Michael's POV
I sat down at the table was stood in front of a window that overlooked all of New York City. My manager, Frank Dileo, sat across from me. His chubby face sat on his neck with his black hair just falling a bit off his forehead. He was lightening his thick smelly cigar that hung out of his mouth. After taking a puff his small brown eyes met mine and he pulled it of his mouth, licking his lips. "What did you find out?" I asked him, as I sat my leg over the other.
He shook his head and sighed. " It doesn't look good, man. The guy is a crook-like you said-I dug up some information on all the boxing matches he promoted, and I found out that he skimmed money from closed-circuit fights and sold five-hundred-dollar tickets to boxing matches but he didn't report the sales. Back in '82 he was sued by Muhammad Ali for underpaying him 1.1 million dollars for a fight against some guy-I can't remember his name-but apparently he settled the case..."
"I heard about that," I said. Deep in thought.
"Apparently, he got in touch with one of Ali's friends. His name was Jeremiah Shabazz, and he gave him a suitcase with $50,000 in cash. After the the case was settled. " He stuck his cigar back in his mouth before continuing. " Ali was in the hospital at the time and he went there to visit him to give him the money. But before he gave it to him he made him sign a contract stating that gave him the right to promote his future fights." He reached into his brief case and handed me a copy of the contract.
"He always was accused of cheating Larry Holmes out of $10 million in fight purses. Even claiming 25% of his purses as his hidden manager. He only got $150, 000, out of a contract worth $500,000." He laid out more papers that he was able to gather on Don King. " He was also accused by Tim Witherspoon, and the list goes on and on. All for the same thing, underpaying the people who hired him."
"You're kidding," I said as I glanced at all the papers. " I told them not to hire him. I told them the guy's crook."
"And was able to find out who brought in the idea about the dumb tour ticket policy."
"Who?" I asked. The main reason why I told him to dig up Don's history was because I wanted to know who came up with that idea. I was convinced that it had to have been him because I was no fool to his history. I had heard whispers about all the people he had supposedly cheated money out of. I just didn't know how much of was the truth. I had never met him until that year before, and once I did, I knew something wasn't right. I could see our reputations being broken the more he continued to work for us.
It was nearly broken when the tour ticket policy was announced back in June. Everybody thought the idea was outrageous, and crazy. We were being called selfish, and greedy by the press, like I said we would. Then I received a letter from an eleven year old fan named Ladonna Jones. She told me that she had been saving up money to see one of our shows, but with the system that was created, she couldn't afford them. She flat out called me selfish and greedy in the letter and that's what really had me pissed. Being called that by the press was on thing, but by a child? That was the lowest low for me.
Liyah said this would happen. She told me that it wouldn't look good on me, and that I need to do everything in my power to change it. Especially because the majority of my fans were children or teenagers. We spent night over the phone talking about it while we were miles away from each other. She kept saying it wasn't gonna look good, but what she didn't understand was that I was completely powerless against them. I was voted out, one out of six.
After receiving the letter I called a meeting with Joseph, Don, and Chuck. I sat there down and simply said, " Change the ticket policy. It's a rip off and you know it. I know it. Now change it. Or I won't tour." They tried to stop it, but I was serious. I was serious when I said that this tour was their last shot, and that I was tired of helping, but I wasn't going to let them rip off my fans.
We announced that we were gonna change the ticket policy during another press conference in July. There I announced that I was going to give all my money that I get from the tour to my favourite charity. Which I had intended on doing in the first place.
"It wasn't Don," he said. "It was somebody he hired. "
"Somebody he hired?"
He nodded and dumped his ashes in an ashtray that was in front of him. " Some guy named Melvin..." He frowned his eyebrows in confusion as he thought about it. " Flores? He works for Joseph."
My face fell after hearing that name.
"You know him?"
I only nodded as I looked down at my shoe.
"What do you know about him? Apparently, he's been working for him for a while now. "
I shook my head from side to side. " I don't know much about him. Only that he used to be a drug dealer. Li, knows more about him than I do"
That caused his face to crumble with confusion. He place is cigar down in his ash tray and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. " Liyah? What do she know about him?"
