She loves him Max uttered with his first words once they had gotten to the Guerin household. While still at the hospital, Max’s quick nonmedical assessment of his former girlfriend was that she had only collapsed due to the shock of the notification from the doctors. There was nothing else that was ailing her. She would be alright,
at least medically Max though
t emotionally was another story all together. Medical professionals were quick to come the fallen wife’s aide, and they confirmed what Max found, and would have admitted her for rest as a precaution. That did not happen because it had been Mariah’s insistence that her mother would not want to be admitted unless there was a medical need to be. And extreme shock was not one. While the doctors were hesitant to allow it, but Maria convinced them that they should heed what the teenager’s wishes because she was the oldest, next to her mother, her mother’s proxy. Maria would not lay it completely on the fifteen-year-old as they promised to keep the lookout for Liz, and Mariah
at their house for the night. And the hospital allowed it, and now they were here at the house.
Which was good because Mariah was not anxious to go home, so it was the best situation that could be thought of, and it did get everyone out of the hospital. And yet Max had not been able to stay away
yeah, I know I am acting like a stalker he admitted to himself,
but I need to know Liz is okay he reasoned with himself, and Michael knew it also as he let his best friend into his house for the first time in months. As Max tended to stay away from the town limits if he could help it. And it took a blue moon to make him come through the doors. Or in this case,
Liz, he muttered himself at his friend’s insistence over the months and years were that he was finding all he needed on the outskirts of town, by the desert and where they had been born.
Isolating himself, and if River had not taken it upon himself to engrain himself into society, maybe isolating his son too. It was not the Max he had known back in high school.
That Max had been going places. Even if had a acknowledge pact that they were to stick together as a little group because of the unknowing circumstances of who they were. But he and Isabel figured that Max was going to go places and find him a life. Settle down or do something, anything that was more than the life they were living in their small hometown. And he would have probably gone along for the ride and found a life wherever it led.
Of course, he had not bargained in finding Maria. Thanks to Max saving Liz’s life and bringing the two girls into the circle. After a lot of clashing, steps back, push and pull. Michael would agree that he had found the love of their life. Both of them had. But it had allowed Max to face his greatest heartbreak. Once that did happen Max had cut himself off with the ensuing years, once he was on his own, and no one could draw him back into their town.
No one, and certainly not River had been able to do it, to the detriment of their father and son. The boy was seventeen now, so close to graduation. Michael knew something about family baggage, but Michael also never expected it from his friend. But then Max had to look into River’s eyes, and see his hair, to know Tess ran through his past. Unfortunately for River, and it was going to take a lot of work to not see River as a symbol of why he had lost the woman he loved. Even though Liz was the one who chose to leave.
So, on this night. Michael allowed Max to enter his house.
Not like I would keep him out he thought.
Maria might and yes, Maria might have if she did not know her husband would have overruled her as she addressed the situation to her old friend. “She is sleeping upstairs. Mariah is downstairs in the basement,” she thought of the suite they had made in the basement. Which Mac had been voicing his wish to move into, but they were resisting but it was completely set up for a guest? “If you are wanting to take your son home than he is sleeping in Mac’s room?” she said of their friend’s child.
Max flinched, because he knew he looked to Maria like a neglectful father and he could be classified one, and it did not make him feel good about it.
But I cannot help but be me “No, I expect he will want to stay there, and here tonight” Max said softly as he thought of his son. “He can come home in the morning.”
“Naturally,” Maria commented from the outskirts of the room.
Max could bat back Michael’s quips about his parental habits or even abilities, but he was unable to do it with Maria therefore he just bypassed it completely. “I needed to be able to see her to make sure she’s alright?”
“And some might consider you to be a stalker?” Maria accused.
Knowing that he would even classify himself as one and had previously but still something that was drawing him to this house, and to upstairs. And Max needed to know she was safe. “That might be the case” he would allow. “But I need to see her,” he would mutter and walked up the stairs, and Maria could only look at her husband with a glare plus a little amusement of the escalating situation. “Of course, it takes a tragedy to get him back into this house,” she muttered. “And not his son?”
