A few hours later, Maria rolled out of bed in the spare bedroom of the new and improved Deluca Valenti household. Since their marriage, Jim and Amy had spruce the formerly bachelor pad and it was now a real home. Amy had sold the place she and Maria shared for so many years in her childhood. And Maria had been given an unofficial room within the walls of the spare bedroom. Now that Kyle lived with Isabel. It was empty. She looked at the mirror in the bathroom after getting up from her short nap. She knew this was not the life she had thought she was running away for when they had split town on the day of her high school graduation. But then on the other hand, she could bet any day of the week that she gotten the better bargain than what Liz had given when they fled town.
Of course, neither had known what they were in for on the road. Maria and Michael had tried to be happy, but their relationship had always been one blown fuse away from implosion, and it had happened on the road once they had separated from the gang of misfits. Many questioned why six teenagers were roaming the open roads together. Celebrating their high school graduation only worked for so long… And especially when you had two committed couples, and two singles. So, eventually they split into couples, and went their own way.
Only for that decision to turn into a nightmare. Still those early days had been good ones for her and Michael. It was remarkable now that Maria had time to think about it, now. They truly acted liked they belonged together, and that they could make it work and then Vegas happened and things started to changed when a drunken night in the gambling capital had turned their newly reunited relationship into a commitment with a ring on both of their fingers. When they woke up the morning after, well, they were not prepared for the harsh realities that the sunlight would bring to their newly committed and legal relationship.
Which is very typical for us Maria mused now?
They tried. But then everything went haywire with Max and Liz. And they had tried to vain to hold onto the fact at least they had each other but the days crept by and she began to get scared herself that Michael would be scooped up. While they both knew that Max would never give up Michael or Isabel, still the government had their ways. At the same time, Michael was worried for Maria. Despite her human status and the fact, she never been saved like Liz had been. So, she never had any special abilities. Still, if they were upping the torture by taking humans. Then he was afraid that Maria could be taken simply because she loved him, and due to their marriage. Only for when the dust cleared did they come to realize that the world had real consequences. Because their story got played on television when the whole sordid secret came out. She got noticed and was offered a role in Hollywood.
She took it. And that had done in their marriage. Michael stayed in Roswell because by now Max was nursing his broken heart. And she went off to fame and fortune, only to learn that that show business was a cruel business with a lot of bodies and compromised values along the way. Like she had been in New York, she was not ready to compromise those values she held, so she struggled.
And now she was back in her hometown. Single yet married.
And with a husband who was still in this town. She knew before she left Roswell again, she would have to get Michael to sign those papers because it didn’t do them any good to stay married when they didn’t live together, and their marriage was only on paper… Sighing, because thinking of Michael only brought memories of the rare good times. She needed a distraction, so she did not think of her husband.
She got it when she heard the doorbell.
She did not know if her mother was home. Because she had not heard commotion and figured her mother would let her sleep, and she figured Jim was at the office by now. But she knew her mother always had something on the go. Amy was good at filling her days. So, she walked into the empty house, and she went to the front door and opened it.
She was shocked to find…
“Max,” Maria said softly as she viewed the love of her best friend’s life. As she knew Liz had never gotten over her first love, and her only love.
“We heard you were town, and we couldn’t resist” Max murmured as he glanced at his best friend’s wife, and the only woman Michael could love and who was the chief cause of why he was slowly destroying what was left of his life.
“We?” Maria asked looked around and did not see anyone else. “You look to be alone?”
“I am not alone” Max admitted. “But someone did want to see you,” Max murmured as he stepped to the side and she saw with a wince and a gasped a small child.
“Aunt Maria!” Natasha said with extreme happiness as she jumped up and down at the sight of her favorite person.
“Natasha, my goodness” Maria whispered as she winced at the black eye and arm in the sling… as she took in her goddaughter for a hug as she looked back at a concerned Max. “Baby Doll, what has happened to you… Oh my goodness,” she murmured as she looked back at Max. “Thank you for bringing her. I didn’t know how much I needed to see her, but I thought she was in the hospital?”
“She was…” Max said simply.
“Come in, come in” Maria said as she welcomed Max and Natasha into the Deluca/Valenti household. “Sounds like we have a lot to discuss?”
