Dangerous & Anew (Sequel to Inhaling Alongside You)✔️

Chapter Forty: Lessons of Love

"Why do you stay with him, Kat?" I ask, leaning against the counter.

Her almonds acknowledge mine for a mere second before she continues perfecting the already scrumptious looking, apple pie. I only wait patiently until she carefully places the pie into the oven and turns towards me with full attention.

"What now?" She asks, wiping her hands on the oven towel.

"Joseph. All of these years you've put up with his crap. Why?" I bluntly ask, taken aback by my own tone and question.

Nodding silently, she chews at her bottom lip. I can only mentally slap myself for being so straight forward with her. I usually keep intimate questions like this to myself, but it's a question every Jackson has internally asked.

Why does Katherine Jackson put up with Joseph?

"Well... When you love someone, you try to do whatever to make things work. Sometimes they don't work. Sometimes they do. It's all about how strong that love is." She finally replies, releasing her bottom lip and looking towards me for approval.

Love? Love keep these unlikely two, together?

There has to be something else.

"But he cheated on you during our tour days! Kat, he tried to slap you one time! I saw that! Kat, the man doesn't deserve you and you give your time to him? Why? " I reiterate, allowing my thoughts life.

To my surprise, instead of scolding me for "bad mouthing Joseph", she gifts a light and faint smile before replying.

"Yes, and he'll never try that again. Michael, sweetheart, love isn't easy. There's no written manual. I grew up in a broken home. I didn't and don't want that for my home now. Yes, Joseph had hurt me, but I still love the man. I want you children to see that. You don't always have to walk away when things get rough. Those times are the times when you fight. All that passion, use it. That's all I'm doing. I love you father, he is a good man. You'll learn this one day. Now go get ready for dinner." She explains, her smile widening just a bit as a indicator of the end of the conversation.

Still perplexed with her construe of her relationship with Joseph and her will to stay, I only nod silently and slowly approach her with a light smile of my own.

"I love you Kat." I simply whisper, pecking her forehead before abiding to her command.

She is love.

"Bill I-I gotta tell you something..." I exhale, joining him on the love seat.

Glancing away from the television reluctantly, Bill sighs and acknowledges me.

"Go ahead..." He simply replies, shifting in his spot for a full view of me.

It's been a few weeks since the dinner meeting with Steven and John. Although I'm pretty happy with the way the business aspect of that dinner went, I've been mentally scolding and scowling myself for the limousine and bathroom incident between Jesse and I.

I cheated again.

Three times in one night, with my ex-fiancé. That has to go down in history for the worst way to cheat on your current fiancé. I can't say that I feel necessarily guilty for participating in the act, I just feel remorse and heavy guilt for participating in su a act while Lisa is frail and weak with seasonal illness. That had to have been the most indecent things I've ever done to Lisa thus far.

Well, maybe the garden shed incident topped that.

Either way, I've been heavy in heart and a nervous wreck around Lisa. I've tried to keep my words and sentences to a certain limit around her. I'm terribly afraid that I'll slip up and tell her. I'm not too fond of keeping secrets from people I care about. I love Lisa and I don't want to hurt her by accidentally telling her about my many physical escapades with Jesse.