Stay the Night

Chapter 8

January 5th, 2002

"That's a good girl." Mariah said as a cow ate from her hand.

She petted its snout so as to relax the gentle beast. Since Michael and the children left, Mariah took to feeding the cows in the morning and spent the rest of her time wandering the grounds. She was trying her best to occupy her mind and relax, especially with her label, Virgin Records, terminating her contract. Now that she was out of job, she needed to stay positive.

Soon the cow was finished, and Mariah dusted off her hands before starting back towards the main house. She walked into the house and headed for the bathroom to grab some hand sanitizer, soon walking back to she and Michael's bedroom. She glanced around, noticing that she'd been slacking off on cleaning and decided to get their room in order. She started by making the bed, then moved on to picking up candy wrappers from the floor.

As she cleaned, she noticed something shiny underneath the nightstand.

She reached under the nightstand and pulled out a diamond stud.

"How'd this get under there?" She wondered aloud.

She walked over to her jewelry box, but once she opened it, she noticed that it was a lot more empty than usual.

Concerned, she began to rake through the box in search of one item.

"Where is it?"

She looked down at her fingers to make sure she wasn't wearing it.

"Fallon!"

She waited a moment until Fallon made her way into the bedroom.

"Yes Mrs. Jackson?"

"Was there anybody in our bedroom while we were gone?" Mariah asked.

Fallon nodded. "Yes, Mr. Jackson's guests were in here. They told me they had permission."

Mariah nodded slowly, an awkward silence growing between the two.

"Thanks."

Fallon nodded and walked back out of the room.

Among Mariah's missing jewelry was a ring that Michael gave her at her first Grammy ceremony. Though she didn't wear the ring as much anymore, it held sentimental value and she couldn't believe someone would have the audacity to steal from her.

I knew those people were up to no good.

She went over to the closet, looking through both she and her husband's things. She noticed a couple of her dresses were missing as well as a few of Michael's CTE shirts.

Mariah narrowed her eyes, backing out of the closet.

"They're gonna pay for this shit."

January 16th, 2002

Michael reclined back in his hotel bed, his head resting on his arms. With four kids and a tour, it was nice to finally have a little quiet time.

"Knock. Knock." Karrin said.

Without opening his eyes, Michael perked up. "Come in."

Karrin walked into the room--him listening as her delicate footsteps made it up to the foot of the bed.

"Wow, never thought a hotel room could be this big." Karrin noted. "Do you always get rooms this big?"

Smiling, Michael fluttered open his eyes. "Well, this is what they had."

She flashed her eyebrows. "Must be nice..."

Soon, the room fell silent--Michael not knowing how to respond and Karrin standing by, awkwardly.