Unfortunately, Michael mused to himself. Of course, he was not one to be judgmental about parents, although he had just given his friend a dose because he knew father and sons can be complicated. He might not have a father, just an abusive foster father
Hank who taught him not to do with his own son
Mac, but it was hard to see how far his friend had fallen because he had not gotten the girl. Still, he had hope that one day that Max and River might see eye to eye. “You will have to think that they will make peace one day,” Michael muttered even though he did know if his words would come true.
“We might be waiting an eternity for that,” Maria muttered as they walked up the stairs following the track that Max just had made. As they walked down the hall and saw Max standing by the door. Next to the spare room, with the door open, and he was just staring into the room, and at the bed that was now occupied by a grieving woman.
A woman Max loved, and who knew she was not grieving
for him. As all Max could think of was on the drive was that Liz had crumbled over some other guy.
It is not me anymore. He knew she had to love her husband to react like that, and he hated it, even though he had wanted her to be happy out there in the world. But to know she had been that did not help to the state of his mind. “She loves him?” he asked as he looked at both Michael and Maria.
“Yes,” Maria admitted as she knew that it was hell for Max to watch the woman, he loved move on, and truly be happy with someone else.
And to know she loves someone else “It was different than you and her, but she was happy with Brady,” she sighed. “Brady made it easy for her Max. She and the kids had a good life with him.”
“I am glad,” Max said as he watched as Liz slept.
“No, you are not,” Maria muttered because they both knew Max, and knew the last thing he would want for her to
actually be happy with someone else. What mattered to him would be that she was safe, but to know she loved someone else. It was hard for the ego. And to knowing it and view it. So, she knew she had to make sure Max did not do more harm to himself. “Do you want to stay on the couch tonight?” she asked as she sighed as she looked at her husband who nodded, because they both knew Max should not be on the roads out of town in his mood, and the snow had picked up, so the roads would be terrible in trying to get back to house, which was located out of town.
“Can I?” Max asked.
“As long as you do not make it harder for her Max,” Maria warned. “You were her past, but Brady was her present and you need to give her time, and don’t push her…”
“When have I ever pushed her?” Max asked slightly to hurt at that thought because that is the one thing, he never had been about pushing Liz. Of course, there were times where he wanted her back but still, he could not handle to see her in pain, but he knew she did not need him,
not right now as this was about making sure she was alight. Not trying to pick up the pieces because he knew that was unlikely to ever happen, whether her husband was dead or not. “I just need to make sure she is alright. I have never wanted her to be hurt, and I know tonight hurt her, and I am sorry for that, and I wish it could all be different.”
Maria nodded as she walked to get the bedding for the couch downstairs, leaving Michael and Max to keep guard over the room, that had a devastated wife who had just lost her husband in it. Neither moving. “I wanted her to live…”
“I know you did,” Michael asked as he thought back to that day when if he could have chosen it. He would not have had Max jump in because it had been risky, and of course the ensuing days, months and even years had proven it right but they both knew Max could not have had it on his conscious,
not to save Liz. No matter how bad it might have gotten.
“You were right too,” Michael conceded. “She is alive because of you.”
“I just wish she had been able to get her happy ending. Even if it was not me, then I wanted her to be happy. I never cared about me, it always about
her…” Max asked “
only her” as he was sickened to think that fate could be so cruel to the woman he loved in high school and still did because no one was capable of capturing what Liz had been to him, and to know
he had ruined it. To others in the know. And even Liz knew that she had a part in it. But to Max. Liz had always been on a pedestal and had remained there despite the challenges that had come their way. And nothing was going to bust that view of his former girlfriend in Max’s eyes, and so he found it unfair to think Liz could be hurt in this way.
