I love all the feedback, so please continue to do so!
Oh, and I’d just like to clear one thing up: the snake thing will be addressed in the future, and Liz is not a virgin.
I’d like to take you to a passage of one of the earlier chapters, when Liz was drunk and in jail.
She’s talking about Bruce here, her ‘supposed’ first love—before she fell in love with Max, that is.I have loved and made love to only one man in my entire twenty and one years. Do you see me empty? Well, yeah. I feel that now. But never when I was with him. Not once. We didn’t have to have one night stands with nameless faces. We didn’t have to leave the day after, we never had to prove our trust or our faith in each other. We just loved.”
So, Max had no way of knowing it wasn’t Liz. He decided on his own he’d let go of the revenge because of his love for her. Anyway, I hope that clears things up. CHAPTER #19
The minutes had stretched to hours and the hours had stretched to stressful, awkward, awaiting eternities. Isabel was frantically pacing the living room as Nonna tried calming her down. Tess was sitting down next to them, patting Zan to stop him from his loud wails, and Max had taken Kyle, being a sheriff, and gone out with the search party to look for Georgie. Tess and Liz’s preoccupation had spiked horribly, but it couldn’t compare to Isabel’s wounded anguish.
Eleanor hadn’t left her room, and Liz hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him that she was here, as well as Alex and Kyle.
“Where is she?” Isabel cried. “She could by anywhere; she could be scared and cold and lost. Oh god, this is all my fault. I must have done something… I must have done something to have her be so angry at me!”
Alex shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure she’ll be in your arms soon again.”
Isabel stopped sniffling, as if finally focusing her vision towards Alex. Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
He gave a sheepish grin. “Sorry there. I’m Alex Parker Whitman, Liz’s brother.”
“Oh.”
“Excuse him, he has the tendency of rambling on at the most inopportune of times,” Liz muttered, elbowing him in the stomach and leading him away from the frantic women.
Alex sighed, rubbing his forehead with exhaustion. “Look, I’m sorry that all of this has happened, and I’m really sorry a child that you seem to care for is missing, but I still need to know what on earth is going on, how you could fall in love with that… that monster.”
“He’s not a monster, Alex,” Liz said softly. “He’s just… tortured.”
Alex snorted. “Yeah. Tortured.”
Liz glared at him. “You say that as if it’s something to laugh at, or poke at. Max doesn’t think he deserves happiness because he doesn’t really know it. Max always gives the best of himself and he never takes anything in return because he doesn’t think he merits any kind of love. But I know he’s a good man, Alex, and all that he’s done? It just… it doesn’t matter to me anymore. After all that has happened, there is nothing I’m sure of except that Max loves me. It’s the only thing I know is constant, and real, and beautiful.”
Alex snorted again, the immature older brother in him in him, the one who had at a time been obsessively overprotective of her, took over for a moment. “Well, if Evans loves you he has a very funny way of showing it, forcing you into a marriage of hell and all.”
Liz tried not to be angry because she knew that Alex was right. Max had been a jerk to her in the beginning, and he had acted towards her in an inexcusable behavior. But she understood it, even if she didn’t know all the facts. She just couldn’t be angry at Max knowing everything he’d been through. “Max didn’t even grow up with a family, do you know that?”
“Oh, come on. Clearly he has a sister and his father was one of the richest men in this country.”
“I don’t just mean the neglect that I’ve experienced all my life, Alex. Max’s father abused him. He beat him up in so many senseless ways!”
Alex looked dazed, stricken, even. “I—I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t think you did.”
“What about Max’s mother?”
“Hank would hit her too, Alex. And she always let him. The only person Hank wouldn’t hit is Isabel. Max always tried defending his mother, hoping it he got his father mad that he would leave his mother alone. And it worked, but she never made an attempt to leave him or press charges on him and instead, left them to fend for themselves. Do you understand now?” Liz demanded. “Maybe you’re right when you say Max has done awful and cruel things. But he has wounds, Landon. Emotional, physical. Inside, so much is going on in him I can’t even begin to understand. He only talked about it once, and he almost lost it just remembering. The only time he’s ever let anyone see how much it has destroyed him is when he’s alone with me. He lets himself be and I see who he is.”
