"Jo, Melito wants to kiss you good night."

"Alright." she turned around and walked into Melito’s room and kissed him good night while Toni took a seat in the living room. Bette walked back in and saw Toni sitting with her head in her hands, as if she was searching for something in them.

"Toni, you wanna talk now?" Toni nodded and patted the seat next to her and scooted over to allow Bette to sit down. As Bette took a seat next to Toni, she couldn’t help but to touch Bette’s face. It was always like looking at her little sister, it often made her sad. Toni took a big breath of air and searched for the right words to make Bette understand her position.

"Jo, do you remember when I stayed with you guys for like 6 months, when you were little?"

"Yeah, I mostly remember you crying a lot though."

"Right, well I was going through a divorce with your Uncle Marlon. And he wanted to take my children away from me."

"I’m sorry Toni, I didn’t know."

"That’s because I made it my business for you guys not to know. In spite of him being an asshole of a husband, he was a really good father and you guys loved him. But when we were going through our divorce he wanted sole custody of your cousins. He called me a bad parent because I wanted to go back to school and work full time."

"What? That doesn’t make any sense."

"Well there was that and I’d fallen for your Uncle Sergio." Bette did remember her Uncle Sergio coming into the picture right about the same time, it made her giggle.

"Oh…ok. I’m not really sure where you’re going with this Toni."

"Jo, I better than anyone else understand what Alicia’s going through."

"Toni, Alicia abandoned Melito for heroin. There is no way you would abandon your kids."

"But I did. It wasn’t until I realized that I needed them to need me, that I went back. My whole thinking was if wants to he can make sure their homework is done, make sure their clothes are clean, keep up with all their activities and friends. My whole attitude was "if wants them he can have them" I ran away to your mother. She helped me to see how much I needed my kids. Well her and you helped me. The way you used to look at her made me want my little babies to look at me like that again" Toni was fighting tears severely, she wanted to do this without any tears. Bette put her hand on her knee to comfort her.