Chapter 4

Tina awoke early not having slept
well knowing Angie wasn’t in the house.

As she lay in bed listening to the
silence of the morning surround her she thought of how she and Bette use to
enjoy such time together.

She wondered if Bette still enjoyed
this time of the day the best.

Tina had truly never been a morning
person until she met Bette.

But she was sure it was Bette’s
inventive ways of waking her up each day that caused a change in her.

Henry on the other hand had tried
to remove the peace she found in such small things.

She remembered one bad morning in
particular when she awoke with him standing over her with her cell phone in his
hands.

Having scrolled through her caller
log he noticed a strange number and so Tina awoke to his anger.

She tried to tell him it was a call
from her sister’s new number but in his irrational state he would not accept
what she was saying as truth.

It was true for many years her
family rejected her but a few years after she and Henry had married she
contacted her sister.

Tina had always thought she had
finally broke down and called her family because deep down she knew it would
never work with Henry because he didn’t have her heart.

But whatever the reason it seems
they accepted her back into their lives.

The first visit back home became
the first of very, very few.

Tina remembered how excited she had
been for her family to finally meet Angie and Henry.

Yet once again Henry found a way to
take away her joy.

On the last day of the short visit
Henry had unexpectedly walked into the kitchen as her sister and she were
talking about Bette.

He made his displeasure with Tina
known on the spot then turned and left the room with the parting directive of
pack your things we have a flight to catch.

After that awkward moment Tina’s
family instinctually knew to call her around Henry’s work schedule.

Tina wasn’t sure when thoughts of
Bette started creeping back into her head.

But now it almost seemed as if they
had taken center stage.

A little too late she realized how
cruel she had been to Bette.

She recalled the hurt reflected in
Bette’s eyes each time she had been forced to watch Tina with someone else.