The next morning, Gabriella woke before her sister so she decided to let the little girl sleep – knowing she'd been deprived for the past week – and went to see if her boyfriend was awake. Opening the door, she found the boy lounging on his bed so she climbed in beside him, resting on his chest as he wrapped an arm around her. She placed a kiss on his uncovered chest, blushing slightly at the realisation she was pressed against him without a shirt. "Good morning."

"Morning Baby."

"Did you sleep any better?"

"Yeah it was ok, was Lil ok last night? I kinda assumed that's why you were up at 2am."

She nodded against him. "Yeah we talked it all out and I think she's ok with it all now, I must've really scared her."

She heard his audible sigh. "You scared us all Brie, we felt helpless that we couldn't do anything and just had to wait. Lil and I knew something wasn't right from the start, you even had all our friends panicked."

"Oh no, do they know what happened?"

Troy shook his head. "No they don't, we just told them that you were in California visiting family." He paused for a second, turning to face her properly. "We're gonna have to tell them the truth soon, if you're not comfortable with them knowing about us, that's ok 'cause I know you haven't been here long enough to fully trust them, but I think we are gonna have to tell them 'cause there's only so long that Chad can keep a secret and I feel bad lying to my friends."

"Me too." She thought for a second. "Can we just wait until this settles down and then tell them, I just need a few days to prepare and for everything to calm down first."

"Of course, whenever you're ready."

There was a knock on the door and they scrambled apart but calmed when Lilliana opened the door. "Can Jakie and I come in?" At their nod, the twins walked in and sat on the bed beside the juniors.

Troy spoke to the twins. "Good morning guys." When they responded, he looked around. "Now that everyone's up, should we show Gabriella your speeches from the presentation?" Both teenagers laughed softly as both the six-year-olds shrugged shyly. "Come on, I'm sure she'll love them, I'll go get my camera so I can plug it into my laptop so we can watch." While Troy was setting up the videos, Gabriella caught up with the twins, asking them questions about their week while she was away and enjoyed as they animately told their stories. Jacob was finishing his story when Troy had finished setting up his laptop and he sat beside the boy, listening to the ending. "Alright, should we get started?" When he received three nods, he pressed play. "Ok so Jakie's up first."

Gabriella wanted to laugh as she watched the young boy rub the back of his neck, a nervous trait he shared with his older brother. She watched the video and smiled at the words of the little boy, her heart filling having not realised the importance of a small gesture she made every morning. When the video ended, she leant over and placed a kiss on his cheek. "That was lovely Jakie, thank you, you spoke so well."

"Thanks Gabi."

Troy went to the next video and Gabriella looked down at her sister. "Your turn little one." She smiled as Lilliana buried her head into her chest in embarrassment. The junior signalled at her boyfriend to press play as she rubbed her sister's back. Tears filled her eyes as she listened to the six-year-old's words and tried hard to stop her lip from quivering. The sisters had always said 'I love you' and would reassure each other but never had they gone into so much explicit detail that the sixteen-year-old felt overwhelmed. There had always been a doubt in the back of her mind that she hadn't raised Lilliana right and she'd made mistakes along the way but hearing the words of admiration from the little girl made her realise that it didn't matter; she was proud of who her sister was and she loved their time together. Once the video stopped, she wiped under her eyes and pulled her sister out of her hiding place.

"Did you like it?"

"I loved it Baby, that means more to me than you'll ever know." The little girl hugged her around the neck and she placed a kiss on her temple, whispering. "I love you so much Liv, thank you."

"I love you too Bria."

Gabriella looked at both twins. "Your speeches were lovely guys, I'm glad I got to see them and I wish I had been there at the presentation to see them."

The door opened, interrupting their conversation and Jack stood at the opening. "Jakie, you ready to go?" The boy nodded. "Alright, I'll be in the car, come down when you're ready."

Gabriella looked at the boy. "Where are you going Jakie?"

"Dad's taking me to Dave & Busters, I really wanted to go and he said I've been good so we could go today." The boy hugged the other three and looked at his twin before he left. "I'm sorry you couldn't come Lilly, I'll bring back a prize for you." He waved goodbye before exiting the room.

Gabriella looked to her sister. "You'd love Dave & Busters Liv, why can't you go?"

Lilliana looked down. "I'm grounded."

Troy placed his hand on the girl's shoulder. "He overreacted a little there Lil, you shouldn't still be grounded, he's just not used to punishing younger kids so he punishes you like you're a teenager."

Gabriella looked at the two curiously. "Why is she grounded though?"

He looked at the girl and saw she wasn't willing to explain so he took over. "Because Dad didn't realise anything bad was happening to you, he was talking about how nice it was that we could do things as a family and stuff like that and Lilly kinda snapped after a while... she told him that she hated him."

Gabriella sighed. "Liv-"

"I know, I didn't mean it and I said I was sorry but he was being mean about you and I didn't like it and he wouldn't stop and he wouldn't listen when I said sorry, he just yelled."

"Hey." The teenager placed a hand on her sister's knee. "It's ok, calm down. Now I'm not saying it's ok that you go around and tell people that you hate them but I know you were scared this week and it takes a lot for you to snap like that." Smiling reassuringly as the anxious eyes looked at her, she squeezed her knee gently. "You made a mistake Liv, it's ok and you knew to apologise so it's ok."

Troy also inserted a statement. "And don't take it too personally Lil, Dad can be hotheaded, he punished you while he was angry. It'll be over soon anyway and there's plenty of stuff we can do 'round here."