“If it is not, well, it could be taken to court and questioned” Kyle muttered. “Or one of them could ask that it gets thrown out… and if they did, well, they would have a compelling case to make,” he murmured as he glanced at the shock on his fiancée’s face. “Isabel, during this time in question. You were not even here in Roswell. You had moved to Boston, and you and Jesse were settled and together and you were not here when it came time for Max to sign those papers. Heck Liz was not even here, as it was all done via fax because email was not as standard as it is today to conduct transfers of those kinds of documents. So, you cannot know what was going down with your brother at the time he was debating whether to sign the documents. One of the signatures is there, but the other isn’t, so he might have forgotten it, and no one thought to look.”
“I would think it would be a pretty big signature to miss Kyle” Isabel sighed. “So, okay, no, I wasn’t here at that time. But I know from Michael that Max was tortured by the decision but ultimately did it because it was what Liz wanted. She was the one who sued for divorce. She is the one who started to proceedings here in New Mexico because she did not have standing in Boston yet, and because the marriage took place in the part of the country. She is the one who wanted it. Just like Maria is the one who is suing Michael now for divorce” she sighed. “Michael was here Kyle. He would know if Max signed or not. And come on, Liz has since remarried so she must have thought that the divorce is legally binding otherwise no other state would issue a marriage license, right?”
“Right,” Kyle muttered as Isabel had him there…
“Max and Liz would both have copies of the signed agreement, if it was filed, and approved, right?” Isabel asked as from the little she knew of the legal system and what she knew from Jesse’s work as a lawyer who had done the odd divorce or two during her time with him. “I can’t believe the system wouldn’t have noticed if the divorce papers weren’t faulty” she asked. “This doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s just a copy?”
“Why would your father have squirrelled it away in a locked file cabinet and told no one, and especially not me…” Kyle asked. “I was a partner, and why didn’t he tell me?”
“Maybe he forgot her put it somewhere safe. You know how Max and Liz were sought after in the wake of everything that went down. The media, and everyone was after for every little tidbit of information on them, so their divorce would be a big-ticket item to try to get their hands on. Maybe dad was trying to protect them?”
“Oh, I am sure he was trying to protect them,” Kyle muttered. “Isabel, I don’t know what I am thinking because this doesn’t make any sense. Everything I know of the case, is that this was the filed one so the official papers. Why it was not red flagged, I have no idea. Maybe it fell through the cracks. I have no idea.”
Isabel still was hung up on aspect of the insanity. “Liz got remarried Kyle. It would be different if both were single. But Liz married again, and for that marriage to be legal. She would have had to show her divorce papers, right?” Isabel asked. “Just like when it comes time for us, to get our license before our ceremony next summer. I will have to show proof that my husband is deceased, and therefore I am legally entitled to get remarried, right?”
“Right?” Kyle muttered.
“I can’t believe Boston overlooked mistakes in their filed divorce agreement…” Isabel asked. “They got married in the State of Massachusetts?”
“All Liz would need is to show her divorce degree. Not the actual papers. Just the official paperwork,” Kyle asked. “The decree could be legit. But if it is true that there were errors in the filed papers, then of them, and most likely Max could get it stuck down…”
“And that means?” Isabel muttered as she thought she was watching some made for television Hallmark movie, and not her brother’s real-life reality.
“It means he could get it declared null and void, which nullifies Liz and Carl’s marriage… now, Liz could go to court and try to prove she thought the marriage was legally binding, and for the court to declare it binding, assuming if she wants to be tied to Carl in that way…” Kyle asked. “Given what he’s just done to her, landing her in the hospital and to Natasha and the new baby…”
“Children, there are children Kyle” Isabel said stunned at the remembrance of Natasha and the little tiny baby fighting for her life. “What does it mean for them?”
“Well, if Max and Liz were declared to still be married. Incredibly Max could claim paternity of the kids, because they would have been born during his and Liz’s union. He would have a claim of paternity. Carl would have to prove in court that Liz had every belief that the marriage was legitimate, and it was not simply a long-standing affair. and that he is the rightful father of the kids. They would have to prove paternity. DNA testing and such. Even if it were proven that Carl is the father of the kids. Natasha could be declared to be old enough to decide which parent she wants to live with… And given what Carl just did. No judge is going to rule against her, and the baby whose birth was the direct result of Carl’s assault.”
