At age 12, Ophelia Allender was no shrinking violet. This being so, it came to her surprise (and delight) that no one had noticed how wholly, extremely, and sensationally infatuated she was with James Waldeburg.
At age 19, things should probably have been different. Sure he was still devastatingly handsome, and sure, as things in the Waldeburg family were still less than cordial, he came around to every Allender family event possible. And sure, she was well within her rights to love whomever may be deserving, but as a woman who prided herself on suffering no fools, the whole ordeal was making Ophelia feel a little bit, well, foolish.
At age 22, however, Ophelia was confident in her ability to move on. So really, when everything got shot to hell, she should have been expecting it.