#73: say my name - the final chapter

it's the after after - the meeting concludes

hi friend!!! if you haven’t read part 1, part 2, or part 3 of this series, do that first, then come back.

*note* this is a work of fiction. don’t come for me at my fictional story with some pieces of truth (not from the meet-up) included. 

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previously on … say my name

👆🏽 in my Power voice

"I didn’t want to face everyone in the same room. I felt like we could just go our separate ways - as a group - forever. I knew I could have some sort of relationship with you. And if I’m being honest, it didn't matter if I didn't talk to LaTavia ever again."

~

"Because they were pushing me out. I saw the writing on the wall. No pun intended. But I did," Farrah explains. "When I missed one promo event, Matthew never forgave me for that. You know I was well enough to join the group the very next day, but he told me to stay home."

~

"Well, if we are going to talk about everything, like B said, let’s start with Farrah," LaTavia throws into the conversation like it's a game of spades, and she just throws down her biggest card.

---

Day before — Michelle

"Okay, so back this up for me. You said Kelly convinced Beyoncé that you and LaTavia could be replaced?"

"Well, it wasn’t blatantly, but Kelly didn’t need as much convincing as B did," LeToya responds.

"And how do you know all of this? We were told that y’all weren’t even on speaking terms."

"Solange."

"Girl, you about to make me drop the phone for the second time. Solange told you this?"

"She did. She hung around the group a lot when we were getting started. She was young, but at times, it felt like she was one of us. She would talk to Kelly more than anyone."

Michelle furrows her eyebrows at what she just heard, wondering why it sounds familiar.

LeToya pauses before she says her next thought. She knows this is about to open the door even further.

She decides to let her replacement in on something only the original members of DC know about.

"B and I were best friends before they were. When I started dating Brian, I started spending more time with LaTavia than B because we were dating the twins. Kelly swooped in and filled B’s empty friendship space, not leaving a lot of room for talks with Solange anymore."

A gasp comes from the other end of the line. Michelle covers her mouth in shock.

LeToya continues, "Solange heard her dad telling her sister and Kelly that Tavia and I could be replaced; all she heard was her sister's voice begging her not to replace us. She said Kelly was quiet."

"She told you out of spite," Michelle questions. "Do either of them know you know this?"

"She did. And I don’t even know how to answer that second question."

The Meeting

Away from everyone else, LaTavia takes a deep breath before responding to Farrah's question.

"Yeah, we just met up. But things are... intense. B said it’s cool, but the five of us need some time to sort things out before you get here, Far."

Farrah nods, even though LaTavia can't see her. "Got it. I'll wait a bit longer then. Thanks for the heads up, T."

"See you soon," LaTavia echoes before ending the call, leaving Farrah alone with her thoughts.

“What am I about to walk into,” Farrah says to herself

Night before — LeToya

LeToya absorbs the weight of Beyoncé's revelations, her mind racing with questions and concerns. "Your father didn't approve of Brandon because he wasn't a big enough star? And you confided in LaTavia about this? Why not me?" Her voice trembles with a mix of confusion and hurt.

Beyoncé lets out a heavy sigh. "I kept it buried, Toya. Trusted my dad's judgment. I didn't realize then that he wasn't done making decisions for us."

"So we were next?" LeToya's voice drops to a whisper, the gravity of their situation sinking in.

With a sigh, Beyoncé replies, “Yes.”

"Are we really ready for what's coming tomorrow?"

"I'm not," Beyoncé admits, her mind spinning with the implications of their conversation. "But let's keep this between us for now. No need to complicate things further. "

LeToya responds lightly despite the weight of their conversation. "We're in this together. No matter what."

Beyoncé echoes her sentiment. "No matter what." They both understand that tomorrow's meeting will bring even more challenges, but for now, they find solace in their bond, ready to face whatever comes their way.

The Meeting

Tensions rise as Kelly confronts LaTavia's mention of Farrah, questioning her relevance. "Why are you bringing up Farrah?" Kelly's voice is sharp, cutting through the tense atmosphere.

LaTavia stands her ground, asserting her point. "Because B said let’s talk about everything," she responds, her tone unwavering.

Kelly dismisses Farrah's significance, labeling her as nothing more than an extra from a music video who was at the right place at the right time. But LaTavia challenges this perception, saying, "That’s not what she told me, Kelendria," mimicking a similar tone B had earlier.

