Rayne's POV

"Did you seriously say that Rayne?" My sister asks, sitting next to me Indian styled on the couch.

I sniffle, grabbing the wine glass off the table in front of us. Nodding my head, I wince at the bitterness from the wine at the back of my throat. My sister and I had gotten so close and I'm honestly glad, I wouldn't have been able to vent with Derrick like this.

"Ray.." she sighs sympathetically. "Do you honestly feel like that? Do you still love him?"

"I think I do Alonna... but I can't be with him like this anymore... and I can't hurt our kids by faking like we're working through this. Especially Camille.."

I felt so bad about what we told Camille, grinning in her face to say everything will be ok, just for us to go back and argue 20 seconds later. "We sat there and promised our daughter that we'd be fine.. like everything was ok..." I sniffle, shaking my head. "Our baby girl is gonna grow up hating us.."

"No she won't.." Alonna sighs, "you and Michael are stronger than this. I've only been around a year or two but I can tell that you two were meant to be together. You will get through this...it's gotta get rough before it gets better.. ok?"

"I want to believe you, but I just don't see it happening.." I bury my face in my hands letting the last of my tears flow out before heading to bed. Laying there, I was now used to having the empty space on the other side, I was used to sleeping alone. I shut my eyes as tight as I possibly could trying to force myself to sleep but nothing worked. My own words rang through my head, on repeat. The heartbreak in his eyes shattered my entire soul and I couldn't stop crying. My pillow was soaked.

I heard the doorbell ring and I went to answer since my sister was sleeping. My dried red puffy eyes couldn't be hidden if I tried. Opening it I'm met with him, my 'husband' I sigh, "what are you doing here..."

"I can't go to sleep thinking that you don't love me. That's a lie and we both know it Rayne." He says.

"Go home Michael.." I say shutting the door before I was stopped by his hand. I frown, "move."

"I can't." He says tearfully, "you said you weren't sure if we're fighting for the kids or us. Well look, I'm fighting for us so.. please let me in?"

I roll my eyes and sigh, heading straight for the living room and plop on the couch. "Just keep it down ok..."

"Why? Is someone else here?" He says following me inside.

I look at him, "Yeah, someone else is here. My sister, Michael! What do you want...?"

"I want you to tell me you still love me, to tell me you still give a damn about this marriage Rayne... do you?" Michael says sitting beside me.

"Of course I do Michael! I love you! I love you so much that I hate you. I hate where we are. I hate that I can barely talk to you without being reminded that you cheated on me! Every time I look at you, I think of her.. or whoever else you've been with while on tour without me. I hate THIS."

"You think this is any easier on me?" Michael scoffs, "how do you think I feel knowing you were gonna cheat on me but just not knowing when? I told you leave that guy Andre alone but you swore to me you weren't going to do anything."

I roll my eyes, "so my situation is worse because you called it?" I giggle to myself, putting my face in my hands. "You think I didn't know what you were out there doing? You tried to cheat on me in a hotel room down the hall from me with that Tatiana girl back in 89... you think I forgot about who you were before I married you?"

"That's not who I am now." Michael interrupts.

"That was NEVER who I was!" I yell carelessly, my sister was probably awake by this point. "I stood by you the entire time. 22 years of having my heart broken by you over and over and OVER again!" I sob inwardly, "I probably will do it again.... we'll get back together and you'll hurt me again... and I'll be right there beside you because I love you Michael.." I shake my head "I hurt you one time... and you can't handle how it feels. Multiply that by 15...then maybe you'd understand where I am."

Michael was speechless, honestly there was nothing else to say. He hurt me countless times and never truly faced it and now that he was feeling the same pain as me he didn't know what to do. It made perfect sense that in the beginning he wanted to divorce because human instinct is when you're in danger or caused pain, you run. He was running. Then, he tried to cause pain back, by putting all the blame on me.. forgetting the fact we thought he had a son we didn't know about.

Michael didn't utter another word, he just stared at me, trying to guess my next move.

"Just go Mike, please..." I sob go heading back upstairs, I hear the door shut behind me and close my eyes again tightly.

***

The next few days wasn't as bad. Each day was easier than the next. I found myself smiling more and more and I started to think, maybe that rant to Michael was exactly what I needed to move on. It may have hurt his feelings but it was what he needed to hear.

He and I only spoke when it came to our kids, we were simply co-parenting at this point. I hadn't went back over to Neverland since the dinner for Camille and hadn't planned on going back until tonight to drop off our paperwork and explain it to Camille.

Michael and I were getting divorced, it was going to happen no matter how much we both didn't want to. The tabloids were rumoring it, the news media was waiting for one of us to make a statement about it and, the paparazzi was hounding us. I was tired of fighting, I gave up and signed all the paperwork.

Wayne escorted me in, his eyes saddened at Michael and I's separation. He could barely look at me as he walked beside me down the pathway to the house. "Rayne are you guys really?"

"Yeah Wayne.. we are.." I interrupt.

"I just never would've thought the two of you would-"

"Yeah..... me neither." I sigh. I give Wayne a small smile before I open the door to what used to be my home. Michael greets me with a low "Hey"

"It's signed all the way through. You give it to your lawyer and then I'll give it to mine..." I say shortly, I sit at the dining room table. Michael sits beside me, sliding the packet in front of him and swiftly skimming through the pages, nodding his head.

I slide the key across the table as well, he looks at me with a frown. "Why are you giving me this?" He asks.

"Well, since we're not going to be together, I figured I wouldn't need your key anymore. This isn't my house.." I shrug.

"Yeah but.. the kids live here, you'd need the key to get to them."

"Wayne or Doug or Leon bring the kids to my house, I'm never here.. I don't need it Michael." I say matter of factly.

