Years before the Rapture, Chloe's mother, Irene, begins attending a new church and claimed to have become a born again believer in Christ. Irene tells Chloe she believed that one day soon God would take His people to Heaven in the "blink of an eye." Chloe often detests going home for this reason, and she and her mother slowly grow apart, though she develops a certain kinship with her father as are both negative about their family's new interest in religion. Irene's obsession is only enhanced when Chloe comes home drunk, as Irene becomes worried about the fate of her daughter's soul. When Chloe goes off to college, she breaks nearly all ties with her family, hardly ever visiting except on holidays.