Bella was so close to being able to walk on her own by the spring. Sitting on the nursery balcony before the divorce dinner, Anika watched as Hakeem coaxed Bella to come to Daddy. Bella stood and sat, scooted and scuttled, crept and crawled, and fell and fell and fell. Though it hurt Anika to see her baby struggling, she knew Hakeem was right not to reach for Bella every time she stumbled. And setbacks notwithstanding, Bella seemed just fine.

"Knock, knock," Lucious called from the nursery door, as handsome as always. "I've come to escort my lovely wife to dinner," he announced. For the last time, they both added to themselves.

"Aren't you kind of early?" Anika waved at Hakeem, who was taking Bella to his place to be bathed and dressed, and came back inside and glanced at the clock on the wall. "It doesn't start for another hour."

"I wanted to talk with you first."

Anika knew what Lucious had come to talk to her about, and she wanted to delay it as long as possible. "Have you and Cookie decided where you're going to honeymoon yet?"

"Cape Coast Castle in Ghana." Lucious sat on the sofa as Anika took her usual place in the rocking chair. "I know it sounds crazy, but we want to go through the Door of No Return."

"Kind of heavy for a honeymoon," Anika commented. "Walking through a slave port and whatnot."

"I know," Lucious agreed. "But I want to get a real appreciation for our roots, you know?" Anika nodded. "Maybe if I'd been instilled with that kind of pride and education, I would've found another way to support my family other than poisoning my own people."

Anika had never heard Lucious describe his drug dealing days that way before. "All of that is past, Lucious," she said kindly. "You and Cookie have given back to the community ten times over. Scholarships, internships, fundraisers..."

"Doesn't take away what we've done in the past, though, does it?" Lucious looked around his granddaughter's nursery. How many grandparents had suffered on his account, back when he was dealing dope?

"No. It doesn't." Husband and wife were quiet for a moment. "But you and Cookie didn't have the resources I did. I know she went to Catholic school and all, but it's a lot different when you're raised around money. Rich people help other rich people. They don't want to give a hand up to people like you. They don't want the Cookie Lyons of the world to rise above her station. You know what I mean?"

Lucious nodded. "Cookie was so smart, too. She was going to go to college, maybe even medical school. And I turned her into a street pharmacist," he added sadly.

"You and Cookie turned out two wonderful musicians and a brilliant Wharton-educated businessman," Anika reminded Lucious. "There's no blood on their hands. You broke the cycle, Lucious. I know you weren't perfect as a father-"

"I was a terrible father, Anika."

"-but God is giving you a second chance to be a good husband and father. Cookie always said you were a wonderful husband, so that just leaves the fatherhood part." Anika squeezed Lucious's hand again. "Not everybody gets the chance to try again, you know. You and Cookie's love has got to be blessed by God. So don't screw it up," she added with a wink.

Lucious let off a short laugh. "Speaking of screwing up," he said, kissing Anika on the back of the hand, "you and Malcolm still not talking?"

Damn. Anika walked right into that. "It's over, Lucious. I told Cookie that, and I'm sure she told you."

"Don't you think this is a little...much?" Lucious prompted. "You can't forgive Malcolm for one little mistake?"

"See, that's why we're not talking about this." Anika's voice was tight. "It wasn't a little mistake. He lied to me, Lucious. If I wanted to be in a relationship with a liar, I would've stayed with you. Sorry," she added when Lucious raised an eyebrow.

"Anika, Malcolm said he was going to training in Orlando. And according to Facebook, he's in Orlando." Lucious shrugged. "It's not like he had his face in some stripper's ass or anything. I don't see the problem."

"The training doesn't start until Tuesday, Lucious." Anika swallowed the lump in her throat. "Malcolm could have been here if he wanted to be. He knew how important this was to me. And you know what he said when I asked him why he lied to me?"

"He didn't lie to you, Anika-"

"Lying by omission is still a lie."

"Okay, fine." The last person who could argue about what was and wasn't a lie was Lucious Lyon. "What did he say?"

"He said, 'maybe I don't want to sit around with you and your family!'" Anika continued. "Can you believe that? It was like...like..."

