Bette heard the distinct, very familiar voice, but as soon as she turned whoever had spoken to her was gone. She shook her head and turned back and saw her father walking towards her. All these feelings overwhelmed her body; she hadn’t seen or heard from him since their fight over seven months ago. All the anger started to radiate in her body; she wanted to tell him to leave. To get the hell out of her gallery to let him know that she was better off without him. Yet, she missed him, she loved him. After all he’s done, at the end of the day, he was still her father.

“Elizabeth,” he said, his lip quivered a bit.

“Melvin,” Bette said sternly and unemotional.

“I wish you wouldn’t call me Melvin,” he said, getting closer to Bette, she just stood there; not moving an inch, “I just wanted to talk.”

“You know, this really isn’t a good time. This is my gallery opening and I just really have no desire to talk to you,” Bette said, trying to stay unemotional.

“Yes and what a magnificent gallery it is. You are so beautifully brilliant, you always made my heart sing every second of every day,” Melvin said, tugging at her heart strings knowing that his baby girl couldn’t resist him for long.

“You have a real funny way of showing it.”

“I know I was never the best father but,” he started to say but stopped when Tina walked back up and took Bette’s hand.

“Tina,” Melvin said, embracing Tina and kissing her cheek.

“Hello Melvin,” Tina said, a little freaked out.

“It seems we have much to talk about,” he said, looking at Tina’s stomach.

“Melvin, what do you want? To ruin my good mood? Because you’ve successfully done that,” Bette said, her anger rising and her voice shaking; Tina gripped her hand tightly.

“All I want is to talk to both you and Katherine.”

“Well we don’t want to talk, we’re done with you,” Bette said and started walking away pulling Tina along.

“Bette please,” Bette heard and stopped in her tracks. His voice was full of emotion, pleading with her not to walk away.

“Just talk with him, maybe this time will be different,” Tina said her eyes full of encouragement, “come on baby, he’s your father. He actually acknowledged me as Tina and not Ms. Kennard, even though we’ve been married for seven years, I mean he kissed my cheek for God’s sake.”