15th of May, 1996
Michael is 36, Angela is 31, and Jake is 32

Michael: "Do I look good?" Jake asked, his voice a bit shaky.

"Are you nervous?" I smirked.

"A little." he confessed.

"You'll do great. All you gotta do is say 'I do'."

"It's not as easy as it looks."

"It is." I assured him.

"Says the man who just got divorced." Jake sighed.

"Hey, this night is about you and Angela, so enjoy it."

We didn't talk about my divorce from Lisa yet, and I didn't want to. Plus, I was on the way to becoming a father, I didn't want to dwell about it.

"You're right."

"I'm so proud of you... You're gonna be a married man!" I pulled him into a hug.

"Let's go before Angela changes her mind." he said into my shoulder.

"She won't," I rolled my eyes. "She loves you. There's no way she'll ever leave you."

"Thanks, Mike. You're such a good friend."

We hugged tighter before there was a knock on the door, and Angela's sister said it was time.

~

Angela: Jake kissed me like he never kissed me before.

After we pulled away, I hugged his neck and felt the tears emerge.

I'm so glad he asked me to marry him. He's everything I ever wanted.

"I love you, Angie." he whispered in my ear.

"Me too, Jakey... I don't know what I'd do without you." I whispered back.

~

6th of June, 2006
Michael is 47, Angela is 42

Angela: Michael took a seat next to me in front of Dr. Avery, our counselor.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you both," she shook our hands. "Should we start?"

I nodded eagerly. Michael sighed, "I guess."

I shot him a glare.

"What?"

"Nothing." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, let's start. Angela, when you called me, you said you wanted to talk about your relationship with Michael, right? Michael, is there anything you'd like to talk about?" Dr. Avery asked.

Michael shrugged. "I think we're pretty okay as a couple."

"Really? What make you think that?" I snickered. "You know what I had to do to get him to come here? I promised him another baby."

"And that's a problem?" Dr. Avery raised her eyebrows, writing something down in her notepad.

"Yes. I'm over 40, I shouldn't have babies at this age." I said.

"But you still had your two babies?"

"That was a part of why I married Michael in the first place and why I wanted to come to you. I knew our secret would be safe with you."

"Would you like to share?" she asked.

"Our marriage, our relationship... Everything started as fake."

~

Michael: She did it. It's out,
and there's no way back.

"Please, explain what you mean, Angela." Dr. Avery said, sitting impatiently on the edge of the chair.

"I met Michael almost 12 years ago, at his birthday party in 1994," Angela started telling our story. "He and Jake, my boyfriend at the time, were really good friends, so Michael and his wife invited us. But I never liked Michael. I didn't care about him or his music, and when I got to know him a little more thanks to Jake, I realized that I was just simply not attracted to the whole deal about him. He was just another superstar that I didn't like, who happened to be Jake's friend. When Jake and I got married, Michael was even the best man. It was a private wedding, nothing big at all. Our parents were surprised when we told them we were married, because the ceremony included only the two of us, my sister, and Michael. Not a lot of people knew about Jake's and Michael's friendship, they still don't.

"We had two kids, Lily and Eric, and they grew up in the company of Michael's children since they were so close in age. I think another reason that I started disliking Michael even more was what happened between him, Lisa Marie Presley, and Debbie Rowe. I mean, we're no angels either, but I knew Lisa Marie, we met at that birthday party in 1994, and we bonded. She was the only reason I agreed to go see Michael with Jake. So when I heard he got another woman pregnant and married her, I was pissed at him. After that, I didn't see Michael for about two years."

I had to roll my eyes. She doesn't even know what happened between Lisa Marie and I.

"Michael? Would you like to add something?" Dr. Avery asked.

"I'd like to tell the rest of the story from my point of view, if you don't mind." I answered.

"Of course, go ahead."

"Okay, so after I rudely divorced Lisa Marie Presley and married Debbie instead," I mocked Angela. "I had my first son, Prince Michael. That was such a happy time for me, just like this time with the babies is. Debbie and I weren't really married, I loved her as a friend, and my feelings for Lisa Marie Presley never went away. That's what most people don't understand, that I was in love with Lisa Marie.

