Chapter 27 - Be Normal Pt. 2

A/N: Sadé's name is pronounced "Say-Dee" not "Sha-Day" or "Shaw-Day"! I never realized it might sound that way until now when a reader brought it to my attention and I googled it lol. So thank you for that & My bad. Anyways enjoy!

Marshall's POV:

— Tuesday, September 27th

I had just got off the phone with Sadé this morning before I left for work. It was nice to just hear her voice through the phone even if I couldn't see her. Even if it was just for a few minutes.

I finished up my eggs and bacon that I had made for myself before leaving to the studio. Once I arrived I went straight to the conference room since there was this huge meeting we had to attend with everybody at the studio and all the other important people that were apart of my crew.

"Good morning, Em. How was your trip?" Paul greeted.

"It was good, man." I greeted him as I dapped him up.

I took a seat at the head of the round table waiting for us to get started. We spoke about some merch stuff, album deadlines, and when we were going to film and release the music video for Boogie's single that I featured on. It would be the single that led to his album release shorty afterwards so it had to make an impression as a new artist of Shady Records. We came to the conclusion that we would film it next week. Once all the business side of things were taken care of, I bring the hate account to Paul's attention.

"Is there anything else any of you would like to discuss?" Paul addressed the room.

When it was clear that nobody else was going to speak up, I did.

"Yo, Paul, I actually do. Privately." He got the hint, and ended the meeting.

Everyone filled out the room while I stayed seated. Paul came back to his seat after thanking everyone and shaking hands. He folded his hands on the table, meaning business.

"What'd you want to discuss."

"I need you to take a look at this hate account that's terrorizing Sadé for me."

"Why? Sadé is not my client." He said unconcerned.

"I don't care if she's your client or not. I am. And I asked you to do it." I replied visibly annoyed already.

"Alright fine." He let out a huff, "But why is it so important? There's hate accounts made all the time."

He had a point, but he doesn't know what we know. He doesn't know the weird shit this account posts. It's not fucking normal.

"Because it's not normal. They leak info about her, they leaked the address of her party, they keep making fun of her, and it's getting to her, man. I don't want her to get bullied online like that. And it's freaky as hell! She said she keeps blocking & reporting the account, but they keep popping back up online. I ain't tech savvy, but I know once you block a motherfucker they ain't supposed to magically be unblocked if you ain't do it." I pointed out.

"That is weird. Alright I'll look into it for you. Just let me know the name of the account and I'll get on it." He confirmed.

Thank god. Lord knows I couldn't do it myself. I wrote the account name on a police of ripped paper and handed it to him. With that I walked out the conference room and went to work on some songs for my album.

Paul's POV:

I went back into my office getting some business work done. I was in a zone for the last few hours until I remembered that Marshall needed me to look into that little hate account for him. I really don't think it's that big of a deal. I've been working as a manager for high profile celebrities for years and they get hate all the time. So I'm sure whatever Sadé has going on can't be nearly as bad. If they were fine then surely she must be too.

I opened up Twitter and Instagram on my desktop, reading the name of the user Marshall wrote on a piece of paper for me.

@/anon8792. Okay. So unique. I sarcastically thought to myself as I typed in the name. Immediately the account popped up.

For a hate account, it had gained quite a decent following: 16k followers. Only following Sadé and no one else. Probably just to keep up tabs with her.

I start scrolling down the page to get a feel of it. Nothing weird so far. Just basic hate account things. Throwing jabs at her whenever they can, trashing all her videos, leaving hate comments, etc.

It is inquisitive on how they got the address to the Vegas party to begin with. I'll just leave at maybe one of the people who were invited accidentally showed it for a split second or didn't blur it out when posting about it, and they figured it out.

However the more I kept scrolling, the more interesting it got. And not in a good way. In a "what the fuck is this?" way. It's safe to say that this account is very alarming. Now I see why Marshall was so worried. This wasn't just a normal hate account. This was something more. The fact that they were able to consistently be unblocked without Sadé's doing said a lot. It spoke volumes. Whoever this person is wants her to see it. They want to get her attention. But why?

And the more I kept reading replies, and tweets, and comments on Instagram, the more I became worried for her safety. Something's not right. But maybe it's just some weird freak that had this obsession with her. It's too early to assume. I couldn't tell Marshall the extent of it yet because he'd flip his top, but I needed to tell him something. Just the basics.

Sadé's POV:

— Wednesday, The 28th, Chicago

Today was Wednesday which meant it was a work day for me. I make my own schedule, but I do like consistency in my life so I choose to work Monday through Friday. I was in the Jordyn's office, rolling around all over the room in the desk chair that had wheels on it like a child. It was a super chill day today. We were just adding dates of interviews, fashion shows, and red carpets that I needed to attend to the calendar, but it was making me bored out of my mind!

"Can you please stop scooting your butt all over the place in that chair? What are you, five?" She glanced at me amused, but with slight annoyance.

"Sorry, mom! Jeez." I grumbled, laughing.

"Chile, you're going to make me check into a nursing home soon. I swear."

"Hopefully it's a nice one at least." I joked.

She crumbed up a piece of paper and threw it at me. We were laughing our asses off. It's always a good time with her. Even though she's my manager, it's always fun. I guess making your bestie that's like a sister to you your manager counts for something.

"Okay, okay," I started once we settled down, "Seriously, I wanted to talk to you about something I've been thinking about recently." I finish.

