"No."

"No?" The manager asked incredulously, raising his eye brows, taken back by the sudden reaction. Usually he'd look down and accept it with his mouth shut. It's a much to small word 'surprise' to name his astonishment of seeing his client fight back.

"No." Michael repeated firmly, the seriousness on his face reflecting in the mirror "I want to see my kids. You can't keep me away from the forever." With his tone leaving no more room for other arguments, he stood up abruptly and turned to look at Bill in the eye daring him to fight back "I am sick and tired of being here. I haven't seen my babies in months, and the last time I did it was for no longer than a week before I had to come back here!"

Bill sighed and looked down, the wheels in his mind working quickly, carefully choosing the next words to say. He hated that he had to be the one to do this. "You can't go home, and you know that... at least not yet..." he added the last part as if it was supposed to be some kind of soothing or something. The statement only made Michael angrier.

"And when will be the time?!" Michael snapped, slamming his fist against the table, raising from the make up table and turning to face his manager with a murderous look. "It's been years since This Is It ended, and I'm still on the road away from my family! At least be a man and tell me the truth to my face. There will never be free time for me before I get a call that I need to come back! I'll never get out of this hell hole unless I'm dead or no longer popular!"

Silence falls over them as if the angry and sudden outburst didn't happen outside the megastar's mind. As it was only a sweet dream. "And have you ever told your family or your children that you are completely broke?" He tried to show his client that he wasn't entirely faultless in this situation. But at the moment, being blocked in a pit with a starving lion and begging it not to eat you seemed to be more succesful. "In 2009 if I remember correctly your net worth wasn't bigger than 2500 dollars."

"You just had to throw the money card in my face. Didn't you?" Michael said to him in disgust. "I can't believe the people I've been working with my entire life." He sighed turning his back to his manager resting his hands on the make up table.

"Mike... I am not doing this because I want to. I am doing this because I have to." Bill wanted to be very clear about this. "It was your choice, it could be another five good years before you have a reasonable amount of money to go back to your kids and take care of them properly." This is the card he hated to throw in the other's face "After all if all of your concerts would've been without all the pyrotechnics and all the show. If you were simply sitting on a chair and singing for the last eight years, perhaps your son wouldn't hate you so much now!"

"You know what to say to bring my spirits lower than I thought it was possible." Tears burned in his eyes like holy water on the devil. "My son hates me... shouldn't that be enough torture for me? Why do you want to keep hurting me after you already brought me down. What more satisfaction can it give you? I will never understand how one's pain and sorrow can bring so much joy to some people."

"You might find this hard to believe, but the last thing I want to do is hurt you."

"You've been fucking me around the way you pleased all my life!" Michael yelled in Bill's face. "Everyone has been fucking with me for the past eight years. I am only a puppet to you!" he took a step closer and spilled out his feelings he held back for a large amount of time "People come to see me from different countries spending money they don't have. Just to see me. I owe them in return a good show worth of the money and time spent. But you never cared about that, you never cared about me or working my ass to exhaustion. You who hold the power against us, you who think you're way above us, you don't really care about us."

Bill stood like a statue, always kept a straight face, and let his client pour it all out while he listened. After what felt like hours, when he thought it was safe to say anything, he responded the outburst by choosing not to respond to it. "The contract you signed with us will be over soon. Then you're free to go back to your kids and live the rest of your life in poverty for all we care. But as long as that contract is still in function, you'll honor it and you'll do as we say. I'll let you calm down... when you're ready to come out you know where to find the stage."

Michael stood frozen in his spot after Bill walked out, betraying as well no facial expression, no feelings. He never knew when he reached the door, but he knew he locked when he heard the familiar sound. Walking back to the mirror he looked at his reflection for God knows how long. And he kept looking until he unexpectedly punch the mirror as hard as he could. And he screamed in pain. But it was not the pain caused by the pieces which ripped his skin apart, it was another type of pain. One which brought him down to his knees on the carpet, made him press a bloodied hand to his mouth muffling his screams, and another to his heart, while he cried his eyes out. Emotional heart pain. The worst kind of all.

When TJ finally reached out to the house Prince, Paris and Blanket were currently living in (Prince stayed in his grandmother's house until Paris turned 18 and both moved out in April taking Blanket with them) he was surprised at how quiet it was around. You'd think two legal teenagers and a growing one would make so much noise everyone would be able to tell when they are home from miles away. It's not like he hasn't been there before. Actually he was one of the first people to come and see their new home. Two floored house with garden and a pool in the backyard. Not too big, not too small either.

He knocked at the door for over five minutes, but nobody answered him. This made TJ frown because one of the kids was always home from what he heard through his uncle Mike. Then he thought he heard something inside, a muffled noise. Nothing was giving him the impression that someone's coming down any time soon, and he had a terrible feeling about this.

So he tried going into the backyard. "Hello?" He called out "Is anyone hearing me right now?" The back doors were made of glass, and did not have a handle, sliding them open or close being required. Just like the Japanese people style. He saw from outside Paris running in what seemed to be the living room, and then she stopped dead in tracks when she noticed him there.

Sliding the door open she rushed over to her cousin. "TJ, what are you doing here?! This is not a good time!" She exclaimed wiping her face. He saw how red her eyes were, how hard she was trembling, and the tears that wouldn't stop falling.

"Paris, sweetie, are you alright?" He immediately worried about her, gently grabbing her shoulders, looking over for any signs of harm. "What happened? What's going on?"

"Please, TJ." Paris said crying and shaking even harder, begging him, locking her hands together in prayer. "You really need to leave. Please, go! Just go!"

"Are you crazy? I ain't leaving you like this!"

A breaking glass sound made them both turn their heads. The balcony upstairs also had glass sliding doors. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and TJ couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Blanket being thrown through the glass doors, being the one to break them in pieces, stumbling and falling over the rail, and straight into the pool.

Without noticing or caring about TJ being present, bleeding from the numerous cuts created by the glass pieces, he raised from the pool (his sister ran over and helped him up) and looked up at Prince, whose face was bleeding also, who stood behind the balcony rail resting his hands on it looking down at his siblings. Whatever the reason for their fight was, just like the fear in their sister's blue eyes, between the two brothers, the hate in their eyes was more real and more honest than anything TJ has ever seen before.

TJ really wished he would've gone home after seeing no one is answering him at the door.