“I know,’ Michael said softly as they did not know the door to the boy’s room was slightly open, and there were ears who could hear Michael and Max talking, and he was getting an earful into how his father felt for Mariah’s mother. And River knew that his father was speaking the truth that his father was willing to destroy his life if it meant the
only one, he loved could be safe and River did not know how he rated with his father.
As he wondered once again why he had been kept at all…
“It’s not your fault you know,” came the words of his
should be sleeping friend Mac, despite his head injury. All signs were that he was fine, but he had woken up by the movement of his friend to the door. “Your father cannot help it.”
“I know,” River muttered. “When you happen to love someone…”
“Which is why love sucks” Mac muttered with a slightly laugh in his voice. “Which is why you should play the field. Settling only gets you nothing but trouble?”
“So, says the kid with the two parents together, and the tendency to find trouble wherever he goes?” River laughed at Mac’s motto to play field which was quite the contrast to the life he had while growing up. The idyllic two parent household, and lots of family, and grandparents, whether they were his by blood or not. Still, he had a lot, and now he was playing the field, and not interested in settling. Of course, he was only fifteen.
“We are not our parents,” Mac mused “I am me and you are you, so I suggest that you go to bed, and figure out your life tomorrow.”
Which is what River did as he returned to the other bed, and the boys fell asleep thinking of two vastly different lives they were dealing with, and their plans…
*
Downstairs, Mariah felt on the edge. She was feeling lost. Nothing made sense to her anymore. A few hours before she had a family who loved her. The ideal setting for a life. A mother and father who loved her, and a younger brother who was into everything, and it was a fun existence, and then she had tonight, and she had now.
Which meant her father was dead? All because of car crash, and Mariah was blaming herself because she had not been in the car with her father and brother. Instead, she had been admiring the sights, and the Christmas decorations and talking to River. When her father had needed her, and especially when her brother had needed her.
Lex is only twelve she thought.
I could have done something if I had been in that car she thought.
But no, I had to have gotten out because I did not want to go to the stereo store.
Why could I not have gone? She thought as she was overwhelmed and feeling ready to crack. She knew her mother was sleeping upstairs, and all she could think was that she had messed things up.
Why did we have to come to this town? she asked herself.
If we had stayed in Chicago, then this would not have happened?
She did not know if that were true, but she felt like it was, and she hated knowing she could have had a different life if only things were different, and they had not been forced to move away from Chicago to
this town she thought.
Roswell, she muttered.
She was all over the place. She could not sleep. All she felt was that she was changing from the girl she was, to something different. She did not know why. It had been going on for months, and it had only increased since they moved to this town.
If we were in Chicago, I would have been the same person I was last summer she thought. As she did not know what their life would be like from now on. Would they even stay in this town? Something tells her that they would, whether she wanted to or not. Because this is where her grandparents were…
Unfair, she thought.
She wanted her father, and she wanted the life she had yesterday.
As through the house, the lights were turned off. And its occupants were trying to get some sleep. Although some had done so more successfully than others.
*
Liz also wanted the life she had the day before as she woke up in the early hours of the morning and realized she was not in her bed or any bed she recognized before she remembered it looked like the spare bedroom of Maria’s home. The home she shared with Michael and their son
Mac she thought. And immediately memories of the previous night came rushing to her, and they were not welcomed memories. They were of a tragedy that had been so great, and this time no miracles would come and bring him back to her.
Because Brady is not an alien she thought. And you can only get kind of miracle once in a lifetime she thought as she sat up in bed and saw that she was still in her clothes, and she immediately thought of what she would have to do. And she hated every one of them as then her son came to her, and she knew she would have to go to the hospital and explain to a twelve-year-old on the cusp of being a teenager that his father was dead.
And
Mariah she thought. An almost sixteen-year-old was even worst she would imagine. Especially with a girl who was changing with each day. Because she remembered her time as a sixteen-year-old, and how she had changed. And now Mariah would not have her father to be there for her. She and Brady had been remarkably close.