"Like he's too good to break bread with us?" Lucious supplied. Anika nodded miserably. "I doubt if that's the case. Remember, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Malcolm. It's got to be something else."

"Maybe so," Anika answered. She wanted that to be the case. But what could it possibly be?


The morning of the first engagement dinner back in February, Anika came into Cookie's apartment and found her staring at two bottles of salad dressing - one Thousand Island, one ranch. Just staring. Nothing else. Cookie had been rather spaced out lately, ever since her doctor prescribed lithium for her depression on top of the Xanax she was already taking for anxiety. "Cookie? You need some help?"

Cookie whipped around. The bottle of Thousand Island slipped from her hand and crashed to the floor. Some of the dressing flew out of the bottle and splattered into the tossed salad. "Oh, my God...Lucious hates Thousand Island. I can't-I can't give him this."

"It's okay, Cookie. We have plenty of time. At least two more hours." Anika set her groceries on the counter. "Besides, that might have some glass in it. We couldn't serve it anyway."

Cookie shook her head as if she couldn't hear Anika. "I have to fix this...I-I-I have to...have to..." She turned, took one step, then froze at the sound of the glass beneath her boot. She looked down at the floor. The Thousand Island had splattered on her boots and the bottom of her skirt. She would have to change her clothes. Maybe even take another shower.

"Cookie?" Anika walked over to the island and took the ranch bottle from her hand. "Why don't you start chopping up some vegetables, okay? I can get the salad-"

Cookie jerked away. "I can do it," she snapped. She picked up the knife in her hand to...fix salad? No, to chop vegetables. But only after she changed her clothes. Or should she change first and chop later? Did she even have time to chop-no, change? Did she have time to take a shower? Did she really need one?

"Cookie?"

"I have to go change," Cookie mumbled. Anika called something to her while she was shuffling away, but Cookie didn't hear her. On her way to her bedroom, Cookie passed the couch that Angelo had given to her. The couch he'd choked her on. Later, he'd thrown her to the ground and kicked her like a dog. And after that, lying in freezing since cream and soda, he'd...

"Cookie! Cookie, no!"

For her own safety, Anika could do nothing but stand by as Cookie plunged the knife into the sharkskin leather over and over, as if the cutlery had a mind of its own. "You motherfucker! You fucking cruel bastard! I hate you! I hate you!"

Anika waited until the knife clattered to the floor before she dared to step in Cookie's direction. Anika. Anika. She had hurt Cookie, too. Hurt her rib the next morning with her elbow. "Bitch!" Cookiehurled herself against Anika with all her strength."You fucking bitch! You whore!" Cookie was Angelo now, slapping and striking at Anika from above. Anika had the wherewithal to knock the knife out of Cookie's reach just before Cookie knocked her to the floor, but that didn't stop the long nails dragging down her face while Cookie's incoherent screams filled the air.

Still, Cookie's strikes were wild and uncontrolled. Anika waited until the right time to pop her hips up, roll Cookie over and pin on her back. She had the upper hand now, but looking into Cookie's terror-filled eyes gave Anika no pleasure. What was Anika to do to Cookie now? Slap her? Punch her? Aim for that weak rib and hope she'd snap out of it?

Justified as she would've been, Anika did none of those things. Instead, Anika sat Cookie up and rocked Cookie in her arms while Cookie sobbed her apologies. There was nothing else to do, really, since Cookie's mind had obviously gone to Never Never Land.

Later on, Andre, Jamal and Hakeem came into Cookie's apartment and found a shocking sight: a destroyed couch, a floor splattered with food and glass, and their battered stepmother stroking her assailant's hair as she cried in Anika's lap. "Call your father and tell him that we're postponing this dinner," Anika informed her stepsons mildly. "Oh, and call a housekeeper, too."

A few minutes later, Cookie sat silently as the paramedics secured her to a gurney, rolled it into an ambulance and whisked her away to the emergency room. Anika never let go of her hand.


