✴️
Michael
"Mother, Joseph.." I say with a hint of shakiness while taking a hold of Prince's hand. Prince glanced at me with a small, yet nervous grin. My parents sat in front of me with an unreadable expression on their faces.
"We're engaged." I reveal, and they both stared at me blankly for a second before they both smiled at the same time. I furrowed my eyebrows slightly at their reaction.
"We're very proud of you, Michael." They say in sync, with a demonic voice. My blood immediately ran cold, tightening my grip onto Prince's hand.
Their eyes turned pitch black and out of nowhere two figures with bunny rabbit masks stood right behind them holding guns behind their heads, and before I could speak, they pulled the trigger. Blood splattered all over me, and I was shaking so bad that I couldn't even utter a gasp.
I slowly turn my head towards Prince, but it was no longer Prince. It was another figure with a bunny mask that took his place and was now squeezing my hand, causing me to scream at the top of my lungs.
|Friday November 26, 1987|
|Santa Barbara County, California|
|Neverland Valley Ranch|
|6:01 am|
I shot up from the bed and started breathing heavily, with beads of sweat on my forehead and dried tear stains on my face. I felt two soft hands grab the both of my arms, and I snapped my head in their direction.
"Hey, it's me. Calm down, it's alright." Prince says reassuringly. My breathing quickly calmed down as I realized it was him and I felt more safe than I did before. He wiped some of the tears off of my cheeks and kissed my forehead.
"Did you have a nightmare? I heard you screaming all the way from downstairs." He asks, scooting closer to me. I stared at him, zoning out for a second before I answered. I sighed, closing my eyes.
"I don't know.." I trailed off. Prince gave me a look, implying that I clearly had a nightmare but I just refused to admit it. I brushed a piece of my curls out of my face, "When did you get home?"
"Just now," He raised his eyebrow slightly. "I decided to leave early. That's not important though, what was this all about?"
"Nothing," I denied. He crossed his arms, waiting for a real answer. I looked down for a second before making eye contact with him again, "Can we just..skip the dinner tonight?"
"Skip? You're the one who wanted me to come out here for that in the first place," He said confusingly. I sighed, letting a hand slide down my face.
"Why are you all of a sudden changing your mind? Now you wanna' listen to me?" Prince stands up from the bed, rolling his eyes but stays put next to me.
"Maybe I just wanted you to come back " I excuse, Prince's irritated stance chilled out a bit and his eyes softened while he looked at me.
"Sit back down, please." I beg, grabbing his hand. He hesitated for a second before sitting back down. I took a deep breath.
"Listen, I'm sorry okay? I'm sorry for not telling you how we got married, and bringing in a detective without your consent. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just thought I was doing the right thing. By us bringing in someone to help with the crazy things that have been happening, could keep us safe. Most importantly, I didn't think it mattered how we got married because I loved you regardless. I understand the way it happened wasn't ideal, and I should've let you know way sooner but you didn't give me a chance to explain. You left, and that hurt me. You can't just shut me down everytime we have an argument."
Prince kept his attention on me, hearing everything I said clearly and looked back down in deep thought. His eyes trailed back up onto me and he tightened his grip onto my hand, making me feel a little bit of relief.
"You're right," He apologizes. "I shouldn't of walked out on you, that was wrong of me. I'm sorry, I said some things I didn't mean and would never hurt you purposely. If I'm being honest, I was scared. I do trust you, you're not insecure, and I will always take your word. I was just so caught off guard by the truth that I didn't know who to believe, and on top of what you revealed to the detective, was a lot to take in."
I nodded, understanding his side. Prince took off his jacket, motioned for me to scoot over as he snuggled right next to me on the bed. I laid my head on his chest as he traced circles on my back.
"If you still don't want the investigation process, I can put a stop to it." I suggest, really not wanting to but I wanted to make sure he was comfortable about it, "I know the Tyka situation is a very sensitive topic to talk about."