I hesitated for a moment. Glancing out into the noisy city as I wondered if I should tell him.
" Michael," he said, grabbing my attention. "This guy, he ain't nothin' to mess with. I'm telling you, Joseph needs to have him fired immediately."
"What did you find on him?"
"All kinds of things. He was busted back in 1971 for sailing drugs in Brooklyn. They were always after him and his girlfriend."
"His girlfriend?"
"Yeah, some chick named...Danielle Haughton." Hearing her name caused my heart to beat faster. I shifted uncomfortably in the chair. "Isn't Liyah's maiden name Haughton?"
I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. " Yeah, that was Liyah's mother."
His eyes widened. " Are you serious?"
I only nodded my head.
"What do you mean by was?"
"She died almost two years ago from aids. Liyah couldn't stand her."
He chuckled. " I don't blame her. Her history was pretty bad too." He picked up what looked like a newspaper. " She was arrested for prostitution and drug possession. It says here she had two daughters. I'm guessing the other one is Leena."
"Yeah," I said. " She put them both through hell."
"I was wondering what she knew about him, because back in 1977 he was charged with rape and sexual assault."
That caught my attention. I looked at him anxiously wanting to hear more. " What happened?"
"The girl was just fifteen, and they didn't have enough evidence to fully charge him. So, the charges were dropped."
"What?" He's gotta be kidding.
"That's why I was wondering what Liyah knew about him. Did she live with him? Is he her father...or...?"
"He's not her father," I assured him. " He's Leena's and Vanessa Holiday's dad. Liyah doesn't know who her father is."
His eyebrows began to raise high, causing lines and creases to form in his forehead. "Did she live with him?"
"Yeah, for a bit."
"So she knows about him sailing drugs and everything?"
"She's very aware of that. She watched him do it when she was little."
"Do she know that he works for Joseph?"
"Yes, she knows. He was at my mother's birthday party, and he spoke to her. I saw him while I was singing."
"Did she tell you what he said?"
I shook my head. " All she said was that he was congratulating us on our baby, but I know he said more than that. I could tell by the look on her face."
"What look?" He asked.
"She looked like she was afraid of him or something." I told him, remembering watching them in the back as they spoke to each other. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed across her chest. Looking at him with her eyebrow quirked up as high as it could go, and her lip pulled over her teeth in disgust.
"And no one noticed?"
"Well, when Liyah is afraid of someone or something, she gets real defensive. People probably thought that she just didn't like him."
"Why would she get defensive?" He asked.
I sighed and shook my head. " When she was a little girl he...." I looked down at my shoe again, and then back at him. " Look, before I tell you this you have to promise not to tell anyone until it's necessary. I'm trusting you, Frank." She had made me sore I wouldn't tell anyone about it.
"You can trust me, man." He said, placing his hand over my shoulder.
I studied his expression, searching for any signs of betrayal in his eyes. I saw nothing but sincerity. He was willing to help me. With that I took a deep breath." He abused her and her sister when she was little. "
"Abused them how, Mike."
"Sexually," I said.
His eyes widened as his lip twitched with disgust. " Why haven't they reported him? Placed charges or anything like that?"
I shrugged my shoulders, rolling my eyes towards the ceiling. " I don't know. Liyah has convinced herself that karma is going to get him. I've been trying to her to place charges on him for over a year now."
"That man needs to be in jail." He picked his cigar back up. " Now that I know about that. He really need to be locked up. That means he could have done it to that little girl a while ago not only that, but he is still selling drugs too."
My mouth dropped slowly. " He is?"
He nodded quickly, puffing on his cigar in frustration. "He's every goddamn celebrity drug dealer in California and New York. Just imagine how much money he makes." It was silent for a long moment. I watched as he began scraping his nail on the brown table, deep in thought. " Mike," he finally said. " Do you know about the Drug War?"
"Drug War?" I asked, clueless.
"Yes, there are a lot of drugs coming from Europe, and landing in some of the states here. They are being traded with Columbia."
