:1995:
Ronnie feels like she’s found herself in a weird, reverse deja-vu. Here she is, sitting on the sofa in Paisley Park, with Prince and Lani, like she was yesterday. Only, it’s not her Prince. And it’s not her Paisley. It’s weird, how she’s started thinking about her timeline and Lani’s timeline, separating them in her head. Like a completely sane person would do, obviously.
“The girls are quiet,” Lani remarks, breaking the awkward, tense silence between them.
“They’re plotting something. Expect your whole kitchen to be covered in maple syrup.”
“Just explain everything to me again, slowly,” Prince interrupts. He seems riled up, for reasons Ronnie can’t quite explain. Every time she hopes to understand him, thinking he might react like her Prince, he doesn’t. He’s a tough nut to crack, and Ronnie feels like she’s meeting him for the very first time. It’s disconcerting.
“Prince, for the hundredth time, they’re my children.”
“So our children.”
“I suppose?” She looks from Prince to Lani. “They’re my children and the Prince I’m married to is their father, I don’t know how else to explain it.”
“Well you’d better fucking try.” Ronnie flinches as he snaps, for a crazy second she thinks I can’t get out of here, I’m trapped. Her eyes immediately dart to the kitchen where Marie, Leah and Violet babble happily together.
“Prince,” there’s warning in Lani’s voice but he’s not having it.
“I’m sick and tired of you coming in unannounced and muddling with Lani’s brain! Who’re you to mess with our lives? Huh?”
“Mess with your lives? You don’t think my life is being messed with, too?” Ronnie bites back. “I can’t control it. It just happens.”
“That’s what you say.”
“E ipo, it’s happened to me too, she’s not --”
“Lani! Will you stop believing this woman blindly for one second?” Prince jumps to his feet. “She’s comin’ in, tellin’ you made up shit about the future or whatnot, about fucking Mayte, out of all people?”
Ronnie’s eyes widen, she was expecting Lani to tell him, of course - she knows she would tell her husband if their roles were switched - but she wasn’t expecting him to get so angry about it.
“I didn’t lie,” she doesn’t take her eyes off him. “My husband was married to Mayte Garcia. In 1996, they had a child, and --”
“Fucking stop it!” Prince almost gets in her face, Ronnie’s hand balls into a fist, she’s having to resist putting it through his teeth. “You do not tell us what our future is. You do not. Only God can do that, and you ain’t no God.”
“Prince.” Lani’s voice is firm now, firmer than Ronnie’s ever heard her. Both their heads turn to her. “Calm down. It’s not Ronnie’s fault. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Ronnie clears her throat and finds that special voice that she uses to talk to mothers, who have been through the worst situations possible. It always serves her well when things are tense. “I’m sorry. I know it’s hard. I know it’s not nice to hear. But we need to figure this out together, there’s no other way we --”
“Mommy?” In another weird deja-vu moment, Leah walks in the room, her thumb in her mouth. “Need potty.”
Lani’s eyes widen as Ronnie goes to her daughter. She sees Prince looking at Leah, bewildered, shocked and Ronnie doesn’t know if she can see anger and resentment there, too. She knows that he can see just how much her daughter looks like him. Leah catches on too and she holds on to her, looking at Prince.