"Don't worry about it." Prince reassures without hesitation, "I think it's time to get to the bottom of things, I can't hide from it forever. Especially now that we have kids "
He paused for a second before admitting, "I've also been experiencing the same crazy things that you have.."
My eyes slightly widened and I got up to look at him, "Why on earth would you lie and say that you didn't?"
"I don't know." Prince sighed, "I was shocked, I didn't want to believe what I saw."
"What do you mean? Tell me."
He eyed me up and down briefly before looking away. Prince shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck, and I noticed his eyes started to get watery. My face softened, then I started to get an idea of what he was about to say, and my heart dropped, "Did you also get a tape?"
Prince nodded, "Yeah.."
"Listen." I grab the both of his hands, "Don't worry, we'll fix this. Once we see José again we'll make sure to tell him everything. Right now, I don't want you to think about any of this. We shouldn't."
"Then what do you suggest we do? Are you sure you don't want to go and see your family?" He asks, hoping that was something I wanted to do regardless of what he felt.
"No, not right now anyway." I chuckle nervously, "You were right. It's just not the time or place to see my parents yet. We'll talk to them soon, just not right now."
"You think?" He says with an eye roll. I shake my head and wave him off, then scoot closer to him.
"How about we just have a Thanksgiving of our own?" I peck his lips, "We can go out to dinner, and finally have some alone time."
"Oh really?" Prince smirks, and looks down at me, "What about them?" He nods towards the door, talking about Lenard and Montece.
"I'll still have them go and have a good time. It'll be their first time meeting the rest of my family anyway." I shrug, not wanting them to miss out.
Prince nods, stays silent for a little bit and suddenly I felt his hand go down my pants. I quickly grabbed his hand and sighed, "I meant alone time, later. It's six in the morning and I'm tired."
He groaned, removing his hand with a chuckle, "Fine, go to sleep. You owe me some later though."
"I promise." I tiredly giggle while bringing him closer so we could gey more comfortable. After about two random conversations we had later, he and I both fell asleep.
〰️
|Monday, December 1st, 1987|
|Rocks Springs, Wyoming|
|Highland Park|
|7:24 am|
Prince
"Do I really gotta' wear this? These uniforms are wack." Lenard complained, wrapping his tie around his neck.
"Imma' wack you upside the head if you don't hurry up." I said, kneeling to his level and tying his tie for him.
Today was Lenard and Montece's first day at their new school ever since we moved. We decided that a private school would be best for them due to me and Michael being their parents. We didn't want a repeat to what happen the last time and also thought they would be more safe. Was it the normal experience we wanted them to have? No, but I feel like they'll adapt to it in no time.
Michael finally finished his first leg of his tour and was now home for the time being until February. Even though he occasionally had to fly back out to LA to finish filming for his new upcoming movie Moonwalker, it nice to have all of us together. Lenard also happened to be playing one of the lead roles with two other kids as well in the movie, which made me proud. He was so natural in front of the camera and I was extremely impressed, Michael and I couldn't wait until everything was finished.
We were halfway moved into our house, there was still things to unpack but we were getting there. Me on the other hand, was still working on writing some songs for my Lovesexy album. I hadn't talked to my band or Cat since the incident at the restaurant. I was a little hesitant to be honest, I didn't know if I really could trust any of them anymore after what I heard. Of course I wasn't mad a Cat, but I was afraid to call and check on her since I thought she would be mad at me. Sheila, man, I don't know. I needed more answers. I was going to get them soon, especially with the investigation we had going on.
"Now go put your shoes on, we're leaving in ten minutes." I warn him with my eyebrow raised as I left his side, going downstairs to see Montece and Michael having a silly conversation while he ate his cereal.
"Lenard will be down soon." I tell Michael as I grab his backpack off of the table. The both of them laugh, and clearly he didn't listen to me at all. I pinch his arm and he winced, jumping a little.
"Are you listening to me?" I ask, and Michael puts his hands up in defense.
"Sorry, Jeez." Michael apologizes with a slight eye roll, "What did you say?"