It happened quickly. Within seconds, Kelly was inches away from grabbing LaTavia. Beyoncé intervenes just in time, stepping between them and emphasizing the importance of including everyone in the conversation.

Kelly remains defensive, interpreting Beyoncé's actions as agreement. "See, she agrees," she asserts, refusing to acknowledge the validity of LaTavia's perspective.

“I do not,” Beyoncé snaps back. “What I was saying was that LaTavia has a point. We can’t talk about everything without including everyone. And she is important to the story, Kelly.” 

Beyoncé’s back is to everyone but Kelly. Michelle can see the side of her face slightly, but not her eyes. Only Kelly can see her eyes. 

She continues, looking directly at Kelly. 

“If I recall, you didn’t have a problem with swapping group members,” emphasizing the ‘s’ as a reminder that only one of the two new members is here. “I remember only my voice yelling at my father that we can’t replace them.” 

Michelle and LeToya lock eyes. 

“You said nothing, Kelly. Nothing. You left me fighting for this, for us,” gesturing towards the side of the room that only LaTavia and LeToya occupied.

“Is this why you were mad at me earlier,” Kelly asks.

“Mad at you earlier? I was not mad at you earlier. You started talking some numbers bullshit. Then started asking me why I was friends with LeToya.” 

LeToya’s voice enters the conversation strongly as if she is the most important person in the room. 

“It’s time for me to talk.” A pause.

“Why does it matter,” she questions. “Why does it matter that we were friends, Kelly? We all were friends,” moving her hands in circles on the side of the room that occupied only the original members of Destiny’s Child. 

Michelle notices it this time and shifts in her seat. 

LaTavia’s phone buzzes. She looks. A text from Farrah. It reads - 15 minutes out. Two taps later, LaTavia signals back a thumbs up to her ETA. 

“Okay, so y’all best friends again,” Kelly responds, looking at LeToya with slight disdain. 

“You know what? This doesn’t even matter,” LeToya says, moving her hand back and forth between her and Kelly so she understands her point. “You are blind when it comes to her,” now pointing at Destiny’s Child’s most successful group member. 

LaTavia decides now is the time to share Farrah’s ETA with the group. “She will be here in 15 minutes.”

Michelle’s head snaps back into the conversation.  

“How do you even know her,” Michelle says, eyes burrowing into LaTavia.  

The other members of DC seemed shocked to hear her voice, forgetting that she had been in the room and in the group. 

Beyoncé snapped up, instantly knowing what number 2 was going to do next. “Let’s take a pause for a moment. I think we need a little air. Toya, take Tavia to the balcony.” 

“I can get some air on my own,” she says, getting up and storming out to the balcony. 

LeToya waits a few moments before joining her. 

Farrah

Farrah looks down at her text thread with LaTavia. The person with whom she shared a group title with but never shared the group with. 

Thumbs up. That’s all she responded with. 

She scrolls up to older text messages with LaTavia. There weren’t many. They mainly kept up with each other through social media. Their text thread was reserved for the more important conversations. Those didn’t happen often, especially after the 2017 Jagged Edge Unsung episode aired during the lockdown. 

Farrah remembers it like yesterday. LaTavia blew up her phone, asking her why she said those things about a group she was in but also basically wasn’t. 

It took them a while to move past that. 

Farrah finds the text she is looking for. It says they were meeting at 6 p.m. She looks at her clock; it’s only 8:45. She got a call 90 minutes after they met. 

How in the world did my name come up so quickly, she thought as her black Suburban pulled into an unmarked mid-rise building. 

The door opens. Before anything else, Farrah sees a black, clean-shaven man in his mid-40s.  “They are not ready for you yet,” he says. 

Farrah follows him into the plush but not overly luxurious lobby. From outside, this looks like an office building, but when you enter, it immediately feels like a hotel. 

They get off on the 5th floor. She notices there are only seven floors and a PH button. They must be on the PH floor, Farrah thinks. 

As if he is reading her thoughts, the black, clean-shaven man in his mid-40s, speaks, “When they are ready for you, someone will bring you the penthouse suite. Until then, you can wait here.”

The elevator door opens to what looks like a condo you would see on a home renovation show. 

The elevator closed before Farrah could turn around to ask how long it would be. It seemed to be heading up. Probably towards the penthouse. 