Just like I was to mine… Liz would mutter to herself.
Despite Mariah becoming older and becoming more independent. Brady seemed to get their daughter, and yes, like Liz had been once with her own father.
They had a bond.
And now that bond was broken by death, and there was nothing she could do to bring her child’s father back to her, and to them.
She did not have the power to heal. She had the power to see the future, which is why she had an ominous feeling that something was going to happen, but she had not seen losing Brady she thought.
What good is my powers if I cannot prevent my husband from dying, she thought. But she knew she was not as powerful as Max, Isabel, or Michael.
It had been what she wanted from her life.
Now. She wanted to be different. She wanted the ability.
But it will not change yesterday.
And suddenly there was a knock on the door, and she gave a yes as she remembered this was not her house. And the door opened, and it was Maria sticking in her head. “Are you awake?”
“Yes,” Liz sighed. “Although I wish I was still asleep,” she said honestly as she would rather burrow under the covers and never come out of it. “How long have I been asleep?” she asked as she checked the alarm clock, and saw that it was early, but still a little too early for her liking…
“Since you collapsed at the hospital?” Maria asked softly.
“And they did not want to admit me?” Liz asked as she was surprised the hospital would wave her off to the care of her friends, even if they were quite capable of caring for her.
“We had someone who could access that it was only stress that befell you,” Maria said with a smirk. “Although we had to let the professionals assess you to confirm that opinion because you did make a scene. But your daughter said you would not want to be admitted unless it was a medical reason.”
“She’s right, because I would not have wanted to be” Liz said softly as she though of the only person their group knew that could make a reasonable assessment, and that was her ex-boyfriend, who was decidedly not a medical professional and yet he had the ability, that no mere mortal could claim to have. “You asked Max to look at me?”
“I did not have to ask, because you fell right into his arms” Maria smiled. “And the least he could do was check you over…”
“I did?” Liz asked as she clearly did not have such a memory of it.
“Oh, you don’t remember?” Maria asked, obviously worried that she might have to break the news to Liz about Brady, which was something she would not want to do, if only because she did not want to have Liz react in the way she had before when she was told the news.
“You should not worry because
I remember,” Liz said softly as the memories of the night before, of the doctor telling her the grim news pounced in her head, and she wanted the memories to go away. She wanted to forget the sadness, she wanted to just go back to sleep and stay asleep until she could wake up to a reality and a life that made sense. “Although I do not remember you know…”
“Falling into Max’s waiting arms,” Maria smiled. “Well, you did, and he immediately could tell that you had only fainted, and there was not a medical reason for it. And given how much stress you were under, it was only natural,” she thought. “Liz, I know you will not want to hear it from me, but I am sorry…”
“That my husband is dead?” Liz asked. “I guess I already got my miracle shot at resurrecting someone in the past, so I cannot have that again, so of course something like this would happen once I return to
thistown…”
“Oh Liz,” Maria murmured as she both knew what happened sixteen years before, and how Liz had gotten such a miracle, and it was not possible this time.
“I want to sleep,” she said softly as tears came to as she remembered her husband, and how sweet and patient he had been with her. “Brady rescued me Maria,” she thought of those early days when she went to school, and was acting out, and spending too much time with other men, and regretting her actions the next morning. And then she walked into a class one day, and Brady was there, and he became a friend, and a shoulder to cry on, someone who had not expected anything in return. She would come to see that he had seen her crying out but did not take advantage of her, or the fact that she was clearly reacting to a loss of something in her life. She was, even though
she had been the
one to break her engagement and to walk away from Max over the life they could not share.
Still, she was dark and twisty once at school. And Brady had been there, and he had helped bring her back, and they got married quickly, probably too quickly for some and certainly back here in her hometown as they questioned her quick marriage, but then Mariah had come quickly enough afterwards, and so they figured that would have been the reason why they had gotten married. And Liz knew it partly had been, but it was because with a ring on her finger, she could try to forget Max. And the life she could have been having if she had stayed in Roswell. And especially once Mariah arrived. Having a child that was
her own and not having to settle for raising someone else’s gave something to strive for, and to protect.
