“Fine.”

************************************************************************

The next day

Melvin wakes up and he sees Bette sleeping in the chair next to him.

“Elizabeth?”

She jumps up. “Wha? Huh?” She looks at Melvin. “Oh hey daddy, you’re up, you must be feeling okay today.”

“Actually I am. How long have you been here?”

“Um a few days, I’m okay though.”

“I over heard the doctor saying that I have a week left. It doesn’t feel like it.”

There was silence. There was something Bette always wanted to know and she knew that since he was talking he would be able to answer a few questions for her.

“Daddy I wanted to ask you a few questions. I know it’s a little early but this will probably be the last time that we could really talk.”

“I know, go ahead.”

“The reason why Tina and I broke up was because I cheated on her. (She lets it sink in for a bit.) I don’t know why I really did it, I knew I loved her with all my heart but I still did it anyway. Is part of that reason because of what you did to Katie’s mother?”

That was a really tough question. He didn’t really know why he did it himself he just did.

“Elizabeth I think you should know now that I cheated on your mother as well, that’s why she left me. She wanted to take you but I wouldn’t allow it.”

“What?”

“It’s true. It was my fault. I messed everything up. You know I had a similar discussion with my mother as well before she died. Interesting isn’t it? Well my mother had 9 children and I wasn’t really close to any of them. She was married to my father but she wasn’t in love with him, she told me she was in love with someone else. Her father made her marry my father. So it was an arranged marriage but she never forgot about David her first love. My father never said anything about it just as long as she came home. I never knew anything about it. She told me that it’s going to run in the family like a disease. And she was right I cheated and now you cheated on your loved one. She said it doesn’t have to though. There has to be someone in the family that can stop it. If they never cheat than the curse is broken. It has to stop somewhere Elizabeth I just wish I would have told you.”