Melody's P.O.V.
I sit right by the front floor, waiting for Marshall to come in so I could confront him.
Lyric is laid out on the leaving room couch, sleeping peacefully. My packed bags resting next to her.
I feel this weird mix of anticipation, fear, anxiety and anger all at once. I am a ball of nerves and tension.
If he really thinks he can keep me with him against my will, he's got another thing coming.
Through it all, ironically, I still love him, just because I cling desperately to the person he used to be before the drugs took over.
Was he ever perfect? No, but who is? I'm not perfect either, yet there was always a different gentler side to him that I loved. Seems to me like that side is gone now. But it can't be completely gone, could it? It's just buried underneath his pill usage, and until he finds it again, I need to get the fuck away from him for Lyric's sake.
Finally, the door opens.
And Marshall walks in with the rest of the girls. Hailie and Alaina are both by his side, while he's holding sleeping Whitney in his arms. Must've picked them up from Betty's.
I realize at that moment that obviously, I can't say shit to him right now, because of the girls. I don't want to cause a scene in front of them and traumatize them, and Marshall fucking knew that!!
He didn't have to pick them up from Betty today, as it's already pretty late, he could just let them sleep there and get them tomorrow, but he purposefully got them now to trap me!
This fucking asshole!!
"Honey, I'm home," Marshall says sarcastically to me, and I swallow hard and don't say a thing.
"Melody, why did you leave us at Betty's? Why didn't you pick us up when you took Lyric?" Alaina asks me, and I immediately feel guilty as fuck.
"Melody was very tired, girls," Marshall says softly, looking at me, and I can't for the life of me read the expression in his eyes. "She needed a little break, didn't you, Mel?"
"Yeah," I whisper. "Sorry for not picking you up, girls."
"It's okay, we still love you," Hailie says, and both her and Alaina run up to hug me and I feel like shit.
"Aight guys, come, I'll put you to bed, Melody is still tired," Marshall then says to them and he goes upstairs with them.
I pick up Lyric and hold her in my arms.
Obviously, I can't just go and have it out with him now, I have to wait until the kids are asleep.
Eventually, Marshall seems to have been done with the girls and he just goes in our bedroom by the sound of it.
I continue to sit in the living room, hugging Lyric to my chest, not really knowing what to even do.
Then I suddenly hear footsteps on the stairs, and I turn around and see Marshall.
Our eyes meet, and I still have absolutely no idea how to interpret the expression in his.
I do know that he looks absolutely fucking stoned.
"Yo, why is Lyric here with you?" He asks me matter-of-factly, like he's completely unaware of how fucked things are between us right now and that he's literally holding me hostage in his house. "Go put her in the crib with Whitney. You know Whitney can't sleep unless her sister is there with her."
I just stare at him and I say nothing.
"Give me the baby, Mel," Marshall then says and extends his arms towards me, and I back away from him, holding my daughter close to my chest. "Yo, are you for real right now?" He then asks me incredulously, and I see anger flash in his cold eyes. "What, you think I'm gonna hurt her or something, Mel? You think I'll hurt my own daughter? I would never do that, the fuck is wrong with you?!"
Before I can do anything, he takes Lyric out of my arms and disappears up the stairs with her, and I immediately follow behind him. At this point, I don't trust him at all, and I have no idea what he would do.
I stand in the nursery and watch like a hawk as Marshall places Lyric in the crib with Whitney. He's very gentle with her, like he always is, and yet, u still can't help but feel an immense sense of relief as he let's go of her and moves away from the crib.
As we make out way back to the bedroom and Marshall closes the door behind us, and I pounce on him.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Marshall?!"
He gives me the look of death then, and I get quiet, but then speak again.
"So, how long do you think you are gonna keep this up?! You seriously gonna have your guard dogs prevent me from leaving this house? Am I in fucking prison here?!"
"Don't be so dramatic," Marshall coldly responds. "Of course, you are not in prison. Imma tell the guys to back off once you see reason."
"Once I see reason? Do you even hear yourself, Marshall?!"
"Nah, do YOU hear yourself, Mel?!" He suddenly raises his voice again, and I can tell he's too far gone for me to even try to argue with him at this point.
He walks up to me and grabs my face, forcing me to look at him.
"Did you really think I would let you leave me? And take my fucking child?! Bitch, you gotta be losing it if you thought I would ever let you do that."
"Marshall," I quietly say, doing my best to wriggle out of his hold, "you cheated on me and you put your hands on me again. Did you really think I would stay?"
"It was a mistake, baby," he's got the nerve to say and his expression softens somewhat. "One stupid mistake while I was high, and that shit didn't mean anything to me. Hell, I hardly even remember it."
"You still fucking cheated, doesn't matter how it happened."
"And you disrespected me!"
