Chapter 1
Cookie Lyon had been in jail seventeen years when she died. When she did, she was alone, save for a nurse, in a prison hospital and she didn't know it, but only the day before, her ex-husband Luscious had found out he was dying of ALS. Her family had weighed heavily on her mind all those hard years, but when she passed from one life into the next, she truly found peace. Because somehow, she knew they'd be okay as her heart stopped, and the machine whaled at the loss. She didn't feel the nurse close her eyes or see the pity in her eyes, she didn't want it anyway, but in that moment, the nurse did feel sorry for her because she had died without one member of her family present. She had been a tough woman, but kind. If you treated her right, she did right by you.
"The cancer took her down faster then I thought it would" said the doctor then as he came up behind the nurse, both silently glad for it, for they sensed it was a type of mercy after years of hard suffering. When they found the first tumor, Cookie didn't tell anyone, not Jamal or her sister Carol.
The truth was she didn't want them all to come just because she was dying. Only Jamal and Carol had visited her on and off all these years and she didn't want that to change just because of her health. She wanted them to just come and see her because they wanted to. She didn't want anyone coming to see her just to watch her die. After all, they hadn't come before, why should they come now? And three months later, she was gone. Without a single visit from anyone in that time.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, Mr. Lyon, but I'm calling to tell you your mother died today" said the nurse over the phone, Jamal was on the other end, the call coming out of nowhere, so much so that he nearly collapsed; he would have if he hadn't been sitting down already. He had stopped visiting her because she told him to. The last few years, they had traded letters back and forth, but he hadn't seen her.
"Life's gonna be hard for you sometimes, but I want you to remember, I got you" Jamal thought of those words, the way she had said them all those years ago, and he cried in that moment because despite being away all these years, she had kept her word on that even when he did visit her, it was never about her, but about what was going on in his life, so much so that she hadn't even told him she was sick.
When Jamal finally got it together, he didn't really know what to do at first or who to call. His mind was reeling, and Michael tried to comfort him, but he didn't want it. He found himself pacing his apartment, trying to come to terms with his mother's death, but then suddenly he stopped. His first instinct was to call his dad, his brothers to tell them the news, but he stopped himself. He wasn't sure they'd even care, but nonetheless, he picked up the phone. He dialed his dads' number first. Jamal felt the numbness first. Then a low buzz that turned to a ringing in his ears. He heard that ringing, but not the ringing of the phone. And then he heard his dad's voicemail then hanging up he called again only to hear it right away this time. It took everything in him then not to throw the phone across the room in that moment. He tried his brothers next, first Andre then Hakeem, but still no one answered the phone. When they didn't answer, Jamal's anger rose to his peak, and that's when he threw the phone. He threw it across the room and when Michael screamed, Jamal didn't hear it, his anger had overcome him. It was then that he cried, because his mom would have told him it was going to be alright, and not to pay them any mind. She always took care of him and now, she wouldn't be there anymore, not even as words on a piece of paper. Jamal's anger was real then because he knew his mother had deserved better than his family had given her.
All these years, it had been only him and aunt Carol visiting her. His dad seemed to forget about her altogether while Andre focused on his career and Hakeem just didn't care. They had ignored her all these years and now, it didn't matter that she was dead. They were still ignoring her and pretending she didn't exist. That she never did. It angered Jamal so much that though Michael tried to stop him, he left his apartment.
"This wouldn't exist without her" thought Jamal when he walked into Empire, the company his mother had gone to prison for, and in that moment, his sadness overcame his anger because his mother would never see what her sacrifice had built. When he got up to his dad's office, Becky didn't stop him from bursting through the door. His dad wasn't in there, but he waited.
"He's not gonna ignore her anymore" thought Jamal as he looked at the pictures on the wall, not seeing one with his mother in it.
"He's gonna do right by her" thought Jamal, deciding that today, he would be the man his dad wanted him to be, he would take control, and make him not only bury her, he would make him give her the credit she deserved. As he was thinking that, his dad entered the room, Anika on his arm. The anxiety and discomfort were in the room almost immediately. Everything seemed to stand still, Jamal wasn't quite sure what to do at first as the moment at hand came. He didn't want to say the words, to let them just burst forth, and so they just stood there in that uncomfortable silence, just looking at each other. The click of Anika's heel broke that silence.
