AN: Several of you said you would be interested in a sequel which is really cool. This is probably been one of my most popular stories and I'm glad to see it will be continuing in a series. I want to take a moment to thank you guys for giving this story a chance. I never thought I would ever get a hundred reviews on a story, but I did with this one and it was awesome. Some writers, myself included, write because it makes us happy and even if no one reads it we would still write. However, there is something special about seeing other people enjoy a story as much as you enjoyed creating it. Your characters create a special place in your heart and it's so amazing to see other people love them as much as you do.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. We get to learn a little bit more about some of the characters. Even if it's mostly trivial stuff I think it adds to those characters as a whole and makes them more real.

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"True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience." -Oprah Winfrey

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Emily hated doing what she knew had to be done. A part of her wanted to just enjoy Matthew being back in their lives, but she knew how Matthew could be. One day he would on the straight path of life and the next a paranoid druggie. She'd already put the conversation on hold long enough.

"Where are the girls?" Matthew asked from the couch as Emily arrived home from work.

Emily walked to her room to put her gun up, shouting a reply as she did, "Chloe and Elise are with Dave and Erin. Mattea is getting ready at Caitlin's then going to a party."

Matthew jumped up following Emily into her room. "What kind of party? Where at? With whom? Till what time? Will there be adults present?"

Emily almost chuckled at Matthew's spew of questions. "It's a Christmas party being hosted by one of the choir moms. There will be several adults there."

"Are you positive?"

Emily nodded. "I trust her and you should too. She's a good kid, maybe even too good. She deserves some fun."

Matthew sighed as he followed Emily back to the living room. He retook his seat on the couch while Emily grabbed two glasses of water from the kitchen. "You're sure there will be adults there?"

"A lot of the choir parents are chaperoning. I was even asked to, but I wanted to use tonight to have a conversation with you," Emily explained as she joined Matthew on the couch.

"About?" Matthew asked taking a tentative sip of his water.

"About you being here; your intentions and such," Emily replied. "Don't get me wrong I'm ecstatic you're here, but I don't want to see Mattea get hurt again." Emily's voice lowered as she dropped eye contact. "And I will not have a drug addict around my children."

"Emily," Matthew stressed. "That was in the past. I'm almost a year clean now. I want to do right. I have some business to handle after the new year and will be gone for about a month, but after that I plan to be here. I want to be here for you and Mattea."

Emily took a deep breath. "I don't need you to be here for me. Mattea wants her father around. She needs you. I won't ask much in terms of Chloe and Elise, but don't make them feel pushed to the side."

Matthew nodded in understanding. "I wouldn't. They are a part of you. I was already thinking when they get out on Christmas break we could go to the aquarium since Chloe's been wanting to go so badly. Make it a family day."

Emily didn't know what to say, but she managed to find something. "That sounds good."

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"Wow," Mattea said in awe circling the bike. "How did you manage to get your hands on such a beauty?"

Mattea had seen Caitlin's bike before, but never up close, and she definitely hadn't rode on it before.

Caitlin replied as she handed a helmet to Mattea, "My father gave it to me for my 16th birthday. He was trying to buy my love. I love the bike, him not so much."

"Oh," Mattea whispered as she put the helmet on.

"Got to give him credit for trying though," Caitlin said putting her own helmet on.

As Mattea climbed on behind Caitlin she was glad she had opted out of wearing a dress. The party was a little get together for the show choir and show band being hosted by Luca's mom; nothing too fancy. Mattea had chosen a red sweater, black jeans, and Santa hat earrings. She also had on black ankle boots that she may have stolen from her mom's closet.

Caitlin was also dressed down in a green t-shirt with skinny jeans and light brown boots. She had on her favorite leather jacket with embroidered flowers down the arms and a gold rose choker. Caitlin had told Mattea previously that the jacket had been a gift from her paternal grandfather and the necklace from her paternal grandmother. Despite the obvious rift between Caitlin and her father she did love her grandparents on both sides of the family.