Alex bowed his head guiltily. “I didn’t know.”
Liz continued as if he hadn’t spoken, the words stumbling. “He tried being cruel to me, you know. And it never worked. He always ended up showing a piece of his soul instead, a piece I gladly took because I love him. There are reasons why he does the things he does, things I don’t understand and things I can’t see. But they exist, and I’ll find out one day. But what did Max do to ever deserve this? The only crime he ever committed to be warranted this kind of torture was being born into that twisted man’s family. If you let him? Max would love you, he’d take care of you, make sure you’re safe. That’s what Max does, that’s how he treats the people he cares about. Max loves me. He just didn’t know how to show it before, because he was never taught or shown any sign of affection.”
“Well, if you fell in love with a bipolar, complicated guy—”
“So what if he’s complicated?!” Liz shouted.
Alex was stunned into silence by her voice, by her desperate shout that showed without words that something inside of her had broken at that moment. “So what if he’s complicated, or difficult, or has so much more baggage then normal people do? I don’t care. I love him. Despite what he had to go through, despite having a jerk for a father, Max turned out to be a really good person, Alex.”
Alex sighed, obviously being moved by his sister’s devotion towards Max Evans. “Liz…”
“He’s loyal to a fault,” Liz continued, “and stubborn, and he’s direct in anything he does. And because of the person he is, because of the beautiful person he is and everything he says and does, I’ll defend him, fight him, with him or for him, day in day out.”
Alex was still speechless.
“And you believe Max loves you.”
Liz realized this was the first time Alex had called him by his first name, not Evans like he always did.
“Yes. I do.” Liz moved over to the door and stared out at Alex sadly. “I know you don’t understand what he did… because quite frankly, I don’t either. But Max only knows how to act and react the way he was raised. And Max was raised by a very, very sick man.”
“I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it,” Alex nodded.
Liz smiled at him ruefully, putting a hand on his cheek. “Alex, you’re my big brother and I adore you more then words can ever be able to express. You’re the only constant thing in my life that has never let me down, that has always protected and loved me the way family is supposed to. And I don’t want to ever have to choose between you or Max.”
“I wouldn’t make you,” Alex piped up hastily.
“Good. Because I love you both and I want you both in my life.”
Alex nodded, looking back towards Isabel who had her hands buried in her face. There was something about her cool beauty that had brought to his attention, beauty that he could recognize despite the red, bloodshot eyes and the face of discomposure. “How old is Isabel’s daughter?”
Liz bit her lip, looking outside the window. “She’s ten years old.”
Alex’s eyes bulged. “Ten? But Isabel looks to be your age.”
Liz shook her head. “She and Max are fraternal twins, making her twenty-five. I guess she just had Georgie at an early age,” Liz shrugged. “I honestly can’t say Isabel and I have gotten along, and no one ever likes talking about how Georgie was conceived. So I guess they didn’t like Isabel having a child out of wedlock at such a young age.”
“Wow. So… she’s not married?”
Liz shook her head slowly, peering at Alex curiously. “Why?”
“No reason.”
Liz sighed, looking at her hands which were twirling with themselves restlessly. “She’s the most special child I’ve ever met,” Liz said wistfully. “She’s an old soul, and so beautiful. I’m… I’m so worried about her, I don’t know what would have made her run away.”
Alex hugged his sister to him, his eyes still scanning for Isabel. “She’ll come back.”
~*~
She remembers when Georgie was born.
Faintly, if Isabel tried really, really hard, she could almost remember the vague sound of the loud cries that inundated the room the minute Isabel’s strength had left her in the delivery room. She could remember Max and Michael each being at her side, coaxing her to push harder. She remembered seeing the most beautiful baby girl in the entire world.
Isabel’s eyes burned with tears as she stared at the picture of Georgie lying in the mantle above the fire place. She was sitting in the swings alone, a thoughtful expression on her lovely face. Why hadn’t Isabel ever noticed she’d always sat alone on those swings, waiting for time to pass by?
