“Serena, what the hell is going on?” Max asked as he looked at his partner as Liz slipped back with hesitation as something wasn’t right. She didn’t know how to respond the message. And yet the voice was eerie. It might be thin, and different than the one she knew but still it felt eerie.
“I didn’t want to tell you until after breakfast,” Serena muttered as she saw the hornet’s nest now opened.
“Max, what is going on…” Liz asked as she looked at both Max and Serena. “Do you have another child?”
“No,” Max adamantly spoke as Serena’s head went down. “What…”
“Max…”
“Tell me Serena, you know something. What is going on?” Max asked as he felt his life completely explode as he went from the glow of the previous hours and now to the memory of Molly’s voice. It made no sense. There was no way Molly could be his daughter. Sure, he was not a monk and hadn’t been since he started to move on from Roswell, even though he didn’t really move on but that is another story, as it had been… Molly was 10, she couldn’t be his daughter, right?” he mused himself. “Liz, I am telling the truth. I may have believed it once, but no. Tess didn’t have my baby. You are the only one… Serena, I know what it must mean to hear that…
“You wouldn’t believe how I know it…” Serena sighed. “That it doesn’t surprise me to know you and Liz share a daughter. I guessed it days ago…”
“How…” Liz asked.
“The more I knew about your daughter’s case, well, more the signs stuck out and was the only answer” Serena sighed. “I am very sorry for your loss and I suspect she will be home before you know…”
“I hope so, as I miss Isabella every day.”
“Is she named after anyone?” Serena asked.
“Yes, Max’s sister; Isabel and my best friend Maria Guerin” Liz admitted. “I wasn’t exactly truthful for a long time about Max being Bella’s father, but everyone knew…”
Serena nodded.
“Serena, what do you know?” Max asked softly as he glared at his partner at the run around he was getting as he tried to figure out what was going on as they sat down at the table, and the breakfast was served.
“Unfortunately, too much,” Serena admitted.
Hours before, at the hospital while her parents in their glorious cocoon and not thinking about the outside world Molly was sleeping a restless sleep as she was medicated to help with the pain from the surgery to her arm. Flashes were coming to her, and she wasn’t sure how to think about what was coming to her way.
Dreams were intense as flashes of birthday parties as well as going to basketball and baseball games with a mysterious man who she couldn’t quite identify, and playing softball and scoring a winning home run, and then dreams of a little girl a little younger than herself as they played in a bedroom as they talked about Harry Potter. The other girl had long blonde hair, curly on this day.
“You’re not asking your Mom about it?” came the younger girl of the mysterious letter and envelope that was on her bed.
“No, the letter was bad Betty. I can’t do it, I need to protect Mommy. She has given me everything, and I don’t want to see her hurt.”
“You have to tell someone…”
“Maybe I will go to Daddy,” the older girl said.
“What did the letter say?” the younger girl who Molly thought was name Betty.
“That the bad man wasn’t my real daddy,” the older girl said.
“So not Uncle Kyle?” Betty asked.
“No, I have always known Daddy Kyle is not my real father. Mommy married him when I was older. But she always told me that this man who left when I was a baby was my father, and I know he’s bad news if I listen to your Mom and grandmother or even your father if he thinks I am not listening”
“Then whom?” Betty asked.
“Someone named Max Evans,” the older girl muttered. “I think he’s Isabel’s brother. So, she might be not only my future stepmother but also my aunt.”
“Cool.” Betty murmured.
“It is…” the older girl said as she got up from her bed and took the letter and went to her bookshelf and got out a book; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Placing the letter inside she made a vow to protect her mother. She still felt she needed to think about whether to go to her Daddy as she put the book back on the shelf and looked at her friend.
“Betty and Bella come downstairs, we’re going…” came a yell from downstairs.
“Yes Mommy,” Betty said as they rushed out of the room and was pushed to get into the van as they headed to Isabella’s birthday party at the Crashdown.