“Jesus Christ…” Isabel murmured.
“I know…” Kyle murmured. “Look I know, so, believe me because I am not saying any of this lightly because I do understand the consequences that do come if Max and Liz were to still be married”
“Would Liz even allow Max to do that…” Isabel asked.
“Well Carl just tried to kill her and Sarah Rose,” Kyle muttered. “She’s likely to be very angry?”
“Still Max…” Isabel asked as she tried to imagine what her brother would think of all this or even what he might do, although she did know he would go to his grave protecting Liz if given the choice, and did for a time, because he had loved his ex-wife so completely.
“I know,” Kyle nodded. “So, I guess I better go talk to him, right?”
“Right,” Isabel muttered because if given the choice and the potential of what it meant for him to still be married to Liz. Then any day of the week he was going to take the option that Kyle had just outlined if it meant that he was going to be able to protect Liz and the children from Carl. Even if it also meant a life full of child support payments if Max and Liz ever did divorce legitimately and if he were to have been declared the legal father of those kids.
“Why do you say that?” Max was asking of Maria’s observation that he was a glutton of punishment after she had gotten off the phone after a long discussion with her own lawyer out in Los Angeles. She had forgotten to tell them of her relocating, and especially back to New Mexico, and so now the phone call was concluded. “Speaking of gluttons of punishment. If that was your divorce attorney. Why haven’t you dealt with Michael before now?”
Maria laughed. “This isn’t about me right now; this is about the fact you’ve taken a personal interest in the daughter your ex-wife has with another man. And you have gone to incredible lengths to instill yourself as that child’s personal bodyguard. I understand why you are concerned. Anyone would be. But becoming attached isn’t helping you?”
“Someone had to be because it’s obvious Liz pushed herself so far away from her parents. You weren’t here, so someone had to be concerned for Natasha…” Max muttered. “She came into my emergency room and I was on duty.”
“I thank you, and I am sure Liz has thanked you… But still, you’re asking for a lot of pain by getting attached to Natasha or letting her get attached to you” Maria asked as she remembered how clear it was that the little girl was smitten with Max, or how Max clearly was with the child as well. “You know you’re a little insane, right?”
“Why do you say that?” Max sighed because he knew what she was getting at…
“Most men wouldn’t take it so personally. You have always been compassionate and would do anything for anyone who needs your help. I love that about you, and I know that was a big part of why Liz was so taken by you. But you are asking for pain, and not just a little, but a whole lot of it…”
“It’s Liz, and therefore I can’t help it” Max muttered. “As I have said, she was wheeled into my emergency room. You should have seen Natasha? She was so devastated, and the black eye as you can see and that was before I realized her arm was injured. She was so scared. She might talk a good game, but she was crying out for help. And knowing the hell she and her mother had to have gone through. I can not just walk away from that. Not if I can help. Natasha needed the support, and I am glad to have given it.”
“Oh Max, you’re just asking…” Maria sighed.
“I know, okay, I know what I am risking…” Max muttered because he knew it. I have got to be insane. Maria is right. To know Natasha belongs to someone else. Even if he was a mad man who should be in prison. Still, she is not my daughter. But he also knew Liz risked so much by helping him years before.“It’s Liz” he whispered. “How can I not help her? I promised her once that I would help her, because I know that she sacrificed everything to help me back in high school with the search for my son, and even before that when I betrayed her with another woman. We weren’t together, I know that, and she knew that, but I stepped on our love, and she still came back to me and sacrificed everything and including potentially her freedom and that burned her in numerous ways. So, I can’t not help her now.” he asked. “So, if it calls for me to look after Natasha for Liz than I cannot not do it?”
“I do get that, and I admire it because Liz does need people in her corner, and I am not discouraging you from being her friend. But you are allowing Natasha to get attached. You didn’t have to do it,” Maria asked as she couldn’t but see how the little girl was looking up at Max. “You are doing more than what is being asked of you?”
“Someone has to do it. You were not even here. As you said, you had your life to lead. And it is obvious for many reasons Jeff and Nancy could not be there for their daughter. Hell, they did not even know they had a grandchild. Now they do, but they did not until yesterday. I know life happens. But if Natasha does not have the support system. Someone needs to be one for her until she has it in place.” Max asked and Maria shook her head. “Which gets me asking. What on earth happened there because Maria. I know how close they were back in the day. And how Jeff went to hell and back for us,” he asked. “So, what happened?”