The Meeting

On the balcony, two of the three former members of Destiny’s Child stand in silence, overlooking the city they still call home. 

It’s almost as if they are playing a silent game of double dutch. No one knows where to begin.

LeToya knew she would have to be first. Tavia will always win the silent game. 

“Now, why were you popping off on Michelle? What did she do?” 

“What did she do,” LaTavia responds with enormous confusion. “Girl, what room are you standing in? She stole our jobs.”

“She didn’t steal our jobs. They didn’t know.” 

“They didn’t ask questions either.” 

“Would you?”

LaTavia stops to think about this for a moment. She decides to answer truthfully. “No.” 

“So what was that about?”

“It should have just been the four of us, at least at first.” 

LeToya lets out a barking laugh. “Now, if I remember, you invited Farrah, who is probably somewhere in this building right now. But now you say you wish it was only the four of us.” 

“There are two different groups here using the same name.” 

“Three once Farrah gets here,” LeToya corrects. 

“My point is,” she continues, “if Michelle was going to be included, which clearly she was going to be, Farrah had to be here too. She has feelings that need to be heard, too. She deserves an opportunity to say her peace … to everyone.” 

“I can respect that. But you still wild for assuming that B would even go for it.” 

“Hey, what can you say? I’m a risk taker.” 

“You calm now?”

LaTavia nods and signals them to go back in and join the group. 

LeToya slides the balcony door back open to see only Michelle and Beyoncé. 

“Where did Kelly go,” LaTavia asks, looking around the room. 

“She left,” Michelle responds with a tone very different from the one she used earlier. 

But LaTavia responds to her oldest friend instead. “B, where did she go?”

Farrah

It had been 45 minutes, and still, no one had sent for Farrah. For the first 20 minutes, she wandered around the spacious three-bedroom, four-bath condo. It wasn't until she reached the primary suite that she noticed a suitcase and clothes hanging in the walk-in closet. Someone was staying here. There was no ID tag on the suitcase, leaving Farrah to wonder whose temporary quarters she was standing in.

It had to be another member of the group, she thought to herself. But since there was only one suitcase instead of two, she ruled out it being either T or LeToya. They would have stayed here together. So it was either Michelle or Kelly staying here. Based on the clothing choices in the closet, Farrah guessed it was Kelly.

Glancing at the gigantic wall clock above the fireplace, Farrah noted it was 10 minutes shy of an hour. Just then, the elevator door binged open, and in marched Kelly, looking frustrated with tears falling from her eyes. She didn't notice Farrah at first, but when she lifted her head, she stopped immediately in her tracks.

"What are you doing in here?" Kelly demanded.

"I was asked to wait here," Farrah replied.

"Wow, she has the whole building, and she stashes you in my suite. Unbelievable," Kelly muttered to herself, ignoring Farrah's presence.

Deciding to make herself known, Farrah walked in front of Kelly, who was pacing around the living room. "Hello, Kelly. It’s good to see you. How are you?" she said, enunciating every word and syllable.

Instead of responding, Kelly just stared, a smile curling up on her face as she began to realize what was happening. "Now you're being weird," Farrah said, backing away from her.

"LaTavia said you were coming, but it didn’t really register until right now. It’s really been..." Kelly trailed off, trying to remember the last time she saw Farrah. "I actually think the last time I saw you, you told me you weren’t feeling good. You stayed back. We went to a performance, and I never saw you again."

"Correct," Farrah responded.

"So why are you here?" Kelly asked.

"LaTavia invited me."

The Meeting

There was a moment of silence before the room erupted in laughter.

"You had Farrah wait in Kelly’s suite on purpose," LeToya managed to get out through her laughs. "So if she storms out, she would run into her regardless. You ruthless, B."

"I mean, it was the first thing I thought when my security messaged me and told me she had arrived. I knew we weren’t ready to bring her into the conversation yet," Beyoncé admitted.

Stopping her thought and turning towards LaTavia, Beyoncé asked, "How do you even know her?" It was the same question, but with a slightly different tone than Michelle gave her before their balcony break.

Over the next several minutes, LaTavia told the story of how she and Farrah connected. She explained how they kept up with each other and why she believed Farrah deserved to be there. At the end, LaTavia revealed Farrah shared with her that Beyoncé's father had told Farrah to stay away, even when she felt better enough to join the next performance.

