𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

nineteen.

CHAPTER NINETEEN
he had it coming

Lucious

next day

"You won't believe what I just heard!" Cookie exclaimed as she entered the room.

Lucious listened keenly. "What? Something to do with Blake?"

"And Gram!"

"What does Gram have to do with this?"

"He was hiding Blake!"

Lucious sat up straight now. "What?"

"Yup! But when the cops got to his house, Blake was nowhere to be found. Now he's god knows where."

That wasn't good at all. "Damn. You're sure it was Gram's house?"

"Yes, Lucious. Gram was the one who snitched." Then Cookie sighed. "I don't know. Maybe Hakeem was right. Maybe Gram shouldn't be at Empire."

"Why? Because he kept Blake hidden?"

"That's exactly why!"

Lucious slowly stood up. "Blake used to be his friend, Cookie. Of course he'd run to Gram."

"Why are you defending him so hard?" Cookie said angrily. "He needs to be fired!"

"Gram tried to do the right thing. I'm not firing him," Lucious said firmly. "Plus, he's going to bring in some good money for us."

"That money is not more important than our daughter's safety, Lucious!"

"Baby, calm down. Blake isn't going anywhere near Royalty. Warren's protecting the house, and the cops are hunting Blake's ass down. They'll find him. If they don't find him, that means I found him first. Either way, it's over for Blake," he told her.

Cookie relaxed a little. "I really can't wait for this to be over. I've barely been sleeping."

"I know. Your tossing and turning says it all, and it annoys the shit out of me."

Cookie dissed him too. "You don't think your snoring annoys me?"

"I don't snore."

"Oh really?" She imitated how he snored and he burst out laughing. She did too.

"You a trip, Cook." Then his phone vibrated and he checked it with a smile on his face. Thirsty had sent him the song Hakeem and Jamal had released this morning. He'd been dying to hear it.

Cookie looked too. "That's the song?"

"Yup. You ready to hear it?"

"I'm always ready to hear my babies!"

Lucious played the song, and he and Cookie bobbed their heads to it. It was nice, and Lucious liked the message. But things got messy when Hakeem started airing out the dirty laundry. He dissed the living crap out of Andre for sabotaging him.

Cookie's eyes widened. "What the hell?" Meanwhile, Lucious laughed and Cookie wasn't happy about that. "Are you really laughing?!"

Yes he was. "Let me tell you something, baby. Hakeem is never afraid to call someone out, and I love it."

"He calls out his family, Lucious! That's the problem!" Cookie put her head in her hands. "Lord, why does that boy always tell the world our family's business?"

"I don't know, but like I said, I love it. Empire is definitely going to be the talk of the town now. And let's not act like Andre's innocent. He had it coming."

Suddenly, Jamal barged into the house and dashed straight up the stairs. "Hakeem!"

Oh lord.

Hakeem

Hakeem sat on his bed, laughing his ass off at his mentions. People were loving him and Jamal's song, but the part they loved the most was him dissing Andre. He was even trending on Twitter right now: #AndreTheFakeLyon.

People kept asking Hakeem what Andre had done, but he wouldn't go that far. As long as they knew Andre couldn't be trusted, he was good.

"Hakeem!" Jamal barged into his room.

Hakeem sprang up. "Aye, Jamal! The song was a success!"

Jamal was furious. "Are you out of your damn mind?"

Hakeem was taken aback. "Woah, why you mad?"

"Why am I mad? Let me see, Hakeem. When you and I first recorded your part a couple of days ago, I told you to scrap that Andre mess, and you promised you would! So what the hell happened?"

Hakeem explained himself. "The world needs to know the truth about Andre."

"The world doesn't care about Andre. They care about us. We're the music makers."

"Well, they care about him now." Hakeem showed Jamal his Twitter. He showed him how Andre was trending and everything.

"He's actually trending?"

"Yup. Everyone is bashing the shit out of him," Hakeem said happily.

Jamal wasn't pleased. "That's not good, Hakeem!"

"Why not?"

"Because he's our brother!"

"He wasn't acting like a brother when he turned us against each other for his own benefit, was he?" Hakeem countered.

Jamal huffed. "I don't forgive him for that, but this is not the way to go. Everyone's supposed to be focused on us, but now they're focused on Andre."

Hakeem shrugged. "I mean, people are saying you did good too."

"But I'm not trending, am I? The song isn't even trending."

"Not on Twitter, but we're climbing the charts right now because of me. So you're welcome," Hakeem said.

Jamal stared at him disappointedly. "You went behind my back, Hakeem. That's not cool."

He was annoying Hakeem. "Man Jamal, no one wanted to hear that Kumbaya crap. We needed some fire, so I spiced shit up."

"Do you remember what I told you? That Andre's gonna go ballistic?"

"Let him go ballistic! He deserved that diss, so stop defending him!"

Jamal argued with him. "I'm defending him because the song was supposed to be about unity, but you just divided us even more."

"Andre did that first."

"I don't care. You don't always have to fight fire with fire. Be the bigger person for once."

Hakeem was good. "Na, I'll leave that to you. And you clearly hate me, so get out of my face because I don't regret what I did, and I never will."

"I don't hate you, but I'm disappointed. I didn't want any more drama, but that's exactly what's gonna start when Andre hears this. He's gonna kick your ass, Hakeem."

"Let him try." Because nobody was scared of snake ass Andre. He didn't want problems. Jamal may have fucked Hakeem up before, but Andre definitely wouldn't. He promised that.

So Andre could try him if he wanted to. He'd be waiting.