"After Prince was born, Debbie offered me another baby, and of course I agreed. A few months into Paris's pregnancy, Jake called me and announced that he and Angela were expecting twins, a girl and a boy. When Paris was born, a little over a month before Lily and Eric, was when I saw Angela again. She was around 7 months pregnant, and had the biggest bump I ever saw. It was funny to see how protective Jake suddenly became. I've never seen him so glued to someone like he was to Angela. I get him now, but back at the time I laughed at him, when he was just being his loving and caring self.

"So the next time I saw Jake and Angela was when Lily and Eric were born. I think we even have a picture together, holding our babies. The years passed, and I've stayed friends with Jake, but Angela was out of the picture. Whenever Jake brought the kids to play with Prince and Paris, she stayed home. I never understood what was her reason for not liking me-"

"You didn't like him, Angela?" Dr. Avery questioned.

"No, not really... I always hated the way all these big celebrities lived." Angela told her.

"Yet you married him?"

"Oh, now we get to the good part," my wife smirked. "About three years ago, Michael got the news that he was being charged with molesting a child again. Personally, I never believed all those stories because Jake reassured me Michael never did those awful things. So Jake, being the good friend he is, drove all the way to Santa Ynez to support him. It was late at night, and on the way there, J- Jake, um, he-"

I rubbed her shoulder when she couldn't finish her sentence.

"He got into a car crash." I said to Dr. Avery.

Angela sniffled, making me grab a tissue and give it to her.

"A- after he died, his attorney gave me his Will... He had a wish that I'd marry Michael and give him a child, so here we are. We faked our relationship, until a little after the babies were born. We've grown some feelings for each other."

"Just some?" I chuckled.

"A lot." she cracked a smile through her tears.

"Michael," Dr. Avery looked at me. "Do you love Angela?"

"Yes, very much."

"And Angela?"

"I-" Angela stopped herself.

I sighed deeply. Just say it already.

"That's the thing, Dr. Avery. I want to say it, but something always stops me. I have very strong feelings for Michael, and I love being with him, but I can't get myself to let those words out."

"Why do you think that happens?" Dr. Avery wrote something down in her notepad.

"The last person I ever said that to was Jake. I don't know, I guess it's hard saying those words to someone else after loving someone like I loved Jake."

"Seems like we have a lot of work to do. But since our time is up, I'd like to give you some homework... Angela, I want you to try and forget about Jake for the rest of the week. I know it will be hard, but you have to let him go. And Michael, you will rethink about having a baby. Okay?"

I scoffed, crossing my arms. No way, Angela agreed to give me another baby if we go to these stupid meetings.

"Michael." Angela scolded.

"What? You know I won't let that go, and now she sits here and judges me about wanting another child with my wife." I said.

"I'm so sorry about this, Dr. Avery..."

I rolled my eyes.

Dr. Avery smiled at her, "Oh, no, it's okay... I get a lot of couples who don't want to go to counseling, but at the end it's definitely worth seeing what barriers they overcome."

"Thank you for your time," Angela sighed, taking my hand like I was a little kid. "We'll see you next week."

~

Angela: I couldn't believe he did that. That was so rude of him.

"So now you're not talking to me?" Michael asked as we got into the car, and I scooted away from him a much as I possibly could.

"No, I just need to cool off." I told him.

"Fine."

"You know what annoyed me the most, though? That you wouldn't even try to maybe rethink about such a big deal like having another baby. I'm willing to push Jake away from my thoughts for a whole week, and you know how hard that'll be for me, but you just simply decided not to try."

He was about to respond, but his phone went off. I sighed deeply and kept looking out the window.

"Yeah, I know... I'm sorry, we'll be there in 20 minutes," he said then hung up. "We're late for the photoshoot."

"That was today?" I turned to him.

Michael nodded. "I'll tell Grace to get the babies ready."

I closed my eyes, not in the mood at all for this photoshoot.

~

"And big smiles, everyone!"

I put on a smile as I held Jared in my arms.

Michael was sitting next to me on the love seat we shared, a huge smile on his face, too.

"That looks great," the photographer told us. "How about we bring the other kids in, too?"

All the bigger children joined us. Lily and Eric were placed behind me, with both their hands on my shoulders, while Prince and Paris did the same with Michael. Blanket, being so small, was able to sit on Michael's lap.