She never sat alone anymore. She was now always accompanied by Nonna or Liz—or both. And Isabel hadn’t ever really bothered to get to know her. She had no idea what Georgie’s favorite color was. Or her favorite food, or her favorite movie, or what song she would like to hear when she is scared. Isabel doesn’t know whether Georgie has a crush—although she probably doesn’t, because Isabel never lets her out of the house. What was it with her? Why did she feel the need to protect Georgie of life itself? Cruelty and bad things would always happen; they give strength the mankind and shape the lives that they lead. Why would she want to shield Georgie from the pain and beauty that was life?
It was the kind of poem that could never be written. She had never been able to let go of the pain and resentment that for so long had been all she was made of. She had never let herself love because love surrendered itself too easily to frailty. It opens up every wall of vulnerability people try shutting off, and you can never escape it. Her life, for the longest of times, had been bleak, and hopeless.
She screams at the top of her lungs in silence.
But no one seems to notice.
Deep inside of herself, Isabel knew the answer. She was scared for Georgie. She was scared for Georgie’s safety and pain more then she was scared of her own.
“Do not torment yourself, child,” Nonna whispered, putting a hand on Isabel’s shoulder from behind her.
Isabel closed her eyes as the tears trickled down her cheek. “Why shouldn’t I?” Isabel whispered back fiercely. “Why else would Georgina run away, Nonna? She ran away because of me. Because all my life I have been consumed by my pain I’ve ignored my own daughter. It’s not her fault,” Isabel cried, lamenting herself. “It was never her fault. She was so innocent and pure and… and I could never see past my own wallow of self-pity.”
“Why couldn’t I, Nonna?” Isabel whispered painfully.
“You were suffering,” Nonna answered. “Pain blinds you from everything else but the agony that is eating you alive, cara mia. There are splinters that burden us in every way that all we can feel, and all we can think of, is the scars that they leave. It is why you need to heal, Isabel.”
Isabel sniffled, but nodded nonetheless. “I know.”
The reason Isabel was lonely was Isabel. She had a talent of appearing unreachable, unattainable, of hurting and striking against anyone so they don’t… they don’t see her. The farther away people are from her, the less chance they’ll see every fractured emotion she had tried so hard to keep inside of herself, inside the Ice Princess façade that worked so well for her. She’d had so many roles, but mostly, Isabel played the bitch. People would be surprised at how much Isabel had loved playing her… but Isabel couldn’t hide behind that anymore.
Isabel’s eyes raised themselves when she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. A breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding was released with relief as she saw Max enter the house, carrying Georgie, who looked alive and well.
“Oh, god. Georgie!” Isabel cried, running over to her and hugging Georgie to her as tightly as she possibly could.
Georgie was shocked at her mother’s display of affection, but took it nonetheless as tears began to fall. “I’m sorry,” Georgie immediately apologized, certain Isabel was furious. “I know that it was stupid of me. I wasn’t thinking and I started running and couldn’t stop… well, I had to stop.”
“She twisted her ankle as she was running through the lands,” Max explained, turning to Georgie with a small, stern smile. “We have to take her to the doctor.”
Alex cleared his throat, and Max finally noticed him. The minute Max had climbed down the stairs, lost in his own mind; he’d barely taken observance of Alex’s presence. Max nodded in acknowledgement to Alex’s plea of attention.
“I’m a doctor,” Alex explained. “I’m sure I could bandage Georgie’s ankle, check if it’s broken.”
Liz smiled, knowing perfectly well this was Alex’s way of accepting Max.
“That would be very helpful,” Isabel thanked him gratefully.
As Isabel, Alex, and Georgie moved towards the stairs, Isabel and Georgie were holding hands. Isabel kissed her daughter’s forehead tenderly and looked at her with tear-filled eyes. “There is so much that we need to talk about.”
Georgie nodded. “So much…”
~*~
It was an hour later when everyone else was sitting in the living room, Nonna making everyone a special cuisine. While they waited, everyone in the room was laughing at Zan’s antics as he crawled through the floor eager to play with anyone that would pay attention to him.