In order to avoid an involuntary psychiatric hold (nobody believed Anika's story of a mutual fight), Cookie voluntarily checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. Lucious was barred from seeing Cookie at her request, as were her sons and her sisters. This gave Anika the unenviable task of having to tell everyone day after day that Cookie was fine. Anika didn't tell them that Cookie spent most of her time staring out of a window, doped up on antidepressants or crying uncontrollably. Two weeks later, Cookie came out of hospital bloated and apathetic, her voice soft with apologies to her family but saying little else. And Lucious knew right then that they weren't going to be married for quite some time.

Over the weeks, Cookie dutifully reported to a psychiatrist for continuing outpatient therapy. She took the prescribed antidepressants on top the medication she was already taking, since the doctors never bothered to ask Cookie if she'd been taking anything before her hospital stay. Cookie attended the group therapy sessions for domestic violence survivors, did all the required activities and wrote all the journal entries, even though her hands shook so hard that the doctor could barely read her handwriting.

Cookie also lost all of the weight she'd gained in the hospital, plus another 11 pounds. She spent most of her spare time sleeping. Cookie also started to smoke again, a nasty habit she developed when she was in prison. If being in the funny farm had helped Cookie, nobody could see it.

Enter Malcolm, who appealed to his ex-wife, Dr. Claudia Moore, for her rather...unorthodox help of couples counseling. That meant being squirreled away in the coldest, most remote location of Ottawa, Ontario with no cell phones, no laptops, nobody except Lucious, Cookie and her cornucopia of meds. If Cookie hadn't been so heavily medicated, she might've protested more. As it was, Cookie just went along for the ride, chain smoking her last pack of menthols.

Cookie was coherent enough to hate that stringy-haired white bitch on sight - some upper class Midwestern cunt who didn't know one damn thing about the kind of street life Cookie and Lucious had lived. Cookie hated the doctor's probing questions and pinpoint accurate observations. She might not have had a drop of street smarts, but Claudia Moore was not a woman that one could easily bullshit. "You know," Claudia commented after another round of vague answers to her questions. "I get paid whether or not any of this works out for you two. So why don't we stop wasting time freezing our asses off and make this trip worth it?"

Claudia also had some rather harsh words for Cookie. "You wear those 17 years on your back like Christ carrying the cross," she admonished Cookie on their second night in the cabin. "Now, Lucious abandoned you - there's no question about that. But he's acknowledged and apologized for that that over and over. Do you forgive him or not?"

"Tell her, Doc," Lucious cheered under his breath. Claudia's head turned towards Lucious like a rattlesnake, and Lucious slumped in his chair. Claudia hadn't even begun to chew his ass out yet.

As much as Cookie hated Claudia (Lucious, for some reason, adored the bitch), she had to admit that Claudia had broken more ground in six days than all of Cookie's doctors had in four months. Claudia knew when to talk, when to listen, when to probe and when to let things be. It was six miserable days of shouting, slammed doors and sleeping in separate rooms. Still, Lucious and Cookie were determined to do whatever it took for the sake of their future. "It took over 20 years to get the two of you to this table," Claudia reminded Lucious after one particularly painful night. "You can't fix that in a week."

Claudia also recalibrated Cookie's medications, reducing her five medications to two and helping her taper off her old meds so she could begin her new meds. To distract Cookie from detoxing, Claudia invited her husband Nick up to the mountains. Nick taught Lucious to properly chop wood ("Nice and steady, don't swing it like a baseball bat") and Claudia showed Cookie how to salt and store a deer hide. "Don't let the doctor in me fool you, Cookie. I'm just a regular ol' redneck. My husband is a wonderful hunter. So was my ex-husband."

"You're talking about Malcolm?" Cookie asked cautiously. His name hadn't been brought up a single time since Cookie and Claudia met.

"Uh-huh. Malcolm could take down game with a bow and arrow. Straight through the eye, every time. He said that it wasn't sportsmanlike to hunt with a rifle."

Cookie wasn't surprised. "Look, Claudia. I know it's none of my business, but..."