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"Then Rachel was like..."

Mattea took another sip of her drink tuning out the conversation around her. Parties weren't really her thing. She had only been to two 'parties' in her life that were thrown by other people. One was Nonna Carmeilina's great niece's birthday party and the other a sleepover with an Interpol agent's daughter. Neither had been this crowded, well the birthday party had been. However, Mattea was pretty equipped to handle a bunch of Italians, not so much a bunch of teenagers. The sleepover on the other hand had been a disaster. Clyde had not been very pleased to receive a call at two in the morning by a distraught Emily and sobbing Mattea as they went to the E.R. for a broken arm. Mattea never went to another sleep over and defiantly never played Twister again. Clyde almost fired that agent for allowing her to get hurt.

Caitlin had hung around for a bit, but Mattea had pushed her towards some of the band kids. They were, well Mattea wasn't quite sure what they were doing. It looked like maybe they were having a competition of who could eat the most mini cupcakes. It looked like Jacob, a trumpet player, was winning while Christopher, a trombone player, looked like he was about to puke; and he was as his face paled and he took off running for the nearest bathroom.

Luca was around somewhere; Mattea wouldn't be surprised if he was playing host and talking to all the chaperones. Much like herself Luca had better luck interacting with adults than other teenagers. Luca and Caitlin were the only choir kids Mattea really hung out with, well and Natalie. Since the concert Mattea had been trying to talk to Natalie more, so far she'd been semi-successful. They didn't really have many classes together, and both stayed pretty busy with AP classes and extracurriculars. Mattea wasn't even sure if Natalie was going to show up to the party, she had mentioned that her foster mom was pretty protective.

Mattea's unasked question was answered when Natalie walked in the door. Excitement flooded her system. She quickly jumped up to meet Natalie in the entry way. "Hey."

Natalie offered her a soft smile. "Hi."

"I like your outfit."

Natalie blushed looking down at her outfit as she fiddled with the zipper on her jacket. "Thanks, most of it belongs to Elle."

Mattea spared another glance at the outfit. Natalie had on black jeans with holes at the knees and roses at the pockets tucked into a pair of combat boots. Her black Guns and Roses tee was halfway tucked with a leather jacket over it. She also had a gold necklace on with something written on a circular pendent. "What does your necklace say?"

"Oh." Natalie brought her hand up to touch it. "It says Hope. There's actually a story behind it. Maybe one day I'll tell it too you."

Mattea smiled. "I liked to hear it, one day." Mattea led Natalie to the refreshments table and changed the topic. "How's Sable?"

"Living the best baby life. Elle's watching her, and Elle treats her like a princess," Natalie replied.

Their conversation continued going from topic to topic. They didn't realize how long they'd been talking until Caitlin joined them. She had icing in her hair and a smug smile. "I told Jacob I could beat him."

"How are you still standing? I saw Christopher puke earlier."

Caitlin gave Mattea a wide grin. "I have a bottomless pit for a stomach. My mother still cooks like she is back home and needs to feed a small army. She's also a firm believer in not throwing away leftovers, so I eat a lot the first night to avoid eating it for the next week."

"I need to visit your house," Mattea joked. "Mom can't cook to save her life."

"Neither can Elle," Natalie chimed in. "We have all the local food places on speed dial."

"One time Mom almost burned the kitchen down trying to cook Christmas dinner," Mattea told her.

"I can beat that," Natalie said. Her earlier timidness long forgotten. "One time Elle managed to cut her hand trying to cook dinner and had to get ten stitches."

"I don't know I think fire beats E.R. trip," Mattea said. "Caitlin?"

Caitlin shook her head. "I'm not getting into this; though, you guys are defiantly coming to dinner one night. Wait till you've had a southern cooking."

Mattea and Natalie both smiled.

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"Food tastes better when you eat it with your family."