Sophie's dad had married her mom when the economy in Resonance was bustling, and he had enough money to sweep her off her feet.

Her mother, Mila Sonny was from a very prominent family, and had grown up as a rich woman. She had no brothers or sisters, so sharing wasn't one of her strong points. She didn't act kindly to poor persons on the street. She would scoff and rose her nose up towards drunk homeless men who dared asked her for her spare change.

She played piano quite often. Two or three hours of the day she practiced. She learned even Debussy's piano music.

One day her parents had died very mysteriously, and it had left her with nothing. All of the money was gone because the banker Sr. Charles Mugger who managed their money had embezzled it and ran away. His name fit his crime.

Mila moved in with her Aunt Sally. Sally was much older than her sister, and was not that fond of children. She wasn't a rich woman, but she wasn't poor. She strictly kept Sally at her school work and made sure that she didn't get in her hair. That made it a boring life for Mila. So, she decided to get married as soon as possible. She basically went husband hunting, for good looking, polite, and well off men. Eventually, she met Hale Gerard. He was sitting in a coffee shop reading a book about the inner working of the up and coming steamships.

He was a dashing young man with a broad face, a nice chin, big blue eyes, a winner smile, and sleek black hair. She was a blond with curls, and green eyes. He found her to be absolutely gorgeous, and it went along from there. They were married on the Shoal river on one of the steamships that he worked on. She met a stranger and married him. She never knew exactly who he was, besides that he was stunning and smart. But, that's all she was looking for in a man, because she was far too naive and misguided.

Hale was born into a middle class family and had an older brother. His older brother was allowed to learn his father's trade of being an inventor of steamships. Hale had his eye on repairing and renovating them.

Hale had a drinking problem since he was young and his brother gave him a sip of pub beer. He knew better to not get drunk near a potential lover, so Mila never found out he was an angry drunk until far into their marriage.

Mila and Hale had two kids, but then the economy of Resonance tanked after all of the oil had dried up. This caused a lot of steamships to stop coming to their town and cut Hale's wages down to one fourth of what they were before.

Hale married Mila because of how beautiful and smart he thought she was just like Mila did for him. He married a stranger as well, and didn't know her anymore than she knew him.

Mila had never worked a day in her life, and only knew how to play the piano and sing, but she didn't want to sing for commoners so the extra income never happened. Hale became frustrated with Mila and then decided to drink away his sorrows at the pub.

Mila wanted a divorce from Hale and Hale wanted a divorce from her, but that was unheard of and frowned upon by society, so they kept up their charade. Also, what would happen to their children or them for that matter?