Rebuilding Our Empire

Lyons are Strong, We Fight

Tiana's Place

No One's POV

Ever since Eddie gave Tiana an ultimatum, she has been laying low. She told Eddie she wasn't going against the Lyon family. That family was about to be linked to her forever. But she had to find a way to tell them about Eddie. She got the original test results a few days ago, along with a note saying that the fake results were already sent to Hakeem. She couldn't bring herself to face him after knowing that. He had been calling her non-stop ever since that day. It was easy to ignore his calls. It wasn't like he was going to walk up and knock on her door. She had no idea that Hakeem started walking again.

Tiana was startled by a sudden pounding against her door. She ran behind her couch and crouched down, hiding in case someone decides to shoot or break her door in. The banging noise became louder and more frequent. Tiana whimpered, frightened that she may not survive out of this situation. She started to pray, hoping God would hear her prayers. Next thing she heard startled her even more. "TIANA! OPEN THE DOOR!" yelled Hakeem. 'What the hell is he doing here?' Tiana thought to herself, still crouched down, she began trying to think of ways that Hakeem got to her place. He doesn't go anywhere these days except therapy and back to his smoking corner.

"Tiana, come on my legs are starting to hurt from standing so long. Open Up!" Hakeem begged. Tiana shot up quickly and ran to the door. She stood absolutely still, taking in the sight of Hakeem standing on his legs. "Keem, you're walking... How? I mean I know you're doing therapy, but I thought it was going to be a while before you started being able to move on your own," Tiana inquired. Hakeem leaned up against the door frame since Tiana wanted to have conversations in the door. "I been pushing myself to get stronger for you and our family, that is if you want to be a family," Hakeem pursued an answer. He was hoping she said yes. Tiana dropped her head and fiddled with her fingers. "Come inside, let's talk," she responded.

They walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Tiana still had her had down, afraid to confront Hakeem with her own problems. "Look, Keem I want to be a family, but we can't. If I stay with you, then things will only get worse. I don't want Eddie to- ""Eddie? What does Eddie have to do with anything?" Hakeem interrupted Tiana. She took a deep breath, then went to explain her current fear. "Eddie is blackmailing me. He sent fake DNA results to your parent's house and he's ruining my career because I won't give him something to take your parents down for good. I thought you would've gotten the results by now, but I have the actual results and this baby is definitely yours," She explained as she grabbed the results out of her purse to show Hakeem. He intensely listened while watching her expression. He could tell she was being serious and truthful. If he didn't notice anything else about Tiana, he always knew when she was being sincere.

He moved closer to her and raised her head to look him in the eyes, "Babe I got you. I saw the results at the house before I left. It's probably why my dad asked me about you. I had to talk to you before believing that paper. I promise Eddie is not going to take anything from you. He's gonna get handled. You believe me, don't you?" Tiana nodded her head, letting 2 tears drop from her eyes. "Good. And the next time Eddie try to contact you, tell me. You a Lyon now. We protect our own. Matter of fact pack up. You're staying at the mansion with us," Hakeem instructed. Tiana looked at him like he was crazy. Hakeem has never demanded her to do anything and she didn't know how to feel about it. "Go! Hurry Up!" Hakeem roared, causing Tiana to get up quickly and do as Hakeem said. Maybe him fighting for what he wanted was a change he needed for the better. It was making people take him a bit more seriously.

At the Mansion

Dre and Jamal walked into the mansion looking for Lucious. Jamal was trying to calm Dre down, but when Dre is upset, it's like trying to knock down the Great Wall of China alone with a flimsy chisel. "Dre, you gotta calm down. You going into Dad's office like this is not going to do anything but make things worse. I told you he's going to get mom back, just chill," Jamal tried to reassure Andre, but it was not getting through his head. Andre wasn't having an episode like what Jamal is expecting. He was acting this way out of pure anger towards his father.