”I have a feeling, you know… A feeling that I live to destroy other people’s lives. I destroyed mine and it’s like I feel compelled to destroy everyone else’s too. There’re so much people I’ve hurt, both mentally and physically, and then I ask myself: did I really want to hurt these people?… To which my mind and my heart respond differently – the mind goes with a yes and the heart goes with a no… So, diagnosis?” Bette paused for emphasis, a rather unhealthy smile appearing on her face. ”Personality disorder.”

Startled, Marcus turned to look at the brunette, who began to chuckle all of sudden, but also whose bottomless eyes were already brimming with bitter tears.

”Can you believe it? A liar, a coward and a mental case”

Bette was on the roll and Marcus had enough of her ”self-esteem killing” party. He moved closer and took her into the bear hug.

”Girl, girl, stop…” He said almost in a whisper as Bette’s shoulders finally started to shake. ”Stop tearing yourself apart, goddammit…”

The crushed brunette embraced Marcus back, thankful that she finally had a shoulder to weep herself out on. Marcus squeezed her tighter as he chastised himself silently for how he had been underestimating Bette’s ability to be so vulnerable before now. She might be positioning herself as a cold-blooded woman made of steel for the most part, especially at work, but in reality she was a sensitive insecure person, whose life had been brightened by a certain someone for a long period of time and now this someone was gone.

Rocking the sobbing Bette back and forth, Marcus spoke. ”You need to stop abasing yourself, it’ll do no good to you. What happened has happened and it cannot be changed, you have to understand that.” He inched back a bit, looking at Bette, whose head was still down. ”Hey, c’mon” Marcus said, his voice gaining a slightly cheerful color. He put them both up in a standing position and waited for the brunette to wipe her tears away. ”Listen to me carefully. We’re gonna go now and make you eat something, because I’m more than sure that you’ve been living on air for these past days. Then, I’m driving you home and you’ll sleep properly. Tomorrow, rested and clear-minded you’ll go and talk with Tina–”