"Marshall, I was just talking shit! You can't compare it to what you did!"
"Yeah, I can. Do you know how it made me feel when you said that shit to Proof? Are you out of your fucking mind?! You don't play with me like that, I don't care if you was talking shit or not."
"It's not even about that though, Marshall!" I put my palms flat against his chest and push him away from me as hard as I can. "Do you really not realize that?! You have become a totally different person now. You are fucking crazy!! The drugs are messing you up so much, and you don't even see that, and I can't be around you anymore. You fucking scaring me now!! Do you not see that?! I'm fucking scared of you!!"
His expression softens again and he goes to try to gather me in his arms.
"Don't be scared of me, Mel. What's wrong with you? You should know me by now. I talk a lot of shit, but I would never actually hurt you, baby."
"Don't fucking touch me!!" I slap his arms away. "Let me the fuck out of this house!!"
"Yo, lower your voice!! The kids are gonna hear you!"
"Yeah, we wouldn't that, would we, Marshall?! We wouldn't want your daughters to know just how crazy you are!! Let me the fuck out!! Tell your damn security outside to let me leave!!"
"NO!! I'm not ever letting you go, don't you fucking get that?!"
"God, Marshall!! Don't you fucking realize what you are doing?! You are worse than Cornell right now! What are you gonna do next, are you gonna rape me too?!"
"Why the fuck would you even say some dumb shit like that?! You know I would never do nothing like that to you!! Don't you compare me to that asshole!!"
"No, I think you might be even worse right now!!" I scream at the top of my lungs, and I just continue to fight him.
"Fuck Mel, can you just chill?!" Marshall suddenly exclaims and he backs me up against the wall, and my heart starts beating very fast, because at this moment, I don't even know what he would do.
But just speaks to me in this very quiet voice.
"Mel, you know I'm only doing this because I love you, right?" He says softly. "I just... I can't let you go man, I would go crazy if you left me. I won't be able to deal with that."
"That's not love then, Marshall," I reply to him sadly, looking up at him standing there with his head bent. "When you love somebody, you don't do shit like this to them. But I'm starting to realize now that maybe you don't know what love is."
"What is it then?" He asks.
"I don't even know," I sigh. "But it's definitely not this. If you really loved me, you would just let me leave at this point."
"Mel, just..." he starts to say, but then shakes his head, "uh fuck it."
He backs away from me and lets me leave the room.
I make my way into one of the guestrooms and just crush exaustedly on the bed there, feeling completely defeated and helpless, with absolutely no idea what to do.
I don't know how I even manage to fall asleep, but by the time I wake up, it's like 1pm.
I can't believe I have overslept like that, but then again, it's not all that surprising, considering how much stress I am currently under.
I go check on the girls in their cribs, and they are both sleeping soundly.
Hailie and Alana are both gone, must he in school by now.
I make my way downstairs, not knowing what else to do.
Only to see Marshall sitting on the couch with my bags I never unpacked by his feet.
When he hears me approach him, he lifts up his head, and I see that his eyes are red and puffy like he's been crying.
He also looks exhausted like he hasn't slept all night.
"Mel," he quietly says, and his voice sounds hoarse. "You are right, you should fucking leave me. I ain't right in the head right now, I'm fucking losing it. Worst part is, I can't even control it. I'm aware a lot of times that what I'm doing is messed-up, but I can't fucking stop. I don't wanna hurt you no more, so just go, okay? Take Lyric and go. I told the guys at the gate to let you out."
I stand in front of him and I can't move from the spot I'm standing in.
I can't believe that he's actually letting me go after how crazily he acted yesterday.
"Marshall," I quietly say and I wrap my arms around him, bringing him close to me.
"Nah Mel, just go," he replies, but his arms wrap around my waist and he bring me closer to him, burying his face in my chest. "I do love you, you know. I love you so fucking much, but you are right, you need to just fucking leave me. Cause at this point, imma just keep doing fucked up shit to you."
"Marshall, it's the drugs," I whisper as I start to run my fingers through his hair. "Don't you get that, it's not you. The drugs are fucking you up. You need to stop messing with those pills."
Marshall just shakes his head side to side as he pulls away from me slightly and looks up at me, and I see very clearly just how messed-up in the head he really is. He's fucking lost it!! And nobody can help him at this point unless he wants to help himself, but it seems like he doesn't even care about that.
He's fucking gone!!
And I don't know what the fuck to do with him because I clearly can't fix him.
What should I do?!
So, Spend Some Time done turned into Love The Way You Lie now. I now feel like this book is titled incorrectly tbh. I never thought the events were ever gonna get to this point though when I first started writing it 😫
Anyways, I know this is a long chapter, but I'll probably post another one later on today, and after that, I'm taking a break from updating this story for about a week, since the next chapter finally concludes a certain part of the story.