He sighs, snatching the key off the table. I didn't want to keep the key, I didn't want to have any resources to come back to this house. If we were leaving each other we were leaving each other for real. I watched as he continued to read through the packet, mouthing the words to himself. Camille runs downstairs, her eyes lighting up when she sees me. "Mom!" She smiles leaning into my arms.

"Hi" I smile. "Where's Mikey?" I ask

"He's upstairs sleeping. Dad said he needed a nap." She says.

"Good, because we need to talk to you..." Michael sighs. He sighs shakily, "your mom and I... are getting divorced." He says bluntly.

"What?" She says, I can see her spirit breaking and it's slowly killing me inside.

"Baby, daddy and I love each other very much but, we are not happy together anymore... we want to make sure you and Mikey are happy and the only way that can happen is if Michael and I are not together..."

Camille's eyes water as she searches the skies for answers. "Baby please don't cry.." Michael says.

"But.. But. Daddy you promised everything was going to be ok.." she says wiping her eyes.

"I know I did, and I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said that...."

"We want you guys to always remember that we love you two so much and all we want is for you to be happy." I continue.

"How can I be happy when you guys aren't happy?" Camille says her face slowly soaking up with tears. "I don't want to be happy like this." She says running off before Michael and I could get another word in.

"I knew she was gonna take this hard. It's like she's been expecting it ever since her friends parents got divorced" Michael mumbles.

"Yeah" I sigh. "I didn't want to have to tell her but she had to find out.."

Michael's POV

I gotta say, did not think Rayne and I would ever get here. She dropped off these papers almost 3 days ago and I can't stop reading through them. A part of me is hoping that maybe she forgot to sign a page because she didn't really want to go through with this. But no matter how many times I looked, one of those signatures just wouldn't disappear. Everyone I told was in shock of the news, it seemed like no one would believe it, "trust me.. I wish it was a joke" I'd say to people.

I had even prolonged getting it to my lawyer because I was hoping she'd call and say "never mind, I'm ready to work this out."

"Wow Mike, when you called me I didn't think it'd be for something like this! Honestly I'd rather cover another extortion case than this. It breaks my heart to see you guys divorce, it truly does." My lawyer Mark Geragos says, sitting in front of me.

I simply shake my head, "yeah me too Mark.. I just.. need you to look into this, make sure I'm getting a fair deal and that she'll be well taken care of.. so I can give this back to her."

"Of course, no problem... you signed a pre-nup?" He asked peering over his reading glasses.

"No... she was rich when I met her so whatever we made together we agreed we'd just share it" I answer shortly. "If I could afford it, I'd give her everything... I still love her Mark. I never would've imagined, we'd get here."

Mark nods his head, "I know mike, I know.." he continues to read through. "Where are the kids?" He asks.

"With Rayne.. they'll be back Sunday.." I sigh.

"So you're just here by yourself? Giving you a lot of time to think eh?" Mark sighs sympathetically, "well Mike, everything looks fine, you can hand this back over to her on Sunday so her lawyer can look into it and then we can all get together and start getting this thin finalized." Mark says standing and grabbing his brief case, "but why don't you start dating again, I'm sure anyone would love to date the king of pop" He smirks.

I grin, "you're really working on that extortion case I see." I didn't want to date anyone else, I wanted Rayne. I shut the door behind Mark before going to bed.

The next morning started just like any other morning when the kids were gone, I got all the things together for when the kids got back home tonight. I cleaned the entire house by myself, my staff was always off on Sunday's. As I'm cleaning, I hear the television blare

"JACKSON ACCUSED AGAIN: YOUNG BOY COMES FORWARD SAYING SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON TOUCHED HIM INAPPROPRIATELY IN JACKSONS NEVERLAND HOME MORE NEWS AT 11"

I dropped everything, my heart sunk and I dropped to my knees. As if things couldn't get any worse. I couldn't move, I heard my office phone ringing and I couldn't make my legs move to walk towards it. I heard my cellphone ringing and I couldn't answer. I was stuck, I wanted to die right there.

Nobody could get in contact with me, I tried to get things together for my kids who'd be home in a few hours, but I couldn't. I couldn't imagine having to deal with this, while dealing with a divorce. My heart was shattered.

Sitting in my office, I watched the phone ring constantly before it was interrupted by Leon on the intercom "boss kids are coming." He says nonchalantly, probably not knowing what's going on right now.

I meet the kids outside, as usual and watch as they run into my legs and then into the house, before I turn to go inside I hear my name being called. "Mike..."

Rayne stood there her eyes filled with worry and it was almost like she was reading my mind. She ran into my arms with the biggest hug and at that moment I simply broke down. "Why does this keep happening?" I question. She didn't say much she just hugged me tighter and tighter.

We both walked inside the house, I watched as she cooked dinner and got the kids together and in bed. "Are you gonna be alright?" She asked.

"Yeah... you can go... if you want I mean.. I don't want you to go. But if you wanna go, you can.." I mutter, I could barely talk because of how upset I was with this entire situation. I sat on the couch, my hand over my eyes

She stood there for a moment, "I don't wanna leave you like this..." she says quietly, sitting next to me. "It's gonna be alright Michael..." gripping my hand softly in hers, I bring it to my lips out of habit.

Listen that chapter was emotionally EXHAUSTING to write so I can't even imagine how you guys feel reading it! AND it was longer than usual!

I told you guys all is not lost who knows where they may go from here as long as they don't argue they should be fine!

As far as my health is going, I'm feeling better, finally starting to get my voice back although I sound like a man right now it's coming back slowly but surely.

Thanks for all the love, support, messages and comments!! Til next chapter! ❤️-DD58