Ten years prior, Joe Leed, Advisor to Shaston, left his role behind and started anew in a small town where he befell the kindness of a young girl. He sought to repay her generosity but couldn't locate her until a decade later when he stumbled upon Zoe Hale, a drunken woman drowning her sorrows in alcohol. It emerged that she was the very individual Joe had been searching for, now trapped in a miserable marriage with Tom Cole from Valia.