𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

thirty eight.

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
can't be trusted

Jamal

Jamal was laying in bed, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't do shit else because he was on bed rest, and he hated it. He didn't know how long it would take for him to heal, but what he did know was that he refused to be confined to that bed for the entire duration.

But for now, he had no choice. He sighed while staring at the ceiling some more. He heard knocking on the door, and he was happy because he had a reason to get up now.

He quickly opened the door and saw, "Warren? I didn't know you were coming over."

"I've actually been outside of your door all day."

That was weird to Jamal. "Why?"

Warren put his hands in his pockets and spoke sheepishly. "Okay...I forgot to tell you this, but Lucious wants me to be your personal bodyguard."

"Wow. Look at you getting promoted," he joked.

Warren laughed. "Yeah, that's what he said too. I hope you don't mind."

Jamal didn't. "Those old bodyguards were strangers, but you're not, so I think this will be pretty fun. And you don't have to stand outside. You can come in anytime."

Warren smiled. "Oh okay." Then he came inside and looked around. "Wow. You lucked out with this place."

Jamal closed the door. "Thanks to Lucious."

"You have this whole place to yourself?"

"Yeah. I mean, Mateo used to live here, but..."

He didn't even need to finish that sentence. "I see."

Now it was a little awkward. "Yeah...well, you can take a look around if you want."

"I think I will."

Warren explored the condo and Jamal heard knocking again. Who was that now? He opened the door and saw the one person he didn't want to see. His ex boyfriend.

Mateo spoke dryly. "Hello, Jamal. Wanna tell me why my number is blocked?"

"Wanna tell me why you're at my place?" Jamal fired back.

"I can't be here?"

"You didn't want to be near me before. You didn't even visit me when I was dying."

Mateo furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"Yeah, I heard about that, Mateo. You didn't come to the hospital once."

"You heard wrong because I did visit you."

Jamal didn't believe that. "Really? Warren was by my side, and he said he didn't see you at all."

Right on cue, Warren re-emerged. "I heard my name?"

Mateo was furious now. "What the hell is he doing in your house?"

"He's my personal bodyguard," Jamal said matter of factly.

"Your personal bodyguard? You already had bodyguards."

"Dad fired them. They couldn't be trusted."

"And Warren can be?" Mateo exclaimed.

"I trust him more than you right now, so yeah."

"Yeah, because he's tricking you. He lied to you, Jamal. I saw you in that hospital bed and everything," Mateo promised.

Warren spoke to Jamal. "He wasn't there, Jamal. I never saw him."