9th of September, 2007
Michael is 49, Angela is 43

Angela: I pulled up in front of Debbie's house.

She was really nice when I called her this morning and told her I need to pickPrince and Paris up, unlike Michael who would probably be mad at me later.

But he didn't know, I told him I'm taking Lily, Eric, and Blanket on a fun day out, then I'll take Prince and Paris on our way back.

He wanted to join along, of course, but I convinced him to stay at home and look after our three youngest children.

"Alright, let's go, guys." I said and unbuckled my seatbelt.

We walked up to the house then knocked on the door.

"Mom!" Paris squealed happily as Mark opened it.

"Hey..." I smiled. "Where's your brother?"

Mark spoke up, "He's upstairs with Debbie. I'll go get him."

I nodded and he let us all into the house before running up the stairs.

Paris squealed again and hugged me.

"Thank you so much for coming, mom."

"Of course, baby. You got all your things?"

"Yup, all ready to go." she said, showing me here bag.

I saw Prince running down, with Mark behind him, who helped Debbie walk.

"Come on, Prince, mom's taking us on a day out!" Lily told him.

My step son sighed and hugged Mark and Debbie.

"We'll see you in two weeks, hun."

"Thanks for having us, mom!"

Mom? He calls her 'mom'? He doesn't even know her!

I felt my anger build up. I cannot believe this!

"Let's go, kids." I mumbled, taking Blanket's hand and showed myself to the door.

"Hey, Angela," Debbie called. "Do you think I could join you? You know, since you took them earlier than planned..."

This bitch, no wonder she was so nice over the phone. I bet she planned this from the beginning.

"Can she, Angie?" Prince asked, looking at me with his big brown eyes that matched Michael's.

I crossed my arms over my chest, "I don't know, Prince, can she? Because if I remember correctly, she's not supposed to walk around that much."

"Oh, no, that's fine. I'm actually doing much better." Debbie smirked.

Prince hurried to stand next to her. "So she can come!"

"I guess she can join us," I huffed. "We're waiting in the car."

I rolled my eyes as I left with only four kids next to me, not knowing how I got into this mess in the first place.

~

"Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do," I whispered to Debbie who sat next to me in the passenger seat. "Prince and Paris are my kids. I was there for them, while all you were doing is spending the money Michael gave you."

"Oh please, like you didn't marry him for the money." she scoffed.

"No, I married him because-"

I stopped myself from continuing my sentence because I knew that if she pushed me to a certain point, I'd break and accidentally tell her why Michael and I got married in the first place.

Debbie rolled her eyes. "See? You're just as superficial as I am."

Just let it go, Angela. She's not worth it.

"So," I looked at the kids from the rear view mirror. "Is there anything specific you guys want to do today? We already have reservations for lunch, and there's this really amazing movie we can go watch..."

"Yeah, a movie!" Blanket said excitedly.

"I think it's decided. You guys all in?"

The rest of the children nodded.

"Prince, hun, you want to sit next to me?" Debbie asked Prince who was looking out the window

"Yes please." his eyes lit up.

I took in a deep breath and clutched the steering wheel tighter.

She wants to play dirty? Fine, I can play dirty, too.

~

Javon led us safely into the dark theater where the movie already started playing. The kids sat down with their popcorn and drinks. Both Paris and Blanket wanted me to sit next to them, so I was now in between the both of them and holding their hands.

Lily and Eric were closer to us, while Prince and Debbie sat a few chairs away.

I saw her whisper something and his ear, that made him laugh, I and felt my blood boil again.

God, she gets on my nerves.

I knew all Debbie wanted was to spend some time with her precious kids, so when I noticed she was looking at us, I pulled Paris close to me, who gladly put her head on my shoulder.

Although it was dark around us, I could clearly see Debbie's red face. I smiled to myself and focused on the movie.

She might've lured Prince into her lie, but Paris was a totally different thing. She didn't want to know her birth mother. That's why I knew she would always be on my side.

"I love you, mom." my step daughter whispered.

"I love you more, sweetheart." I kissed her forehead before we both went back to eating popcorn and watching the movie.

~

After the movie, we quickly hurried to leave the theater and head towards the restaurant we were eating at.

This whole time, Debbie has been trying to piss me off on purpose. Always hugging Prince and making him laugh, while he payed no attention to me whatsoever.

I tried to ignore it, but at some point I just couldn't handle it. I was offended by the fact the my step son, whom I practically raised, preferred his birth mother who didn't even know him over me.

"Go ahead and order whatever you want, guys," I smiled at my five children.

"Yay!" Lily and Eric said together and picked up their menus.

"Paris, why don't you come sit next to me?" Debbie offered, patting the empty seat next to her.

"No thanks, Debbie," Paris told her. "I'm good here next to my mom."

Ouch. Good one, Paris.

I tried to hide a smirk as Debbie's face turned sad.

Debbie cleared her throat, "Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom."

I rolled my eyes when I saw the tears fall down her cheeks.

She's only doing this to make the kids sympathize with her.

"Was it what I said?" Paris asked me.

"No, baby, it's okay. It's just the pregnancy, you remember me when I was pregnant... I always cried." I answered.

