“Tina,” Bette began specking softly. “I wish I could take the pain for you.all of it,” she sobbed. “If there was something I could do to change what I’ve done, I would do it. I can’t go back an erase it. I can’t make you forget it. II,” she paused and hung her head. “I can’t bring back the trust you once had in me.” Her body trembled and she held on to the door for support. “What I can do is tell you I love you, tell you I never intentionally meant to hurt you, tell you I want to spend the rest of my life with only you. But, I can’t make you believe it. You have to want it too.”

 She opened the door and walked out. Tina called for her, she didn’t stop. She jumped into the truck and raced off down the road. For the longest time Bette tried holding it in. She no longer had control of her self and began beating the steering wheel and screaming so load it made her feel dizzy.

 “*****!” She pressed down on the accelerator. The truck speed increased faster and faster Bette gripped the wheel tight and pressed even more. Her eyes were tired and crying just made it worse. She reached up to wipe her face taking her hand off the steering wheel just a second. But then with out any notice to Bette something jumped in front of her. She hit the brakes and turned to the right trying to miss it. The wetness of road caused the truck to slide. She could hear the tires whaling as she was trying to get stopped. The vehicle was out of control, it hit the gravel just off the road which sent the truck spinning. It then rose up off the ground, bouncing Bette around like a rag doll inside. Finally hitting a tree head on full force it came to a rest. The truck had smashed into the tree and now sat mangled in a heap of medal.  You could smell the rubber burning and steam from the radiator bellowed out causing a fog. Bette lay very still you could hear the horn blasting load her body was hunched over the steering wheel, she came to and tried moving, she couldn’t. She could barely breathe, but called out for help, no one could hear her.

 Marino Franzetti had just finished his evening route and was heading home. As he rounded the corner less then a mile away from the villa Tina and Bette were staying in. He saw lights off the road in the field. Marino drove into the field just a bit to get a better look. He then saw Bette’s truck smashed against the tree and immediately he called for help. He ran over to the truck the horn was making a god awful noise, so reached in and pulled on a cable to cut the blasting. Then walked over to the driver side of the vehicle and saw Bette, her body hunched over the steering wheel. He could hear a faint whisper as he reached in and gently lay her back on the seat.

“Oh God!” he cried.

 She was full of blood and shaking. Just above her right eye she had a large gash, her lip was busted and when he touched her arm she screeched in pain. Blood was running down her face into her eyes and he could tell her breathing was becoming shallow. Marino took off his shirt to apply pressure to the wound. Bette shivered from the cold and loss of blood. She tried to keep her eyes open and tried lifting her head wanting to get out of the truck.

“Please miss,” he said, “don’t try to move now. Just stay calm. I’ve called for help, you’re going to be fine.” Bette mumbled some words he could quite understand.

“It’s ok miss, help will be here soon.” In the distance he could hear the sirens screaming towards them. The rain was harder now and Marino was soaked to the skin, but he never left Bette’s side. As the ambulance crew got closer Bette opened her eyes and looked up at Marino. Her lips purple and eyes full of tears she gasped and tried again to speak. Marino put his ear close to Bette’s mouth and he finally heard what she had been whispering softly.

“Tina.Tina,” she cried then with one last breathless effort. Again she said softly, “Tina.”  And then Bette closed her eyes.

To be continued.