I look at clock on the wall and sigh, shaking my head, "Nevermind, it's time to go anyway."
"Damn, babe. You're acting like it's your first day of school." Michael teases while he takes Montece's empty bowl and puts it in the sink. Montece hops off of the stool and runs to the living room to grab his bag.
"Keep it up, Michael." I threaten, not feeling in the mood for his games right now. Lenard finally comes down the steps with an annoyed expression on his face.
"I look stupid." Lenard sighs, looking down at his outfit, "Can I just put on my MC Lyte T-shirt?"
"For the last time, no. Do you both have everything?" I stress, and they both nod their heads.
"Alright, then let's go." Michael says in an excited tone. He picks up the keys from the counter and I snatch them from his hands.
"I'm driving." I say, cutting my eyes at him before I nod my head at the kids to start heading out the door.
"Come on, please?" Michael begs, reaching for the keys but I pull it back. He sighs, and crosses his arms, "I can drive, you know?"
"No, you can't." I said with honesty, "You got a ticket the last time you were in the driver's seat."
"I wasn't even going that fast." Michael defends, waving me off. I roll my eyes playfully, he sure was going that fast. But, whatever. I guess I was being a little uptight at the moment. I just was a little nervous for the boys and wanted everything to go well for them.
"Fine, knock yourself out." I toss him the keys and he catches them. He smiles sarcastically, "Thanks."
As we walk out of the door I quickly push his shoulder just to tease him, and his pushes me back, causing me to run into the door frame. He tried to get away but I was able to get him into a head lock, and we both laugh.
"Okay, okay. Stop." Michael pleads and I let go of him gently. We both make our way to the car, making sure the boy's seatbelts were buckled and then we were on our way to drop them off at school.
Once we arrive, we make sure to walk them both to their classes. A lot of other parents were doing the exact same thing, so we weren't the only ones. First, we took Montece to his class. However, Lenard didn't like that one bit.
"Can you guys go now? You're embarrassing me." Lenard whispers, trying to push us out of the room.
"Alright, Alright." Michael laughs, "Be good, okay?"
"If you get in trouble, it's gonna be-" I say but get cut off.
"Me and you, I got it." Lenard finishes my sentence, and I chuckle. I kiss on the head before we left his classroom. As we walked hand in hand to the car, I spotted a woman not too far away from us leaning against her car, staring. She was brown skinned woman with shades on and red high heels. I slightly raised my eyebrow, a little startled by her stare but decided to nod at her and give a polite smile. In return, she smiled back and waved.
That was weird, I thought. I got back into the car, taking in what just happened. Michael put the key into the ignition, starting the car and then looked over at me, "What's wrong?"
I blinked a couple of times before turning to look at him. I cleared my throat and smiled a little bit, "I'm fine."
Michael nodded, reaching over to rest his hand on mine as he began to drive
〰️
|Saturday, December 6th, 1987|
|Universal City, California|
|MTV Video Music Awards|
|8:22 pm|
Michael
"I still don't think you're making the right decision." I whisper to Prince as his band quietly sits down on the couch in the dressing room.
"Just trust me." He whispers back, and turns forward to face them.
A couple days later, me and Prince had to fly out back to California for the MTV Video Music Awards. Originally, the show should've been in September but for some reason they had to push it back all the way to the end of the year. We didn't want the boys traveling back and forth, especially with them just getting back in school so Prince's assistant was at home with them at the moment until we returned. We had made appearances in public together but this was our first time making an appearance together at an award show as a couple. It was extremely chaotic on the red carpet, but other than that it wasn't too bad. I wouldn't lie and say we didn't get negative looks from others, but we didn't care.
Prince just finished performing Sign O' The Times and Play In Sunshine, which he was amazing as always. Afterwards though, Prince wanted to have a discussion with the band about the drugging situation. He told me how he wanted to handle it beforehand, and even though I strongly disagreed he swore to me that it was the right choice. Honestly, if it were me I would've fired everyone, but he thinks differently than I do.
