Felix's words made Sophia's heart ache. She realized that while she was finishing up work, he was thinking about his father, and how he left them. 'Felix was reliving all the pain he went through when his father left.' She was thinking about his family and how he grew up without a father and with an overbearing mother. He probably struggled a lot. He must have struggled a lot. How else could he be such a wonderful man, against all odds?
Many things Sophia took for granted because she grew up in a harmonious family, but Felix… he didn't have anyone to talk to, to guide him, to help him out. He was by himself. Feeling abandoned. She could imagine Felix as a young boy coming home from school, back to his mother's nagging. She could imagine young boy persistently going to Beaver Lake with a lump in his chest, wishing, hoping… and then returning home dejected after another failure to meet with his father.