Molly’s eyes came open with alarm as the memory stayed with her. She looked, and she saw she was attached to the drug drip as they gave her the pain medication to overcome the pain from the operation. Her arm was in a cast and unusable, using her other arm to grab at the phone next to her bed. Picking at it, she dialed a number she remembered from the nurses talking about it. She spoke softly and clearly when it was clear Max wasn’t home.
“Max are you my father…” she asked.
“I want to know everything?” Max said softly as he could tell Liz was thisclose to bolting if they didn’t clear this mystery up quickly. None of it made sense to him. He knew there was no way he could match Molly. As Bella was the only possibility to be his child after what being with Liz before he left Roswell, especially in the wake of the disaster with Tess.
“I’ll let you and Serena talk” Liz excusing and taking her plate to the counter. “You don’t need me here…”
“No, stay…” Serena advised as she knew a scared look when she saw one and given the history she did know about regarding Max and his ex, well, she shouldn’t be surprised to see that Liz was spooked despite her history of keeping a child away from Max.
“It’s none of my business,” Liz said.
“Stay,” Max asked. “I promise you Liz I don’t know how or why Molly would think she was my daughter.”
“You seem to know Molly” Liz asked.
“Yes, I do, or I shall say, we do…” Max assured Liz. “Molly is a case. She is a child who was injured, and we have been trying to get justice for, and we trying to find her right home…”
“Stay,” Serena advised Liz because she knew that this meant something to Liz just as much as it would for Max. “You shouldn’t leave the room, as you can stay…”
“Why do you say that…” Liz asked.
“Because it matters to you just as it does to Max. I promise you Max, I am not trying to hide anything from you. There was a breakthrough while you were away, and I didn’t want to break it to you over the phone but I would have if you hadn’t disappeared and did that run through New York on the way back to Roswell and then go MIA when you came back here… Plus, I was away and just getting back.”
“Fine,” Max allowed knowing he wasn’t that present, and Serena couldn’t just come and check in and spill all she knew as he collected the plates and took them to the sink as he was not interested in washing them yet. He could still see the weariness in Liz and knew all the glow from their incredible hours together had vanished into thin air as reality cruelly interrupted them and he didn’t know if they would get it back when all of this was over.
Taking her hand, he squeezed it tightly and he could see some of the tension disappear in Liz but still she was nervous, and he knew it, and plus he was just as nervous about whatever had broken free while he had occupied by other matters. “Serena tell us…”
“Max Molly isn’t far off with her question to you on the machine. Because she matched you in the DNA database…”
“WHAT!” Liz squeaked as she looked Max with wide eyes who went instantly pale as he felt he was losing her…
“That is ridiculous. Molly is 10 years old right, and the only 10-year-old I could possibility have fathered is the child Liz had been raising before she was kidnapped a year ago.”
“You matched her Max.” Serena admitted.
“How do you know? Max asked.
“When we found out Molly wasn’t found in any of the California records,” Serena said softly as she saw Liz take her hand out of the grip she had been in with Max and start to separate from Max. She knew she had to get this out for all of them.
“Right,” Max said. “You were going to run her through the system?”
“Well we did… and we came up with a match,” Serena said as softly as possible. “I know how it sounds, and especially given the insight you’ve given me in recent days.”
“Me,” Max asked as if he knew the answer which he did… given Serena’s hints.
“Yes,” Serena sighed.
“Impossible…” Max demanded. “No, I don’t have any other children…”
“Molly matched you Max…” Serena said as Max’s pale went face. “I went there too but no this Tess didn’t lie to you about the baby being alive and that it was a girl.”
“Serena… say it.” Max sighed.
“Max, Molly matched you… and she also matched that of Isabella.” Serena dropped as both Max and Liz went ghost pale as the news sunk into their brains, and as it did Liz went pale and then she fainted right into Max arms as he looked helplessly at his partner…
“I know Max I know. But Molly is Isabella Maria Valenti. So, she is your daughter with Liz.”