"I didn’t know what to expect today, but I damn sure didn’t expect any of this," Beyoncé responded to what she had just heard.

"I have so many more questions, but they don’t even matter at this point. She is here now,” she continues, with her head lying on the back of the plush armchair. “And the first person she is going to see is an enraged Kelly,"

"What do we do now?" Michelle asked the group.

"We go to them," LeToya said matter-of-factly.

And with that, one, two, four, and five got up and walked toward the elevator.

The 5th Floor

As Farrah was telling Kelly the story of how she and LaTavia connected, the elevator dinged, revealing the rest of Destiny’s Child.

Mid-sentence, Farrah stopped and stared. While this was something she had yearned for what seemed like decades, anxiety hit her in the chest, causing her to carefully sit down on the barstool at the kitchen island she was standing next to.

Her hands covered her mouth in shock and disbelief watching LaTavia, LeToya, Michelle, and Beyoncé walk out of the elevator.

All eyes were on Farrah. Farrah’s eyes were locked on Beyoncé, who hadn’t stopped walking towards her.

The group's forever leader walked right up to the last and final member of Destiny’s Child and embraced her in a hug that made everyone in the room's eyes begin to water.

"You deserve to be here. And I didn’t think you did. But she," gesturing to LaTavia, "told me the full story. And when I say full story, I mean full story."

"Well, what did she say?" Kelly interrupted.

LeToya had had enough. She stepped forward to address Kelly, but Beyoncé beat her to the first word.

"Kelly, I love you. I’ve loved you for more than half of my life. You’ve been my closest friend. But the last 24 hours have been a complete shock. The things I’ve seen you do and say, the stories I’ve heard about how you were back then," Beyoncé's words trailed off.

"We are all here now. Tell us … tell everyone," she continued, while grabbing Farrah’s hand, "why are we here?"

Kelly took a deep breath before revealing her why.

"I want to go on tour. Our second album turns 25 this year, and I think it would shock the world if they saw all of us on stage."

The room was surprisingly quiet. No one erupted in laughter. No one huffed or made side comments. It was quiet. The room was thinking, together.

"Well, is anybody going to say anything?" Kelly finally said.

Michelle was the first to speak. "What about Farrah?"

Beyoncé responded, "It's all of us or none of us."

The After

As the evening unfolded, all six members of Destiny’s Child spent time together. Some revisited old wounds, while others decided to leave certain topics untouched in these moments of healing and love.

Beyoncé opened up to LaTavia about her feelings regarding Brandon and the past. LaTavia acknowledged her faults and shortcomings. They hugged each other tightly and made a promise to do better.

Michelle and Farrah shared a long embrace, reminiscent of their time as group members. Farrah expressed her wish for more communication from Michelle, but understood her perspective that there was no ill will between them—they simply lacked previous history to draw upon.

Despite Beyoncé's efforts to facilitate a conversation between LeToya and Kelly, it became evident that it wasn't going to happen. However, they both agreed to be cordial and respectful towards each other moving forward.

The evening drew to a close, with Farrah updating everyone on her life and career. She even shared some ideas to help Kelly with the planning process.

The room felt cold when Farrah stepped out of the elevator hours ago. Now, it’s filled with the people she has admired for most of her life. And it now feels warm and full of energy. Like a warm summer day.

6 months later

TMZ blasts on Matthew Knowles's TV screen while he is making a turkey and cheese sandwich. 

The internet is too complex for him, so he keeps up with his gossip through the few shows left on TV reporting celebrity news. 

His phone is plugged up in his home office, so he isn’t aware of all the alerts that are popping up on his home screen. 

“This just in. All six members of Destiny’s Child will be doing a one-night-only benefit concert at Houston’s NRG Stadium,” a TMZ reporter shares. “All proceeds to this concert will go to fight homelessness in the city of Houston.” 

Matthew immediately searches for his phone to call his daughter. Remembering he left it in his office. 

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weeelllllllllll… what did you think??

writing this series was so much fun. i truly hope you enjoyed it. Please respond, comment, like, share or text me and tell me how you really feel.

and with that friend, I am back on a slight lunch hiatus. it’s back to my book writing i go.

we will have lunch again soon. xo, jemia

p.s. i know this hit your inbox after dinner. so let’s call today the after after.