Merry Christmas everybody!! I doubt that anybody even has time for reading anything on here today, it being a holiday and all, but if you do decide to stop by, then here's my gift to ya'll lol. I'm posting not one, not two, but three new chapters for this story today. Mainly because I have no idea when I'm going to post next tbh
Melody's P.O.V.
Thankfully, it didn't take long for Marshall to be get out on bail. But he still has to go to this absolutely fucking bogus court hearing, because my father is pressing charges against him at all, claiming that Marshall beat him up so badly that he is now unable to led normal life. Which makes no sense, as Marshall and I both know that he has only hit him twice and maybe roughed him up a bit. But Robert is, from what I've heard, walking around with a brace around his neck, claiming all kinds of injuries.
In the meantime, Paul Rosenberg has somehow managed to keep the whole thing out of press, which is a good thing, the last thing we all need is for Marshall to be involved in this bullshit controversy, all because my dad is thirsty for some money.
God, I hate this man so much!!
"Marshall, I'm so sorry," I say to my man once he walks in through the doors of my mother's house where I stayed waiting for him. I throw my arms around his neck.
"Fuck you apologizing for, baby?" Marshall gives me a shirt kiss as he puts his arms around my waist. "I don't fucking blame you for this shit, Mel. And you don't got to worry about a thing anyway, my lawyer will take care of this in no time."
"Yeah, but I still feel like..."
"It's not your fault, Mel. I told you that. So stop, aight?"
"Okay," I nod.
"Where's Lyric?"
"Sleeping. You wanna come up to her bedroom and see her?"
"Nah, imma let her sleep. I'll see her tomorrow morning. How's your moms, she getting out of the hospital soon?"
"Should be in a couple of days."
"That's great, baby. Well, looks like imma be stuck here in New York for the next couple of weeks. For that court hearing."
There's not going to be a court hearing if I can do anything at all about it, I think to myself, but say nothing.
I manage to fix Marshall some dinner (I finally learned how to cook, yay me, I guess), and then we go to bed, where we end-up watching some movie together until we fall asleep.
The next morning Marshall tells me he's going to this studio his label had here in New York to work on something special. Apparently, he got asked to do a feature on that up-and-coming rapper Drake's new song Forever, along with Lil Wayne and Kanye West, and it's a pretty big fucking deal, as it's basically going to be like Marshall's reintroduction to the public before his own new album Relapse finally drops in a couple of months. Then he's got interviews to do too for both MTV and BET, so things are just like normal for him, despite of that damn court hearing pending over his head.
"Yo, you wanna come to the studio with me?" Marshall suddenly asks me.
"Um, no baby, I actually have to do something today," I reply avoiding eye contact with him, "But why won't you take Lyric with you. She's always wanted to come see you at work. And I might still stop by later."
"Aight," Marshall is way too preoccupied right now with trying to gather all of his notepads and other stuff he needs to take to the studio with him to notice that I'm acting kind of weird.
Once he and Lyric leave, I call my mother at the hospital and ask her for Robert's new address.
"Melody, why do you want it?" My mother asks me, voice full of concern.
"Because I need to talk to him," I reply.
"Baby, I know that you want to help Marshall, but at this point, you are just going to make it worst. Just let Marshall's lawyers handle it. I'm sure that boy has got some really good lawyers."
"Momma, please!!" I insist.
After some convincing, she gives the address to me, and I drive my car there.
I had expected my so-called father to be living in a mansion somewhere in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. But then again, that was before he started having all these money problems. Now he stays in this dilapidated apartment building. The exact kind of place me and my momma had to go live at back when he had first kicked us out all those years ago.
I knock on his door, and as soon as it swings open, Robert is revealed standing there and quickly affixing that stupid brace to his neck.
"Melody, what are you doing here, sweetheart?" He's got the nerve to ask me.
"Really, dad?" I ask back, then reach out and rip the brace off of his neck in one swift motion.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" He exclaims, all indignant.
"Move, Robert," I make my way past him and inside the apartment.
"Melody, what are you doing?" He follows after me.
"Let's cut straight to the chase. How long are you going to keep up this charade suing my boyfriend?" I spin around to face him. "Is this your way to try to get money off if us?"
"Sweetheart, it's not even about the money," Robert says, and both of us know that he is lying through his teeth. "Your boyfriend is a violent fucking animal. He is a menace! A person like that shouldn't be..."
"Cut the crap, Robert! He didn't even hit you that hard."
"Didn't hit me that hard? Melody, he broke my nose!"
"Yeah, I can see that," I smirk. "Honestly dad, it's an improvement. Also, what was up with a brace around your neck. He didn't break your neck too, did he? Look, just drop the charges, dad. If you want money, I'll guve you money," I sigh. I don't even care at this point. I just want Marshall out of trouble.
"Not about the money, sweetheart. Just like I told you," now it's Robert's turn to smirk, and I see right through him.
"Oh my God!!" I exclaim. "You say it isn't about the money, but it is. Only, it's not my money you want this time, you figured that you would get a whole lot more from Marshall by suing him than you could ever get out of me. God, could you be more of a lowest scum piece of shit human being?!"
"I don't know, sweetheart, you tell me," he shrugs.
"Wow," I shake my head. "Well, guess what, dad. You are not gonna get a dime out of my boyfriend."
"From what I can see, he's got money to spare."
"That very well maybe be, but you ain't getting shit out of him, dad. Because you are going to drop the charges."
"And why would I do that?"
"Because if you don't, you do know that I would testify on stand in court. I'll tell them exactly why Marshall hit you that day, because you had tried to hit me. And also about all of the shit you did to me as a kid. Everybody's going to find out exactly what you are. And I'm not talking about just the beatings. I'm talking about... all that other stuff you used to do behind closed doors when I was a little girl. The real reason you started beating on my mother is because she had her suspicions and confronted you about it."