“He’s his mother’s son alright,” Max teased, chuckling when Tess sent him a glare.
Zan had other plans, however. He installed himself in Kyle’s lap and began tugging at Kyle’s watch.
Tess bit his lip. “Sorry, he’s a curious boy and you’re the only unfamiliar face in the room. He’s friendly, I swear.”
“And he doesn’t bite?” Kyle teased.
Tess laughed. “No, he doesn’t.”
Kyle grinned at her. “I must admit your son and Isabel’s daughter are very adorable.”
“What about you, Liz?” Tess asked with interest, her raised eyebrow suggesting she was egging her on.
“What about me?” Liz asked, annoyed.
She had been falling to blissful sleep as she was situated in between Max’s legs, her back sprawled to his chest as his chin rested at the top of her hand, his thumbs massaging her hands.
“What are you going to name Maxie and your lovechild?” she asked with a grin.
She was about to answer something inane when she realized Max was looking down at her with a cute grin, wondering the very same thing himself. “Um… I haven’t thought about it.”
“Right,” Kyle snickered.
Liz glared at his way. “Okay! Fine... Well, if it’s a boy I’ll name him Max, duh. And, um, well, I guess if it’s a girl I’d like to keep the E tradition. And I, um, I’ve always liked Ella. My grandmother’s middle name was Ella,” she whispered, looking up at Max. She hadn’t really had time to tell him how much she had adored her Grandma Claudia, but she figured there would be plenty of time for that.
He grinned widely. “I think that’s a beautiful name,” he agreed.
“And how many kids do you want to have anyway?” Tess continued, clearly not done with her goading of Liz, who was slightly red with embarrassment. Kyle was enjoying this, and added in on the fun, echoing, “Yeah, how many?”
At the time Liz answered two, Max answered six.
She looked at him, her eyes widened in disbelief. “Six? Sweetheart, you want to have six children? Do you want to kill me?”
Max laughed heartily, for a moment taking in the fact his marriage to Liz was real, and he could now enjoy it without worrying—for now. “Well, there are a lot of rooms in our home, you know.”
“Well, yeah… but six? Sweetie, I’m not a freakin’ incubator ya know! Plus, how many other E names are there?”
“You’re assuming they’d mostly be girls. And I’ve always like the name Ethan. There’s also Eric, and Eli, and Ernest… ”
“But—” she stuttered, her eyes as round as saucers.
Everyone began to laugh. And by everyone, it was only Kyle, Tess, and Alex. Georgie and Isabel were still upstairs having their heartfelt conversation.
“Okay, we can meet halfway, and make it four,” Max suggested after he saw Liz’s panicked face.
Liz pursed her lips, seeming to think about it. She put her hands on top of his that were resting playfully at her tummy. “Four, huh?”
He nodded. “Two boys, two girls.”
Her eyes began to sparkle. “I think I like that! Can they go in the following order, though? Boy, girl, girl, boy?”
Max laughed good-naturedly, eagerly showering her cheek with kisses. Life could certainly not be kinder to him even if it tried. “We can definitely try.”
More raucous laughter as Liz shifted her head to lay a light kiss on his lips.
“She’s so incredibly pampered,” Kyle commented to Tess with an eye roll.
“Ever since she was a kid she was spoiled by men,” Alex agreed with a smile, “It’s the Liz Effect, I’m afraid.”
It was Liz’s time to roll her eyes and grin as she smiled like a purring, pampering kitten. “You’re all just jealous,” she boasted, kissing Max cheek, before Kyle and Tess threw them the pillow of the couches.
“Can you believe I have to deal with this sort of thing now?” Tess complained to Kyle.
Kyle agreed with her sentiment, but deep down was happy that his best friend was happy. It was strange and new and wonderful seeing her so immensely in love with someone who was clearly in love with her back. That was what Kyle had always wanted for her, a man to love her wildly and crazily and with utter and absolute adoration. And the way that Max looked at Liz—well, even a blind man would see that he thought she was the world and had hung the moon.
“Leave me alone!” Liz said with a smile, throwing back the pillow.