"I'll leave you two alone" snapped Anika, giving him a dirty look as she said it, giving his dead a kiss as she left the room. The silence began again though. The silence remained for a long time and neither of them moved. They only stared each other down, each waiting for the other to say something until they couldn't anymore. And then suddenly, his dad was moving behind his desk.
"Why haven't you been answering the phone? I've been calling" exclaimed Jamal, he heard the resentment in his voice almost immediately. He didn't try to hide it, not this time, in fact, he actively glared at his father. He watched his dad sit behind his desk acting like he owned the world. He smirked at him, grabbing a handful of candy from the dish on his desk, and he still didn't answer. The longer he played his little game the more Jamal could feel his anger boiling to exploding inside him.
"I have an IPO to work on. What do you need now, Mal, I pay all your bills, you shouldn't have any reason to call me" said Luscious his demeanor nonchalant even as it was playful, he expected some childish response from him, he wanted to invoke it within him, but much to his surprise, Jamal only stood there, staring him down. Jamal felt cold as the words hit him. In that moment, he truly wished it had been his father who died instead of his mom. He deserved death more then he did. Jamal looked at him and he felt a hatred mixed with guilt for his own thoughts as he stared him down. A stillness fell over the room as Luscious waited for his son to tell him whatever he had to tell him.
"It's about mom" said Jamal, the words coming out slowly, his dad interrupted him almost immediately though, and for once, he was happy for that. The truth was Jamal didn't want to say the words. He felt like if he said them, they would become even more real. He didn't her to be gone. He didn't want her to be dead because who would have his back now? Who would love him unconditionally? His mom was the only one who always had and that made the words all that much harder.
"I'm not about to get into it about your momma with you today" said Luscious, the look in his eyes cold.
"They called to tell me she died today" exclaimed Jamal, the words leaving him quickly in the face of his father's cruelty. Jamal didn't care what his dad would think then, he cried for her then, right there in front of him. He felt the full force of his words finding he couldn't look at his father in that moment. When he did, his dad was just sitting there, and the look on his face made Jamal believe that he might just care. Luscious thought for a moment that he was joking, but then he knew Jamal wouldn't joke about something like that especially when it came to his momma. For Luscious, everything seemed to stop, and he felt shaken. Because he couldn't believe what he was hearing. All these years, he had known where Cookie was, and he felt shaken knowing that he would never see her again. He had always thought he would. It made his own death feel even more imminent. It shone on his face, the shock, the pain, and suddenly, he saw her. As he'd saw her the last time, he ever saw her.
He hadn't thought about that moment in a long time. He didn't like to remember Cookie that way, he preferred to remember her as the woman who'd stood by his side all those years, as the girl he'd met that day on the side of the street, but not as the woman with bruises on her face in a prison waiting room. He remembered that day, those bruises. They hadn't mattered that day, she had always been his beautiful Cookie, and yet, in that moment, it bothered him that that was the last time he had seen her. It bothered him that the next time he saw her, she would be dead in a coffin.
"Cookie and Luscious forever" Cookie had said that that day, she had grabbed his hand and said that.
"You left her in there and never looked back" thought Luscious in that moment, the guilt suddenly weighing heavily on his heart.
"What happened?" said Luscious, the emotion in his voice surprising his son as he stood up coming around his desk. He couldn't imagine Cookie being killed in prison. He knew how tough she could be and when Jamal didn't answer right away, Luscious wanted to explode, but he didn't. He held himself back. He was suddenly walking towards Jamal and then he was walking past him.
"I think they said cancer on the phone…where you going?" exclaimed Jamal bounding after him.
"Becky have my sons at my house right away" exclaimed Luscious in response bursting from his office passed her desk to the elevator with Jamal on his heels.
"Why do you want them at your house? What's happening dad…we got to go deal with mom right now. You can't just leave her this time" snapped Jamal both stepping into the elevator. As the doors closed, Jamal saw an urgency in his dad he hadn't seen in a long time. He looked emotional. It surprised Jamal more than he could say because he honestly thought he wouldn't care, but he did. Jamal could see it. It made him feel guilty again for wanting his father dead only moments ago.
"We're going to get your momma's body" said Luscious, the words on his lips sounding so wrong that he couldn't bring himself to say another word. Jamal and Luscious just sat inside the car, an eerie silence around them.
What they were doing didn't sit well with either one of them. Luscious couldn't believe Cookie was gone. She had gone away and been gone so long, but she was never far from his thoughts. He couldn't imagine where he'd be if she never came along. That thought weighed heavily on his mind as they arrived.