A/N: Writing this chapter was harder than I thought it'd be, but only because I despise the Anika/Hakeem arc but it had to be done. Anika should really learn that the Lyons bring nothing but trouble.

-ED

Honestly, Anika is surprised it took this long for Cookie and Lucious to start sleeping together again. Cookie's been back for what, two months? Anika thought they'd have slept together a few weeks back but hate runs deep. Well, at least it does for Cookie. Even though she knew it would happen eventually, it doesn't stop the ache that she feels spreading through her chest. Lucious has cheated on Anika during the entirety of their 3, almost 4 year relationship. She stopped allowing him to break her heart around year two. She's never known a relationship that didn't involve heartache and pain to some degree and she truly loves Lucious so she resigns herself to a life of sharing her man. Anika is smart; she knows how to take care of herself financially sans a man, or woman for that matter, but she hates being alone.

According to her mother, she'll never find someone who loves her as much as Lucious. Lucious, the man who personally went to her physician father and debutante mother to ask for her hand in marriage, charmed her parents from day one, even with the cheating. "If he continues to cheat on you, there must be something you're doing wrong. Stay with him until you can figure out how to keep him home," her mother said the first time Anika went home crying about Lucious. Anika's father had a revolving door of mistresses whom her mother turned a blind eye to. "He comes home to me. As long as he doesn't bring home some disease and he comes home to me, that's all that matters. He can have his women." Anika used to think of her mother as weak but now history is repeating itself, only she isn't married.

Anika has resigned herself to a life of sharing her man but her parents' marriage hadn't prepared her for Cookie. Lucious has cheated on Anika with supermodels, socialites, and the occasional groupie but Cookie fits none of those labels. Cookie is a former drug dealing ex-convict. Yes, she's the mother of his children but he just asked Anika to marry him by getting Anthony Hamilton to perform in their home. Anthony fucking Hamilton. He had the unmitigated gall to ask her parents for her hand in marriage before sleeping with Cookie.

At the present, she's furious, at him and her. Anika doesn't know who she hates more at the moment. The man who promised her that he'd take care of her for the rest of her life? Or the woman who waltzed in and decided to destroy Anika's life just because she could? It doesn't matter that he's cheated on her multiple times in the past and he probably would've cheated on her during their marriage. It matters that it's Cookie. It matters that ever since Cookie walked into the home she shared with Lucious and Anika watched as Cookie gave her body a once over not once, but twice...the older woman has been on her mind non-stop. Anika is no stranger to sharing her bed with women. Years at boarding school and consistent female friends with benefits during her undergraduate years made her an expert in making love to a woman so she knows when a woman is checking her out, sizing her up. Cookie sized her up that day and Anika knew it.

But presently, Anika is so full of rage that she doesn't connect the dots and doesn't realize that she's jealous. Jealous that Lucious touched Cookie. Jealous that he fucked her. She all consumed with the thoughts of their combined betrayal that she doesn't notice that most of the room has emptied and Lucious is kneeling before her. It's not until he places both of his hands on her thighs in an effort to gain her attention that she snaps out of her rage. She hastily stands up which causes Lucious to lose his balance for a brief moment.

"Don't touch me!" she screams preparing to storm off before he catches her arm.

"Anika, baby, it was just onc-" he begins before she tears her arm from his grip. "NO! No! It's never just once. I'm so tired of this...I don't even know what to call this anymore, Lucious. I'm done," she screams as she continues to walk away from the man she was going to marry. He doesn't try to stop her as she continues to make her way out of the building. She's jamming the down butting waiting for the elevator doors to open when Hakeem slinks up beside her.

"They ain't shit, both of them. He don't care about nobody but himself and she just cares about him," Hakeem says, his voice filled with disdain for his parents. She looks at him briefly before turning back towards the doors and jams the button again. "Jamming the button ain't gon' do nothing," Hakeem mentions as she takes her frustration out on the slow elevator.

Deciding that she's waited long enough, Anika heads towards the stairs and rushes down them trying not to trip over her own two feet. She makes her way over to her car and presses the unlock button but it seems that all buttons just don't want to work for her. Anika cries out in frustration as she kicks at her tires, Louboutins be damned. She feels Hakeem slink up beside her as he takes the keys out of her hand and unlocks the door for her. Anika is breathing hard as she steals a peek at Hakeem and sees the hurt on his face. Taking her keys from the young Lyon, Anika opens the driver's side door and gets in. Hakeem, ever quick on his feet, is already on the other side and sitting down on the passenger side when she's closing her door.

"What do you think you're doing?" Anika asks as she puts her key into the ignition not yet starting the vehicle.

"You wanna hurt them like they hurt you, don't you?" is all he says giving Anika the driving force to start the engine with him still in the car and start driving towards her apartment.

They don't speak and Anika is barely opening the door before Hakeem pushes her inside and against the wall, kissing at her neck before sinking down to his knees to pull down her panties. He nibbles and sucks for a bit before standing up again and wrapping her legs around her waist and sliding in with ease. Anika imagines Cookie fucking Lucious and it brings her orgasm quicker than she thought but Hakeem is still going strong. He lifts her off the wall before lying her down on the living room floor and plowing into her with abandon. She comes twice more before Hakeem is finally done and spills his seed inside of her. She belatedly thinks remembers that he didn't wear a condom and vows to pick up the morning after pill the following day.

"This doesn't mean anything," she says as he gets up and starts pulling up his pants.

"Whatever," he replies effectively dismissing her.

"I mean it, Hakeem. You mention a word of this to anyone and they won't be able to find your body, much less identify it," she spits with a venom that he hasn't heard before.

Hakeem stares at Anika for a long moment before shaking his head slightly and heading for the door. "Alright, I got it," he states as he bounds out of the door.

Anika locks the door behind him and heads towards her bedroom suite. She makes her way to her bathroom and turns on the shower and lets the steam fog up the room. The shower is scalding but she let's the water wash away the memory of Hakeem's hands on her body. Her mind drifts back to Lucious and Cookie and before she knows it, she's crying on the tile floor of her shower until the hot water has long turned cold.