She hated resenting the baby River would turn out to be. But she knew at eighteen she could not have been the person Max wanted her to be, and so she and moved on. Brady had been that someone who had helped her and been the one to show her that there was a life to live outside of Roswell, and away from the chaos of her formative teenage years.
Which is why she had not gone back with the kids. Because she had not wanted them to be exposed to it, to the memories.
Now she was back, and
this has happened she muttered. And Maria could guess that Liz was blaming her return. “Petunia, you do not know this would have happened only here in Roswell. There are a lot of questions that are unknown to us?”
“I know this place has given me a lot of dangerous times,” Liz thought. “I stayed away not only because of what Max meant to me, but because of what those three years were like. And once I am back, Brady is struck down.”
“Wait until you know okay before you paint this town with brush it does not deserve,” Maria asked she thought. “You are grieving Brady, but Brady would not want you beaten down. He would want you and the kids to try to move on, knowing he loves you, and still does.”
Liz nodded but did not have a response for that.
“Anyways, you might get some answers?” Maria asked.
“What, what do you mean?” Liz asked as sat in the bed and glanced at her childhood best friend. The friend she had all kinds of dreams with, and they had shared those three years transformative years together, and yet they stayed tight, like sisters.
“I came up not to just see whether you were awake, but to let you know Jim is downstairs. And he has some things to say?”
“About last night?” Liz asked.
“A strong likelihood, and the coroner is with him” Maria muttered softly. “I think they might have some of those answers you crave, although they cautioned to be, it is only the beginning hours in all this…”
“Really?” Liz asked and
yes, it is only the beginning. “This quickly. I do not remember signing off for an autopsy for my husband?”
“You were in no state to greenlight anything,” Maria murmured. “Once word came, and given the situation the crash was under, I think Jim wanted to make sure they had all the answers they could possibility have before they proceeded with any investigation?”
Liz nodded.
So, they know if they have someone to blame or not, and whether they could blame the car She wanted to blame the car.
“So, I’ll let you change, and you can meet me downstairs?” Maria asked as she turned around to go for the door. “And I thought you should know Mariah is awake, and downstairs too, and she is determined to hear what Jim has to say.”
“Thank you, Maria,” Liz sighed as she thought of her daughter, and the two people she has to live for now,
Mariah and Lex need me she thought “For everything, for giving my daughter and I your home for last night.”
“You welcome,” Maria smiled. “I will always be here for you and the kids, and I know you would do the same for me if the time were to ever come?”
“I would,” Liz thought as the door closed a minute later, and she looked around the room. And knew she had to wake up, get out of the bed, and deal with the realities of her life. A life that no longer had Brady in it. But she had her kids,
their kids, and she was back in the past, in her hometown. Which was a whole other adjustment…
Because it meant Max she thought.
*
Mariah was indeed awake, and downstairs and glancing at Max with wary eyes. And Max knew he deserved it. River and Mariah had been surprised to wake up to see that River’s dad was still there, and had slept on the couch, and had shown no willingness to leave. Max knew that all Mariah knew of him was the brusque and bristling relationship she could gather he had with his son by the mere seconds they had spent together the previous night, at the hospital.
Yes, that is right. All Mariah knew was how Max and River related to each other
Badly she muttered to herself as even though it was morning, and whole new day. And still, they did not seem like a normal father and son. Anyone in the house knew this, and even Max and River knew this, but it was their normal routine. Neither talking communicating, nor even acknowledging each other unless they were forced too. For, Mariah it was a completely opposite of the life she had seen her father have with her younger brother, Alex, aka
Lex she thought. They had always spent time together, and Lex had wanted to go to a simple store with his father, not because it was his birthday present, they were supposed to be picking up, but because they liked spending time together.
