the lighter the berry, the bitter the juice.|MJ Fanfic|COMPLETED

|6|•the bitter the juice

Betrayal is the worst and the key to moving past it is to identify what led to it in the first place.

Los Olivos, California

MICHAEL
Thirty minutes later, we made it to Ray's condo, with Janelle opening the door upon our arrival. She greeted us both and her and I exchanged friendly hugs and words. She informed Ray about Nina just being put to bed for a nap and eating lunch and after gathering her belongings, she left. Entering the spacious livingroom, Soraya takes a seat on the sofa and I follow suit. The television was off and all that was heard in the room was complete silence. I honestly didn't need time to think about what I needed to tell her because this wasn't something I was in the wrong of. I just felt she needed to know about the unexpected visit from Marissa. Also, this is the start of many to finally be a man and just tell her about anything and everything; something I should have been doing since day one. Instead of being afraid of what she may say or do, me not being honest with her causes a far more worse reaction from her. If we wanted to fix our marriage and if I wanted my family back, I had to start with this first.

"Marissa showed up at the house yesterday." I say out of the blue, setting my eyes on her, which she was already looking at me.

"Oh, really?" She asks nonchalantly.

I nodded slowly. "Yes. I recognized her car and she came by because we haven't seen each other or talked in two years. Everything went left when she started calling you outta your name and called you a black bitch and I just went off on her. I didn't like that at all." I tell her in a serious tone, staring intensely into her eyes.

"Well, Michael, you wouldn't be havin' to worry about her calling me out of my name had you not let your side chick suck your dick and whatever else she may have done to you. I wouldn't put it passed you and her." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Soraya, she was never my damn side chick and you know this. Don't say things like that, that aren't true."

She cocked her head to the side, scrunching up her face. "Then what the fuck was she to you? Your girlfriend? According to the night when you spilled the truth in New York, you and her been talking for months and right under my damn nose."

I sighed, then scooted closer to her, "Marissa was never my girlfriend, Ray. Never," I stress to her, "I'm not that fucking stupid. What we did only happened one damn time so don't make it out as something more than it's not."

I really couldn't believe she would think Marissa was my girlfriend, as if I would really be that lowdown and dirty towards her and our marriage. I could never do that and it's not due to the fact that at the time Marrisa and I being respectively married, but even when she did suggest us being together on the side after that mess happened between us, that made me cut her off. I had already went too far, allowing her to cross boundaries with me regardless of the fact how I felt for her at just a brief moment. Her going through her situation with her husband and me dealing with the fact Soraya worked a lot created that emotional attachment of me to Marissa. That's when the emotional affair began earlier on.

"I can say what the fuck I wanna say about you and that hoe. I'm calling it how I see it. You made time to talk to her ass for months. She was either your side chick or your fucking girlfriend. Now, be a man and admit the truth, Michael."

She is slowly but surely pissing me off right now.

"Ray, I'm not gonna tell you again that she wasn't either of those to me," I shake my head, huffing, "if I had known your ass was gonna act like this, I would have saved it for next week's sessions or worse, kept it to my damn self and let you find out for yourself the hard way like you always do." I lock my eyes on her, clenching my jaw.