She nodded and looked at her menu, but I noticed Prince's disappointed look.

"Angie, don't you think we should check on her?" he sighed.

"Honey, I'm sure she's fine. Come on, order up so we can eat."

He looked down as if he was still disappointed, but still did as I told him to.

~

"Angie, she's there for too long... Can you go check on her, please?" Prince begged once the waiters put the food on our table.

"Fine," I murmured. "Javon, look after them."

I stood up and made my way to the restaurant bathroom, where Debbie was just leaving one of the stalls.

She washed her face while whimpering. Please, I'm not falling for that.

"Debbie," I called. "Listen, I have tried to be nice to you, I have tried to compromise with you, but you keep doing this kind of shit that presses my buttons."

I walked up to her because I noticed she wasn't listening, "Prince and Paris are my kids, understand that. I've been raising them for the last three years, I adopted them, I became their mother, and you will not take them away from me. And maybe Prince does want to get to know you, but Paris... Well, Paris doesn't even like you. So you know what? If you don't stop taking advantage of my poor son like that, and play with his feelings like you do, then I would have no choice but to tell Michael that we are taking this to court."

"Ugh," Debbie groaned. "Can you shut the hell up, Angela? Can't you see I'm having a damn contraction?!"

I scrunched my eyebrows. "What?"

"This is nothing, it'll end in a second... I always had these kind of days when I was pregnant with Prince and Paris."

"Kind of days...?"

"I call them contraction days," she explained. "The contractions start really hard early in the morning, then they slowly fade away. It's just... I don't know, they keep getting stronger."

Uh oh.

"Are you sure you're not in labor?" I questioned.

"No, there's no way... I'm only 34 weeks in. I always had my babies late."

"Yeah, but this time you're 48, I don't think it's a very ideal age to have a baby at. Believe me, I know what I'm talking about."

Why the hell am I helping her? This woman never did anything to help me, she only hurt me. She's the same thriving bitch she always was, who's trying to take my kids away from their father and I.

Debbie's muscles loosened a bit and I looked at my watch to hopefully time her contractions.

"Okay, if the next contraction comes within the next few minutes, we are calling Mark and going straight to the hospital, got it?" I said.

She nodded quickly and leaned against the sink.

About 5 minutes passed before she groaned again.

"Ow, ow, ow..."

"I'm calling Mark." I sighed, taking out my phone."

"H- his number is 661," Debbie panted. "732. And 9516."

I quickly dialed the numbers as she said them, then put the phone next to my ear.

"Mark," I hurried to speak when he answered. "It's Angela, listen Debbie is-"

He cut me off, "She's in labor, isn't she? God, this woman is driving me crazy... I knew this would happen, I told her not to go with you, but she insisted."

"Meet us at the nearest hospital?"

"Yeah, I guess. And Angela? Thank you for doing this, I know you don't get along that well."

"No problem," I said. "We'll see you at the hospital, Mark."

I hung up and hurried to help Debbie walk after her contraction ended.

But as soon as she took the first step, her water broke.

"Now we really have to hurry. Stay here, I'll call Javon."

Quickly, I ran out of the bathroom and ordered Javon to go there and take Debbie while I explained to the kids what was happening.

Once everyone was gathered up we went to the car, and drove as fast as we could towards the hospital, all I could do was think why the hell I was helping her.

~

We had an empty road, until about 15 minutes into the ride, when traffic became a problem.

"Angela," Debbie barked and grabbed my arm. "If you don't drive faster, I'll be having this baby here."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't really control traffic, can I?" I rolled my eyes at her.

My phone suddenly rang, and I looked at the caller ID. It was Michael, probably calling because he found out where I was.

"Javon, if he calls you, don't answer," I ordered the bodyguard. "I'll turn the next exit and we'll try to get to the hospital another way. Just breathe, Debbie."

I prayed my plan would work as she panted harder.

~

Luckily, we made to the hospital just in time. Mark was already there... Along with Michael.

"So... Going on a fun day with Lily, Eric, and Blanket, huh?" he asked as a nurse rolled a screaming Debbie in a wheelchair.

"How'd you know?" I bit my bottom lip.

"Mark called."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he said. "You wanna tell me how you ended up here?"

I gulped, "Uh, well, remember last night when Paris called? She begged me to take her so I called Debbie this morning and she was okay with me taking Prince and Paris home... So I planned a day out for all of us, but then Debbie decided to join. So we watched a movie, then went to this restaurant and right before we ordered Paris said something that I think hurt Debbie's feelings... And she went to the bathroom for a long time so I went to check on her, and there she was, having contractions."

"Still doesn't explain why you lied to me." Michael crossed his arms over my chest.

"Because, I've been telling you the entire day yesterday not to pick them up because we might get into trouble with Debbie... So I'm sorry."

He sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm not mad... I'm actually glad you did it. Because I realized something... I want to fight Debbie for custody. Prince and Paris are my kids and I'm not compromising with no one. They are staying with me. With us."

~

There you go guys!!
Hopefully I'll find some time to write more and try to update earlier than planned, so I hope you like this chapter and tell me what you think!!

Love you ❤️❤️❤️

~ShoamEmily