𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 is far from perfect. Before starting her senior year of college, she's already guaranteed her position as the black sheep of her once prestigious family. To make matters worse, she took up bedding the rival family's eldest son, Jackie Jackson. The relationship blurs the boundaries that should exist between a professor and student, but since it remains casual as much as a secret, she doesn't care how it could affect her reputation--that is until she meets Jackie's charming, sweet-talking younger brother. 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐞𝐥 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬𝐨𝐧 has got it all. In fact, he's the face of the music program and the record company that shot his family into local stardom. Like his talent, his popularity is immeasurable, and he seems to be the Jackson family's prized possession. So after having a tense encounter with him and his older brother, Evelyn can't help but wonder why Michael is so drawn to her and determined to convince her that she's just like him, that the Jackson family isn't all it seems. As they forge an unlikely bond, generations of secrets slowly reveal themselves and threaten to rip their families and fortunes apart at their seams, creating new animosity between the brood of brothers. In the end, the pair is set up to answer the age old question: Is blood thicker than water? And will familial burdens and status overcome the rest of their lives? Disclaimer: This story contains mentions of a large age gap/power imbalance, drug use, violence, domestic abuse and sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

Before the tours. Before the headlines. Before everything changed. There was a girl backstage Michael Jackson couldn't stop thinking about.

"It causes your immune system to turn against you," I explained gently. The color terrifyingly drained from his face as he stared at his knuckles. "I have a spot," he whispered, his voice scraping like glass. "Right here." He let out a strangled noise as the stadium footage buffered. "Riley!" he shrieked, covering his burning face while peering through his fingers at his future self. "Those pants leave absolutely nothing to the imagination!" He went so unnaturally still I thought his heart had stopped beating. His charcoal-stained fingers curled into tight fists. "Fifty," he whispered, scanning the fatal summary on the glowing screen. "I am... I am gone at fifty." What if the only way to save your future was to completely abandon your past? In 1982, Michael Jackson is suffocating. Trapped behind his family's compound gates and drowning under industry pressure, the rising star just wants a life of peace and normalcy. The universe answers-violently ripping him from his timeline and dropping him onto the bedroom rug of Riley, a freelance graphic designer in the year 2025. Stranded forty-three years in the future, Michael must face a world that already knows his tragic history. But Riley fiercely refuses to let that history repeat. She offers him the anonymous, ordinary life he always craved, rebuilding his shattered confidence brick by brick and teaching him the radical concept of self-love. More importantly, she arms him with the ultimate weapon: the brutal truth. She gives him the exact names of the snakes hiding in his 1982 backyard, the upcoming betrayals, and the devastating tragedies he is destined to face. When the universe inevitably pulls him back, Michael is no longer the timid pop star terrified of his shadow. He is a king preparing to claim his throne, knowing exactly how to rewrite music history and what it takes to survive. But armed with the future, changing his fate might cost him the one person who taught him how to live.