Penitence

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, death, substance use, bullying, mental illness, and illness. 

In 1995, Julian graduates from Middlebury College. He never forgave Martine for forcing him to leave Lodgepole, and the family had spent little time together after Julian moved. He is headed to Columbia Law School, and although Martine is proud, she cannot help but mourn the “happy” blended family she and Cyrus created after her first husband died. 

When she, Cyrus, and Gregory attend Julian’s graduation and drive him down to New York for law school, they are shocked to learn that he sold his skis years ago. Julian has mixed feelings about law school. He spent his undergraduate years partying, both because it was fun and because it helped him forget the accident. His guilt remains a tremendous burden, and he has no idea how to move on. He knows that law school will be more difficult and that he’ll have to give up drinking so much. But he’ll be in New York, and so will Angie. The two hadn’t broken up, and they’d been seeing each other in secret for the past four years while she was in art school at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.