Covet (Andre/Anika, Lucious/Cookie/Malcolm)

Chapter One: Tarnished Rings

Notes: 

1. Know right away that this primarily an Anika/Andre story, where the Cookie/Lucious/Malcolm triangle is secondary. 

2. This was started right after the S2 finale, which was before the birth of Bella Lyon. So in this story, Anika's unborn baby is still a boy.

3. When this was written, there was a clip of Trai Byers on the Ellen show singing Sam Cookie's "You Send Me". It's been deleted since then. If anybody happens to have it, I would greatly appreciate a copy of it. 

References:
Andre smirked, still remembering..." First chapter of Sacrifice, which is posted here.

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Even before Lucious and Anika stood before Andre to be joined as man and wife, Empire's executives were already spinning the story so that it looked like Hakeem, not Laura, had called their wedding off. By the time Anika and Lucious were heading out of the wedding hall – separately – Hakeem was texting his friends to meet him in the lobby to celebrate his newfound freedom. He was hellbent on ruining Laura's reputation the way she had broken his heart. The drunker he got, the bigger the lies he told.

Within the hour, Laura's brothers had shown up to Hakeem's bachelor party to clear their sister's good name. Things were not going to end well, but it made for a great distraction from the real story – that Anika Calhoun, ex-lover of Hakeem and ex-fiancée of Lucious, was now Mrs. Lucious Lyon. That was a story that needed to remain private as long as possible.

Ignoring Hakeem's drunken revelry, Andre made his way back to the bridal suite, not knowing what he was going to say to his new stepmother. Anika had been attacked by her best friend, who accused her of killing Rhonda's child. Now Anika was the husband of the man she'd once plotted to destroy with his ex-wife, who went on to turn her back on Anika after using her to build Lyon Dynasty. If Anika was sitting on the edge of a balcony again, Andre wouldn't blame her.

"Anika?" Andre gently knocked on the door. "It's Andre. Can I come in?"

Anika wasn't sitting on the edge of the balcony, but curled up on the suite's spacious window bench, her head lying in his grandmother Leah's Walker lap. "I'm sorry," he said when they both looked up. "I'll come back later, Grandma." The strength from the older woman's wise words and gentle touches were worth far more than any feeble Bible verses Andre had to spout.

"No," Leah said as Anika awkwardly sat back up. "You stay." Leah took Anika's tear-stained face into her hands. "You remember what I said, now," Leah ordered, and Anika nodded without words. The two embraced, and Leah gave Anika a kiss on her cheek. Anika's own parents refused to come witness this farce of a marriage, but here was Lucious's hated mother treating her new daughter-in-law with tenderness.

On the way out, Leah squeezed Andre's hand. "Be gentle with her," she said, and the words carried more meaning than she knew. "And make sure she eats that food on the table over there."

"Yes, ma'am," Andre handed Anika the small plate of fruit, cold cuts and cheese that had gone untouched while Leah was there. "Better eat," Andre suggested. "Grandma looks like she can swing a mean switch." Anika nibbled on her food as Andre joined her on the window bench. "Here. Turn and face me."

Anika turned sideways, resting her back against the wall while Andre took one of her bare feet into his lap. "My mom was really tiny when she was pregnant with me. 16 years old, body still growing. Cookie said Lucious would rub her feet every night because she had put so much weight on her body that it made it hard for her to walk. And every time Cookie was pregnant, Lucious would rub her feet." Andre smiled at Anika. "I consider myself a better man than my father, Anika."