𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ³ ᵃⁿᵈ ⁴

five.

CHAPTER FIVE
nice to meet you

Andre

next day

Andre had spent the night at the mansion because he'd been away from his family for weeks and he needed to be with them again. They were all seated around the dining table, and Andre could feel the tension. It wasn't because of him for once.

Juanita served them their breakfast and Cookie thanked her. "Thank you, Juanita. You always make the best meals. She needs a raise, Lucious!"

"I can make that happen."

Juanita was grateful. "Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Lyon."

Cookie corrected her. "Just Ms. Lyon, Juanita. Mr. Lyon and I ain't together."

That shocked Andre. He thought they had made up? Something must've happened while he was gone.

Lucious didn't like her words either. "So now we ain't together?"

"You know what you did, Lucious!"

"But you didn't break up with me. Or am I mistaken?"

Cookie changed the topic. "Right now is not the time to talk about you and I. We need to focus on Andre." Then she looked at Andre. "Andre, what are you doing here? I thought you were getting help?"

"I got a lot of help, Ma. I loved that place, but I couldn't stay."

"Why not?"

"Because I saw Hakeem all over the news. He got arrested?"

"Yes he did, but the charges have been dropped. Everything'a okay," Lucious answered.

"But what happened?"

"Blake shot Ro," Hakeem told Andre.

"What?"

"Yeah. So I shot him, and...killed him," Hakeem confessed.

"And I watched," Jamal added.

Andre was baffled right now. "I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time believing this. Hakeem killed someone, and you let him, Pop?"

"Hakeem and Jamal did it behind my back. I was supposed to be the one to handle Blake, but they took matters into their own hands."

Cookie spoke. "Either way, Blake is dead, and Hakeem got away with murder, so let's leave that situation in the past."

Andre gladly left the situation in the past, but he felt bad because all of that shit had went down, and he hadn't been there for his family. He apologized to his sister. "I'm glad Ro is okay, but I'm sorry I wasn't here for you."

"It's okay. You had to focus on yourself," Ro said.

Andre smiled at her, shocked she was being so nice to him. He was shocked all of his siblings were being nice to him because they had hated him before he got sent away. What changed?

Andre shifted the attention back onto his parents' sudden troubled relationship. He needed answers. "Can we go back to what you said, Ma? About you and Pop not being together anymore?"

"We are together. We just aren't on good terms," Lucious replied.

"But why? What did I miss?"

Hakeem blurted it out. "Pop cheated."

"I did not cheat, Hakeem!" Lucious yelled at the top of his lungs. "But yes, I had sex with another woman."

Andre was confused. "How is that not cheating?"