"...you want to know why Malcolm and I got divorced," Claudia finished. "Well, we were young and stupid and got married for all the wrong reasons. He was a lousy husband and I was a lousy wife. But it wasn't some bitter, nasty divorce or anything. We just realized we made a mistake and ended it." Claudia smiled at Cookie. "And we were right to do so. Otherwise, I never would've met Nick. And Mal never would've met...who's the woman he's all a-twitter about now?"

"Anika."

"Anika, right. You know, when I got remarried, Malcolm sent me a letter wishing me well. He's a good guy. Always was. And I'm sure he'll make a fine husband for your friend. We're not the same people at 25 as we are at 45." Claudia gestured over to Lucious, who was tying together bundles of firewood. "I think you'd agree."

If anybody had told Cookie that Lucious would be up in the mountains chopping wood, she would've laughed herself sick. "I agree," Cookie responded, and she didn't worry about Malcolm being with Anika anymore.

On their last night in the mountains, Cookie and Lucious enjoyed a dinner of Nick's venison chili and Cookie's honey cornbread with Claudia and Nick. They wouldn't be able to attend the wedding, so the Moores toasted Lucious and Cookie's good fortune and health. Only one thing would've made that night better: Anika and Malcolm had been invited to the dinner, too, but just like the February engagement dinner, Malcolm couldn't make it. Again.


"You know Malcolm didn't even let me pay him back for that Canadian therapy?" Lucious asked Anika while she was thinking things over. "He said, 'Put the money in a savings account for Bella.'"

"That's wonderful," Anika answered. She was surprised and not surprised at the same time. "So why would a person who had done so much for this family refuse to come to something as simple as come to an engagement party? I just don't get it, Lucious. This is the third time he's stood me up."

"Well, you know that Malcolm lived in foster care for years," Lucious pointed out. "I doubt that he'd be down with any big family gathering, no matter who was throwing it."

"Wait...how in the world do you know Malcolm grew up in foster care?" Malcolm didn't mention it to Anika for months after they started seeing each other.

"Me and Malcolm have gone out a couple of times to talk. He's a terrible pool player. But don't tell him that - I like taking his money." Lucious laughed at the expression on Anika's face. "What, you didn't think I'd let you just be with any ol' scrub, do you? Had to check him out. Make sure Malcolm was good enough for you." He winked at Anika. "We're going to get it right this time. Wait and see."

"And you think Malcolm's the one?" Anika asked. "Even after what he said?"

"Even after what he said," Lucious nodded. "You've forgiven me for so much so many times over when I didn't deserve it, Anika. Don't you think Malcolm's earned the benefit of the doubt?"

"I want to, Lucious." Anika blinked rapidly and swallowed again. "It's just...I mean, I have to sit and watch you basically dump me. I'd like to have somebody holding my hand when you do. I want my man next to me, Lucious. I don't care what his hang-ups are - I don't think that's too much to ask."

"I didn't know you felt that way, Anika." Nor had Anika given Lucious any idea that she did - the Countdown to Divorce Party was practically Anika's idea. "Do you want to call this off? I can always just take Cookie out to dinner and propose that way. You don't have to be a part of this if you don't want to."

Anika shook her head. "Cookie deserves this. I'm happy for you both, even if I don't seem like it right now. I guess..." Anika sighed as the clock in the nursery struck six. From downstairs, he could hear Bella babbling. "I guess I just miss my man," she admitted.

"What did Cookie tell you a long time ago?" Lucious reminded her. "Don't blow it. I'm not saying what Malcolm did was right. But he's got his reasons for not being here, even if we don't understand them. And Malcolm loves you so much, Anika. He wouldn't try to hurt you on purpose."

"How do you know that, Lucious?" Anika stood and smoothed her clothes.

"Know what? That he wouldn't try to hurt you?"

"No, that he loves me."

Lucious looked startled. "He told me so. More than once."

Anika laughed bitterly and shook her head. "Malcolm has never once told me that he loves me. Not a day in his life."

"Does he need to?" Lucious asked.

Anika smiled against her will. "No," she admitted.

"Follow me." Lucious took Anika by the hand and led her to a mirror. "Look at the way you're smiling," he instructed. "Don't be proud, Anika. It's just not worth it." Lucious offered Anika his arm. "Next time Malcolm calls, you talk to him. I'm not saying you have to marry him, or even have to take him back. I know what he said doesn't sound too good, but at least hear him out. Okay?"