"Alright, listen." Prince says, trying to get straight to the point. I decided to take a seat in the chair next to me, and lean back since I already knew how it was going to go.
"At this point, I don't care who did it." He starts off, "All I know is, the lying, sabotaging, and the childish bullshit ends here. This will not happen again. At the end of the day, all of you were involved in it somehow and I thought you guys were better than that. I trusted all of you but my trust has really ran thin, what happened that night could've put me and Michael in danger. You're very lucky that I'm not firing anyone right now. There's thousands of people that would love to be in your shoes, however, I said that I wasn't going to make any changes for the next tour, so I'm going to keep my word, for the sake of stress and time. So with that being said, this is your last chance and do not take my warning for granted. One more issue and you're out, understand?"
I clear my throat, and he turned around to look at me. I give him a look, reminding him to add one more thing. He sighs, and turns back around.
"That goes for you too, Sheila." He points out. Cat was sitting on the arm of the couch and I noticed that she was holding back a grin.
Sheila opened her mouth to say something, but instead she glared at me for a little bit, looked down and smirked before nodding her head. She shrugged, "Okay."
Just okay? I raised my eyebrow at her slightly, noticing her wicked behavior. I could see right through her. He stepped to the side and nodded towards the door, "You're free to go."
Everyone got up and made their way out of the room. Cat was the last one to file behind them and before she left the door, Prince grabbed her wrist gently.
"Hey," He called out to her. Cat turned around and looked at him with an amused look on her face. He roll his eyes playfully, "Listen, I'm sorry. You and Michael were right. I'm not mad at you or anything, you know I could trust you. We're still cool?"
"I guess." She says sarcastically, and pushed his shoulder harshly, making him stumble a little to the right. Damn she was strong. They laughed and I watched them in silence with a soft smile on my face. Prince and Cat made a small conversation before she left as well.
I stood up from the chair and he turned around, "Can you stop looking at me like that? I know what I'm doing."
"Do you though?" I asked with my arms crossed, tilting my head to the side, "Prince, here you go again. Did you see the way she looked at me? It's clear that Sheila is the problem."
"I know." He whispered, so no one could hear us, "That's why I'm keeping her around, we need to catch her. If we get some type of evidence on her then this could help us figure out what's going on. If I fire her, then we don't."
"Or we could just have the detective investigate her?" I bring up, "All of them?"
"Yeah but it would be much faster if we take matters into our own hands too." He stresses, I sigh and shake my head. I grab the both of his hands reassuringly, wanting to compromise, "We'll do the investigation, but just trust me on this. It'll be worth it in the end."
I stare at him blankly for a little bit before closing his eyes and exhaling, "Whatever."
"Trust me." He says before leaning in to kiss my cheek.
〰️
|Sunday, October 23rd, 2010|
|Chanhassen, Minnesota|
|Paisley Park|
|5:13 pm|
Prince
"Take care of yourself, okay dad? I'll call you tomorrow." Paisley reminds me for the hundredth time. I chuckle, rolling my eyes as I laid back on the couch.
"No you don't. You have other things you need to worry about, like getting some sleep for your show tomorrow? Isn't late in New York?"
"It's only 8, dad. Jeez, I feel like I'm thirteen right now." She laughs which makes me smile. Paisley was a professional ballet dancer who owned her own studio here in Minnesota but also worked in New York. She's been doing this ever since she was young and when she was 13, living in New York for a little bit to achieve her dreams, I would always make sure to call her and make sure she was doing what she was suppose to do.
Now, I keep trying to convince her to just move to New York all together so she wouldn't stress herself out by traveling all the time but she refused. Paisley wanted to stay close to me no matter what, and if I was being honest, I didn't mind at all. However, I just felt extremely guilty that I damn near gave my own kids a heart attack after a they found out about my secret. All they did at the moment was worry about me.
"You'll always be my little girl no matter how old you get." I say truthfully, "But seriously, get some sleep. I love you."