“They didn’t like Carl,” Maria sighed.
“I approve. But something more had to have happened for Liz to walk away. I know how hard it was for her to walk when we left in the first place. Unfortunately, she was in danger, which is why we had to flee… But it was different later, when were able to come back and she was reunited with her parents. She was happy to be back, with them. So, what happened?”
“It doesn’t matter Max,” Maria sighed. “It’s Liz who made that decision and therefore is Liz story more than me, just know that in those days. The adjustment to coming home, was brutal not only for you, but for her too. When she left for Cambridge. She thought it was her ticket to a new life. Only for her to meet Carl. And it was obvious her parents did not approve, and he did not even attempt to get them on his side. And therefore, by eloping with Carl, her relationship with her parents fractured, and she did not even try to repair it because they were not trying either. They both said things, things you can’t unsay…”
“Still…” Max wondered because it still did not make sense and yet it did, as he could not help but sigh. “But then I guess I do know what it means to say things you wish you could unsay…” he asked because if only he could go back unsay some of those things he had said to his wife, or said, no, when she had wanted the divorce. If only I had asked her to come back to me?
“I know you do,” Maria said. “We all have done it. Therefore, it is not easy to bridge that gap at the end of the day to who you do say those words. She had to make a new life. It was not easy for her, and she tried to go on, and make do with the decisions she has made. Including being there for Natasha when she was born, when she knew by then that Carl was no Prince Charming” she sighed and the realization that was dawning on her that she gave up on her chance with her Prince Charming or her Romeo for that matter Maria mused to herself. A Prince Charming who is willing to take responsibility for the protection of a child who was fathered by someone else she asked only herself.
“I guess,” Max sighed.
“We all have to make do with our choices. The good and the heartbreaking ones. We are no longer sixteen. Our choices have consequences to them.” Maria muttered. “We can’t go back to redo the past, and therefore we have to live with what we have said and done?”
“Maria…” Max asked because he wanted to say the dreaded words.
“Don’t Max, please don’t because I am back here in Roswell only to deal with Liz and Natasha. Anything else can be something I deal with tomorrow…” Maria muttered because she knew what her friend was going to get at, and she didn’t feel ready to get into that kind of conversation.
“How are you?” Max asked. “That is all I was going to ask,” he murmured as he wanted to ask so much more, but he knew it was obvious that Maria was not ready for him to ask those questions.
“I am fine. I have seen better days. But when I do compare situations, I know I am a lot better than where Liz is right now, and that is all I can worry about today and tomorrow. Anything else that might be wrong with my life is gravy compared to what is going on with Liz. Because I know that my life will work itself out at the end of the day and I am not stressing it…”
“I am glad,” Max nodded as he meant the words “You deserve only the best. Just like Liz does. I mean, I know how many sacrifices you made back then. All of us took it for granted, and I am sorry for it, so I want you know that I am forever grateful that we had your help. Just thinking of some of those scrapes. If we had not had your help, we might not have made it through?”
Maria muttered Yeah, we got lucky and not everyone did to herself as she moaned in the knowledge that they had lost Alex and a lot more on their journey.
“To know our history. It should make us all grateful for what we were able to have, because we are fortunate at the end of the day” Max muttered as he thought of Liz in the hospital bed. “Liz does need a lot of hope and a lot of prayers but Maria, I am not going to let her down and if helping Natasha gives her some peace, I am going to give that to her…” he mused. “Because it’s the least I can do for her, given she gave me so much at the expense of her own dreams…” he muttered because he did know how much his ex-wife had given up by loving him.
Maria sighed at the fates of her friends and could not help but nod with a simple sigh. “You’re special Max, if only she mused to herself. “One day I hope you do get what you deserve…”
“Well I would only want that if Liz is able to have the same ability,” Max muttered as Maria like everyone else knew what sacrifices Max had made, in the name of Liz, and so much was tied in his love for his ex-wife and she probably shouldn’t be asking Max to think of himself when she knew her friend needed a champion, and if Max wanted to be that champion, maybe she shouldn’t be one to talk?
Because to Maria, it could only make her think of her own life. And the husband that was out there, and the marriage that she was in, if only on paper. “Max, I really don’t want to know but I do need to know, so I guess I have got to ask, how is he?” Maria finally asked the dreaded question that they both knew was coming. “Is he okay?”
