(ONE MONTH LATER)

Whitney sat outside of her room on her patio, sipping on her cup of tea. She closed her eyes and inhaled the invigorating air from the morning breeze. She had just finished reading her Bible and had an inner Zen; something that she had not experienced in years.

The past few weeks had been exhausting, both physically and mentally. She regurgitated every bit of her past to help her figure out how she had gotten to the point of using drugs. She was fully understanding that she was not evil, that she was not her biggest enemy and that she had to release a lot of pressure and guilty from her psyche in order to heal fully move on with her life. She also learned from the wonderful counselors and psychiatrists that she had to come clean with her husband about so much more than just her addiction. Whitney learned that Kevin deserved to know WHY she had become that way. It was not to make her feel worse than what she felt, but it would help him understand even more of where she was coming from and what she had experienced.

It was a quite interesting experience in the one month that she had as discreetly as possible checked herself in "The River Source" treatment center. It was a discreetly, top-notch treatment center that her good friend Natalie Cole, had went to and suggested for her. She had mostly cognitive treatment, in which she wrote in her journal a lot. More than she had done before. From there she had one-on-one therapy with her sober coach and personal psychiatrist. She had even began to enjoy her group sessions and felt relieved that no one viewed her any different from them. Although the patients knew who she was, no one put her on a superstar pedestal and gave her the same mutual respect. She dressed down in jeans and sneakers most of the time to make sure that she didn't fed into her public "diva" status . Her heart broke at some of the struggles that each individual had gone through when it came to drugs. She listened to how it had torn apart their jobs, friends and families; some people didn't even speak with their loved ones anymore. Whitney suddenly felt grateful. Grateful that she had her husband parents and friends that were supporting and rooting for her. She did not have to this all alone, although she felt like had to. When it came her turn to speak, she sat up and slightly leaned forward. "Um…I'm Whitney Houston. I'm a world-renowned singer, actress and producer. I'm the wife to an Oscar winning director and actor, Kevin Costner. I'm the daughter to a world famous backup singer, Cissy Houston. I'm both a mother and stepmother to beautiful, gifted children. I'm a sister and I'm a friend….." she paused. "And I'm a functioning addict." She let that sink in for a second before going on. "It started out heavy at one point, and now since I married my soul mate, I used when I stressed. But now I am learning that even light usage is just as bad as doing it heavy. And when you do yourself like that, you not only are still affecting yourself, but the ones that you love." She sighed and licked her lips. "I honestly want to figure out what went wrong and deal with and accept the things that I have done in the past so that I can move forward." Whitney looked up and realized that everyone nodded in agreement. She felt relieved that these people understood exactly what she was feeling because they all wanted to get better as well.

This set the tone for the intensive therapy that was to come.

Now a month later, with a few weeks left, Whitney already felt stronger. She missed her family something terrible though, and was glad that at least Kevin would be coming to visit her. They also would be having marriage counseling, so that they could be on the same page. Although she knew that Kevin had forgiven her, he had understandably had not forgotten all the confusion and pain that she had caused by lying and holding in her secret. She needed him to understand why she did it in the first place, mainly because she no longer wanted to keep anything from him ever again. She needed him and the therapy would be just what was needed to put this all behind.

She stayed outside and wrote in her journal a bit more, before getting ready for Kevin's arrival. She put on a springy sundress, which hugged her a little tighter since she had put on some healthy weight, coach sandals and matching glasses. She rocked her curls making her look beautifully sophisticated. Kevin finally came about 30 minutes later, looking good in his Levi's, a button down and sneakers. Whitney ran into his arms and Kevin held her for a few moments before kissing her intensely. He stood back, looked at her, and complimented her on how beautiful she was; she melted as usual by his praise and immediately wanted to take Kevin into her room to show how much she had been missing him. But she remembered what he said about them not having the problem physically, but perhaps connecting on having more openness.

They sat down, and Whitney went into more details about her stint so far, more than she had over the phone. She also talked about the support she had from Clive and her label and how they promised to keep her rehab stay a secret from the public. Kevin talked about his projects and the children. He brought pictures that the kids had drawn for her, which made Whitney's heart swell with joy and longingness to see them instead of just talking to them over the phone. But she had to remind herself why she was there. Kevin also gave her letters of encouragement from BeBe, CeCe, her parents, in-laws, Dionne, and some of her close friends. Whitney could only smile at all of the love that she was receiving. And it also gave her the strength to want to get through her therapy so she never had to do it again.

