Paige O'Toole Prescott

Paige is the daughter of an Irish immigrant and a woman, who disappeared when Paige is only five years old. Paige grew up believing her mother left because there was something wrong with Paige. When Paige falls in love and discovers she is pregnant, she is unable to consider the idea of being a mother. Paige never learned from her own mother how to be maternal and is afraid she will not only do a bad job herself but will run away just as her own mother did. Paige has an abortion that ruins the romance with the child's father and leaves her so consumed with guilt that she believes her father will never forgive her. Paige runs away the day after her high school graduation in order to outrun what she has done.

When Paige arrives in Cambridge Massachusetts, she quickly gets a job in...