Again, so sorry for the late update.

I'm trying my best to write, but I'm so busy these days. Hopefully I'll have another chapter up soon.

Please vote and comment, I want to hear your thoughts on this!

I love you guys ❤️

~ShoamEmily

~

19th of September, 2007
Michael is 49, Angela is 43

Angela: "That was awful." Michael huffed when he closed the car door.

"What are you talking about? That went great. The judge was totally on our side." I said.

"He was on our side until Debbie had to ruin it."

I sighed, rubbing his shoulder. What a mess.

Everything in that courtroom went perfect; both Michael and I were asked questions by our attorney and Debbie's, and it went by smoothly. We listed all the things Debbie has done to our family, from giving me medicine while I was pregnant, to lying to Michael about her pregnancy.

But, as much as it looked like the judge was taking our side, he decided to have another court session due to Debbie crying in front of him, saying she's only a mother who wants to raise her children.

"Debbie isn't going to take us away, right, daddy?" Paris asked from the back.

"No, she isn't, baby girl. I won't let her." Michael answered.

"Good."

Prince rolled his eyes. "Maybe she should take us."

Both Michael and I looked at him with disbelief.

"Don't say that, Prince!" Paris scolded. "He doesn't mean it, daddy."

"Yes, I do, Paris."

Michael rubbed his face as the kids kept arguing in the back of the car.

"This was the worst day ever." he whispered in my ear before leaning back in his seat.

~

Prince ran straight to his room once we got home.

"I'm gonna see where our babies are," Michael told me. "I need some comfort."

I pulled on his arm, "Don't let what happened today get to you, okay? We're going to win this custody battle."

He only kissed me before leaving.

"We should do something to cheer him up, mom. Prince, too." Paris said.

"Yeah..." I sighed.

"So what are we gonna do?"

"Hmm..."

I bit my lip, hoping something would pop up. A few seconds later, I got the most perfect idea.

"We're going to Italy." I declared with a smile.

~

Michael: I watched Rose and Jared who played together while AJ was next to me, wiggling her tiny feet in the air.

Her eyes moved to the door and she smiled. Angela walked in with a mischievous look on her face.

"Mama!" Jared exclaimed and ran to her.

"Hey, baby." she kissed him.

I saw the jealousy on Rose's face as she came over to me, and sat down in my lap.

Angela put our son down, "Feeling better?"

I shrugged, playing with Rose's curls. I wish I could say I was feeling better, but knowing my son hates me only made everything worse.

"Well, I know just how to fix that," she said. I saw her take a picture out of her back pocket. "Here."

"What's this?" I asked, confused.

It was a picture of a relatively small house, but you could see the beach peeking out behind it. A couple was standing in front of the house with their ten kids.

"These are my grandparents," Angela explained. "And that is their house, where my mom grew up with all her nine siblings."

I scrunched my eyebrows, "And this is supposed to make me feel better?"

"No, but my grandmother was more than delighted when I called to tell her we are coming for a visit in two days."

"What?!"

"It's the family vacation we always wanted to go on, I think it's a perfect time to go." Angela bit her lip.

"We're in the middle of a custody battle!" I told her.

"I called the courthouse and told them to postpone the next court session for some time next month," she sighed. "Mike, we need this. Our family is falling apart thanks to your ex wife, and I'm trying to fix it. You'll see, by this time next month, Prince will return to be our happy son again."

"I don't know, Ange..."

"Please, do it for me. We gotta fix this."

I looked down at the picture again. Maybe she's right...

"Okay," I gave up. "Let's go to Italy."

Angela shrieked before attacking me in a hug. "You're the best! I'm gonna go tell the kids!"

~

21st of September, 2007
Michael is 49, Angela is 43

Angela: "Come on, babies." I smiled at my two little toddlers as we slowly climbed up the stairs to the private jet.

I helped them take their seats and buckled them up.

Prince sat at the other side of the isle. He plugged his earphones into his iPod to let us know he is not to be bothered.

"Mike," I called my husband who was about to sit next to him. "Switch with me."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I wanna talk to him."

I tapped Prince's shoulder. He looked at me, then rolled his eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"Can you take your earphones out, please?"