“Yeah, leave her alone,” Max echoed.
Kyle grinned teasingly. “Said the man who’s wrapped around her little finger.”
This time it was Kyle who received the bludgeoned pillow.
Alex, who’d been busy playing with baby Zan, turned to them with odd fascination. “So this is what the three of you do when you’re together?” Alex asked Tess, Max, and Liz. “Basically drive each other insane?”
“Yes,” they answered in unison, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Alex shook his head with laughter. “Thank God for normalcy.”
Liz turned to Max with a sweet smile. “What’s so great about normal?”
Max, being the only one who grasped the hidden meaning, smiled at her back.
“Actually, I sometimes miss being away from you for so long, little sis,” Alex admitted, turning to Liz, who managed to tear her lips away from Max’s when she heard that.
“I miss you too, Alex,” Elizabeth answered, the lump in her throat not going unnoticed by the people surrounded in the comfortable lounge. “I promise I’ll visit as often as possible, though. And, well, you can’t complain about my not emailing you, I do so every day!”
“True,” Alex accepted with a small sad smile. He turned to Max. “Come on, I want to give you something,” he added.
Max frowned in surprise, but nodded as he followed them.
Liz grinned at the two of them, and then felt Zan crawl towards her. Tess was smiling at the two of them and Kyle had been smiling at Tess before turning to Liz.
“It’s weird you know,” Kyle mused. “Cuz I have be honest, as much as I tease you, I love you as if you were my own little sister, brat. And I miss you as much as Alex does. But I’ve never seen you as happy as you are when you’re here. And that’s enough for me to suck it up like man.”
“Why don’t you and Alex just stay for a while then?” Tess suggested.
Kyle winked at Tess before turning to Liz. “That’s not a bad idea.”
~*~
Max had given Alex a small a tour of the house, and the two stopped at Max and Liz’s room. Alex stopped for a second, appraising the large, beautifully decorated room.
As Max was rummaging through his drawers, Alex stood a second in front of the nightstand, were many pictures were sprawled among them. One was of Tess and Liz who were dangling on the swings, their hair wet and clad in bathing suits. Both were wearing sunglasses and huge smiles.
The other was of Dante and Liz in the grass, Dante tickling her. Next to that one was one of Georgie, Isabel, and Max in a three-way hug… one of Liz sitting on Max’s lap and kissing his forehead as Max stared at her adoringly…
“I’ve never seen her this happy,” Alex admitted.
Max’s mega-watt grin could turn a nun into a puddle. “Really?”
Alex nodded. “Her childhood was never easy for her.”
“Yeah. I know. She doesn’t talk about it much. But when she does she gets incredibly sad,” Max admitted. “Was it really that bad?”
“Maybe worse,” Alex confessed. “It was never easy for her. And my mother, she always made it harder. I remember when she was five years old she’d always run towards her, and Lizzie, she was a gorgeous little girl. Long straight hair that was curled up at the end, big black eyes and gorgeous white porcelain skin. I remember every time I’d take her somewhere everyone would stop to tell me what a beauty she was. And she was always so affectionate. She liked hugging and she liked to be hugged. So she’d always stretch her little arms and wait for you to pick her up.”
Max smiled sadly as Alex’s story was similar to the one Liz had told him.
And then a cloud of sorrow passed through Alex. “And everyone would always do so, because, how could you say no to her? You couldn’t. And yet… she’d always stretch her arms to our mother… and she’d always right walk by her.”
Max felt an innate sense of anger, and a need to protect Liz. How on earth would a mother do this to her five-year old daughter?
“When I went to study it seemed it only got harder,” Alex continued. “Mom would send us to study abroad… well, she never sent Eleanor. But father sent me to the military school for a year. And I fear that with mom and Eleanor, Liz’s spirit was crushed. I was the only one who paid attention to her. And our nanny, Missy, would always tell me that Lizzie cried every night. And she’d always have to play with her dolls alone. I used to play with her,” he emphasized sadly. “Hated the stupid dolls but it always made Liz giggle to see her big brother holding a Barbie. The day I’ll never forget is the night that a huge storm was passing. Liz had always hated thunder. As a seven-year old even worse. And she was yelling for mom, for anyone. And no one ever came. The reason I’ll never forget that day is because it was the first time I ever hated my mother.”
