SECRET LIFE SECRETS REVEALED

MISTAKING THE BURDEN OF NEED

After Leo left the restaurant he went home and went into the storage building where they kept many of the old things that used to belong in the mansion.  Originally the mansion belonged to Sarah's parent's, but it was given to them as a wedding gift by her father.  He decided to buy a nice penthouse with his wife so they could relax, and he expected that the mansion would be filled with children in no time considering the age of his two kids.  However Sarah decided that she would go to college to get an MBA first. (that is correct everyone Sarah Helen Boykevich was supposed to take over the company).  Leo decided that he would take the lead at the butcher shop, and also do some extra studying on his own about business to help his father grow their company however things took a sad turn when Leo's mother died after having a stroke, when he was 20.  Unfortunately the pain of losing his wife of 40 years broke Frank's heart, and he died in his sleep three years later.  This incident forced Leo to take full control over the butcher shops, since both of his brother's were still in college.  

These events along with helping his wife study at night gave Leo the incentive to run the company on his own, and also impressed his father in law who took Leo in under his wing and taught him everything he knew.  This pleased Sarah to think one day she and Leo would work side by side running their parent's businesses.  However nothing goes as planned.  Sadly the day Sarah graduated with a Master's Degree, her parent's died in a car crash when her father being drunk ran their car off the road.  This prompted three changes.  The first change it made Sarah want to get help for her own drinking problem, two it made her force Leo to take a stronger role in running both companies, and three it made her decide then and there that she wanted children, as soon as she was certain she had beaten her addiction.  

Leo went through all these memories as he passed each box, and picture or item of memorabilia in the storage house.  He then came upon a section of material that once belonged to Sarah's father Ben Helen Sr.  He looked at the picture of the man standing so tall and lean  with a thick mustache, he smiled.  He saw his son's image in his face so easily they could have been twins.  He then saw a picture of Sarah sitting on her father's lap with her older brother next to him.  Ben Jr. was tall and lean like his father, but he had his mother's hair like his sister.  A trait of their Jewish heritage as Sarah liked to say.  Her father was Irish Catholic, but her mother was Jewish, and proud of it.  She made sure that both her children focused on school, and temple very vigilantly. 

 Unfortunately Ben was a strict man, who put a lot of emphasis on his son to take over their company, and be strong.  Ben however was not that strong, and he was very emotional like his own son.  When B.J. realized that he would fail out of college the young man could not with stand to see the disappointment in his father's face, and took his own life.  This situation caused the rift in their whole family.  It made each of them distance themselves from one another.  Ben distanced himself because his pride refused to let him see that he was wrong to pressure his son so much.  Sarah's mother Rachel distanced herself out of guilt for allowing her son to be pressured so much by his father, and Sarah distanced her self out anger at both her parent's for her brother's death.

Leo sat down on a box and wondered if he was repeating the same mistakes as Sarah's father.  He was always forcing Ben to do the right thing to help everyone else, but he never really considered what the right thing actually was.  He realized that Amy may have been pregnant the first time Ben spoke of her throwing up, he knew he should have interjected then.  However he let the pride of his own words earlier of telling Ben to take a risk with Amy overlook that knowledge.  He overheard Ben's conversation with Ricky, and thought he should intervene and see if he could forge a friendship between them, however he should have realized that friendship is a two way street, and Ricky was one sided.  He thought that after how Ben talked about Adrian, and seeing how well they got along they could be right for each other like Reuben suggested, however he forgot to take in account the damaging effects that their relationships with Ricky and Amy had on both Ben and Adrian.