Before The Fall.
Alternate version.
A big black bag to her left, and Lucious' album covers, maga
zines, and photoshoots to her right. "I've just got to move on," Cookie mumbled to herself as she sat on the plush couch seat. She must've been delusional to genuinely believe for a second that Lucious was capable of changing. He had looked her in the face and said through his slick-talking mouth that 'there was a reason he'd never married anyone else' only to go and marry someone else the very next day. Anika, of all people. Anika! The mother of his grandson...his son's baby mama. Cookie put a hand to her head in sheer disbelief of the situation...just when she thinks things can't get any worse, they do. Just when she and Lucious are so close to coming back together, something gets in the way. Maybe this was God's way of telling Cookie that she and Lucious aren't meant to be and with the way her heart is currently aching in her chest, she's more than ready to accept that bitter truth.
A shaky sigh passed through her lips as she stared at the picture of Lucious gazing up at her from his album cover...Hustler. She remembered them working on that together whilst she was in prison. The trouble she had gone through to get a phone snuggled in secret phone calls in her bunk at night. Lucious' music was the blood pumping through her veins, and his voice soothed her...gave her the strength to go another day in that hell hole because she knew what she was living for on the outside. At least, she thought she knew because of course, Hustler was developed before Lucious's weak-ass abandoned her in prison. So much for 'Cookie and Lucious, forever'. She was living a child's fantasy...that fairy tale, happily ever after crap was for the romance movies. It wasn't real.
Getting angry, Cookie shoved Lucious' merchandise into the black bag. Out of sight, out of mind. Slumping back, she closed her eyes and prayed for a moment's peace. She didn't want to think about Lucious proclaiming he 'needed' to marry Anika, or how he'd had the black audacity to ask that she 'ride' with him on this one. All she ever did was ride for him and in the end, she got nothing back in return. Nothing but heartache and disappointment. What did Lucious expect from her? Did he want Cookie to wait around, be some sort of mistress until he managed to get rid of the FEDS and divorce Anika? Did he cruelly expect her to watch him give Anika all his affection, publicity, while she watched from the sidelines wishing it was her in Anika's place? Uh-uh. Been there, did it, done that...and Cookie was not going back.
If Anika was the new, downgraded Mrs. Lyon, then she and Lucious were truly done and he'd only have himself to blame.
The sudden rapid knocking had Cookie's eyes shot open in high alert. She grabbed her gun before slowly approaching the door. "Who is it?" She yelled out with an irritated growl as her hand hovered, cautiously, over the door handle,
"It's me, Cook."
Cookie's eyebrows kissed at the all too familiar voice. What the hell was Lucious doing here? Pulling the door open after putting the gun down, Cookie looked her ex-husband up and down with pursed lips. "Shouldn't you be with your wife?" She questioned with narrowed eyes...disbelieving that the bastard had the cheek to come to her apartment after marrying that bitch.
"I didn't marry that woman," Lucious declared. Cookie's eyes widened at the statement. "Couldn't." His eyes seemed glossy...had he been crying? He looked disheveled, antsy, and out of sorts; nothing like the Lucious she knew. His hot stare took her in, slowly, from the grey sweatpants loose around her hips to the oversized t-shirt that belonged to him. Cookie wrapped her arms around herself, feeling naked underneath his gaze. "Can I come in?!