Max shook his head. “Why? Why didn’t she love Liz? How could anyone not love her?” he asked, as if the thought was unfathomable, impossible.
Alex opened his mouth and then closed it, close to telling Max the truth. “I don’t know, Max, I just don’t know,” Alex answered with a sigh. “All I know is I always adored my Lizzie. And Eleanor, who’s the spitting image of my mother’s emotions, made life harder for her too. They made her think she was less than they were.”
Max’s eyes were set to steel just hearing Eleanor’s name. If Max was able to be cruel to Liz, a good-hearted woman he was attracted to from the get go… Eleanor should really be worried right about now.
“What about your father?” Max asked softly. He’d known by Liz that her father had been a little liberated when it came to women. And even though Max had met Jeff Parker, the first and only meeting wasn’t all too amicable.
“He was always too busy gambling his life away or cheating on mom. They were living a forced marriage, and he’d fallen in love with someone else. I can’t really blame him for hating his life. Mom made that task so simple. When I talk about how spoiled Liz was, it’s because our father reminds me somewhat of you, in the sense that you both think the sun rises and sets in Elizabeth’s eyes. So he gave her anything she wanted financially, all of her desire, but he was never really around,” Alex answered, the anger and fury in his voice clear.
“I love your sister with all of my heart,” Max declared. “I’ve made stupid mistakes and I know that I have a darkness inside of me that can sometimes beat me. But I do love her, Alex, and I’ll cherish and love her so much she’ll forget that I ever made her forget I didn’t.”
Alex smiled at his sweet admission. “I believe you, Max. You love Lizzie like she deserves to be loved. And it’s all I needed. I see your life, I see your pictures, I see Liz’s sheer happiness, and all the dots connect. It’s all I need.”
Max smiled. “Thank you.”
“Anyway, this was the gift I had for you,” Alex answered after an awkward pause.
He smiled wistfully as he saw an album, opening the pages and staring at them with affection.
Alex shrugged. “Liz wasn’t always a sad child. She loved life and she loved laughing. I mean, there were periods when she was moody and miserable. But there was so much more to her, so much mischief and sweetness and, well, beauty. She doesn’t remember these albums because Mom wouldn’t keep them. I found them up in the attic one day, next to mine. She has Eleanor’s right under her table, the old goon. I think she resents that I love Elizabeth so much. Anyway, I thought you might want to know a little more about her, what she was like.”
“You thought right,” Max agreed.
“She was adorable,” he commented as he flipped through a page where she was wearing a beautiful white sundress with a hat too big for her. Her long black curls were sprawled throughout her face and she was sitting in a tire swing with her head thrown back laughing.
Alex nodded. “This,” he motioned with her finger, “happens to be my particular favorite.”
It was a seventeen year old Liz, lying in the grass with all types of flowers around her, holding a blue flower to her face. She looked lost in thought and absolutely beautiful. Poignant and melancholic, but mysterious and beautiful… quite like Elizabeth herself.
“There are so many years I missed,” Max realized as he passed through more and more pictures, stopping at one where she was horse back riding, looking elegant and dashing with the uniform. She was in boarding school. Max shook his head, wanting to berate himself for ever thinking Liz could be such a horrible person. How would she have time to have an affair with Michael when she was so busy being shipped on from one boarding school to the next?
“I wish I could have met her sooner.”
“Just be glad you met her,” Alex answered with a smile.
The two of them shook hands and shared a quiet understanding when Max opened the door of the room, at the same time another door was opening in front of him.
Max’s eyes turned hateful as he met Eleanor’s.
Eleanor was oblivious, however. “Hi, Max.”
Max’s tone chilled her to the very bone. “Hello, Eleanor. This is a… surprise.”
~*~
SPOILERS:
~Max comes to a decision.
~Isabel and Georgie clean the skeletons in their closets.
~Liz finds out something alarming.