“Yes, we do…”
*
During the night Max had found himself waking up and making his way to Natasha’s hospital room as he observed the small little girl asleep in her bed as the fractured arm now in a cast was not in the sling, but laying limply by the little girl who had a black eye and he felt rage at the asshole who could do that to small child. A precious little girl who did not do anything to bring on such anger. The vision of her mother as small girl. Memories flooded his mind of her mother at that age. So full of life, so compassionate and so wise.
He promised Liz he would protect Natasha and he would hold up to that promise. He had promised her once before that he would help her, if she ever had a child who needed his help. Just like she had sacrificed so much to help him when he did not deserve that support. Just because she might have someone else for a father didn’t mean she was all her father, when she looked like her mother, and she didn’t deserve to become a victim in the war her father had with her mother, and with life.
Watching the child sleep brought peace as he sat down and just watched. As Max fully knew he was lending himself a disservice by continuing to spend time with Natasha when she was someone else’s child and Liz did not even belong to him anymore. She had a different name, and a different life. He had barely made it through the last time he had lost her, and now he was setting himself up for a great disappointment. But he could not stop himself as he watched as the child and found himself falling asleep.
Nurse Jackson who was working the night shift looked in and shook her head at the sight of Max by the child’s bedside.
He is a one in a million, that man is she muttered to herself as she walked off to another patient’s room.
Max slept, only to hear a soft voice calling at him, through his dreams that were all
of Liz and were of him and her, with children around them throwing snowballs in a fight outside of a house, with snow on the ground. Christmas cheer was all around, and Max stopped and took Liz into his arms and they kissed as the girls giggled as the older girl led her little sister into the house. Leaving Max and Liz outside in the falling snow as they stopped kissing and he patted the bump she carried. A new little prince or princess to join their family… as Max was treasuring the dream and vision when she heard a small voice cut through the dream, “Hey,” he heard as he his eyes opened and he looked up at Natasha staring down at him, not from her bed, but on her feet. “You fell asleep…” she asked. “Why were you saying Mom’s name?”
“I was,” Max said as he sleepily was trying to wake up. “I don’t remember if I did…”
“Yeah, you did” the seven-year-old mumbled. “You were saying Mommy’s name,” she asked as she did not mention how happy he seemed as he said he mother’s name as he slept. As she had woken up and realized she was in the hospital room and looked over and seen Max asleep in her chair.
“What time is it?” Max asked.
“Don’t know, but it’s early” Natasha said as she saw that someone had turned off her television over night. “How long have you been here?”
“Not long,” Max muttered as he got up and saw Natasha still without the sling. “I guess we better get that thing back on you, if you’re going to be out of bed.”
“Why do I need it?” Natasha muttered. “My arm feels fine.”
“But it wasn’t alright,” Max murmured as he thought of her operating under such an old injury and needing the cast in the first place. “This allows less pressure to placed on your arm…” he said as he slipped the sling on and put her arm back in it.
“Why do you even care?” Natasha asked of Max who looked surprised at the question. “I heard you and Mommy have a past. And she left you for my Dad, so why do you care about me, if because of me, you don’t have her in your life anymore?”
“My sister and friends talk too much,” Max muttered as he did not relish knowing Natasha knew some of the past. “All you have know is that it wasn’t you,” Max sighed as he felt compelled by the aura of an old soul in this little girl despite her young age, she was so innocent and so much a vision of her mother. “Yes, your mother and I did have a history a long time ago, but we broke up for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Your mother found your father and had you and now your baby sister. We both lived different lives, and I only wish I could have prevented the pain you and your mother had to go through…”
“It’s my fault.” Natasha asked. “Mommy is not bad…”
“Why do you say that?” Max asked.
“I should have told her a long time ago what Dad was doing… But I did not, and I thought I could protect her from it…”
“You are only seven years old Natasha,” Max murmured. “It’s not on you to protect your mother nor is it your fault, what ultimately happened. What happened between your parents is because of them, and not you. You didn’t bring this on?”
“If I hadn’t slipped and told Dad that we went to that funeral, then Dad wouldn’t have gotten so upset with Mom?” Natasha asked as Max’s heart broke at the thought of Liz having to keep secrets, and how her showing up at his parent’s funeral had started the ball rolling to this day. “Dad somehow got it out of me. I promised Mom that I wouldn’t tell him, and he made me…”
“Then that is on your father for how he treated you and your mother. You did not ask for it, nor did your mother. So, it is neither of your faults” Max sighed as he knew that Liz was going to feel guilty. “Your mother doesn’t blame you Natasha.”