"Okay." Anika dropped Lucious's arm and slid her hand into his. "I will. Now let's eat, Mr. Lyon." All this forgiveness was making Anika hungry.


That evening, everybody was in high spirits. The food was delicious, the wine flowed freely and the stories and jokes were plentiful. Even Bella laughed and clapped her hands before growing sleepy and being placed into her bassinet.

When Lucious walked to the other side of the table, dropped to one knee and asked Cookie to marry him, Anika felt surprisingly happy for her. There was no formal proposal from Lucious, no dramatic "I accept" answer from Cookie. Just a ring and a kiss, laughter and applause.

"Of course, before you and I marry," Lucious stated as he rose to his feet, "there's some business that has to be taken care of. Miss Anika, it's about time you get your independence."

Anika nodded and forced a smile. She really was happy for Cookie, and she knew that this marriage was best for everybody. But Anika had given nearly six years of her life to this man - arguably her best years. It was hard not to feel cast aside.

"Anika," Lucious went on, standing behind Cookie's chair. Cookie smiled up at her husband-to-be. "A lifetime ago, you told us that you wanted your child to have a family, and she does, now and always. But you are also a part of this family, Anika. You'll always be a Lyon. And I'm sorry that we haven't treated you like we should have."

"You're not blood, Anika," Cookie interjected, "but you're the blood of our blood. And you'll always have a place at our table. That is," she added, almost shyly, "if you still want to be one of us."

Over a year ago, Anika had humbled herself in front of this family - a family full of people that she pretty much hated, and vice-versa. She'd all but pleaded to the Lyon family to accept her child. Anika never once thought they would accepted her as well, not even after Cookie talked her down from a balcony by reiterating that Anika was a Lyon. But here she was, right now, being welcomed into the Lyon family - not as Lucious's wife or because she was Bella's mother. Anika had fought for this family, had risked her life for this family. Her child's family. Her family now.

And it was Andre, of all people, who made it official. "One of us, one of us," he said under his breath. "Gooble gobble, one of us."

Jamal laughed and joined in. "One of us, one of us. Gooble gobble, one of us." Then Cookie joined in the chant. Soon everybody at the table - even that old hag Leah - joined in. "One of us! One of us!" everyone cheered. "Gooble gobble, one of us!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" Lucious yelled over the happy chanting as he rose to his feet. "Everybody, raise a glass."

Anika wiped tears of laughter from her eyes and reached for her glass of water as the noise died down. Standing at the head of the table, Lucious walked back to his chair and smiled down at the woman he was still married to, if only for little while longer. "Anika, the Lyon family pledges our loyalty, our support and our protection to you and yours, now and always." Lucious lifted his glass. "Will you, Anika Calhoun, pledge your loyalty and your friendship to this family - to your family - now and always?"

Anika looked around the table. Jamal was grinning. Hakeem's smile was as bright as sunshine. Andre's eyes were soft and supportive. And Leah - the old crone who had given her hell since the day they met - actually winked at her. "Now and always," Anika promised, her voice strong, her heart light.

With that, Lucious lifted his glass above his head. "To the Empire!"

"To the Empire!" everybody shouted, and then the chant started up yet again. "One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, one of us!"

Amidst the gaiety, Lucious wordlessly slid Anika two sets of papers. The first was a corrected birth certificate with Hakeem listed as Bella's father, the way it should've been from the beginning. The second was a divorce settlement. Even with everything Anika had done for Empire and for the Lyon family, the number was still staggeringly high. There would be no need for lawyers, no drawn out separation. Anika and Lucious would divorce with dignity.

Thank you, Lucious mouthed, and squeezed Anika's hand. It wasn't just for what Anika had done for Cookie, or even because she'd married Lucious to save him from the Feds. It was Anika's gracious way of stepping aside, of righting the wrongs of the universe. As Malcolm had told her once, there was no shame in being second place to a woman like Cookie Lyon. Once Anika came to grips with that, it was amazing how much brighter her future became.