The more I talk, the more I see a dark shadow creeping across his face then. And I almost choked on my words because I never wanted to revisit that memory.
"Melody, baby, I think you are mistaken," Robert then says. "If you are implying what I think you are implying, then it's sick."
"You are right, Robert, it is sick. You are a sick man."
"Sweetheart, you were just a child, you must be misunderstanding something that's happened..."
"I'm not misunderstanding anything!! And I will let everybody know about it. See, I held my tongue about it with Marshall, because if he knew you used to do THAT to me, then he would kill you for sure. And I didn't keep it from him to protect you, because honestly? I could give a shit less what happens to you, but for him. I wouldn't want him to go to jail. Because of you."
"Mel, nobody is going to believe you," Robert shrugs. "You had kept quiet for far too long."
"That it may be, dad, but I can still try. And I guarantee it would fuck up you reputation at the very least. If somebody knew..."
"You little bitch!!" It doesn't take long for Ribert to lose it then. He starts advancing towards me.
Only to stop in his tracks when I pull a gun out in him.
See, that gun Marshall used to have. He's never gotten rid of it.
Even if he never used it again, it was always kept hidden at his house. And back when he broke up with me all those years ago, he gave it to me. He said back then that even if we weren't together anymore, he still wanted me to have something to protect myself if anything were to ever happen to me.
I almost threw the damn thing away, and I never thought to use it.
Until now.
"What the hell, Melody?!" My father exclaims as his eyes damn near bulge out of his head. "That's what that guy's been teaching you then? To threaten people with a gun?!"
"People? You are not a person, Robert. You a fucking predator."
"So, what are you going to do, shoot me? Your own father? You really think you can get away with this? You'll be locked up right beside your stupid trailer park trash boyfriend!"
"First of all, Robert, Marshall isn't from the trailer park, he's never lived in one, so I don't know why you keep referring to him as that. Get it fucking right. Second, I'll only shoot you if you try to come near me. All I wanna do right now is just leave out of this shitty, cockroach infested apartment. And leave you with something to think of. Drop the damn charges against Marshall. And I won't expose you for what you really are to the whole world."
"And you'll give me some money instead then?"
"Um... no, Robert. That offer has been on the table before, but I'm rescinding it now. Now, all you can hope for is that I don't soil your fucking name. And that you yourself don't end up in fucking handcuffs," I say, as I continue to back away from him, aiming the gun at him the whole time.
Once I reach the front door, I run through it and rapidly make my way down the stairs and back to my car.
And it's only when I've driving for a few minutes, gun tucked safely away, that I finally break down and cry. Tears streaming down my face uncontrollably, like waterworks, and my whole body shakes. I haven't even realized just how fucking scared I was to face my father again, one to one, until I've actually done it. And now I feel like I'm losing it.
I pull over somewhere and just sit in the car and cry, until there's no tears left in me.
Then I wipe the remainder of them off my face and drive myself home.
Hours later, and I hear the front door open and both Marhall and Lyric's excited voices feel the house.
"Mommy, we brought takeout!!" My daughter proudly announces, and I can hear her little feet running all iver the house.
I smile at her once she finally finds me sitting in the living room, pretending like I'm watching some crappy reality show on TV.
"Baby, go to your room a minute," Marshall says to her as he walks in after her. "I need to talk to mommy about something."
"Oh man, that sounds serious!!" Lyric exclaims and runs upstairs. "Hope you are not in trouble, mommy!!"
I look up and see Marshall standing over me.
"You wanna tell me why your father suddenly dropped the charges against me?" He asks me.
"He did what?" I ask back, trying my best to work on my pocket face.
Marshall sighs with exasperation, then he very slowly crouches down and sits on the floor in front of me.
"Yeah, Paul just called me about it. Mel, I ain't fucking stupid. I know you had something to do with it."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," I shrug. "Besides, isn't it a good thing that he's dropped the charges?"
"Yeah, it is," Marshall conceeds. "But I had already told you, you ain't had to worry about it. It was a bullshit charge anyway, and no way in hell it was gonna hold up in court."
"Marshall, I already told you, I haven't..."
"Don't lie to me, baby. Look, I just hope you ain't gone there to bribe him or anything. Cause that man doesn't deserve..."
"I didn't bribe him, Marshall!"
I mean, I was going to originally, but Marshall doesn't need to know that.
"What did you do then?"
"Look, baby boy, all you need to know is that we won't have to worry about my father ever again. And that's all I'll ever tell you about it."
"Nah, Mel, you are gonna have to tell me something more than just that."
"No, I don't," I shrug.
"Yo, you do realize that if you don't tell me, I'll just drive myself crazy thinking about it."
"So, you can do that. Or you can just let it go, and accept that this time it was my turn to protect you, and that's what I did."
"Baby," Marshall says, sounding so done with my shit, and he drags his hand down my his face. "I keep telling you, you ain't have to..."
"But I wanted to, and it makes me feel better that now you don't have to deal with a stupid court hearing over this bullshit. Can't we just leave it at that?"
He stares at me for a long time then.
"Yeah, I guess so," he finally says, and gets back up on his feet, pulling me along with him.
A few days later, once everything settles down, I go to the police station and finally file a report against my father. What he had done to me might have been years ago, and I probably should've reported it way sooner, but truth be told, I was just too afraid to ever speak up for myself. I'm not anymore.
And yes, I know that I had promised him silence if he dropped the charges against Marshall, but I might have... lied to him about it. I still think he deserves to answer for what he has done...
Also, I'm not going to lie, I kind of see Melody's father as Liam Neeson lmao, in that movie Widows 🤣