“She should…” Natasha muttered.
“That is silly,” Max murmured as he checked his phone and saw a message from Maria saying she was now in town. “How about I give you something to cheer about. Your mother still needs to rest for a little while longer before you see her, but I hear someone special is back in town and she would love to see you…”
“Aunt Maria?” Natasha asked as her face brightened.
“Yes,” Max nodded. “How about we go and pay a visit?”
“Will they let me go?” Natasha asked as a degree of uncertainness came through her.
“Leave it up to me,” Max murmured and minutes later he was officially getting her discharged as the blood tests came back all clear, and she was medically cleared.
“What about tonight?” Natasha asked as left the hospital. “If am no longer an official patient. Where am I going to be tonight?”
“Let me think about that…” Max smiled as he thought of the fact that he had a plan. One way or another, Natasha would be safe, and by having her save then Liz could recover without the worry or burden on her shoulders.
*
“Do you want a drink?” Maria asked as they stood in the kitchen, and she handed Natasha a drink with a straw that she had found in a package in the closet from her mother’s supplies of alien supplies
Mom likes to keep these around to remind of the ludicrous circumstances I got into, and to keep her entertained I guess she mused to herself as she thought of how unique their circumstances were. “It’s early…”
“When did you get in?” Max asked. “If it were not early, I would say I wanted something stiffer. But coffee is good” he sighed as he smiled at the straws. A memory of the Crashdown. When life was simpler. “I’ll join you…”
“So, how is she Max?” Maria asked. “I got in first thing this morning. Drove through the night…”
“You can ask me yourself you know?” Natasha snarked.
“Smarty,” Maria laughed. “I know you’re going to give me your side, but I want something more reliable” she sighed.
“Hey,” Natasha muttered but when back to her drink.
“You can see, she’s fine. The fracture is healing, and everything is else is minor. Last night was precaution and because she did not have anywhere else to go for the night. And it was either that, or the system would want to give her a home.”
“You didn’t try Jeff and Nancy?” Maria muttered.
“I could see that Liz’s relationship with her parents is strained, and I didn’t think she would want that and so it was a good compromise and by being in the hospital than we knew she would be safe, and there be no way that Carl would get to her…” Max sighed. “Your warning scared me a little, so I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“Dad wouldn’t come after me,” Natasha muttered as she thought of her father. “He knows better than that, unless he’s been drinking, and then that is a whole other ballgame” the seven-year-old sighed but did not elaborate. “Can I watch television?”
“Sure, go ahead…” Maria nodded. “I don’t know what channels my mother and stepfather get because it’s been awhile since I been here,” she admitted as she looked around the house and realized she had been out of the loop on a lot of things in Roswell, and she didn’t know how to feel about that.
Once Natasha had vanished into, the living room, which left Max and Maria alone. “What was that?” Max asked.
“How should I know?” Maria muttered.
“You know Liz Maria. You have been around her, and Natasha. It is obvious that little girl looks up to you. You are the fun aunt. Naturally and quite obviously, I am in the dark,” Max asked. “I mean, she bats off any concern she has about her father. She seems to think she can handle him, why is that?” he asked. “When her arm was badly hurt by the man?”
“She talks a good game, but she’s only seven” Maria sighed. “And I am just as much in the dark as you are Max. You would think Liz would have talked to me. I mean it was obvious it was bad. But she didn’t confide me in because she knew I couldn’t stand the man and wanted her to get out, and was always trying to get to leave him, and so, yes, I knew he could be a ass when he drank and things weren’t probably easy for my best friend but I didn’t know this was happening otherwise I would have done something about it. She knew it and she knew if I knew then I would have called in reinforcements,” Maria went silent and Max went silent because he knew just what kind of reinforcements Maria would have, and they both had so many
if only’s. “So, we talked but we didn’t talk at the same time” she allowed. “She lately had been talking more about the baby, or how Natasha was… Carl was never discussed, otherwise our calls would have cut short and then of course at the same time during these last months, well, my own life was unraveling in Los Angeles, so I haven’t been as present as I would have liked.”
“I am sorry,” Max sighed. “I realize we all have lives and we can’t have our eyes on what we want to see all the time” he muttered as he thought back six months. “I mean, when she came to the funeral, I could see that life wasn’t easy for her and it was like she wanted to tell me, but I never imagined any of this…” he sighed. “But of course I am the ex-husband, and the idea she would have told me what was happening in her life, especially if it was as bad as it was obviously because she knew I would have done something about it?”