The story should've ended there.

The story should've ended with a small, intimate ceremony renewing the love of Lucious and Cookie Lyon. Jamal and Hakeem as groomsmen. Andre presiding over the nuptials of his mother and father. Bella as the world's loveliest flower girl. Lucious, handsome as always in tux and tie. Cookie in a beautiful gown, the baddest bitch alive.

Malcolm would have come, of course. Lucious would've talked Malcolm into it, or maybe Cookie would've demanded it. Anika would've been put off by first - maybe for play, maybe for real - but Malcolm ultimately would've taken Anika into his arms. He would've explained why he shunned family dinners, while Anika would've explained how important that engagement dinner was. There would've been forgiveness All would have been well. The celebration of a lifelong love, the acknowledging of a new love.

Instead, what started as a joyous occasion ended with guns drawn as Cookie was forced to take Bella from her mother's arms. A raid, an unjust raid initiated by a heartless woman with no evidence of the child abuse claims and no thoughts of the trauma she was causing for an innocent baby. The Lyons could make threats to take on the world, but Bella Lyon still disappeared into the system, untraceable and unverifiable.

"You think I don't know who's behind this?" Anika heard Lucious say as everyone filed out of the living room to make calls, write emails and do any and all kinds of research. "It's the DuBois!" Anika didn't pay attention to anything at that moment. All Anika could hear were the cries of her baby girl as she was rushed out the door.


For a moment, Anika hated Hakeem for not being by her side when the Lyons and the DuBois had a war council. But she couldn't blame him, not really, when she couldn't even take her shades off. Oh, how Anika wished she had Cookie's fight! Cookie, who had suffered at Angelo's hands the worst and for so long, but was still ready to go toe-to-toe (literally) with Diana DuBois for Bella's sake. As it was, it took all the strength in Anika's body just to sit there.

Despite the arguing, the accusations and Anika's tearful pleading, Diana wouldn't budge. "I am so sorry," Diana said to Anika, and one would almost believe that she was being sincere. "I think it's terrible that your child was taken. You are so much better than the company you keep."

Anika rose from her seat. She wasn't fooled, not for a second. "I am the company I keep!" she snapped.

"Gooble gobble, bitch," Cookie taunted under her breath.

"Even though Anika and I are getting divorced," Lucious spoke up, "she is still the blood of our blood. You mess with Anika Calhoun, you messin' with us. Remember that, Ms. DuBois."

Diana grew quiet. It never occurred to her that the Lyons would take Anika into their fold. That changed things. "I have to say I'm not exactly impressed," she finally replied. "Especially since your grandchild's own father didn't bother to show up today."

"You have no right bringing up Hakeem being missing," Anika fired back. "Where is Angelo, huh? Why has he suddenly disappeared after what he did to me?"

Everyone around both sides of the table began to murmur. "Out," Diana ordered her family. Everyone on Diana's side, including the lawyers, rose and filed out of the room without a word. The Lyons weren't so obedient, but left at Lucious's command. After a word with Cookie, Lucious left as well, shooting a worried look back at Cookie. That only left Cookie, Anika and Diana, who apparently felt bold enough to take both of them on.

"What did my son do to you, Anika?" The sweetness and concern in Diana's voice was gone now. "Are you talking about you, a married woman, seduced my son? If he broke your heart, honey, that is your fault, not his."

"That's not what I mean and you know it." Anika took a breath, trying to emulate Cookie's steely reserve. She felt like a child sitting next to Cookie. "Don't tell me that you don't know, Diana. I know that Angelo called you for help after he thought he killed me."

"My son would never put his hands on a woman," Diana said smoothly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"But I do." Cookie put forward. "The first time Angelo beat me, he called you and told you that I hit my head. The only thing my head hit was your son's fist. That wasn't the first time and it wasn't the last time, either-"

All of Diana's poise was gone in the face of Cookie's accusations. "Where is my son!?" she hissed under her breath. "I know you two hoodrats had something to do with him going missing!"

"Don't know, don't care," Cookie shot back. "But good riddance."