We took a few more pictures of the entire family together, until the photographer wanted Michael and I alone with the babies again.

Once they were gone, the photographer smiled at us. "Now I want mommy and daddy to kiss. People will go nuts over this kind of picture."

"Um, I'm not so sure about this..." I mumbled.

We've kissed tons of times on public before, but this time it was different. These pictures were going to be seen by millions of people around the world. I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with all those people seeing us share an actual, real, kiss.

"Mrs. Jackson, it's just a kiss."

"Yeah, Angie," Michael smirked. "It's just a kiss. We've done it before."

I rolled my eyes at him.

He leaned in and I had no choice but to lean in as well. We were careful with the babies that we still held, and our lips touched.

Michael grabbed the side of my face with his free hand as he deepened the kiss.

The flashes around the room went wild.

"I love it! Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson!"

I pulled away, a little breathless.

"What was that?" I asked Michael quietly.

"A kiss?" he laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "It was different..."

"I guess I wanted to say sorry for earlier. I was a little over reacting. I'll do the homework Dr. Avery gave me, but I'm not promising anything about changing my mind."

"Aw, thank you."

His eyes scanned me up and down, "That dress looks nice on you, baby..."

I felt my cheeks burn.

"Too bad I'll have to take it off later." he winked.

And once again, he succeeded in charming me.

~

Michael: "Goodnight, buddy." I kissed Eric's forehead after I tucked him in.

I stood up, and started heading towards the door.

"Wait, Michael!" he called. "I want to ask you something."

"Sure... What is it?" I returned to sit on the edge of his bed.

"You knew my dad, right? You were his friend."

"Yes."

"What was he like?" he asked.

His eyes that matched Jake's brown ones sparkled, making my heart hurt.

"He was..." I sighed. "He was the greatest best friend you could want. Um, he loved to go hiking, and playing basketball, and you know what else he loved?"

"What?" Eric had the biggest smile on.

"He loved your mom's food. Like, really, really, loved it."

"I bet you I love it more than him."

I chuckled, "Yeah, you probably do."

"But the most special thing about him was that he loved helping people. He did it without expecting something in return." I told him, feeling my eyes burn from tears.

I wiped my eyes, telling him it was time to go to sleep.

He gave me a hug and I went into my own bedroom, only to find Angela in bed with Jared on her chest, sleeping with his little mouth open.

"You really spoiled him, you know," she said while running her hand over his hair. "Now he won't go to sleep without hearing my heartbeat."

She looked down at him with a grin, "He looks so much like you."

Angela then moved her glance to me and her smile faded.

"Were you crying?"

"Eric asked about Jake."

"Oh..." she sighed.

I sat next to her and Jared, gently stroking my son's chubby cheek.

"I miss him..." I told Angela.

And I really did. I was missing my friend whom I could share everything with, and depend on to know exactly what to say.

She shook her head, "You're making me think about him. I can't think about him."

"I'm sorry. I just miss him so much."

"I know you do, and so do I, but I'm not doing Dr. Avery's homework right now. He's not here, Michael, and you are... I know I love him, but I want to be able to say that to you, because you're here with me, you're taking care of me, you show me your love... So please, can we stop talking about Jake and how much we both miss him?"

Jared stirred in her arms and she hurried to shush him.

"I'm gonna put him in bed." Angela mumbled and left.

~

Angela: I gently placed Jared in his crib.

Rose was surprisingly sleeping peacefully, and I thanked God she ate before going to sleep.

"Goodnight, babies. Mommy loves you." I whispered to them.

This is my life now. Jake's not here, I'm married to Michael, and I want it to stay that way. We have all our beautiful kids and we'll raise them together.

Michael is here, he loves me. Jake can't love me anymore.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on Michael and how much I adored his beauty.

But only a picture of Jake popped up in my mind.

"Ugh." I groaned.

Why can't I get him out of my head?!

"Angie, are you coming to bed?" Michael appeared in the nursery door.

"Yeah, I'm coming... You go, I'll be there in a sec." I said.

He disappeared, and I gave each of my babies a kiss on their heads before joining my husband in bed.

I already knew this week was going to be the hardest yet.