twenty one.

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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
damn

Andre

next day

Andre had been trending on Twitter for 24 hours, and the hashtags were getting worse and worse. It had started with #AndreTheFakeLyon. Then #andrelyonisoverparty. He couldn't bring himself to say the one that was trending right now. That was how bad it was.

Andre threw his phone at the wall in a burst of anger because he was pissed. He was going to kill Hakeem if he saw him again. He swore it. He might kill Jamal too for enabling Hakeem's behavior. He was in that damn studio with Hakeem; he let Hakeem diss Andre. That hurt because Andre thought Jamal was more reasonable than that, but he guessed not.

Andre threw more things around because he was lost in his fury, as Rhonda came in the room. "Woah! What is going on, Andre?!"

Andre fumed at her while balling his fists up. All of this was her fault. If she never got in his head about gaining the advantage, he'd still have a family right now. "You want to know what's going on? This is what's going on!" He picked up his phone and showed her that he was trending on Twitter.

Rhonda was shocked. "You're canceled?"

"Yeah, I'm canceled, and it's all because of you!"

"Andre-"

He kept lashing out. "It's because of you, Rhonda! Because you wanted me to betray my family!"

"Andre, we talked about this. I didn't think things would go so downhill."

"What were you expecting? My family hates fakes!"

"You knew that, and you still chose to betray them," Rhonda said. "So this isn't only on me. You could've stayed loyal."

"I was loyal before you came around!" Andre slapped her because he was sick of her mouth, he was sick of her face, he was sick of everything! But when Rhonda held her red cheek and looked at him with scared tears in her eyes, he realized what he had done.

"Oh my god—Rhonda!"

She pushed him away. "What the hell is wrong with you?! First you threw a vase at me, and now you put your hands on me?!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Oh, I think you did! You've been wanting to do that for a while, huh?!"

"Baby, no! My anger got the best of me!"

"Your anger always gets the best of you, Andre! Because you're crazy, like I said!" she said harshly.

"I'm not crazy!" Rhonda looked terrified again, so he calmed down. "Honey, look-"

She didn't want to hear it. "No, Andre! You're getting too violent lately, and I can't deal with your outbursts anymore."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm done with you." She started grabbing some of her stuff.

"Why are you grabbing your things?"

"Because I'm not staying here anymore. We're getting a divorce and that's it," Rhonda announced.

"A divorce?" he shrieked. "Now you're talking crazy!"

"You're the crazy one, Andre!"

"You're going to forget about us over one mistake?"

"You always make mistakes! I'm leaving before you make a fatal one!"

She stormed out. "Rhonda, don't you dare leave this house! Rhonda!"

She left the house, but she'd be back. He knew it. Because they weren't getting divorced. He wasn't letting her leave.

Ever.

Hakeem

Hakeem walked into Empire and all eyes were on him. He expected people to congratulate him for the song's success, but they weren't saying anything. They looked at him disapprovingly.

Were they on Andre's side? Hakeem wouldn't be surprised because they're the business people. Andre was close to them. But he knew all of the artists were going to be on his side.

Except for Tiana, he guessed, because she walked up to him with anger in her eyes. "What the hell is this?"

She held her phone up and Hakeem saw that she was listening to the song. "Oh, you heard the song?"

"Yeah, I heard it. The whole world did."

"You like it?"

"I liked Jamal's part. Yours? Not so much."

That made him frown. "Why not?"

"Because you dissed Andre!"

"He deserved it, Tiana!"

Tiana didn't think so. "Have you seen what they're saying on Twitter? They're wishing death on him. So no, I don't think he deserves that."

He sighed. "You don't know what he did, bae."

"Yes I do. Ro told me."

"What she tell you?"

"That you and Jamal have Andre to thank for not becoming CEO. He made you two hate each other."

"Exactly! Andre did me dirty, so I did him dirty right back. But somehow I'm the bad guy?" Hakeem exclaimed.

Tiana told him why he was the bad guy. "Andre betrayed Jamal too. Even Ro's angry, but do you see them making disses about him? No, because they know how to keep shit professional and private."

Hakeem was offended. "So now I'm not professional?"

"You keep involving the world into your family problems, Hakeem. So no, you're not professional. And honestly, it's getting toxic. I really don't want to be associated with all this negativity."

Hold on, he knew she wasn't breaking up with him. "Hold up. What the hell are you saying right now?"

But Gram showed up. "Wow, Hakeem. First you dissed Jamal, and now Andre? That's cold."

Hakeem didn't have time for his ass right now. "Mind your damn business, Gram."

"Kinda hard to do that when Andre's trending."

"When he shouldn't be," Tiana muttered.

Gram spoke to her. "Damn, Tiana. I didn't know you liked cold hearted motherfuckers."

He was pissing Hakeem off. Hakeem tried to hit him, but Tiana stepped in between them. "Don't! He's right; it was messed up, Hakeem! So fix it!"

"How? The song is already out."

"Then make it disappear!"

"But-"

"Do something, Hakeem!" And then she left.

Gram snickered. "You better do something fast because Tiana's two seconds away from leaving your lame ass."

Hakeem glared at him. "You think she's gonna go to you?"

"I know she will. Who wouldn't want to be on the winning side?" Then Gram snickered again and walked away, and Hakeem really wanted to beat his ass, but Tiana would side with him. But he'd be damned if he let Gram take her from him, so he guessed he had no choice but to get Andre uncanceled.

Damn.

𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²Where stories live. Discover now