I Fell For My Nemesis

"I really thought he loved me! Why else would he give me so much attention and care about my kids? But I saw him with another woman the other day and when I confronted him about it he looked at me like I was crazy and said our relationship was only business. How could he?" the client wailed. 

Jocelyn Normandy, hero and certified marriage and family therapist, had seen pretty much everything. All she needed was a little context and she could figure out the heart of the problem easily. 

She had always been good at that. She saw things no one else did and was able to make deductions accordingly. It was part of why she had gone into counseling. 

This particular client had been coming to her for months after her children's therapist (one of Jocelyn's colleagues) recommended she see someone too. Tracy hadn't wanted to take her on personally because she saw it as a conflict of interest. 

Leah Martin (formerly Hunsacher) did a very good job with her children, all things considering. She was a good mother despite her situation.. The problem was that her own mental health had taken a major hit taking care of them while they were hiding away for their own safety for about a year. 

The man in question was brought up frequently. He had been the one to offer Leah and her children protection from her ex-husband, who was now in jail for the rest of his life for a variety of crimes. 

She had explained everything that happened with that in earlier sessions. Jocelyn hadn't been terribly surprised because she knew Nolan Hunsacher had to be up to something shady for her old friend Mercury's nemesis Nox to go after him. 

Antiheroes didn't strike without cause. Jocelyn knew Nox didn't fit the usual villain mold from the moment she first heard about her. 

She hadn't expected her hero and civilian lives to mix in such a way. But she couldn't turn Leah away saying she had a conflict of interest. By the time she found out about everything they had already established rapport. So she kept what she had unintentionally figured out to herself. 

Jocelyn had deduced that Nox had some sort of complicated relationship with Mercury from the moment Delta passed on the message that he was alive and she was right. She had seen the security footage. It matched how Mercury had described his most perplexing villain. 

Mercury retired and she thought that would be the end of it. She hadn't expected to meet up with him again or meet Nox at all. 

That had been a real eye-opener. She had been willing to bet almost anything that Nox was in love with Mercury after witnessing the two of them interacting in person and finding out that she was pregnant. Which made it rather likely that the woman he retired to marry was also his nemesis all along. 

She couldn't deny she was curious how all of that would work out but it wasn't any of her business. So she went back to a very concerned Delta who had been shocked that Mercury kidnapped her out of the blue. She had given him a very vague explanation of Mercury needing her help with something and that it was urgent. He let it go rather reluctantly. 

Jocelyn hadn't expected to learn more than that. It had been an unintentional side effect of listening to Leah. 

Nox was apparently the surrogate sister of the man Leah was interested in and her name was Avery. Mercury's name was Christian and they had a two-year-old daughter named Bailey. 

Leah didn't talk about them much since she hadn't been in regular contact with them since coming out of hiding. She claimed that they were happy but what would an outsider know? Things were rarely as they seemed at a glance. 

Jocelyn hoped they were happy. Mercury deserved that. 

But that wasn't the issue at hand. She believed that Leah had misread Angelo Cruz's signals but needed to probe further to be sure. 

"Based on everything you've told me it does sound like your relationship has been all business," she said mildly. "Can you tell me why you thought otherwise?"

Angelo contacted Leah frequently but it was always within the context of either taking down Nolan Hunsacher or breaking up his monopolies once he went to jail. At least as far as Jocelyn understood. 

Leah had tears in her eyes. "But he's so nice to me! He helped me when he didn't have to and always brought little presents for the kids and made me feel so valued. How could he not love me back? You don't treat people like that if you aren't interested!" 

Jocelyn was fairly certain she understood. Angelo had been so desperate to take down Nolan Hunsacher after his father was murdered that he went straight for the most useful asset he could think of. The estranged wife. 

He treated her well because he needed her. That didn't mean he ever had feelings for her.

"Did he ever make overt romantic or sexual advances toward you?" Jocelyn asked. 

"…no."

"Talk to you about anything that wasn't directly related to what you were working on together?"

"He asked about the kids."

"That's basic small talk, Leah. Aside from that?"

"Not really."

"Did he ever reach out to you outside of what you were working on?" Jocelyn probed. 

Leah's expression had grown sullen. "No."

"How old is he?"

"How is that relevant?!"

"Answer the question, Leah. It may be more relevant than you think."

"…about a decade younger than me," Leah said reluctantly. "Where are you going with this?"

Somewhere important. "And how old is the woman you saw him with?"

"Probably closer to his age than mine." 

"Two more questions. What did he act like when he was with her? And was it different than how he acts when he's with you?"

Leah's tears spilled over now and she desperately tried to swipe at them. "He was laughing. And…and he looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He never laughed with me and rarely even smiled. But he was so nice to me!" 

"That's just it," Jocelyn said as kindly as she could. "He was nice to you and you weren't used to receiving kindness from men. Your husband always treated you coldly unless you were fulfilling the role he wanted you to play in public. 

"You were hurt and scared when Angelo showed up to save you. You rebounded onto him and confused his kindness with him loving you. It's a perfectly common response for people in your situation but that doesn't make it fair for the other person. Do you understand?"

Leah sniffled. "Yes…but that doesn't change my feelings for him."

"Your feelings are valid. However, that doesn't mean that all responses to them are. You told me you confronted him about it. How did that go?"

"…not very well. I didn't do it directly in front of her or anything! But I did pull him aside and she saw us talking even if she couldn't hear us. He wasn't happy with me and told me not to contact him again because our business was complete months ago.

"I kind of lost my head. But I hadn't seen him since that last meeting and he was barely responding to my texts. I missed him so when I saw him with someone else I couldn't stand by and not say anything."

Jocelyn shifted in her seat and looked at her client seriously. "Okay, let's talk about your reaction. Do you think it was appropriate?"

"Obviously not because he never wants to see me again. But what else could I have done in the moment?" Leah asked pitifully before blowing her nose using a tissue from the box on the table. 

This sort of thing happened a lot. The supply closet was full of tissue boxes. 

"You could have stopped and tried to think about how he would feel. He was with someone and you very likely embarrassed him. If the situation was reversed I doubt you would want someone doing that to you," Jocelyn pointed out logically. 

"No, I wouldn't," Leah confessed. "But what do I do now? Angelo hates me!" 

"We can't control what other people think or feel about us. We can only control our actions. Angelo told you what he wanted. You can choose to honor it or not but both decisions will bear consequences."

"So you're saying if I leave him alone for a while he might forgive me but if I keep bothering him he might get a restraining order?"

"I can't speak for Angelo. But I think you know which decision will ultimately be better for you," Jocelyn said calmly. "You are worthy of love, Leah. Just because the person you care about now doesn't return your feelings doesn't mean you aren't lovable. 

"But healthy relationships take work. I think right now you would benefit from working on your own trauma before trying to have that sort of close relationship with someone else. You're already burned out from taking care of your kids being locked in a single room for so long and haven't fully processed that."