I've been thinking a lot about taking Marshall's advice of taking fashion more seriously. Of course, I've always been into it like I mentioned previously and have deep roots with it, but I've always been scared. I've even thought about what exactly I'd do multiple times as far as product and branding goes. Plus I was going to do a collab fashion line a few months ago, butttt then I found out my ex cheated on me with the CEO so... there's that. Anyways, Marshall gave me that little push I needed though to make me do it. To fully submerge myself into the fashion industry instead of just dipping my feet in the water here and there.

"Which is?" She looked at me intently.

"I want to take my fashion more seriously." I let out with an exasperated sigh.

"What do you mean? You already take fashion seriously, Sae. You're modeling in Milan for fashion week in less than two weeks, you've modeled for multiple clothing brands, and you post occasional clothing videos. People are inspired by your style. What more could there be that you want to do? You're a lifestyle social media influencer. Fashion is included in that." She stated a bit taken aback.

"No, I know. And I love it. I do, but I don't just want to be seen as a "lifestyle influencer" anymore. I want to be something more specific. A fashion influencer to be exact. I want to pivot my career in that direction."

I hope that she understood what I was trying to say. It's not that I want to give up the type of content I post. I still want to do my vlogs, cooking videos, trends, routines, and other content, but I want to do fashion more than anything else.

"What are you getting at? I'm going to need you to be more clear with me." She leaned forward in her seat, seemingly more investing in the conversation.

"I want to start my own brand." I blurted out.

I finally got the courage to say the words out loud. And honestly, it felt good. Refreshing even. There was a moment of silence, however. That made me extremely nervous because I had no clue what she was thinking. My heart sank, all my confidence and courage that I had built up, plummeting. I felt like I could shit myself. What if she's thinks it's stupid? What if she flat out tells me no?

"Jordyn?" I quietly pipe up after what felt like forever in silence.

"I... I like that. I thinks it's a great idea. Genuinely I do." She beamed.

Oh thank goodness. I let out the biggest breath I was holding in, in relief.

"As your manager, I do have questions though. Like what specifically? Have you thought of a name?"

"Uhh, no name. I was thinking sunglasses, actually. Since you know how much I love a good accessory."

"Okay. Have you thought about cost, Sadé? We have to be realistic here. This isn't something that can happen over night. It's going to take a lot of time and money. A lot of effort. Are you ready for that?" She told me very critically.

"Well I'm only as ready as I ever could be. Money isn't an issue. You know that." I replied with deep thought.

"I know it isn't an issue. Your net worth speaks for itself. I just want to make sure you're willing to spend that much. These things aren't cheap, Sadé. We're talking manufacturing, employees, a warehouse, marketing, logistics, teams, advertising, samples, all of the works." She said typing away at her computer and calculating at the same time, "You're looking at investing an estimate of $1-2 million dollars if you want this to be successful & kick off. I'm with you, but if you aren't ready for that yet, I understand. Just give me the go head or the red light." She took her reading glasses off.

"I'm ready. I want to do this, forreal." I nervously smiled.

"Alright then. I guess we're developing a fashion brand today instead of scooting in chairs!" She giggled.

This is really happening. I can't wait to start this new journey of my life. It feels right.

Marshall's POV:

— Over In Detroit

Paul had called me into his office because he said he needed to talk to me about something important. So I was sat in front of him wondering what could be so important that I had to stop my recording session.

"Yes, Pauline?" I stifled a laugh at the nickname I had given him.

"This is not a time for games, Marshall. I called you in here because I need to talk to you about something serious." He deadpanned.

"Obviously. Otherwise I'd still be in my studio session getting work done."

"Whatever, man. Look, I went over the profile you told me about yesterday." He tilted his head.

I hope he found a way to shut this shit down.

"I think it's very important that you know about some of the things they post." He very carefully stated.

The fuck is he being so cautious for?

"I already seen some the creepy stuff they posted." I looked at him dumbfounded.

"No. I shifted through all of it. Just take a look." He said, handing me screenshots of tweets, and Instagram comments that he printed out.

I looked over all the images and was at a loss for words. What the hell? I did not think it was this bad. They were saying things that would be extremely hurtful considering her past trauma, and they were even threatening her. Whoever this person is, is a sick fuck. This is fucking ridiculous. I slammed the papers on the desk, getting pissed off just looking at them.

"Did you shut the account down?" I finally say.

"No. And I'm not going to."

"WHAT THE FUCK? WHY NOT?" I rage, staring dagger into him.

"Because! Whoever is in charge of this account clearly has some type of vendetta towards her. You think shutting the account down is going to do anything to help the situation Marshall?" He bit back.

"I DON'T CARE. I TOLD YOU TO SHUT. IT. DOWN. SHE DOESN'T NEED TO SEE THAT SHIT."

"Marshall, calm down." Paul growled at me.

"Do you not see that shit, man? They called her a fatass. She had an eating disorder before! You think that might not send her into a spiral!?" I replied exasperated, but still frustrated.

"I understand your anger, but hear me out."

"What?" I hissed.

"Getting the account taken down won't make this person go away. Clearly if they keep managing to get themselves unblocked somehow. So the next best thing we can do is to keep the account active. That way we can get more information about who this person is and maybe why. Then we can make them sign an NDA or sue them or something and they'll stop harassing Sadé." He explained.

I sat back in my chair taking deep breaths. He's right. We need to find out who this fucker is. If they keep popping back up they won't stop until they get the last laugh or whatever the fuck that means for them.

"So now what?"

"I'm going to see if one of the tech guys can find an IP address. It'll tell us where the person is located. Then we can work from there."

"Ight. That sounds good. Thank you, Paul."

I dapped him up, leaving his office to get back to work.