“Let me talk to Tina.”

“What would you say?”

“That my sister is a pootie chasin’ dog, who deserves to be tied down and whooped upside the head, but it doesn’t change the fact that she loves you more than she loves her own life. And that you should finish punishing her and get back to figuring on how to live with one another for the next 50 years or more.”

“You could give it a try,” she said.

“Why did you do it?”

“What?” She said despite knowing the implication of the question.

“If you love Tina so much why cheat on her?  Why continued the affair for months after she left?

“To be honest with you I don’t know why.  Everything just became so dark for me when we lost the baby.  And I’m still in the dark.”

“Well get yourself out of there quick before you lose the love of your life forever.”

“Do you think she’ll forgive me?”

“She forgave me for trashing her car during one of my drink and drive episodes I’m sure she’ll forgive you but give her some times.”

“I just want us to get back together Kit…working pass this issue and finally starting our family.”

“I know you want a family with her but I think it’s best if you wait on it for a few years.  You have to toil on building a stronger relationship before you can bring a child into this whole mess.”

“I know it’s just if we had a baby Tina and I would still be together and none of this would happen.” 

“Well you can’t change what happened now. Do you have a plan to get her to forgive you?”

She nodded with sadness.  “She’s the love of my life Kit.  I need her.  I can’t live without her,” Bette said almost tearing up.

“Now don’t you go and pull a Marina on me now,” Kit said having found out today that she attempted suicide and was now in Milan.

“Kit.”

“I’m just saying.”

Bette sighed and continued eating her food.  She stopped and spoke to her sister.

“I’m not going to kill myself over anyone Kit.  I still want to be with her what good can I be if I’m dead.”

“Well you tried to kill yourself over that witch. What’s her name? Kelly.”

“Oh please, it was an accident. I did not try to kill myself over Kelly.” 

“Sure accident happened especially with pills,” she said airily.

“You still don’t believe me do you?  Why would I kill myself over someone I didn’t even love?”

Truth was that Bette did attempted suicide but it was not in response to Kelly’s rejection.  Bette came home that summer from Yale telling her sister about the rejection which she could care less about – the bigger picture was her newly discovered identity, the one her own father refused to acknowledge and support. 

Melvin was her father, her role model, and her everything.  She sought approval from him in everything she does in life at the time.  Melvin said she should give up basketball despite making the team to focus solely on her study, she did just that.  She fought with him to study art history at Yale instead of law at Harvard.  He only allowed her because it’s Yale although he was very disappointed in her decision.

She came out to Melvin, not only did he denied her, he slandered her character and seized her confident stomping it to the ground. The bar he established for her was a hundred fold higher than Kit.  He prided her, she was everything he wanted in a daughter smart, beautiful, and talented.  Her future was bright he saw so many things in Bette that was him, if only she can be molded.  His expectations for her became too much.  She can’t un-gay herself.  She can’t stop loving women and she can’t stop loving him.