Page 30 of 7+Us Makes Nine

“I could’ve sympathized,” I said.

Jace’s eyes whipped back up to mine and I turned my body fully to face his.

“What?” he asked.

“My sister, Hannah. She’s apparently in that same rehab center your ex-wife walked out of.”

I could tell I had Jace’s full attention.

“How old is your sister?” he asked.

“Not old enough to have a drug problem,” I said. “I…”

I drew in a deep breath as I closed my eyes.

“My father is Jackson Faust.”

“As in the technological mogul, Jackson Faust?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Jace planted his feet onto the floor and abandoned his beer in favor of listening to me.

“I have a rough relationship with my parents. We don’t talk much. My father was trying to groom me to take over his business like he took it over from his father, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

“You wanted to be a teacher.”

“Yes. But they kept telling me that it wouldn’t make me any money and there was no prestige and that I would always be struggling and that they would always be bailing me out,” I said. “They offered to pay for my college tuition, and I took it initially. I figured I could double-major or something. Childhood Education and Business and then just do what I wanted after I graduated. But they hovered over everything. They would call people up and donate to my school to change my schedule and ‘heavily request’ I take specific courses.”

“They did that?” Jace asked.

“Yep. So I changed my major without consulting them, and it made them irate. They pulled the funding for my schooling, so I took out loans. High interest loans in order to get the education I wanted. And we haven’t really talked since. I stopped going home for the holidays about four years ago, and that was that.”

“So what happened with your sister?”

I sighed as tears began to brew in my eyes.

“It was the last face-to-face fight I had with my parents. It was Thanksgiving and they were cornering me about my degree again and my father asked me about what he was supposed to do with regard to someone taking over the company.”

“What did you say?” Jace asked.

“I snapped back and told them to sink their greedy jowls into someone else.”

I wiped at a tear that managed to escape down my cheek.

“You blame yourself for your sister’s predicament.”

“Of course I do,” I said. “Because that’s what they did. My father started hopping all over Hannah. Trying to give her crash courses in technology and learning how to take things apart and put them back together. And she didn’t have the emotional stability to fight them like I did. She went to college and took the classes they wanted her to, and to dispel with her stress she partied and drank and threw back anything anyone gave her.”

“Catherine. You’re not responsible for what happened to your sister.”

“I am, Jace. I hate technology. I could’ve never made it my career. But I could’ve not dropped off the face of the planet. I could’ve stuck around and stuck up for my sister on her behalf. Had I kept going to the family holidays I would’ve seen what was going on. Seen the havoc it was wreaking on her life. I didn’t even know she had spiraled so far out of control until my mother called to tell me she had been admitted into rehab in the first place.”

“Catherine, look at me.”

But I couldn't. I couldn’t look at him. I knew how he felt. I understood his struggle with Anya. But the guilt was immense. I stood from the couch and walked into the foyer and I could hear Jace on my heels. I felt his hand hook around my arm as he spun me around, my body weak against his touch.

“Look at me,” Jace said.

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