She was seeing that not every family was this way.
Some have serious dysfunctions. Especially when you have a relationship built up over years, and neither father or son was trying that hard to fix it, despite the frustration and the maneuvering by other parties.
So, Max knew Mariah had a reason to distrust him. And he could not blame her, because he could not see how he could help the situation with his own son.
I blame myself, and I know it he told himself as he glanced at the young woman who had been raised by Liz and her husband. A marriage he did not want to admit had happened but given that he was a father himself.
Life moves whether you want it or not he told himself. Mariah was such a vision of her mother, and he presumed her husband, even though he had met the man while he was alive, nor had he seen him while he has been dead.
If I were there he wondered. If he had known, could he have changed it or was Brady meant to die?
We all die sometime. And sometimes more than once and he felt bad that he could not have saved the one person he knew Liz would want to have lived.
While Maria walked downstairs and could see the tension in the room, while Mac was watching amusement and she could only shake her head because her son was a whole other story, and she did not know how to handle his wildness, and his ability to be his father,
Michael she muttered. Someone prone for the rash. Although the one thing Michael had never really done, was drink because his limited experiences went
badly, she thought of the New Year Eve that ended up with an experience of a lifetime, but not for her and Michael, because they had been taking one of their breaks.
Now, they were together, and in marriage that was solid, and they had a son who was just as wild as his father
and then some she thought. Even though Mac still was largely a good kid. But she did not like was growing up and doing things that she did not want him to do, and she knew once this all settled down, she and Michael would have stamp it out, or delay the inevitable.
You can only use that you are the Sheriff’s grandson so many times as she came down and addressed. “You mother is awake,” she said speaking a clearly grieving Mariah. “And I told her that you two were here to see,” she said as she spoke to her father-in-law, and the coroner.
“Thank you, Maria,” Jim said. “Your mother will over later.”
Maria nodded as she watched as the tension filled the room. “You did not tell me before I went to see Liz, but do you have answers?”
“I have to talk to Liz,” was all Jim said as Max was watching, and she knew from the vibes of the room that he should not be here, but he could not help himself and then he knew he could not leave unless Liz herself asked her to once she saw Liz walked down the stairs a few more minutes later, clearly in distressed.
But awake, and alive.
And that is how Max wanted her, as he saw her eyes go wild to see him at the back of the room, but neither of them said anything. Instead, she addressed Jim.
“You wanted to see me, Jim?” Liz asked.
“Yes,” Jim said as he watched as a devastated Liz walked down the stairs and settled in the living room. No one could miss how Max’s eyes had gone to Liz as she did the walk down the stairs, or how Liz had noticed, but tried to turn her attention from the very past in the room. “I was not able to say it at the hospital, but I am extremely sorry for you, and your children.”
“Yes, my children,” Liz murmured as she remembered her children, as she saw Mariah badly needing her, and she did not know how
Lex was handling his injuries “I need to get to the hospital so that I can be with my son?”
“Which is why I wanted to do this as early as we could today since I do know you will want to go back to the hospital at the first moment you are able to,” Jim acknowledged. “We have done some preliminary investigating into the crash” he sighed as he had stayed up all night, and had his office going all night, trying to nail down some answers, even if they were early.
“And?” Liz asked. “Whose to blame, do you know. Is it my husband or my car?”
“We only have early word,” Jim cautioned.
“I understand, but I need to know so I can look my children in the face and tell them the truth,” she murmured as Mariah walked closer to her mother and took her hand. “We need to know the truth, whatever it is?”
“Early assessment is that your car seems to be not the problem,” Jim murmured and Liz’s heart broke, as she so wanted to blame the car for getting out of control for some reason and it was not human error.
“So, it was Brady?” Liz asked softly.