“Yeah,” Maria muttered as she though of what that
something Max might have done to protect the
one that got away “She mentioned she went to your parent’s funeral. She also mentioned that Carl was in the dark about it, so I guess that he found out” she asked, and Max nodded as both were reminded of Max’s loss. “Again, Max, I am sorry. I know I sent my words of sympathy and well wishes for you and Isabel when I heard, but I can’t believe how it happened?”
“Thank you,” Max acknowledged as he still felt pain over the loss of his parents. “Each day is easier but still it’s not the same…”
“It makes me feel guilty that I have treated my mother so cavalierly when I know how easy they can be taken from us,” Maria sighed. “Your parents were special people. When they found out the truth, they did not judge. They went to bat for Liz, and all of us…”
“I know,” Max nodded. “I regret that I held onto the secret for so long because I feared their judgment when I should have been honest, and upfront when they started to ask questions. It would have been nice to know we had more than you, Liz, Alex, Jim, in our corner.” Max allowed. “Even then, because of what happened with Alex, we feared the danger… Still, they proved that we should have been upfront with them, and should have told them the truth a long time before we ultimately did…”
“It was hell of a time,” Maria muttered.
“It was,” Max sighed. “So much happened that I wished I could take back, and yet even then, I had some good times. I just the good times could have lasted”
“Don’t we all,” Maria sighed. “Neither you nor Liz deserved your fates…”
Max nodded.
“Michael and I had it easier, and still we managed to screw it up. So, don’t feel bad that life can get you down because it seems designed to want to give us only pain…”
Max nodded although neither broached the dreaded topic of
Michael. So, they just left it alone as she looked through the door and saw Natasha fixated on the television as she was reminded why she was back in her hometown. “Max, how bad is it?”
“She’s extremely lucky that Natasha called 911 when she did” Max allowed. “If she hadn’t been there…” he stopped himself because he did not want to imagine what it would have been to know they were too late. “At the same time, to know Natasha stayed, and witnessed it…”
“I can’t imagine,” Maria sighed.
“No, you can’t, and I can’t either. That little girl has seen too much. Her eyes were so vacant when she arrived at the hospital. To know what she had to have witnessed…” Max asked. “Liz told her to run. If she had listened. I don’t know if Liz could have made it, and the baby wouldn’t have had a chance…”
“God Max,” Maria whispered at the mere thought. “The baby. Kyle said it is a girl. I knew from Liz that is what she suspected…”
“Yeah, a baby girl. 2 pounds 6 ounces.”
“Shit, that’s small…” Maria frantically asked. “Can she make it Max?”
“It’s going to be a long road. But they can, and have… But it is not going to be easy as she’s going to have to be monitored, and there will always be chance of complications from her low birth weight, and being born so easy but so far the signs are promising”
“This is so unfair,” Maria muttered. “Liz didn’t deserve any of this…”
“No, she didn’t” Max agreed.
“Liz’s condition?” Maria asked.
“Still critical. The delivery relieved a lot of pressure from her, and still they had to patch up a lot of injuries. The injuries were horrific Maria. She is lucky to have lived. But her chances are now extremely high. Still, she’s going to need a lot of time to get on her feet?”
“To think what could have happened?” Maria sighed. “I wish I could have seen the signs. I did visit, and still I should have done more…”
“At the end of the day, she made the decision and still she now has a chance” Max muttered as he though of how bad it was, and how much pain she must to have suffered in silence to endure and still didn’t seek help. “If only…”
Maria muttered and she saw how this was torturing Max, and still it was insane to think she was here talking to her own friend, and how life had treated them both. Still, she could not help but frown as he could see the impact it was on Max. Max saw the frown and could not help but comment on it.
“What?” Max asked as he had seen Maria’s frown.
“You’re a glutton for punishment, aren’t you?” Maria murmured.
*
Meanwhile at the same time Kyle was in the office… as Isabel walked in. He looked up from the investigation he was doing at his desk. He was supposed to be in the office only a few hours before joining Isabel at the hospital as they planned to visit Liz. Still, he could not help but be drawn into investigating the case of Max and Liz’s divorce. It did not add up. Phillip was by the books for so much of his career. And he did not see any errors in most of all the work he was auditing. He did not know if he was doing it because he knew Max and Liz were special. If Phillip bended the rules, then it was because he was doing because they were family.