"I love you too." She replies in a caring tone. We both say our goodbyes before we hang up the phone. I set my Nokia cellphone to the side before I reach down to pet my cat, Winter. Michael got me Winter for my birthday years ago, so she was pretty old.
"I guess it's just you and me now, Winter." I say to her quietly, letting out a sigh. I look around briefly in silence before something catches my eye on the book shelf. I got up from the couch and walked to it, sliding it off and reading the title, 'Our Forever'.
I haven't looked at this book in such a long time. It was basically a photo album, and it had so many pictures it could go on for days. That just goes to show how much memories Michael and I had together, including with the kids and other precious moments.
I smiled to myself and took a seat in a nearby chair to start flipping through the pages. All of these photos I remember so vividly. The first page showed pictures of our family. Our Christmas family photo, which I think was in '92, the twins were still little but the boys were older. We were all wearing matching pajamas and smiled at the camera, huddled together while our family dog, Shadow, was in the front. God rest his sweet soul too.
On the left, there was a picture with just the kids. I believe it was in 99', and they were sitting on the grass in a group hug while wearing their hip hop styled outfits, laughing at some joke Montece told. I bit my lip, and slowly traced my finger on Montece's face. Keep it together, Prince. I never fully healed after his passing, loosing a child was just the most heart breaking thing that I wouldn't wish on any parent. Everytime I saw his face now, I just couldn't hold back tears. It was still like a fresh wound, it hurt like a bitch.
I quickly wiped off a tear that was rolling down my face and flipped to the next page before it made me even more sad. My spirits were instantly lifted when I saw pictures of us with some of our friends. A picture from 93' on the bottom right hand corner showed me, Whitney Michael and Mariah at Neverland. Mariah was on my back while Whitney was on Michael's as we smiled at the Camera, there was fireworks going off in the background since it was the 4th of July. Next to that picture, showed a picture of Cat and I. Her head was laid onto my lap, fast asleep as I was writing songs in my notebook. This was during the Lovesexy tour in 88', she always hung out with Me and Michael in the hotel room after some of the shows. I think it was Michael that took this picture. She was another person that was taken too soon, and I missed her terribly as well.
At this point, I didn't think I had the strength to keep flipping through the pictures. Promising myself one last picture in my head, I flipped to the next page. Instantly, tears started rolling down my face uncontrollably. It showed my absolute two favorite photos of me and Michael. We were working on a collab together in 89' for Batman and in the photo we were on the set of Batdance. I was in my Joker ensemble while Michael was wearing his Batman gear, and he was sitting in my lap. I placed a kiss on his cheek while he looked down with a shy smile on his face. Then, the picture right next to it showed us slow dancing on our Wedding Day. It was in 95' and we decided to have a proper one, which was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
I remember our vows like it was yesterday. I wanted to grow old with him and stay by his side forever. Not only did it hurt me, but deep down it angered me that he wasn't here anymore. It wasn't suppose to be this way. Just like I couldn't imagine a life without him then, I still can't imagine life without him now. It's hard, I hated being alone. I hated not seeing his handsome face everyday, or hearing his infectious laugh. It wasn't fair.
I sniffled and closed the book. As I started at the ground, a fire lit inside of me that I haven't felt in years. I couldn't take this anymore. I wasn't going to sit here and accept that Michael's death was an accident, because it wasn't. He was killed. Just like my nephew, my sister, Cat and everyone else I've lost along the way. The person that has been giving me a living hell is still out there, and I'll be damned if I don't find here. This ends here.
I set the book back ok the shelf, and head to the rack where my jacket was hanging. I slip it right on, and take the keys out. I look at my Cat sleeping on the couch before I walk out of the door, heading to the Minnesota Jail Center
✴️
Author's Note; I'm extremely sorry for this late update. There's been tons of things going on in my life at the moment to the point where it's been hard for me to find time for my stories. I appreciate you all being patient and I promise I'll update whenever I get the free time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and also except some time speed ups in the story moving forward. We'll be getting to the extra juicy stuff soon ;)