Anika has finally delivered herself from the Lyons's den & found love with Malcolm DeVeaux. But a chance encounter with Lucious and Cookie changes everyone's life forever. Takes place roughly a year after episode 209 ("Sinned Against").
Cookie brought Anika back into the fold at the beginning of the Dynasty launch, only to drop her on her head yet again once a concert that Anika help bring into fruition turned out to be a resounding success. Lonely, lost, and feeling like she had nothing, her heart filled with joy when Hakeem came to see her one morning out of nowhere. He had been kidnapped and beaten by a group of thugs looking to extort his family. Hakeem wouldn't talk about it that day, and Anika was too busy getting her ass smacked and her hair pulled to push the matter. She had been so lonely over the past few weeks - nothing to do, nowhere to go and no one to talk to - so even bad company was better than no company at all.
Hakeem closing the door in her face a few days later when Anika stopped by to see him was humiliating enough, but it was nothing compared to the reaction he had when she informed him that she was pregnant. "Whatchu tellin' me for?" Hakeem demanded. Threats to terminate the pregnancy were pointless since Hakeem didn't want the baby anyway, and threats to keep the baby were dangerous. The Lyons had already destroyed Anika's life; if she even thought about keeping her baby, Cookie and Lucious would destroy her thoughts.
A few days after Anika had her abortion, the entertainment world was abuzz with the latest Empire news: not only was Lyon Dynasty going to reunite with Empire, Lucious and Cookie were getting remarried. Anika went to her family home under the guise of needing some old pictures from her bedroom. What she really wanted was her father's pistol. Anika's jumbled, blurred mind was filled with fantasies of killing Hakeem, then Lucious, then herself - and all of this right in front of Cookie. She wanted Cookie to suffer. For the past six years, Anika had given her life to Empire and her love to Lucious, only to see both snatched away from her. But if Anika could ruin Cookie's life on the way out of her own, she would have the ultimate victory.
Anika never found her father's gun, but she did find her mother's painkillers. The last thing Anika wanted was for her family to come across her body, but Anika didn't dare risk taking the pills out of the house. She needed her pain to end now, so Anika told her mother she was going to take a quick nap while rush hour traffic settled, then went upstairs to her bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom. There, Anika swallowed every pill in the bottle and went to lie down. That day, Anika had nothing left to give and nobody to give it to even if she did. No job. No man. No children. No friends. No reason to live anymore.
Anika didn't drift into a peaceful sleep after swallowing the medication like she thought she would. Instead, she was seized with cramps and vomiting almost immediately. Her mouth was so full of saliva and vomit that she couldn't even call for help. Mrs. Calhoun rushed into the bedroom at the sound of Anika beating her head against the floor from above, choking and wracked with excruciating pain. Only the presence of Anika's father, Dr. Stanley Calhoun, prevented Anika from suffering a slow, agonizing death on the floor in her childhood bedroom.
Anika could no more kill herself correctly than she could dyke right. Over the sound of the ambulance and the sobbing and the chatter, Anika could swear she heard Cookie laughing.
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