"I don't know much."
His eyes met mine. " He's apart of that."
"Who?"
He opened his mouth to say something, but there's was a knock at the door that startled us both. Bill, who was sitting on the couch on the other side of the room, stood up from a movie he was watching and opened the door. I couldn't tell who it was at the door, but I could tell that it was a woman. Her voice was frantic, talking so fast I couldn't understand what she was saying.
"Michael?" Bill turned to me, his face was filled with worry.
I stood up from the chair. " What is it?"
Leena was who it was that stepped into the suit. She was out if breath, as if she had been running up and down hotel halls. "Michael, we need you!" Alana was right behind her.
"Why, what's wrong?"
"Liyah's water just broke," she said. " She's going into labor!"
"What? Where is she?"
"She's in Nikki's room," she told me. " Savanna is getting Miko to pull the van up in the back so that we can get her to a hospital."
For a brief moment I was in shock. She wasn't due until four days later so I didn't really expect the baby to come so soon. But I did recall the doctor saying that it was just a prediction based on her last minstrel cycle. The baby could come a little earlier or a little later. That didn't cross our minds when we planned to fly back home that day. "Alana, go to my Mother's hotel and tell her what's going on." Alana nodded her and took off running out the room. " Bill, is the hall clear?"
Bill peaked his head out the door for a moment. " Yes, it's clear."
"You want me to come?" Frank asked. I nodded my head as I followed Leena and Bill out the door.
When we made it to the room, it was filled with Justin, Nikki, Jojo, Savanna, and Miko. All of them were crowded around Liyah who was sitting on the couch looking completely miserable. Her face was ashen with pain and she was breathing slowly. I could see her her chest going up down as she placed her hand resting over her stomach. " Move around!" Leena said. "Miko did you tell the staff?"
Liyah reached her hand out for me to grab. I sat next to her on the couch and and immediately began soothing her. " They are preparing a way to get her down stairs without any commotion. They said that they would come up when they are ready." I heard Miko say.
" How long is that going to take?" Liyah asked through her pain.
"They are working as fast as they can." He assured her. "There's so many people coming in and out the the lobby that we may have to take her through the kitchen."
She lifted her head to look at him. "The kitchen...?" She asked. "Oh, my God," she breathed. She laid her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes tightly. I began rubbing on her arms telling her that it was gonna be okay, while we waited.
A few minutes later my mother and Latoya came into the room. My mother was calm as ever. She had been through this so many times that she knew what to do. That was the reason why I told Alana to get her. " Are you having contractions?"
Liyah nodded her head. " There's a lot of pressure down there." She managed to say.
"You need to breathe, honey." She said. " It helps with the pain. Take deep breaths."Liyah listened and she held tightly on to my hand.
While we waited the room was in silence. The only sound was of Liyah short hard breaths and an occasional moan that escaped her lips when the pain became too much for her to handle. Minutes passed I could feel our patience beginning to wear away. I had lost count of the minutes, the seconds. All I knew was they were taking forever, and that Liyah was in a lot of pain.
Finally, Savannah came back into the room and told us that hotel security was ready to take her down stairs. There was van already waiting for us in the back to take her to the nearest hospital. In order to prevent from wasting anymore time Miko picked Liyah up from the couch and carried her all the way down the hall until we got into the elevator when she told him to put her down. The security guards guided us through an empty restaraunt to the kitchen where we were let back into the noisy world.
One the way to the hospital, her contractions picked up and became stronger. I had never felt her hold on to my hand so tightly before. I kept reminding her to breathe like mother had said, and she kept telling me over and over again that it was hurting her. Which somehow broke my heart. I hated seeing in pain."It's gonna be okay," I told her. " Just keep breathing. Keep breathing." I said.
She bit down on her lip really hard, inhaling through her nose. " Ah, F-"
"Fudge!" I stopped her. " Don't curse..."
She gave me the death stare, but it as she winced again. " Oh, my God!"
"What? What's wrong?"
"What do you think is wrong?" She snapped. " It hurts..."
I pulled her closer to me. " We're almost there."
