I remember when I first moved to LA how excited I was to
finally be taking the first step in achieving my dreams. Like all young
individuals on the cusp of new adventures…I dreamed of success, love, and
family. But the one thing I never saw coming was the phenomenon known as Bette
Porter.

Bette came into my life and slipped under my radar before I
knew what hit me.  Being raised in a
conservative family, in a small North Carolina town, I was as straight as they
come, or so I thought that is until Bette and that damned Porter charm.

To think my family would approve of my new found love was a colossal
mistake. When I took my beautiful Bette home to celebrate in our happiness I
was met with prejudices and bigotry from those who claimed to love me. When
Bette and I left my parent’s home that night I knew I had made my choice and it
was Bette.

I happily lived with my choice for seven years and in that
time we planned a family. But when she destroyed our life together by cheating
with another I moved on. Something in me just would not let me believe in her
promises of love anymore. I ran…I ran straight into the arms of someone I knew
would hurt her as badly as she had hurt me…into the arms of a man taking my
daughter with me.

Oh… Bette fought for us. When she realized she had finally
lost me she continued to fight for Angelica. She tried fighting legally and
that’s when it all came to a disastrous end. The night Bette ran away with
Angelica from Whistler I decided to allow Henry to adopt Angie and cut Bette
out completely from both of our lives. It’s not that I no longer loved her it
was the only way I knew to make my heart and her heart… let us go.

Henry accepted Angie from the beginning not because she
looked like me, but because he was a man with a strong sense of family. Mikey
his son from a previous marriage had a wonderful relationship with his father
even before he came to live with us permanently. Often times when Angie and I
were out together people immediately assumed she was adopted even though I was
her birth mother because looking at Angie was like looking at an immature
version of Bette. But Henry loved Angie just as much as his biological son.