In regard to the family dynamics, I can easily envision a scenario in which JH is a passive-aggressive person with control issues. This type of person would want to "circle the wagons" whenever there is conflict, in order to maintain control to whatever degree possible. IF she is indeed passive-aggressive, then AJ would have learned from the moment she was born to carefully read her mother's every emotion for clues as to what was about to happen. Again, in babies and children it's a survival instinct. They say that our children know us better than we know ourselves for this reason.
And IF AJ was raised by a passive-aggressive, controlling mother, she would have learned early on to placate her mother as necessary in order to be spared her wrath and/or her withdrawal of affection/support. It is not unusual to see children of abusers (NOT saying JH was abusive to AJ, but in the event there was psychological, verbal, emotional abuse, for instance) become people-pleasers, frequently to their own detriment. Children of abusers often have a hard time enforcing (or even recognizing) their own boundaries, as well. I do not know what happened, and this is all my opinion only, but I feel strongly that these dynamics may well have played a part in whatever did happen.
