Depend On Me | 18+

She was never supposed to become the person Michael Jackson needed most.

A twenty-seven-year-old literary editor with a talent for seeing through carefully constructed words, she is accustomed to difficult personalities. Authors lie to themselves. Artists hide behind their work. And famous people, she has learned, are rarely as complicated as everyone wants them to be.

Then she meets Michael.

One honest conversation on a quiet Los Angeles terrace becomes another. Then another.

Phone calls turn into late-night conversations. Invitations to Neverland become routine. Somewhere between books exchanged, private jokes, and the rare moments when Michael allows himself to exist without performing for anyone, an unlikely friendship becomes the safest thing in both of their lives.

For Michael, perhaps a little too safe.

Because being understood is intoxicating when you've spent your entire life surrounded by people who tell you what you want to hear.

And slowly, without either of them realizing when it begins, Michael stops simply wanting her around.

He starts needing her.

Her voice when he can't sleep. Her reassurance when the world becomes too loud. Her attention when he feels forgotten. Her presence when being alone becomes unbearable.

What begins as friendship becomes attachment.

Attachment becomes dependence.

And she is left with a question far more difficult than anything she's ever found buried between the lines of a manuscript:

How do you love someone who has made you responsible for keeping them whole?

For Mature Audiences Only (18+): This story contains mature themes including sexual content, drug and alcohol use, strong language, possible violence, infidelity, and emotionally intense situations. Reader discretion is advised.