Neither the Forsters nor the Chaistys could remotely relate to Jean's family. Not because of the fact that both Az's mother's family and her father's family were, to be blunt about it, rolling in money. There was just a completely different dynamic. Not that there really was much a dynamic, but the one that existed was just...hard to define exactly.
Someone far less charitable would simple label it as 'cold' or 'detached.'
Jeb and his little brother Jonathan, who she had met last summer, had been raised with two loving parents. Az had been raised by a series of nannies, with progress reports and stilted encounters with her mother, and (for two weeks, long ago), her father. With her mother's disappearance, Aunt Elphie was all she really had left. So could she really find fault in the rather chill woman?
"Six," she agreed, although she was not overly surprised that he had called her just as he was getting into his office in the morning. Before his real work began. Running a telecommunications company was no easy task, and even as a child Az had been sure to understand that. Despite the fact that he had interrupted her vacation, had not contacted her except when he was in failing health, she still could not bring herself to hold a grievance for those facts. He was still her father.
Her expression tightening at both Jeb's tone and words, Az swallowed. It hurt, because he was right, and she knew it. No amount of denial was going to cover up the fact that Lawrence had been a bad father. To her at least, she did not know about how he treated his other child.
"I'll be okay," she assured him, pulling back to look up at his face. The disparity in their heights was nearly comical then, but left ignored by her. Az liked that he was a good deal taller than her, it made her feel safe when he wrapped his arms around her. For someone like her, who had been unaccustomed to physical reassurances, it meant all that much more. "He just-" her words caught, before she shook her head and began again. "He asked me if I would be willing to be tested for tissue compatibility."