Hell no, Max wanted to say but did not “Yes,” he lied.
And Maria knew he was lying. “Max…”
“What can I say Maria. Like you cannot tell me too much about what is going on with Liz. I cannot tell you what is going on with Michael. Is life the way he wants it to be, no, but something tells me it has not been that way for you either. You both deserve the peace that comes with figuring out what happened next. Why have not you come back before now? He’s been stalling the divorce for six months now, which I know has to annoy you, but you don’t do anything to get him to sign those papers or anytime in these last eight years?”
“What can I say, it annoys me. But some reason I was stalling it myself until I finally came to the realization that we can not do it anymore. And that is why I sued for divorce, and then the last six months has been one annoyance after another, until now, I am back in my hometown, still married despite not having been with my husband for eight years.”
“What happened?” Max asked.
“What do you think happened, life” Maria muttered as she did not want to discuss what had happened in the past. She just wanted to move on, and deal with the future. And the present that involves helping Liz and Natasha start a new life with the new baby.
“I am sorry…” Max sighed. “Life sucks…”
“Yeah it does,” Maria muttered as the door opened and in walked Natasha. “Baby Doll, what is it?”
“Max, can we go see Mommy?” Natasha asked.
And a sudden reminder that they all had something vastly more important than their personal lives to worry about as Max nodded and looked at Maria. “Do you need a lift?”
“Can I, the car is at the shop. I need to go over there later, to see what the status of it is…” Maria muttered as she thought of one more expense she didn’t have the funds to pay for, but coming back, and driving all the way was not something she regretted. “I guess we can get going?” she muttered as Max’s cellphone rang, and he answered and frowned. “Yeah, we can meet…” he said moments later and then hung up.
“What was it?” Maria asked. “Liz?”
“No,” Max was quick to assure both Maria and Natasha who was looking at Max with fearful eyes. “It was Isabel. She and Kyle want to meet with me at my place. So, I can drop you both off at the hospital and go see what they want, and then come back. And anyways, you probably want to visit without me… I can meet you there…”
“Don’t you have to work?” Maria asked.
“I am taking a few days off,” Max muttered. “I have worked so many double shifts because my life has lacking in Isabel terms, substance” he laughed. “So. people owe me. But really, I took a leave for a few days, because I needed to because I couldn’t be effective as a doctor and while my Chief will likely be out for my head when I do go back, still, he wouldn’t want me to be working when my head is other places…” he sighed because he knew his Chief would be on the war path when he did go back to work even if he was the resident with the most hours, and was always working, and rarely had taken time off, with the only exception before now was bereavement leave due to the death of his parents. So, he knew Dr. Lang would calm down in the end. “Do you need anything, before we go?”
“I’ll grab my purse and jacket and leave a note for Mom” Maria asked before disappearing from the kitchen.
“Max, my Mom is going to be alright, right?” Natasha asked as for a minute, the worries came back onto her face, and Max could see it. She could not be a normal seven-year-old, with no worries except growing up. Natasha had too many others to think about, and Max wished he could make her forget.
“I promise,” Max muttered even though he knew he shouldn’t be promising such a thing to a small child about her mother but he also knew that he would do anything to make sure Liz came out of the hospital in one peace, and knew he had the ability to make sure that did happen, and he planned to use it, if he had to. “So, how about we get your jacket, and we’ll get going?”
Natasha nodded as five minutes later; they were leaving the house.
Michael was feeling the hungover he was left with after his actions the previous night and he had woken up for the first time in a long time without someone else in his bed as he remembered how Isabel had made sure he had gotten home, and had pulled the blanket over him as he passed out. How he missed having someone at home when he got home. Now he lived for the endless bar hoping and poker games. Waking up in the cold light of day had quickly reminded him of the life he was screwing up.
Now he was standing in the hospital, looking through the glass window of Liz’s hospital room and getting a reminder of that someone people had it worse than he did. And that he should be grateful he got out from under Hank’s violence and was able to make something of himself. He didn’t know what kind of life he was making, but still it was a hell of a lot better than it could have been in his younger years, and now rage filled his eyes as he saw how some guys didn’t get that you don’t slap around woman, or young kids.
Especially those who were innocent, and those who could not defend themselves. Now he did remember that Liz was not powerless, but he also remembered how she did not want to associate with the gifts that had come as side effects to Max saving her life. Still, you did not strike someone like Liz. Or her daughter, for that matter and it made him full of anger to know that this time that landed them in the hospital probably had not been the only time.
