Bound By Contract

Chapter Twenty-Four

The white golf cart is waiting for me next to the guard house when Jared drops me off at the front gate of Neverland. The evening is cool, the trees and foliage are blowing noisily in the wind and the stars are lighting up the ranch perfectly.

Michael’s ever-vigilant fans yell enthusiastically as I jump into the cart and drive off towards the house hidden behind the hill. The fans are always waiting at the gate, hopeful for a glimpse of their beloved star, but ever since the trial started their numbers are larger. The ones out here tonight hold signs of love and support. If only Michael could understand how much he is loved by not only his family but by the world.

It’s late and I’m shivering. I park the cart and run into the warm house and jump up the stairwell, dreaming of my room and my cozy blankets.

“Where have you been?” a voice demands, which stops me in my tracks. I turn around, I see my fuming sister in law Janet jump up from the sofa in the living room.

Frozen and shocked, I watch her march towards me, her dark eyes burning in anger. She scares the hell out of me. “Wha-at?” I whimper.

“So I ask my brother where you are, he says he doesn’t know.” She demands, her head flailing.  I stutter in response; when Janet is angry it’s very hard to get a word in edgewise. I feel like I have to explain the situation to her and redeem myself.

God help me.

“I said, what do you mean you don’t know? Where is she, Michael?” she continues throwing her hands into the air. “And do you know what he said? He said that she’d probably be with her boyfriend the chauffer!” Her face is as red as a tomato. “What’s wrong with you, Christina? Don’t you have any idea what he’s going through?”

Tears start to stream down my face. Of course I know what he’s going through. What am I supposed to do? “Look Janet…”

“No, don’t you ‘look Janet’ me, because I don’t want to hear it.”

I turn away from her and resume my path up the staircase defeated and unwilling to listen to any more abuse. I can understand where she’s coming from, however misdirected and mistaken her ire may be. But why all the fighting? I can’t stand it anymore.

“You better get it together woman. You hear me?” Janet yells up the stairway.

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I didn’t think anything could snuff my burning enthusiasm at setting things straight with Michael, but it was extinguished after marching into his room and laying eyes on him sitting on the floor Indian style looking solemnly out of his window. He didn’t even turn to acknowledge my presence when I entered.

“Michael, we need to talk.”

He is as still as a statue, his tearstained eyes are glued on the glass and his bare arms hugging his legs covered in his blue pajama bottoms. I let another tear fall at the heartbreaking sight; of the broken man I loved, and the memory of his happy smile and contagious laughter seem so far away that sometimes I wonder if I have dreamed it all.

“Michael,” I say in a softer tone. “Michael, we really need to talk.”

“What do you want,” he responds dryly.

I enter deeper into the room. “I can’t do this anymore.”

He turns and looks at me sharply, his eyes piercing. He turns again to the window. “You have to.”

Raindrops start to fall of the windowpane. Michael’s eyes fall to the floor as well. “I know I have to, Michael, but you’re making my life impossible!”