Broken
Dr. Robins still found it difficult to understand Jon's relationship with Margeaux. It was obvious he felt their romance was largely responsible for the troubles he'd had with women, but she didn't know why. They'd spend a lot of time talking about Margeaux, and Jon kept revealing increasingly strange details.
"You describe Margeaux in very positive terms," Robins said. "You say she tried to be an ideal college girlfriend, and it sounds as though she succeeded. What was the problem?"
Jon looked as sad as Robins had ever seen him. "The way it ended was horrible. That whole time in my life was horrible. For a while, I never wanted to have a committed relationship again."
"Unpack that for me," Robins said.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
As the semesters came and went, Jon grew to enjoy and appreciate Margeaux more and more. She was endlessly thoughtful, attentive, and loving. Considerate. Emotionally open and generous. He'd never thought of himself as someone who would be attracted to a girl with so little intellectual curiosity. Margeaux knew everything about hair, makeup and fashion, and almost nothing else. One day he realized his relationship with Margeaux was like his parent's marriage. His father was a bright, dynamic business leader who knew everything about everything. His mother was a beauty queen who liked to doll herself up and take care of her man.
As a child, Jon was judgmental about the fact that both his parents had romantic partners outside of marriage, and he thought it was particularly strange that his mother loved another woman. It was ironic that he and Margeaux had a relationship that was exactly the same.
Jon and Margeaux regularly said they loved each other, but Margeaux continued to maintain that they would have to go their separate ways after graduation. Increasingly, Jon found this puzzling, and he finally insisted that Margeaux explain her reasons.
"Baby, you know that you're going off to some grad school somewhere, and I'm going to New York to be a model. Our lives are not going to fit together when we aren't students anymore. We will live in completely different worlds. It's not just that we'll live in different parts of the country. Our lives, our goals, the way we spend our time - we'll be like oil and water."
"I will be in grad school for no more than two years," Jon said. "Any time we want, I can get on a jet and be wherever you need me to be. You won't have to spend any time with my friends at all, and I'm sure I can get along with your friends well enough to avoid embarrassing you."
"Of course you can. But there's a bigger problem," Margeaux said.
"I am broken. I've told you this before, but I don't think you really understand.
"Jon, I am very proud of the way I've been such a good person with you. But there are big parts of me I've kept hidden. I never want you to see those parts. I will break your heart." It took some prompting, but Margeaux finally explained the problem.
She'd been horribly abused as a child. Margeaux's mother was a monster.
Both Margeaux's parents had doctoral degrees. Her father was an industrial chemist who worked for a paint company, and her mother was an economist who worked for an insurance company. They had big salaries, a sprawling home, expensive vacations, and fat retirement accounts. They decided to have children because it seemed like the next big possession they should acquire. And thus was born Margeaux. Fortunately, she was an only child, so no one else experienced the trauma that destroyed Margeaux as a person.
Margeaux's mother was the kind of feminist who believed women shouldn't make themselves attractive for men or engage in traditionally feminine activities. Giving birth to a daughter seemed to be an opportunity for her to raise a liberated woman who was free of all the cultural baggage that had hindered women for so long.
But that's not what happened. From birth, Margeaux was a girly girl. She liked playing with baby dolls that had big wardrobes and hair she could style. She liked all things pink. She gravitated to stories about handsome princes, beautiful young women who needed to be rescued, and happily ever after.
Margeaux's mother worked to steer her daughter away from everything that made her the girl she was. She confiscated gifts from relatives who gave Margeaux what she really wanted to own. She made her wear boyish clothes, throwing away anything that looked remotely feminine. She cut Margeaux's hair so short she no longer looked like a girl.
But the cruelest thing her mother did was relentlessly belittle Margeaux's interests. She was still a little girl when she figured out that her mother didn't love her, and didn't even like her. It broke young Margeaux's heart. She felt as rejected as a child could, but her mother didn't care and her father didn't notice. He was a good chemist, but he was also a bit of a dope who consistently missed the growing evidence that Margeaux was desperately unhappy and starved of love.
This went on far too long. Nothing changed until Margeaux was 13. Her mother made one of the cruel comments she made daily. Margeaux snapped. She tackled her mother, forced her to the floor, and used her little fists to beat her face until it was a bloody mess. Everyone had ignored Margeaux's cries for help, but there was no way to ignore this. The hospital social workers contacted juvenile authorities, who removed Margeaux from her home and began an investigation.
The family of one of Margeaux's friends invited her to live with them while things got sorted out. The mother talked with Margeaux long enough to figure out that this poor little girl had been traumatized by a horrible mother. She told authorities that Margueax's mother and father were clearly unfit parents; she offered to adopt Margeaux so she'd have a decent place to live.