ꨄThe Debutanteꨄ

126.

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Two Days Later

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Lori sat out in her lawn underneath the sun, resting while sipping on a small glass of wine. She released a sigh. She thought about how spacious their lawn was, green for almost what seemed like a mile. She wondered how they could possibly fill the space.

Her phone ringing really got her out of her thoughts.

"Hello?" She asked. "Hey, mom. How's it going?" Asked Andre. "Hey baby. I miss talking to you. Well, we're all moved in now and settled. How are you and your brothers? Yall aren't tearing each other apart are you?" She asked.

He released a husky laugh. "No, mom we're all getting along. And we're doing even better now since Lucious signed over the rights to the company." He said. Lori sat up with a gasp. "He what?" She asked. "Two days ago, I sat down with him and told him about how Empire is sinking. He was stubborn about it and said he won't sign it over to you or Anika- Tuh! Of course not, with his salty ass. Well we don't want it anyway. Nothing associated with his ass." She said.

"The good news is, he signed it over to me. Now I have the power, and I'm going to make sure that it doesn't sink again." Andre said. "Well I'm happy for you baby. I think you'll be a better CEO than him anyway. There was no point in him still being the owner, is he going to try to run a million dollar music company while behind bars? Please." She laughed. "Either way, the board voted him out. He violated the contract with them once he became a convicted felon." Said Andre. "Glad to see that old salty dog is getting to see how it feels to have everything then nothing at all." Lori replied.

"So...as CEO now I was thinking that you and Anika could become partners with us." He said. Lori's eyes winded. "Partners? Now baby I'm happy for you, but like I said I don't want anything to do with Empire and I'm certain Anika doesn't either..." She said. "No, what I mean is, you won't be working directly with Empire. I was thinking, you both are great at music production and management. What if you created your own company and we become partners? We both do similar things, you find music artists in Oregon, train and prepare them, then once they're ready you can send them to Empire to become superstars. You could manage multiple artists at a time and now the business can stretch to both the West and East coast." Andre explained.

Lori thought for a moment. "Hm...wait. You might be on to something. We can be some sort of a recruit company for music artists you want to get discovered. Empire is very diverse but we rarely got artists from the west coast because of many of them not having travel expenses..." She said. "You'd be making your own money and getting income from Empire as partner- Yeah I better be getting some sort of income because I birthed you, boy." Lori teased. "I'll think about it. I'll run it by Anika." She added.

"Good. So, how are you both doing?" He asked. "Uh..." Lori started, then looking at the large bay window that revealed the dining room. She saw Anika walk up to the table, sitting down a plate of food. She lowered herself into the seat, then releasing a sigh. She moved her hair behind her ear, picking at her food with the fork while she rested her hand on the side of her head. Her expression had a sulk.

"We're doing good...yeah, we're fine..."

...

"We haven't spoken to each other in two days." Lori said into the phone. "What? Why?" Paula asked. Lori sighed. "She...wants a baby..." She mumbled. "She does?" Paula asked. "Well, how do you feel about it?" She asked Lori. "I feel...I really don't know how I feel. I knew she wanted kids a few years ago but that was the first and last time she talking about it with me. She didn't speak about it anymore after that so I didn't think it was such a big priory for her. It's not that I wouldn't want a family with her, but I've done my parenting. I have three boys, I'm older now, and..." Lori trailed off.