Page 106 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

“You called them liars,” Cara said.

Catherine wished her father could have held a little bit of information back when he talked to Cara, but apparently he couldn’t.

“Aren’t they?” she asked.

“Aren’t you?” her therapist threw back.

“I don’t know why they didn’t tell me.”

“You didn’t ask, Catherine. You didn’t ask them anything. You accused and blamed. You shouted and left. Children who throw tantrums might have behaved better, to be honest.”

“Okay, that’s enough with the child comments.”

“I have more,” Cara said as she stood up, “but I’ll refrain.”

“Thanks.”

“You can stay longer, if you like, but I don’t think you should. You need to go home, Catherine, and learn how to handle things that make you uncomfortable. Learn how to work through them on your own. You have spent your entire life acting as the ideal daughter. You have avoided confrontation. You lied your way through relationships with people who love you. You’ve done these things simply so that you could pretend to be happy while keeping everyone else around you happy, too.”

“Yeah,” Catherine agreed, “I have.”

“Going home and dealing with it doesn’t have to mean going to them, either. You don’t have to talk to them until you’re ready. Actually, I think you should wait until you’re rational and won’t lash out or run when you’re told something you might not like. It’s okay to need space.”

“Sure.”

“However, when you do talk to your parents …”

“Yeah?”

Cara smiled. “Apologize for being a hypocrite. You do not get to call someone a liar when you’ve built your entire world on lies, Catherine.”

Damn …

Cara was right, though.

This was exactly why Catherine came here.

Catherine tossed a piece of popcorn drizzled with chocolate into the air. It fell back down into her waiting mouth.

“You are home, then?” her mother asked. “Cara called to let us know you had left, but I wasn’t sure when you would get back.”

She didn’t even look toward the phone on the floor as she replied, “Got home this morning, actually.”

“Could I come—”

“I would rather you didn’t, Ma.”

“Okay,” Catrina said quietly.

Catherine felt like shit for refusing her mother, but right then, she didn’t know what else to do. She was trying to take Cara’s advice, after all.

“I need some time, and then I’ll come over,” Catherine explained. “We can talk.”

Catrina cleared her throat, and the speakers crackled from the volume of being on speakerphone. “All of us, or …?”

“Daddy, too.”

“Good.”