You Are Not Alone [SEQUEL TO WHEN YOU WERE MINE]

Farewell To A King

(A/N: This chapter is going to be EXTREMELY long. This took a few months to finish as I'm sure you're all aware. This was all hand-typed word for word, I did not use a transcript or copy and paste any of this. I sat on my laptop over the course of several weeks watching the memorial and pausing on every word to make sure I was typing everything out accurately. This is why it has taken me so long to finish, I was doing this by hand, it's not like I was copying and pasting. I typed out two whole hours worth of dialog and lyrics. Lyrics were the only things copied and pasted, everything else was typed word for word. There were some moments where the news reporters were speaking over people since this was broadcast live so I had to improvise a tiny bit and also of course I added speeches from Prince and my character. My character's speech was Brooke Shields' speech but I tweaked it to add memories from the previous books to fit this timeline but other than that I kept it mostly faithful to the real thing. This was an extremely difficult chapter to write, not just the insane amount of time it took, but this was also emotionally challenging even just writing it, and I've watched this memorial several times since it aired, but even to this day it still brings me to tears. In particular, Paris, Marlon's and Brooke Shields' speeches were hardest to write, and Stevie Wonder and Usher's performances were the ones that made me cry the most. Stevie's is my favorite out of all of them. I literally had goosebumps listening to it to add the lyrics. I'm not complaining at all, I just want you guys to understand the time and hard work I really put into this chapter and into my books in general and understand why it took me so long to finish this. This book still has aways to go, so don't think it ends here. I will try not to rush through it because I know where I want this to go. Also, to save you the time, I did include individual clips of the service at certain parts just in case you didn't want to watch/read this whole thing. However, at the end of this chapter there is a scene that includes intense subject matter that may be triggering for some so please be mindful when you reach the end. The next half of this chapter is done and will be published tomorrow. As always, enjoy!)

679: INT. HAYVENHURST (MICHAEL'S ROOM) DAY

A few weeks later, July 6th, 2009. The day before the funeral. Rachael, the kids, Rebbie and Latoya are looking through Michael's clothes to decide on an outfit for him to wear at the service.

RACHAEL: (Looking through the closet, tp herself) "Bill and Javon were kind enough clear out the rest of the Holmby Hills house and bring all of Michael's clothes and personal possessions to his parents' house in Encino. I told them everything else could be auctioned off as there was no reason to hang on to any of it other than the things that belonged to Michael personally. Looking through his clothes was hard, knowing we were now picking an outfit for him to be buried in, but it seemed to be therapeutic for the kids. Since Michael died, they've been watching a lot of stuff on their father and listening to his music a lot more. Seeing them looking through his clothes with so much awe and naming which video or tour each jacket was featured in warmed my heart and brought a comforting joy to me that I hadn't felt in weeks."

PARIS: (Holds one up) Mommy, what about this one?