Imani sighed as she walked into the foyer of the Lyon mansion. Fallon texted her, telling her to get there quickly, but she didn't say why. As soon as Fallon saw her, she grabbed her arm, pulling her further into the house. "Wh-?"
"Cookie's here and Dad wants to talk to us," Fallon told her, quickly catching her up. "I don't want to be alone in the room with her. It'll be awkward, and she'll just try to make up for lost time."
"She just got out of jail, of course she's making up for lost time," Imani said, still being pulled by her sister.
"Just--" Fallon pushed Imani into the dining room, making her stumble over. Imani looked back, giving her a look.
She looked back to her mother, smiling. "Hey, Ma," she greeted, walking further into the dining room where Cookie was being served food.
"Hey, baby," Cookie greeted, shoving a forkful of eggs into her mouth. "What you doin' here?"
"I'm wonderin' the same thing," Imani scratched her head and Cookie gave her a confused look. "What you doin' here?"
"I'm here to talk to-"
"We need to talk," Lucious walked into the dining room, Fallon awkwardly following behind him. He sat down next to Cookie, who was seated at the head of the table. Lucious sat back in his chair and gestured to the one across from him. "Sit down."
"This can't wait?" Imani asked.
"I'm sorry, did you have somewhere more important to be, Imani?" Lucious asked, clasping his hands together.
Imani rolled her eyes, sitting down across from him. "What's this about?"
"It's about you going behind my back and crying to your mother because you didn't get your way," Lucious told her. "You're letting Cookie manage you?"
Imani gave him a blank stare. "I'm not seeing the issue," she folded her arms over her chest. "You wouldn't hear us out, Mom offered, we took it." She shrugged, picking a grape off of the platter. "Plus, you were too busy pampering Hakeem to notice us anyway."
Lucious laughed. "And you think you're ready to release an album?"
"We've been working on this for months, Dad," Fallon spoke up. "You know that. You keep sayin' you'll listen to it, but--"
"All we've gotten from you is a weak ass excuse like you were helping Hakeem with something more important." Imani finished. "I'm so tired of you blowing us off for him. I'm surprised you actually took the time out of your day to do this."
"The only reason he's doing this is 'cause I told him about it," Cookie said. "You didn't even tell them about Leviticus, did you?" She pointed her fork at him.
"What about Leviticus?" Fallon asked.
Cookie shook her head, chuckling. "Hakeem's performing at the opening."
"What the hell, Dad?" Fallon said. "So, Hakeem gets to perform, but we can't?" She stood up. "That's not fair!"
"Tell me, what exactly would you perform?" Lucious asked. "You don't have a fanbase, you have no streams, no music."
"Because of you!" Imani pointed at him. "We have to run everything by you, and every time you turn us down. 'Oh, it's not good enough,' or 'Come back to me when you're serious about making music.' The reason we're at zero right now is you!"
"If Hakeem performs, the girls and Jamal perform," Cookie said.
"No. It's only gonna be Hakeem," Lucious said, reaching for a flute with orange juice in it.
Cookie shook her head. "Don't do this, Lucious."
"Jamal doesn't belong on my stage, and like a said, the girls have no content," he put the flute back down on the table. "It's not their audience."
"Their audience'?" Cookie asked. "Jamal's music is universal, and you know it. And you don't even know what the girls' audience is."
"I've invested a whole lot of money into Leviticus," Lucious said as Anika walked into the room. "I'm not gonna have it branded a homosexual club."
"Here we go with this again," Imani rolled her eyes.
"Cookie, you can talk as much mess as you want, but I have nine of Empire's top acts and none of them are gonna be there, so..." Anika took the platter of grapes off of the table just as Cookie was reaching for it. "The night is not all about Jamal.." She sat down next to Fallon, putting the platter between the two of them.
"Excuse me, miss," Cookie said. "This is a family matter involving four of my kids and the family business that Lucious and I started with my $400,000."
"Excuse me," Lucious stood from the table. Fallon plucked a grape from the platter, furrowing her eyebrows. "Cookie, let me talk to you for a second." He pulled Cookie out of the chair and out of the room.
"Are we done?" Imani asked. Anika took another grape, and Fallon shook her head in disbelief. "Yeah, we done." Imani stood from the table and walked out of the dining room.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi! At the time of me publishing this, Ungodly Hour has hit over 1,000 reads! That's a number I haven't seen in a long time, which is mostly my fault considering I never keep a story up for long. I'm very grateful and I thank everyone for taking the time to read this crazy story!
