“Until you can acknowledge that my relationship of eight years was every bit as meaningful as your marriage to my mother, until you can see that my heart is broken because I’ve failed the woman I love in the same way that you have failed my mother, then I have nothing else to say….”

Bette pushed her chair further back, turned and walked away.

“Bette?”

Kit tried yet again but her sister was rapidly on her way out of The Planet.

“Bette. Stop. Wait up!”

“It’s okay Kit. I’m fine. Go back to your lunch!”

“Bette!”

She was almost at her car and her brisk steps sped up. “Go back to your lunch. I for one know just how much of a challenge it is to get his regards on anything.”

“Will you just stop? Bette Porter you stop right now!”

Bette stopped just outside her car door and Kit caught up.

“Look…I” Kit had no idea what to say so she waited for her sister to turn and face her and when Bette turned around and looked at her, the myriad of pent up emotions written all over Bette’s face pulled at her heart strings and she had to reach out and squeeze her sister’s upper arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Can you believe him? Kit, he would rather be around Benjamin.”

“I know.”

“He doesn’t know Benjamin, but he’d rather be around Benjamin. He has more regard for a stranger than for Tina who he has known for eight years; Tina, who I’ve been married to for almost that long.”

“I know.”

“How fucked up is that?”

Kit sighed and looked away. She was caught between a huge rock and a very hard place and by the time her eyes looked back at Bette again, her sister’s face was already contorted with even more pain. These days her challenge was not getting her father’s approval; her biggest challenge was having to constantly stand in front of and come face to face with the raw depth of darkness and desperation that stared back at her from her sister’s eyes.

“He has never completely loved me has he? He loves only a percent of who I am.”

Kit briefly averted her eyes. She has been trying to tell Bette that for many years. Melvin hates a major part of Bette and always will, but not wanting to support the truth and hence heighten her sister’s dilemma, Kit said nothing.