forever," Rhonda said. "But do I need to leave again? Are you going to throw another vase at me?"

"No I'm not. I shouldn't have done that in the first place."

Rhonda felt more comfortable now. "So you've cooled down?"

"Yeah, I have. Now I'm trying to get my family to talk to me, but they won't answer my calls."

"Why don't you go to Lucious' house?"

That was a bad idea. "I feel like it's too soon for that. They probably won't let me in, anyway." He sighed and sat on the couch. "I really messed up, Rhonda."

Rhonda sat next to him and rubbed his back. "We messed up. Because you're right, I'm the one who gave you that idea."

"But you were also right; if you didn't give me the idea, I probably would've ended up doing the same thing because I do crave power. I always have."

"You get it from your father."

"Yeah, and now he hates me." Andre was so angry with himself. "God, what was I thinking? I knew Pop didn't like snakes, and I still stabbed my brothers in the back!"

Rhonda stayed optimistic. "I don't think your family is going to hate you forever. They need time to let their anger subside."

"Pop holds grudges, Rhonda. I mean, come on, he had a seventeen year grudge with Cookie! What I did was way worse than what she did, so there's no way he's not gonna fire me."

Rhonda sighed. "Andre, enough with the Empire stuff. That's the last thing you should be worrying about right now."

"I have to worry about it! How else are we gonna pay the bills?!"

"You're not the only one who works, babe. I bring in a good amount of income too. And I really don't think your father would do that."

She must not know Lucious then because when he was mad at someone, he wasn't afraid to make sure the person knew it. He was ruthless, everybody knew that. Plus, Andre had done something dirty first, so technically, Lucious had every right to get payback.

Andre really wasn't safe.