“We are having the car completely looked over,” Jim murmured as he assured Liz. “What we have is only the early assessment of how the technicians saw the car when it was delivered to them, and there is nothing to indicate a malfunction or anything…
Liz nodded as Mariah grasped her mother’s hand tighter.
“Kirk, here, our resident coroner has something to tell you” Jim said. “Dr. Kirk Vance,” he said introducing their town coroner.
“Mrs. Anthony said the coroner because of how he was not known to the room. He struck with an air of professional. “I wish this was not how we have come to meet, although there probably is not too many other circumstances, but we have done a preliminary exam of your husband, and we have found a few things” Dr. Vance murmured. “We have not gotten back any toxicology results yet because those could take a few days in the least because of how small our office is. We have to send them to the bigger lab in Las Cruces.”
“I understand,” Liz murmured.
Not everywhere is Chicago she thought.
Roswell will always be a small town. “But you found something?”
“Yes,” Dr. Vance nodded. “And if am correct than I can only conclude is that what happened to your husband and son is just a tragic accident, and very little could have stopped it from happening…”
“Why do you say that?” Liz asked.
“Because we have found your husband to have been suffering from an undisclosed, and unknown heart defect” Dr. Vance announced the room, and there were gasps all around. “I have seen your husband’s most recent medical records, and they do not indicate any professional he had seen either in your old place of residence which I believe was Chicago, or here would have known but your husband was suffering from a heart condition, and unless he had gone for an exam and they had known what to look for, then the other way it would show up is if the person suddenly dies.”
“Oh god,” Liz asked. “Brady could not have known?”
“Right,” Dr. Vance nodded. “As his medical records did not indicate that he knew, or that they had tested for any heart conditions in the recent past.”
“So, it was an accident if something does not come up with the car?” Liz asked as she looked at Jim who nodded.
“The investigation is on-going but yes if something does not come up to conflict with the assessment of the doctor, and of course if any toxicology tests come in, but we have to conclude right now, that it was unintentional.
“So, it was Brady’s fault, but not his fault at the same time?” Liz asked to both Jim and the coroner, and Dr. Vance spoke first.
“You have indicated to the Sheriff that nothing in your husband’s recent health indicated this condition?” Dr. Vance asked.
“Yes, that is right” Liz admitted. “My husband has always been very much a health nut. He exercises religiously, which is why this finding is such a surprise to me and this would be the first time it would have come up because yes, he runs, and does other exercises, and he has indicated nothing has been wrong with his heart in the past?”
“Sometimes it happens like that, with these types of undisclosed conditions” Dr. Vance acknowledged. “Sometimes the fittest athletes can be healthy, and able to do their sport for years before something strikes, and it is found out. Although…”
“What?” Liz asked as from the tone of the voice said by the coroner.
There is more, she sighed. As if her senses were finally engaged and telling her that there was something else that she needed to know, something that she would not like, or find easy to accept.
Dr. Vance could tell how this had to be a shock to the deceased’s wife.
And what else I have to say will not make it any easier he thought. “I have exchanged talks with your husband’s family doctor out of Chicago, and I have warned them that they might need to do some testing on your husband’s side of the family…”
“Why?” Liz asked as she took Mariah’s hand even more tightly.
“Because I am afraid to say the condition that there are chances that the condition can be inherited. So, it is likely, your husband could have inherited it from someone in his line, most likely his parents, or a grandparent. But if that is the case, it could also mean…”
Hell, no she whispered to herself as the bombshell settled in on the room. And it was clear everyone in the room knew what the doctor was saying. “Mariah and Lex?” Liz asked instantly as fear crept into her cells, as she looked over at her daughter, and into her eyes, and she knew her daughter understood what the doctor was saying to them.
“Yes,” Dr. Vance acknowledged with a deep sigh. “Your children may have inherited this condition, and they should undergo testing as soon as possible to see whether they do or not, and if they do, you know that we can manage it. Otherwise, if it left untreated….”
“They could die?” Liz asked. “Just like their father?”