They finally left to meet Whitney's therapist, Dr. Camille Cole, a former recovering addict herself. She explained that nothing would be held back. And that Kevin should have the right and opportunity to ask questions to understand what Whitney had been dealing with, and why she had become addicted. The session began with Kevin once again stating his commitment to getting through rehab with Whitney. He stated how much he loved her and didn't want to see her destroying herself to cover up her underlying emotions. He went on to once again say that he wishes that she had come to him at the beginning with her secret and that he loved her too much to "abandon" her because of that. He told her that no one was perfect in this world and everyone has something that they deal with or battle. He said that he understood that because of who she was and her image she probably felt like her issue was magnified much worse than the next person. He admitted that he was afraid of what would happen after she got out of rehab, but he had faith in her that she was committed to staying clean and he was committed to making that happen however he could.

Already tearing up from her husband's uplifting and honest words, Whitney explained how she had started using because she felt like it was escapism. Everything had happened so fast as far as her meteoric rise, which she felt like she was on a roller coaster going at an incline. She was very grateful for it all, but at the same time, very overwhelmed with touring, performing, etc. She didn't really get to live out her 20s and until meeting Kevin, she really didn't experience life and how to enjoy it. So she starting using heavily with Robin and her brothers on tours and it felt like the only non-tangible thing that she had control over. Then afterwards, she had secretly started using more and more and more after her first miscarriage and marriage to Bobby. It was the only thing that they could communicate and build upon, the commonality of using together.

Whitney suddenly starts to sob hard. Feeling how hurt she was, Kevin started to reach out to hold her. However, Dr. Cole stopped him, saying that she needed to cleanse and for the moment any sort of contact could throw her off. So they let Whitney get her years of shame and frustrations out, waiting until she was calm enough to continue.

Whitney admits that she was emotionally and (at times) physically abused by her ex-husband. She explained how she tried to do whatever she could to please him and that he would turn it against her. He explained one night after she had thrown him a 25th birthday party and he embarrassed her in front of everyone, he called her a bitch and spit on her. She had never felt so low in her life as she did at that moment. This, coupled with his legal troubles and cheating took a toll on her and she turned to drugs even harder. She felt like she was living a double life at one point because she had to be the glamour star, but at home alone she was someone different.

Kevin wanted to kill Bobby at that point for what he had done to his wife. He didn't care if it was in the past or not. He just knew that if he ever saw him (it didn't matter where) he would serve him a bonafide ass beating. He thought that he was a jealous coward who couldn't cut having a beautiful wife that was more famous than he was. He also took advantage of a weak point by feeding into her addiction for his gain. He was glad to know that Whitney had at least come to her senses enough to leave him.

Whitney then went on to say that once they rekindled their relationship, she found that she used much less, which why it was easy for her to keep this hidden from Kevin. She thought because she loved Kevin so much and that she wasn't heavily using anymore, she didn't want to shame him with her secret. She said that she regrets doing that more than anything else because all it caused was bigger issues. She wished that she had been able to seek help and been honest with Kevin, but could not change the past. Whitney felt awful for hurting him like that and said that she would never forget that look he gave her the night that he found out. She wanted to make it up to him and then some and she believe that her being in rehab is the start of her commitment to her marriage to him and the vows "For better and for worse."

Dr. Cole praised them both for their honesty and let them know that the openness of addressing the issues at hand will make for an even better marriage. She told them that she could feel that they were deeply committed to one another, their vows and their families and felt confident that they would be able to work through this and have an even stronger marriage. She smiled and then encouraged them to now embrace one another, which Kevin and Whitney did with no hesitation. They held each other like there was no turning back. They knew that they were partners for life and that was all that mattered.

After a romantic dinner that evening, the two sat outside of Whitney's patio looking up into the stars and talking about any and everything. They both felt serene for the first time in a while, knowing that all they would be going is up in their marriage and in Whitney turning over a new leaf.

Suddenly, Whitney's phone rings. "Don't answer" Kevin joked. Whitney looked and saw it was her attorney. "It's the attorney." She said slowly before picking up. "Whitney, don't turn on the TV or radio." She said. "What? Why?" Whitney asked, her heart starting to beat faster. "I'm not sure how this happened but Bobby is claiming that he has photos of you taking drugs and he plans on releasing them." "WHAAATTT?!" she exclaimed in shock. "How did he get photos of me? " Kevin suddenly perked up once he heard that. "I'll do more digging, but I think we need to file a suit to have any so called 'pictures' from being released." Her attorney told her. "And we have to act fast.."

After Whitney hung up and explained what the call was about, Kevin put his hand over his head. "I know exactly where he got these photos." he started before explaining exactly how he found out through Leolah Brown and also explained how she tried to get him to sleep with her.

By the time he was done, Whitney was seeing red and dialing her attorney back to say that she was ready to battle it out by any means necessary. She was tired of people running over her and it was time that she did something about it.