Groaning, he removed them from his ears. "Yes?"

"Honey..." I sighed heavily. "Please try to enjoy this trip, okay? It's very important to your dad and I that this trip goes well."

"Whatever."

He put his earphones back in their place and looked outside the window. I just hoped he would listen to me, and this trip would go as planned.

~

Michael: "We're here!" Angela gasped when the car stopped in front of the house from the picture she showed me a few days ago.

She took AJ with her as she got out of the car. "Come on, guys!"

"I haven't seen her this excited since she the last time we were here." Maria, who had joined us on this trip, whispered in my ear.

We all piled out of the car after Angela, and joined her at the front door.

She knocked on it lightly, "La nonna, siamo qui! (Grandma, we're here!)"

The door opened and a man who resembled Luciano appeared.

"Angela!" he hugged her tightly, being careful about AJ. He then noticed Maria. "Maria! Mi siete mancati! (Maria! I missed you!)"

Angela cleared her throat, "Michael, this is my uncle, Matteo. He's one of my mom's younger siblings. Matteo, this is Michael. My husband."

"I know who he is," Matteo said with his thick accent, and extended his hand. I shook it. "It's very nice to meet you."

"You, too." I smiled.

Angela grinned at us. "And these are Prince, Paris, and Blanket, they're Michael's kids. You already know Lily and Eric, but... These are Rose and Jared, and baby AJ..."

"They are all very beautiful. Come inside, your grandmother is waiting for you."

Angela shrieked with excitement before we all followed her uncle into the house.

~

Angela: "Nonna!" I exclaimed and hugged my grandmother.

She squeezed me with the very little power she had in her. "Angela, il mio amore. (Angela, my love)."

My mother also gave her a hug, telling her how much she missed her.

"Chi è questo? (Who's this?)" my grandma asked as she looked down at AJ.

"Questo è AJ. Ella è di due mesi di età. (This is AJ. She's two months old)." I answered.

"Ella è molto bella, il mio amore. (She is very beautiful, my love)."

I smiled at her words and hugged her again, then introduced everyone, including Michael.

My grandmother pulled him in to a tight embrace to let me know she approves of him. I sighed in relief.

Just like everyone in my family, my nonna loved Jake. She adored him from the moment they met. And considering some members of this family hadn't really approved of my husband, I was scared of her reaction.

But luckily, it looked like this trip was starting off great, and I was hoping to keep it that way.

~

It's been a few hours since we got here. The kids were having a great time with my family members that decided to join. I could've sworn I even saw Prince smiling at something my cousin did.

Michael was putting AJ and the twins to sleep since they started drifting off a few minutes ago.

I was still enjoying the company of my grandmother, telling her everything about Michael and I. Well, almost everything.

"Babe," I suddenly heard my husband whisper to me from the hallway. "Can you come for a second?"

I nodded, telling my grandmother I'll be back in a minute.

"I think it's time we head to the house I rented for us..." Michael said, rubbing my shoulders lightly. "All the kids seem pretty tired."

"Right, the house." I sighed. He told me something about renting a house for our stay here, but I just figured we'd be at my grandmother's house this whole time. Obviously, we were going with his plan.

I bit my lip, "My grandmother will be so disappointed when I tell her... Are you sure we can't stay here?"

"No, we already discussed this. We're too big of a family to stay here."

"Right. But I still can't tell her."

"I'll do it." Michael offered and headed towards the living room.

"Michael, no!" I hurried to follow him, but I was too late.

"We are very thankful for the hospitality, but we really should go..." Michael explained to both my uncle and grandmother.

Matteo raised his eyebrows. "Go? Where?"

"Um, we rented a house not far from here."

My mom hurried to translate to my grandmother, and I could see the disappointment on her face.

"Siamo spiacenti, nonna. (Sorry, grandma.)"

"We should get the kids." Michael whispered in my ear.

I sighed again. "Yeah..."

Quickly, we gathered up the kids, said our goodbyes, then got in the car.

~

"I never saw my grandmother so disappointed before, Mike," I said when settled into bed. "Did you see her face?"

"Babe, don't dwell on it. She probably just wanted us close. We couldn't stay there for our entire time here, Angie. We're a big family, we need a big house." Michael wrapped an arm around me.