But still it did not add up. Why do it? Liz went on to remarry or they believed she had moved on and remarried. And had two children under that union but there was now question in the legal document that signified the divorce of Max and Liz had errors in it. It should have been green flagged and returned for correction, or complete revision. Yet as far as he could tell, it was filed.
As far as the State of the New Mexico were concerned. Max and Liz were divorced and yet there were holes in their divorce agreement. Anyone should have seen them. Which meant it could be quite easy to revoke the divorce and declare it null and void by either of the parties. And it also meant Liz’s second marriage, which took place in Boston was on quicksand if the divorce in New Mexico was faulty. As it led to numerous other implications.
Of course, Liz could not have gotten a marriage license without showing evidence of her divorce. So, should not she have seen there noticeably clear errors or at the very least Boston should have seen something was funny before issuing a license to Liz in her quest to marry Carl. Although other state marriages are always funny when you were originally married cross state lines, yet Boston was not a small town where a lot could slip in between the lines. Boston was a major city. So, he could not stop thinking that something was funky when he heard a familiar voice. Of the woman he loved, and whom he planned to marry.
At least he knew his divorce was a genuine article
Neither she nor I wanted any ties at all he thought. He had made sure because Phillip had taken care of it for him, and his divorce was on the up and up.
That was a giant mistake. You should never marry someone when you are stuck on someone who went back to her husband after an illicit affair when you were on the road fleeing for your lives from insane government agents.
“What’s going on?” Isabel murmured as he tiptoed up and surprised her fiancé with a kiss. “You seem to be very drawn to your paperwork?”
“The life of a lawyer,” Kyle smiled. “You should have known this by now”
“I do,” Isabel laughed because both she and Kyle liked to joke that she had a type it seems. Still, she knew she and Kyle were a better fit than she and Jesse, and despite her ability to make her marriage with Jesse work. Still, she knew it did not have a hard shell surrounding the marriage which is why they never attempted to have children. But with Kyle, she knew she had a genuine guy who loved her, for her and didn’t care that she was special or how special powers and they had plans for the whole nine yards once they got married and she couldn’t wait for that day to come.
“I didn’t expect you to stop by?” Kyle asked as he got up and gave his fiancé a kiss. “What brought you by?”
“Remember, we were going to go over to the hospital to visit Liz, and the new baby?” Isabel asked. “We talked about it earlier this morning before you left the house.”
“Oh right,” Kyle muttered as he checked the clock. “I didn’t think I would be still be so deep into this work when you arrived.”
“Do you need to stay?” Isabel asked as she saw the files in front of her boyfriend.
“No, just give me a couple of minutes to finish up and then we can be on our way and I’ll close the office since I don’t have a any clients until tomorrow”
“Sure,” Isabel murmured as she looked around the office. “I see you’ve managed to merge the office files and such from Dad’s to you…”
“It’s still a work in progress,” Kyle allowed as he looked up and knew his fiancée was still sensitive about the passing of her parents, and her father and given her late husband also worked in this same office, there were memories all around for her. “But I am closer. Most of the clients are sticking with me, but there have been a few who want to find new representatives.”
“Which is natural I guess with any major change,” Isabel murmured as she sighed as still, she saw her father such a force of life and nature bustling around the office. While he had slowed down a little since she came home from Boston and he took on Kyle at the practice, still he was a force in the legal world. And his name was even more sought after once everything went down with the federal government.
Kyle was over at the file cabinet, filing a document when Isabel saw a familiar name on his desk, and she looked and was shocked to see that her brother’s divorce agreement was on the desk. She picked it up and looked over. “What are you doing with Max and Liz’s divorce agreement on your desk?”
Shit Kyle thought as he saw his girlfriend looking at the document. “It’s something I was looking at, not seriously. You know the merging of the client bases…”
“But the divorce is over?” Isabel muttered. “Years ago. Why look at it now. Has Max come to you asking for advice or something?”
“Why would he?” Kyle murmured. “Your brother stays out of a legal office if he can help it,” she laughed. “Like most people go ice cold on hospitals due past bad experiences. Your brother treats this place like the plaque He hasn’t said one thing about whether he wants me to represent him in any matters in the future, and I haven’t asked…” he sighed as he thought of how the battle with the federal government had badly burned Max, and given he lost his wife, and marriage in the wake of the battle, he didn’t come around the legal office if he could manage it. Since he, Kyle has been on staff. He had not seen Max at all. Any lunches Philip went on with his son before his untimely death, well, they always met at the restaurant or wherever they were meeting.