The ride to the hospital took longer than I had expected, due to back up traffic. The car was filled her people yelling over one another, and Liyah's cursing. When we finally arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital they wasted no time putting her in a room. They the found the only available OB that they could find to check her cervix. She was only four centimeters dilated.
So we had to wait some more.
The more we waited, the more impatient we were becoming. And to make matters more stressful, some how it had gotten out that the baby was coming-which I had expected-there were paparazzi trying to get into the hospital, some were in helicopters flying above the building. All of them trying to get a the first picture of our baby. We had to close curtains and lock ourselves in the room. We didn't want to risk anyone coming in who was uninvited. Only the nurse and the doctor had a key to get in and out the room.
Through out the hours we watched movies, we listened to music, and we talked. Anything to let the long hours go by. Liyah took short naps throughout the hours as sat there alone. I stroked her hair, and held her hand when she needed me too. She kept telling me over and over that she was scared. She had no idea what could happen. She always had a way of letting crazy ideas enter head when things didn't happen quick enough for her. She grew paranoid. I eased her thoughts by assuring that she would be fine. That we would be fine. I sung to her to ease her worries while she closed her eyes to ease the stress.
It had been more than ten hours when the doctor came back into the room. He was balding older man in his mid fifties. With a thick black mustache above his upper lip, and big brown eyes that had deep wrinkles around them. "Let's see how it's going." He said as he lifted her hospital gown. At first I was s bit uncomfortable with him looking down there, but he had checked down there at least ten times already and st that point I didn't even care.
"Oh, she's ready." He smiled, with his hand still underneath there. " She that and then some." He turned to the nurse and told her to get more people to out her in the baby delivery area.
From that point on the moved her into another room and put unto another bed. "Alright, Mrs. Jackson. When I tell you to push, I want you to push as hard as you can for ten seconds. Sarah is gonna count for us."
Liyah took my hand and pulled me closer to her. With his say so, she began pushing as hard as she could as on of the nurses counted to ten. After a few seconds of breathing she began to push again for ten seconds. He said that he could see her head. At that point I was growing anxious to meet her. It just a matter of minutes now. " Push again," He ordered. Liyah lifted her head and began pushing again for the third time. Squeezing my hand so tightly that I thought she was going to cut off my blood circulation. He kept pushing her to keeping going, "She's coming now!" He said.
"Come on, Li." I said, " You can do it."
She began to push again, her eyes closed and pushed as hard as she could. The more the nurse counted, the more my heart was beating. I was growing impatient and overly excited all at once. We had been waiting.g for this moment for so long. Talked about this countless of times, and now it was actually happening. Liyah collapsed on the bed exhausted after the fourth time. "Come on, Come on...one more time" he told her.
Liyah looked up at me helplessly. I pulled her up urging her to keep going. She took a deep breath and leaned forward preparing herself to push again. "One more time," he reassured her.
She nodded her head up and down quickly.
"Push," he demanded again. " Give it all you got."
This time she pushed so much harder than she had done in that past ten minutes. " Keep pushing, keep pushing!" He urged her. She leaned further to give it all her strength as the nurse continued to count, this time going past ten seconds.
"11...12...13..." Her New Jersey accent became a faint whisper on my ears once as someone else's took over it.
Her cry was filled the room like music coming from a record player. "It's a girl!" Said another nurse who was blonde. " Born at 1:25 am."
Sarah was recording what she was saying.
She had a head full of hair and looked to be two or three shades lighter than the both of us. I watched as she squirmed and kicked around in the doctors hands. The nurse walked towards me holding a tool in her hands, " You wanna cut the cord?" She asked. I smiled and took it from her hands. With her guidance, I cut it to detach it. "She's 6 pounds, four ounces." The nurse called from the weighing table.
Liyah patted my leg, " Go see her. " she smiled at me. " Go see her and bring her back to me."
"You sure?" I asked.
She nodded her up and down.
I bend over and kissed her forehead. " Go.." She whispered.
I turned away from her and walked over towards the doctor and the nurses to meet our daughter.