The story is old as time, a child is born, raised, goes through school and leaves home with the hope of a new generation, the influence of those who came before and those who shaped their minds. Joanna is such. Older than Vincent and fresh out of pre-law, working as a lackey for some experience, she came across him now and then, accompanying the lawyers who went to see their clients. He caught her eye because of the figure he cut and his smile. The way he ducked his head now and then. Supposedly, he says, she caught his because when he dished it out, she dished it right back and didn't take any guff from him. The two kissed, courted, married. For two years it was bliss, she went back to school to become a lawyer fully and he kept on with his own career.
Perhaps the start of the decline of the marriage between Vincent and Joanna could be pinpointed to the day he came home and there was a pregnancy test waiting with the telltale two lines. Pregnant, and in law school, it was something that neither of them expected and at the time, at least one of them didn't really desire. But birth control is by no means ever 100 percent effective and with Vincent and she only married two years and a promising future for Joanna, he was told to work harder, get promoted, because she wasn't going to stay barefoot in a kitchen to raise a child and she wasn't going to get rid of it either. They were starting their family far sooner than they anticipated. He became an investigator, better hours, better pay. Joanna started her last year.
Perhaps this was part of his incentive to enter Internal affairs, maybe not, but it was, was a bouncing baby girl, daycare within a month of Tasha being born and days and nights of slavery to books, baby and husband. Attention to the last suffered for this. Graduation came, a job within the New York District Attorney's office doing scut and small cases and Vincent moved up. For all that Tasha was unexpected, Joanna never did resent their daughter, worked hard and skimped to help Vincent provide for their only child so she lacked for nothing. He went to internal affairs, she moved up the legal ladder.
But all the work came at a cost and little by little she drifted away from the man that years ago she loved. He'd work long hours, come home for a little sleep, work again. When he wasn't working, she was. A vicious cycle that ended in many a fight when they did have free time that co-incided and verbal battles of epic silent treatment, tension and resentment when he'd try to steamroll her and she would have none of that. The trial division of the district attorney's office was where she ended up with cases, some minor, others important crossed her desk that required her attention and spare time so that she could move up the ladder, provide, earn that sense of self accomplishment of raising a child and a successful career. She wouldn't and couldn't change her schedule to conform to his and was unsatisfied with the relationship or lack thereof that was happening between him and their daughter. Little surprise that there were no other children, though she would state later, it probably was for the better.
Eventually, this too a tale as old as time itself, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened and after 13 years, She present Vincent with divorce papers. She wanted out. They were signed and custody of Tasha was granted to Joanna. It wasn't that she didn't love him anymore so much as they had grown apart and circumstances and life had changed. He left, she stayed, he paid and even then, communication only occurred when he was set to see Tasha, or something was needed for their daughter.
The bombing of midtown occurred, a brother lost and countless others as well. It changed the face of the world far more than the collapse of the twin towers. It exposed a portion of the population that didn't look, talk or act different, that you could point to in a line and scream terrorist. It exposed a segment of the population who's only difference was genetically. Her ex-husband it turned out, was one and it often made her pause and look at their daughter as if she could have any genetic abnormality in her and whether she too was evolved. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it could mean a great deal to her success in the world. Things have never been great between her and Vincent since the divorce and conversation usually revolves around their daughter who of late has been freshly returned to the city and more distant than she cares for her to actually be.
