Stay the Night

Chapter 47

January 19th, 2004

Karrin laid in bed, chomping down on popcorn, dressed in nothing but her favorite nightshirt. Since Mariah found out, Michael moved her from the guest house into the master bedroom since Mariah was sleeping in the guest room. She wasn't totally comfortable with being so open around his kids, but she figured he knew what was best. Michael was in the bathroom, getting ready to meet with his lawyers about the upcoming Grand Jury for his trial. 

"Hey, baby girl," Michael said, exiting the bathroom. "I'll be back later, okay?"

He approached the bed, leaning down to give her a kiss on the forehead.

She smirked. "Okay."

She watched his retreating figure for a moment before turning her attention back to her episode of Law and Order. She was thinking about her upcoming semester at law school and wondered how much her life would be changed. It was easy to be caught up in the bubble and lose touch with the reality of everything outside of Neverland. 

Her mind shift to her mother, who she barely had contact with since the ordeal began. She didn't even know about her and Michael.

Would she even understand?

Her mother had a very specific idea of what type of men Karrin should be involved with and Karrin was more than sure that a married, disgraced superstar singer with five kids and more than twenty years her senior was not on that list. 

There had always been a mutual attraction between the two of them that went suppressed for years and now that she was able to act on it, she felt free. Michael gave her a different feeling than any other man she'd ever been with. 

"Oh,"

Karrin glanced up from the TV to see Mariah standing at the door. 

The older woman stared her down for a while until Karrin looked away. It was awkward, to say the least. Even though Mariah slept in the other room, a lot of her stuff was still in the master bedroom and came in periodically to grab something. 

Mariah crossed the bedroom, each footstep grating on Karrin. She wanted to tell her to get out, but only one of their names was on the lease and it wasn't Karrin's.

Mariah quietly rummaged through one of the drawers, pulling out a couple of tank tops before confidently striding out of the bedroom. 

If she was hurting, she wouldn't let Karrin see it. 

January 25th, 2004

Mariah was grateful to be back at the LA condo. She couldn't stand to be at Neverland anymore. Michael was doing anything to be cruel, in fact, he was being fairly kind to her given all of the things she said to him. As her anger gave way to the true pain she was feeling, she thought back to Michael's broken expression when she told him she was no longer attracted to him and how he repulsed her.

I lied...

She glanced around the empty bedroom, Michael's side of the California king bed laid untouched. The kids had gone to bed hours ago, leaving Mariah with nothing but her thoughts. 

How did it all go so wrong?

She remembered what led her to make the decision to sleep with Tommy. Michael's stress was taking a toll on the marriage, all she wanted back then was for him to pay attention to her and let her in. She could remember the look on his face when he found out Sony was going to fund his album, how happy he'd been. 

She sunk into the chair beside the vanity, another unfinished song scribbled down in her notebook. 

"Mine Again"