Chapter 2

As soon as Tina stepped onto the plane to go home she started
to hyperventilate. The experience of having survived a plane crash made the
once nervous flyer incapable of flying without the help of medication now.
Knowing that her job in LA required it frequently she knew her career in film
development was at an end. Three days after returning to North Carolina she
resigned from her position and contacted her building manager to pay out from
under the remaining time on her lease. North Carolina was home to her once
again.

She learned that the day the plane spotted them on the island
it was to be the last search and rescue mission looking for them. In truth it
was only at the insistence and influence of one Melvin Porter that this last
effort was performed. Everyone had given up hope on finding them alive
including Eric the man Tina was certain had loved her like no other.

In the time that Tina had been missing Eric had dealt with
his grief and moved on with his life. For the last five months he had been
dating a woman who also worked at the same firm he did. When he learned of
Tina’s rescue from the news he had contacted her by phone and told her how his
life had changed during their time apart. Tina understood because her feelings
for him had changed as well and so they decided to break their engagement.

Tina’s parents noticed sadness in her and encouraged her to
date some of the eligible young men around town but she quickly rejected their
suggestions. They thought Eric had broken her heart but little did they know it
was one Bette Porter who owned her heart now.

Her family knew that she had suffered a terrible ordeal but
until the heard her tossing and calling out in her sleep one night they never
really knew how bad it had been for their daughter.

As her mother slipped into her room to comfort her daughter
in her restless sleep she was surprised to find her lying on the floor on
nothing but a thin blanket but what shocked her most was what her sleeping
child was saying in her sleep.

She was calling for Bette and whispering words of love as her
hands moved to grasp thin air. Jolene Kennard did the only thing she knew to do
to help her child. She pulled her into her arms and stroked her hair. As soon
as Tina felt her touch she quieted down and sighed peacefully in her sleep. As
Jolene’s fingertips ran over the scar in her daughter’s scalp it dawned on her
what was wrong with her child. She was in love with a woman…and it was killing
her to be apart from one Bette Porter!