Bette smiled and loving the tenderness in the blonde’s voice when she talked about her daughter.

“… and once she started talking oh my God it’ll take a massive earthquake to make her stop. I love it when she tells me her stories, her adventures, the friends that she just acquired because it makes me feel that somehow I’m still part of her life”

“But you are still a part of her life Tina”

“I know but it’s different when we’re living in two different houses, it’s not the same when she’s not with me…”

Tina took a deep sigh “I longed for the day when I’ll have my daughter back and I hope that that day will come”

“Tina trust me… You’ll have Angelica back”

Silence

“Have you talked to Henry? Does he know that you are here?”

“No he doesn’t know a thing. I only told him that I’ll be gone for a month to visit a friend and will be back to Los Angeles in time for my monthly visitation to Angelica and then after that I’ll get back here to continue the therapy”

“Just like that he doesn’t ask questions like where do you go or who is the friend that you are going to visit?”

“Part of our agreement is that we are not going to ask details of whatever it is that we do. We only talk when it concerns Angie and when he needs my business approval. He’s happy because he still has his position in the company, he has full custody of our daughter and from what I know his current girlfriend right now is an actress”

“What about Angie, does she know that you are here?”

“No she doesn’t, she’s too young to know and to understand”

Again a  moment of silence fell between them

“Bette do you think I’m a bad mother?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I was so stupid for letting Henry use my past to blackmail me and because I’m such a coward that I left Angie”

Bette saw tears rolling on the blonde’s cheeks “Tina I don’t think that you are a bad mother. You did leave Angie with her father, not because you wanted to, but because you didn’t have a choice. You love your daughter so much that you wanted to protect her from Henry’s greed and malicious intent; I don’t think that makes you a bad mother. What I found hard to believe is when you told me that Henry is a good father to Angie. Who in his right mind would threaten a former spouse of showing his own child sexually explicit photos just to have what he wants? That doesn’t sound like a good father to me”