15 Chapter 15: NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH TROUBLES: MAGGIE

After my emotional breakdown, dinner arrived and with a change in the direction of our conversation I felt my strength return. Naturally, I slid into the 'matter of fact' mode I used in school to get me through and led Noah into a conversation about himself.

My heart ached when I heard him talk about how difficult life was for him after his son was born and I sympathized with a young dad whose life was changed forever by the will of someone else. Not because he was too young to be a father, but because he wanted to accept the responsibility and had been prevented from doing it out of spite.

Most surprising was how open Noah was when he spoke about his depression and I was touched by how he described his raw feelings toward his son, and how devastated he was about not being able to have a normal relationship with him. If what he told me was true, Andrea's behavior had led to his depression and alcohol dependency.