“Then why are you looking at my brother’s divorce agreement. It’s like 8 years old, right?” Isabel muttered.
“Almost,” Kyle allowed.
“What’s going on Kyle?” Isabel asked in her most serious voice like she was using her special gifts to check whether he was being truthful. He hated it when she gave him that look, whether she had that kind of power or not, and he knew she did not, still he was sensitive about how she conducted her gifts around him. While he fully accepted them, still to have them be used on you, that was a different story.
“Isabel…” Kyle muttered.
“Don’t Isabel,” Isabel allowed. “What’s going on. I know something must be up, and I before you accuse me of using my gifts. I am not. This is an old divorce. Max and Liz had long moved on. Or okay, Liz has moved on and remarried, and Max is as static as ever, but I can think of no reason why you would be looking at their divorce.”
“I am just curious…” Kyle muttered.
“Why?” Isabel asked.
“With Liz back in town. I can’t help but be curious, so I looked it up,” Kyle lied.
“Now I know something is up. Because Kyle, Liz is remarried. Maybe to the asshole of the century. But you have no reason to wonder about my brother’s divorce if it is over with, and filed, and completed. Unless for some reason it’s come up again…”
“Why would it?” Kyle allowed.
“Kyle… you have something that you know, and I don’t…” Isabel asked as she was now definitely on the scent and Kyle knew he was in trouble and he might as well fess up and try to get some advice himself from Isabel on why her father would do what he did in regards to the divorce. “You know something, don’t you?”
“Fine,” Kyle sighed. “You should know first that I didn’t go looking for the divorce papers Isabel… they found me.”
“What are you talking about?” Isabel asked.
“I found them in a locked file of your father’s” Kyle muttered as he did not relish having to blame a dead man, but it was the truth. “There was a drawer I couldn’t get in, and it was locked. For months I have been looking for the key. Because I couldn’t find the key in any of your father’s things but it was his file cabinet, until something dropped onto the floor when I was in his office removing a client’s file that was still on his desk, and when I leaned to pick it up, I found the key taped to under his desk. That is when I checked the locked drawer and got it open right before you called me about Liz. But Isabel, I found the key taped to the underneath of your father’s desk Isabel”
“What?” Isabel mused. “Why would my father have a key hidden like that…” she murmured. “He was a small-town lawyer?”
“That is what I would like to know, but I don’t know why…” Kyle muttered. “And I can’t very well ask him because he’s dead.”
“I know,” Isabel muttered.
“I am sorry for invoking those memories,” Kyle sighed as he felt shitty about having to do such a thing because he did know how long it had taken Isabel to get even partially over her parents loss “Anyways, as I said, I did look into the drawer. I found your brother’s divorce papers in them. It was the only file in the drawer Isabel and it was locked, and I didn’t intend to even read the file but it got swept up in some files I took home because of the rushness of getting out of the office because I heard of Liz and only later did I realize the impact of the file in my possession and since then, it’s had a life of it’s own.”
“What do you mean?” Isabel asked.
“This was supposed to be the filed copy of the document that is kept by the lawyer, but look at it, Isabel, really look at it. Most importantly, look at the final page, and what is not there… or is there, and shouldn’t be…”
“What,” Isabel asked confused but read the document or scanned, it and got to the end… “What, there are obvious errors on it, and it’s not signed by my brother… God Kyle, it tortured him at the time, but for Liz, because it was obvious, she was wanting to move on. I remember him saying that he signed the papers.”
“I remember that too,” Kyle muttered. “So, I don’t know what it means…”
“Are you something my father knew this, and still went ahead and filed it?” Isabel asked as she tried to grasp the meaning of what her boyfriend was trying to tell her. “That is unethical?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Kyle murmured. “But chances are yes… and yes, it is.”
“That is crazy…” Isabel asked. “So, what are you saying?”
“If this is legitimate, then there are questions about the validity of your brother’s divorce from Liz…”
“Are you really saying that Max and Liz might still be married?” Isabel asked eye fully open as she realized the impact.
“Yes,” Kyle murmured.
“Shit!” Isabel stumbled in shock.