"My mom grew up in that house with nine siblings. I'm sure we would've managed..."

He sighed deeply, "Okay, you gotta stop thinking about it. Your family are glad you're here, and that's what matters."

I felt him let go of my body. When I turned to him, I saw that he left the bed and was putting a robe around his body.

"Where are you going?"

"You said this trip is for us to get our minds off everything, right? Yet, here you are, thinking about disappointing your family, although I can assure you, Ange, they're happy you came all the way here just to see them. Now, come with me, I wanna show you something."

Although I had no intentions of getting out of bed at all anymore, I followed him. He went down the big staircase and then down another, smaller one.

"I picked this house especially because of this," Michael said when we stopped in front of a wooden door. "You know, except for the beautiful view of the ocean."

I rolled my eyes and he opened it.

"Michael... This is amazing," I gasped when I saw the huge wine cellar. "But you know I can't drink alcohol, I'm breastfeeding."

"Oh, come on, one glass of some rich, red, Italian wine won't hurt. And, you've already pumped a few days worth of breast milk."

I licked my lips. "Fine. But I'm having just one glass."

"I never asked for more." Michael winked.

~

Michael: One glass of wine turned into two whole bottles that Angela and I shared. Soon enough, we got caught in an intense make out session.

"I love you..." she said into the kiss. "And you know, when two people love each other, they do certain things..."

"What things?" I smiled down at her.

"Like have more babies..."

Okay, someone is definitely drunk.

"More babies?" I raised an eyebrow and pulled away from her. "Ange, I think you're drunk."

"What? No, no, no... I'm serious. Let's have more babies."

"We'll talk about this when you're sober, okay?"

She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Come on, babe... We both know this is just the alcohol talking." I stroked her face.

Which was true. I figured AJ would be our last baby, since her pregnancy was so hard on Angela.

She frowned and nodded, "Probably. I don't know, I guess it's this place... Being here makes me so happy, maybe I got a little too excited."

"You think?"

She rolled her eyes at me while hitting my chest. "Shut up."

"I just... I think it would be better for us if we focus on us, okay?"

She nodded.

"So let's focus on us... Can we continue where we left off?" Angela questioned.

"And where was that?" I said.

She kissed me hungrily while running her hand down my body.

"Oh... In that case, yes, we can."

My wife giggled as I placed small kisses all over her neck, then got on top of her.

"Maybe renting this house wasn't such a bad idea..." she moaned when I pulled down her panties.

I smirked. "Told you."

Angela bit her bottom lip as I traveled with my mouth down her body, and I felt the goosebumps all over her skin.

This is going to be a great night.

~

22nd of September, 2007
Michael is 49, Angela is 43

Michael: I woke up to Angela kissing my chest.

Last night was... Amazing. I have never seen Angela in that kind of mood before. She became so driven last night. It's like she was a totally different person.

Maybe it was because our talk last night, but she was the most passionate I've ever seen her.

"Morning, sleepyhead." she giggled.

"Hey," I brushed a few hairs out of her face. "What time is it?"

"12 PM." she smiled.

"So late?"

"Yeah, you slept a lot," Angela kissed me. "And now you gotta get up, the kids want to do something fun. I say we go to the beach."

"That sounds great." I told her.

She kissed me again. "I'll go get them ready."

My eyes were fixed on her ass as she left the room. She decided to wear skinny jeans today, and I was loving it.

"Daddy, get up! Mommy says we're going to the beach!" I heard Blanket from outside the room.

I smiled at his excitement and decided to get ready for the day ahead.

"Hey, dad." Prince smiled widely at me as he skipped down the stairs.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. He hasn't talked to me for three whole days, what happened?

"Are you coming? Angie made breakfast."

"Uh, yeah... Are you feeling okay, son?"

"Yup. Dad, you think we could invite Matteo's kids to the beach?" he asked.

"I don't see why not. I'll tell Angela to call them before we leave." I answered.

Prince hugged me, "Thanks, dad."

I sighed and squeezed him tightly. "Anything for you, Prince."

Angela was right. This trip was already effecting him for the better. All of us.

We were going to be one big happy family again.