He was standing guard. Because of when he arrived at the hospital, he had found out that Max had gotten Natasha discharged and disappeared somewhere, and Liz was still sleeping when he arrived outside her hospital room. She looked so bruised, and there were so many bandages.
And then he noticed Liz was waking up and squirming her discomfort in her hospital bed as she looked around, as if to reassure herself that she was somewhere safe. Michael hated that feeling. He had too much of it living under Hank’s roof. And it had taken awhile when he was living on his own to get over that feeling, of worry.
Liz’s eyes came towards the window and she seemed startled to see him. So, Michael knew he had to go in, and so he did. Opening the door, he went into her room. “I don’t want to intrude, so I was watching from the outside…”
“What day is it?” Liz asked softly, as he could see she was still hooked up to the IV and she seemed happy to have the drugs, taking away the pain.
“It’s still morning, and you slept all night” Michael murmured. “If you need a doctor or a nurse, I can go get them?” he asked. “If you’re feeling any pain?”
“No,” Liz said looking around, but she waved a doctor because she knew she had to get used to the pain she was suffering because she felt like she deserved it for not leaving as she glanced back on Michael. “It’s been a long time?”
“Yeah,” Michael acknowledged. “I wanted to come and see how you were doing…”
“I could be better,” Liz muttered. “I must look terrible?”
“You’ve looked better,” Michael smiled, and Liz chuckled. “Sorry…”
“No, it was the truth and I should hear it. I wish I could have made better choices” Liz sighed. “If only…”
“Don’t we all,” Michael muttered as he knew his life was not to be used a gold standard of what one should be looking to accomplish in their life. Only Max could be as seen as coming close to his goals, although Isabel was starting to get to that point. “It’s not your fault you got it wrong…”
“I should have seen it, and I still saw it and I stayed, so that is not very heroic” Liz muttered. “You got out of your situation, I didn’t…”
“Not because I left,” Michael remembered. “Only because someone else took it into their hands to deal with Hank their way,” he sighed as he remembered how that came back to burn him when bones got dug up and implicated him when they were identified to be his thought to be long dealt with foster father whose house he left back in Sophomore year of high school to move out on his own, and to be officially emancipated thanks to the legal help of Max’s father, Phillip.
One more reason to be grateful of Phillip Evans.
“I likely would have been forced to stick in that home if Nascedo hadn’t dealt with it like he did,” Michael murmured as they had long figured out who was the guilty party was as the bones were dug up once they were back in Roswell after their time on the road. “You might not remember?”
“I think I heard,” Liz murmured as she faintly did remember hearing of the legal troubles that Michael had gotten into briefly after Maria had left Roswell. The gossip did manage to leave Roswell and travel to Massachusetts and California. Especially when she did see some of Isabel in those early months before she cut off herself off from her former sister-in-law.
“Right, Maria?” Michael asked of his estranged wife. The someone that meant the world to them both, and someone he had not been able to see in many years. While Liz had been more fortunate in that regard. Michael not so much…
“Probably,” Liz confirmed. “I am sorry…”
“I never had any love for the man, but he did provide me a home, however limited it was at the time. He used me as a punching bag, and I did not fight back even though I had the physical abilities because I do not know what my life would have been if I had not gotten out when I did. You only can do what you can do. I don’t blame you for staying Liz, although I never pictured you to be someone who would have stayed, no matter how good of a situation it might have been in the beginning.”
“Me either,” Liz muttered. “But of course, I never pictured my life to have gone the way it did, so my judgment has always been screwy, ever since those days after high school, when I made choices that I now have to live with…”
“We all do,” Michael admitted.
“We do,” Liz nodded as flashes of that time flooded her brain. “In the beginning, I was as messed up Carl was. In the wake of everything that happened. School was not the answer I thought it would be, or least not in the beginning. I met Carl at a bar, and I could drink him under the table, as if it were a contest, but when I found out I was pregnant, I cleaned up my act. Carl didn’t, and I should have taken the hint and left, but I didn’t, and I guess I didn’t want to admit I screwed up yet and walked away from something good, and so I tried to make it at least tolerable for Natasha. I regret it, now. I know I should have left?”
“You have that chance, now”
“Too late,” Liz muttered.
