𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

forty eight.

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT
dress rehearsal

Freda

next day

Freda was sitting in the conference room, bouncing her leg up and down anxiously. Lucious had called her in there, and she knew it was because of what had went down yesterday. She had pulled a gun out on another Empire artist, and Lucious couldn't be happy about that.

Freda was scared, man. What if Lucious was about to fire her? Where the hell was she supposed to go after that? No other label was touching Empire right now, so if she got fired, Gram would be right. She'd have no career.

Lucious entered the room and didn't say anything. He just leaned in the doorway and looked at her.

"Hey, Lucious. You look nice today."

"Don't try to flatter me because it's not going to work." He walked in now. "I'm going to ask you one thing, Freda. This should be an easy question."

She swallowed hard. "Okay..."

"What's the number one thing I don't play about?"

"Empire," she answered.

She was right. "Exactly. Yet, you still had the nerve to pull out a gun on one of Empire's artists. What if Tiana got scared and quit? Then what, Freda?"

"Then you would've lost an artist."

"Yeah. I would've lost Empire's biggest artist. Do you see why your behavior is unacceptable? You're starting to mess with my money, Freda!"

"Man, Lucious, I wasn't gonna shoot Tiana!" Freda lied.

"I'm supposed to believe that?"

She huffed. "Okay, I was, but she challenged me first! I don't ever step down to a challenge!"

"I don't care about that. You keep your personal problems away from Empire, Freda."

"But we weren't at Empire. We were at Club Nirvana." Lucious gave her a serious look. "But I understand what you're saying."

Lucious exhaled deeply after that. "Look, I'mma be honest with you. My family doesn't like you."

She furrowed her eyebrows at him. "What?"

"Yup. They think you're dangerous, and you just proved them right. My family is also something I don't play about it, so if they don't want you here, then maybe you should go."

She begged him to let me stay. "Lucious, please no! I need this job! Ain't no other label touching Empire right now, and you know that!"

"You know that too, but you're still not acting right, Freda."

"I'mma act right. I'mma stay the fuck away from Tiana like Hakeem wants."

"Hakeem wants you to stay away from him too, you know."

Freda sighed. "I know, and it hurts. I made a mistake that's never going to happen again, but Hakeem's done with me." She looked at Lucious pleadingly. "Please tell Hakeem to give me another chance, Lucious!"

He shook his head. "I'm not telling that boy to do a damn thing. You tried to shoot his girl. He has every right to hate you."

Freda defended herself. "I live around guns. I can't help it, man. It's my lifestyle."

"Well, that lifestyle just made you lose your idol. So the question is, how far are you willing to go to get him back?"

She was willing to go to hell and back to get Hakeem's forgiveness. She was his biggest fan, and it'd been an honor getting the chance to be his friend. She couldn't lose him, man. She wouldn't be able to live with herself.