For Leon and the Ormonts, it looked like it was making them closer.
For her and Fin, it had torn them apart.
She hoped there was a way to undo the damage that had been done.
*****
10:52 A.M.
Fin wasn't looking forward to this.
At all.
He knew Chloe must be dreading it as much as he was. He knew she didn't want to keep seeing him, and he certainly didn't want to have to keep seeing her.
Being around her made him want to let go of his anger, but that was a mistake.
Anger was all that was holding back the pain.
He really shouldn’t be so hurt that Chloe walked out. It wasn't like she was the first person in his life to do so. His mother had walked out on him when he was six. Fin still remembered the day vividly. She’d sat him and his little sister Samara down on the sofa and told them she was leaving. She’d offered no explanation, although when he’d gotten older, he had learned she hadn’t left because she’d had an affair or fallen in love with someone else; she’d simply left because she wanted to. He had begged her to stay, wrapped his arms around her waist and cried and pleaded, but it hadn’t done any good. She had simply walkedout the door without a second glance.
If she had been the only person who left him, then that would be one thing.
But she wasn't.
His mother was just the first of many people to turn their back on him.
His father was next. He met a woman when Fin was eleven. At first, he had hated the idea of his dad dating, but then he’d rethought his stance and decided it would be nice to have a mom again.
Only that wasn't what his father’s girlfriend had had in mind.
She didn't want stepkids.
She had four of her own, and after her husband had left, she was after someone to help her raise them. Shortly after his dad had proposed to her, she had convinced him that they couldn’t care for six children and that no one could take hers, but maybe his parents could take his kids.
So, he and Samara had been sent to live with their grandparents.
Now thirteen and ten, both he and Samara had gone through a rebellious phase. They’d driven their grandparents to the edge, and after almost two years, his grandfather had had enough and bailed.
It wasn't until he’d almost lost his sister that he finally realized he was throwing his life away over people who couldn’t have cared less. He’d stopped with the wild partying, he’d focused on his studies, was Valedictorian, and went on to study medicine.
Three people had turned their backs on him and walked away. Very nearly four if Samara had had her way.
If he were into that whole psychiatry thing, he’d probably admit he had some abandonment issues.
Maybe it was true.
He really didn't care.
All he knew was that Chloe had been just another person he’d loved who left, and he so badly wanted to hate her for it.
It would make thingssomuch easier if he could hate her.
Right now, the best he could muster was anger.
And there was no way he was letting that go any time soon.
“Fin?”