They knew. Of course they knew where Angelo was. Trapped in a bunker somewhere, or worse. But Diana didn't let on. She merely snapped her fingers. Once again, her brood came filing in like the creepy Stepford family that they were. "I have no idea what happened to your child," Diana repeated as the Lyons also reappeared. Again, she sounded so sincere. If Anika didn't have the Lyons in her corner, she might have been willing to believe Diana out of desperation. Certainly a woman with this much clout and power wouldn't stoop so low as to steal an infant, would she?

But even if Anika had been fooled, Cookie wasn't. "So...y'all really wanna go down this road?" she asked disgustedly. Diana didn't reply. All the Lyons could do was rise from the table. Cookie turned over a chair as she left, walking ahead of all the others. She was ready for war. But she had no idea where to strike.

As they made their ways to their cars in the parking garage, Anika saw the uncomfortable look exchanged between Lucious and Cookie. In the weeks since the Toronto debacle, Anika hadn't given Angelo a second thought. Never paid attention to the news stories that made mention of his disappearance. And even if she had, it never would've dawned on her, as it dawned on her right then, that Angelo DuBois was dead. "What did you do, Lucious?"Anika struck at Lucious, who didn't flinch from the blows. "You killed him! My baby's gone because of you!" No wonder Diana wasn't willing to turn Bella over. She could almost hear Diana's thoughts: they stole my baby, so I'll steal theirs. Anika would never see Bella again, just like Diana would never see Angelo again.

As Anika lashed out at Lucious, Cookie stepped forward to speak on Lucious's behalf. Lucious held up his hand and gave a subtle shake of his head. Let Anika think that Lucious was to blame for all of this, at least for now. If Anika knew who was really behind Angelo's death, she would fall apart completely.


With Bella having fallen off the face of the earth, Hakeem sank into a stupor. Anika tried to keep her hopes up, but every minute that passed without her daughter was like a year. Worse, Malcolm wasn't returning Anika's calls, or even Lucious's. There was only one other person Lucious could think to call, and it was a long shot.

For a man who'd had his career ruined by the Lyons, Tarik Cousins was surprisingly understanding about the kidnapping situation. Bella was his niece, after all, and he held no ill will towards his brother or his brother's wife. "We'll find her, Anika," Tarik assured. "Don't worry. Okay? I'm in your corner, no matter what happened in the past."

The DuBois were powerful, but they were sloppy and overconfident, even strolling around the neighborhood with Bella in tow. Finding them was easy. Getting to them, however, was hard. The DuBois had virtually everybody in their pocket - policemen, judges, court-appointed caretakers. Even the people Tarik thought he could count on turned out to either be useless, afraid or bought off.

It was a nearly a week before Tarik had news to share with Lucious about Bella. "Turns out that we're not the only ones chasing the baby," he informed Lucious grimly. "Someone is offering to tell Diana DuBois about the disappearance of her son in exchange for...well, I'm not really sure. I can't even figure out his motives. All I know is that resources and his power outstrip mine by far." Tarik pulled out a voice recorder and pressed the play button. "Tell me if you recognize the voice or not."

For a minute, there was nothing unusual - just Diana DuBois crying about her son and all his mayoral dreams. Lucious was just about to ask Tarik what he was supposed to be listening for when a male's voice filled the air. "Mrs. DuBois," said the voice on the recorder. "I want you to know that I don't hold anything against Angelo. There's no telling what Anika Lyon told him. This is about Bella, and the safest thing to do is to keep her away from the Lyon family. Bella is the key to getting your son back. You cannot let her fall back into the Lyons' hands, no matter what they offer your or bribe you."

The recording kept going, but Lucious couldn't hear the words. Blood was rushing in his ears, and his heart was pounding so loudly that he knew his brother could hear it. "Lucious? Are you okay?" Tarik placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Do you recognize the voice?"

"That..." Lucious struggled to form the words. It couldn't be, it just couldn't be. But Lucious had heard the recording with his own ears. He knew who it was, all right. It was the voice of betrayal. "That's Anika's ex-boyfriend," Lucious finally replied. "That's Malcolm DeVeaux."

TBC