𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

fifty eight.

"No, she hasn't come in yet."

"Can you call her and tell her to come in? I need to talk to her." And it wasn't gonna be a nice talk.

"Alright." Becky put him on hold and came back a minute later. "Uh, there's a problem, Lucious."

"What?"

"Her phone isn't ringing."

That was weird. Why wasn't her phone ringing? "Give me the number."

Becky gave him Freda's number and he dialed it, but got the same result. "It isn't ringing for me either."

Cookie tried on her phone, to no avail. "Me either. Did she disconnect her phone?"

"Why would she do that?" Tiana wondered.

Jamal knew why. "Because she's avoiding us."

"How you know?" Hakeem questioned.

"She's always at Empire. If she didn't go today, then she's probably on the run or something."

Hakeem still didn't get it. "Why would she be on the run? The cops don't know she's the one who shot you."

"But we do, and Freda knows that. I'm saying that because Freda never spoke around me, and it's because she knew I would recognize her voice. She knew releasing that song was a risk, so she got the hell out of dodge ahead of time."

Cookie let out a relieved sigh. "Well, thank god we solved one mystery."

"Solving it isn't enough. She needs to be in handcuffs," Jamal demanded. "But she won't be because we can't even trust the cops."

That made Lucious huff in annoyance. "Looks like I have to take matters into my own hands once again."

Warren stopped him from doing anything rash. "You don't need to. Justice has been served." He jerked his head at the tv, and all of their eyes widened in shock. The news was showing Freda getting arrested because she was a suspect in Jamal's shooting.

"They arrested her?!" Cookie exclaimed.

"But why? None of us called the cops," Hakeem pointed out.

Tiana shrugged. "Maybe they found their own evidence. But it's weird. Why did they arrest Freda so fast, and not Blake?"

"Maybe the cops only like Jamal," Warren said.

"Or maybe it has nothing to do with me. Maybe they just wanted another black person off the streets," Jamal said angrily.

Cookie hugged him. "Well, she's gone now, baby. You're safe."

Hakeem clasped his hand on Jamal's shoulder. "I'm glad you got your justice, bro. And I am so sorry for bringing that chick into our lives."

Lucious was too. He had invited Freda into their kingdom, and she was a snake the whole damn time. Everyone knew how much he hated snakes. So from now on, he was gonna be real cautious about who he signed because he didn't want any more danger around his kids.

Believe that.

Warren

The meeting was over, so the Lyons dispersed.  Jamal was about to go upstairs, but Warren stopped him because he had a confession to make. "Hey! Since we're...together now, I need to be honest with you about something."

Jamal grew nervous. "Oh god, what'd you do?"

"I'm the one who called the cops."

"What?"

Warren explained myself. "After you and Hakeem figured out it was Freda, I decided to take matter into my own hands since you guys didn't wanna involve the cops."

"We didn't wanna involve them because they can't be trusted! They don't give a fuck about my family!" Jamal yelled.

"So you're mad?"

Jamal sighed. "No. Freda was arrested, so thanks I guess. But that could've backfired, Warren. So just...talk to me first next time."

"Understood." He leaned in to kiss Jamal, but he moved back, which made Warren look at him with pained eyes. He was rejecting him now?

Jamal looked to the side where Lucious was. He was busy looking at the tv. "Let's not do that around my family."

"They need to know about us, Jamal."

"And they will, but there's more important things they need to worry about right now. When all of this blows over, I will tell them, okay?"

"Okay. And what about the rest of the world?" Warren asked.

"You know I'm still in the closet, Warren."

"I'm not, Jamal. So Hakeem's right, how is this gonna work?"

Jamal said, "We're just gonna have to be lowkey like Mateo and I were. I really hope you don't
mind-"

Warren cut him off. "I like you a lot, so I'll stay lowkey for you. But I don't wanna be a secret forever, so something's gotta give eventually."

Jamal nodded. "Yeah, I understand that. Just be patient with me, okay?"

Yeah, Warren would be patient because he had finally gotten Jamal to himself and he didn't want to lose him. It was a lot of work getting Mateo and Tory out of the way, and he didn't want to have to do that again with someone else.

He would if he had to, because no one understood Jamal like he did. He was the only one who deserved Jamal, so let someone try and take Jamal from him. That wasn't gonna end well at all.