The Love We Make 2: It's 1992 and the world is bewildered by recent headlines.
"His Royal Badness Prince is now MARRIED with a SON, and the boy is already 3 YEARS OLD! Was he really hiding the kid this whole time? Or is this sudden marriage hid...
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"Thank you all for coming today on such short notice," I spoke over my apprehension. The plan was to be in and out. The people clicking away were already warned that I wouldn't be taking questions. My eyes fell to the paper laid in front of me. Letty and I spent hours on it the night before and in the end, it wasn't even a full page long. "I know it's been speculated all morning that I'm here to announce the official dates for the Act II Tour. Contrary to the whispers, that is not quite the case."
A swift wind of mumbles passed through the room.
"The Act II Tour was planned for Europe but never definite, and due to new circumstances in my life, both fortunate and unfortunate, I have made the decision to cancel touring for the remainder of this year. In addition to that, I'd like to share that I will no longer tour with The NPG in the foreseeable future and that I am retiring from studio recordings."
More mumbles came rolling in and I continued over them.
"I plan to use unreleased recordings from my vault to fulfill my contract with Warner Brothers Records. This will allow me to turn my focus to alternative media, including live theater, interactive media, nightclubs, and film. In the meantime, I will also continue working with other artists as a producer, such as with Rosie Gaines.
"While I have your attention, I'd also like to address..." Reading ahead silently to myself, my mouth was on pause.
Glancing to my left, I connected with Letty. She was standing in the wings with the rest of my team. She was a few steps ahead of them, face mean and arms folded like she was ready to run and snatch me up if someone gave her a reason to.
"Um..." I looked back to the field of vultures in front, uneasiness tugging my lips into a smirk. "This is a little difficult for me," I said, cascading my focus back to the paper. "But, uh, I want to address a few rumors flying around..." I cleared my throat. "For over a year now, the press has speculated on the relationship between Raven Rosario and I and our son, and now more than ever, a lot of aspects have become misconstrued and the false narratives are quite frankly getting out of hand. Therefore, I'd just like to quickly set the truth on the table..."
The room sort of froze over. All I could hear was my heart pumping and the printed words on the paper began to blur. But even out of clear sight, I knew what I had to say next...
As if she called my name, I glimpsed at Letty again. Her face was softened as she bit down on the corner of her bottom lip. This entire press conference was something she didn't want me to do, but regardless, "I will support you either way," she had said to me.
I balled my fists on the table and continued reading. "Raven and I met in September 1987 and dated for several months. At the time, she presented herself to me as a single woman but towards the end of our relationship, I learned that was not true—and that she was married." My jaw clenched for somebody's flashing camera. "From that point, we lost touch and I didn't hear from her again until early last year when she called me to confess I had a son."
The ice was broken. With all the clicks going off, you'd think some of them were planning to make a stop-motion film out of this.
"And I'm not here to share my feelings about it and push you deeper into my business," I said, and going off script, I faced those looking. "If I wanted to do that, I would've gone on Oprah or something, right?"
They laughed.
"But, um..." I didn't need the paper anymore. "I just needed to state the fact of what happened. My feelings—I'm preserving that for the day I have to sit and talk to my son about this. Just realize, the more you twist and assume and lie—and I'm saying this not exclusively to the press but to anyone who wants to use any public platform to speak on it—the more difficult this will all be when my son is older and it's all brought back to him." My brows flinched as did my shoulders in a shrug. "I mean, one day you got folks saying I was shamefully hiding him and the very next day that I selflessly adopted him. There's enough you can say about me but myson should be kept out of it. Raven and I know no limits when it comes to protecting him and our character, so to that I say tread lightly. Thank you."
Questions started flying at me and my publicist stepped out of the shadows to calm them down. They did only when I started talking in the mic again.
"Also, to be clear, Raven and I are were never married. The tour and my last album was a gift for our son and nothing more. As she has been since I met her, Raven's doing her thing and I'm doing mine with my fiancé Letty," I said smiling, getting a rise out of them. "God willing, by the end of '93 I'll be a married man and father of two." I dropped another "thank you" in the mic as I stood up to go.
The journalists were screaming Prince and tagging questions that wasn't gon' get answered. Prince, is Letty pregnant? Prince, have you fully forgiven Raven? Prince, how has fatherhood changed you? Prince!? Nothing was gon' get answered because I didn't answer to that name anymore.
Before disappearing from the room completely, I held Letty's hand in mine and turned to face the hungry people one last time to voice my final word. "Prince is dead!"