“It’s never too late,” Michael murmured as he heard the door creek and he twisted and was stunned to see his past staring him in the face It is never too late, yeah right? he mused.
“Mommy!” Natasha cried as she rushed into the room, in a whirl of hurricane speeds and past Michael and right to the bedside of her mother.
“Oh god Natasha,” Liz whispered as she winced at the sight of her daughter with the black eye, and the arm in a sling as she looked up and saw how Michael and Maria were staring at each other as if in a trance. Yeah I know that experience she muttered to herself That was me and Max, alright but she didn’t want to think about Max, and so she concentrated on the person she should be concentrating on, now and in the future, her daughter.
“Mommy, you look so hurt…” Natasha murmured as she gasped when she got a clear view of her mother, for the first time in many hours.
“I am, but I am way better now that I see you…” Liz murmured.
While Liz concentrated on her daughter. All Michael and Maria could look at, were each other… Like they were in a trance. Damn it, why does he have to bring this out in me Maria muttered as she tried in vain to stop herself from reacting to her estranged husband. Michael on the other hand was trying to stop looking at Maria. For so long she had been out of his eyesight, and he could almost forget what she looked like. But there was no forgetting Maria now, and Michael hated that she was something he could not forget.
“Michael,” Maria asked as she was the first one to break.
“Maria… long time” Michael allowed.
“Yeah,” Maria nodded as she glanced over at the reunion between mother and daughter. She winced too at the sight of her best friend. “Oh god, Liz…”
“Don’t say it,” Liz sighed. “I know I look like hell…”
“Are you kidding me,” Max was muttering as he let himself his home for the first time in twenty-four hours. He figured her would be coming home after doing a double and would be dead tired. Well, he was dead tired, but he hadn’t pulled a double and now he had his sister and her fiancé on his doorstep wanting to know if he had a copy of his divorce papers from the end of his marriage to Liz. I should have burned them and he had come close because he didn’t want any memories of the dissolution of his marriage during those low days after they ended, but he talked himself out of it, and so yeah I have a copy of it. “Why?”
“You won’t want to know,” Isabel muttered I did not even want to know what I now know she muttered to herself as she looked at Kyle who only shook his head.
“Well you’re going to have to tell me if you want to dredge up the worst of my nightmares,” Max muttered as they walked into the living room and looked around and saw how much this was his home, and yet it wasn’t a home… just a place where he spent the nights, he wasn’t working at the hospital.
“And we wish we didn’t have to force you into that,” Kyle muttered.
“Then why are you wanting me to do this?” Max muttered as he stood in a face off with his sister and soon to be brother-in-law, and the fact he was also Liz’s ex did not plan into his frustration with this moment.
“Because we have some questions about your divorce” Kyle admitted. “And it’s better to see your copy of it…”
“Why?” Max muttered. “Because you know it is not a subject I want to ever revisit if I have a choice, and especially not in light of recent events. Guys, I do not need the memories. I rather think of what was positive, and not how it was in the end…”
“And we understand that,” Isabel muttered as she glanced at her boyfriend. “But Kyle here has some concerns about the process that led to the divorce.”
“What concerns?” Max muttered. “Liz wanted out, and I gave her that out. She filed our separation papers while she was still here in New Mexico and then eventually converted it to a request for the dissolution of our marriage once she had been in Cambridge a few months. I eventually did sign the papers and used Dad as my representative, and eventually it got finalized, and she remarried, and moved onto her life” he muttered. “Guys, she wanted it, and I wanted her to be happy.”
“I know,” Isabel sighed.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t last. Which is not surprising since happiness rarely lasts” Max muttered and then realized what he said and knew that his sister and Kyle were planning on a life of happiness together. “Sorry, I didn’t mean like it sounded. I know you two will be incredibly happy. Liz and I didn’t have that same fortune, unfortunately but I don’t wish her any ill will.”
“We know,” Kyle nodded.
“So, what is this about?” Max asked.
“We need to see your copy of your divorce agreement that you signed with Liz, because we have concerns whether it’s valid” Kyle blurted out and Max could have fainted because this was not what he was expecting to be said. “We know you want to say?”
“No, you don’t” Max whispered… “Because simply, are you freaking out of your minds?”
“I told you he was going to take it badly,” Isabel muttered as she did not relish to see her brother head into such a tale spin that was about to occur.
Which it did.