The drive back to Roswell was endless Liz felt as she drove as safely as possible but with speed to get back to the town where her daughter was as soon as possible. She did not know what made her daughter collapse and knew it spelled bad news and wanted answers as soon as possible as she could not help but reflect on how she had just left her husband. Max was like a mirror into the past. They might be both older, as forty was coming at them with alarming speed even if they had a few years still. Both were not as young as they were when they last saw each other. And yet she felt like a teenager and her heart stopped when she saw him.
It was like the world was bright, and welcoming when she knew it was anything but and the fact, he sat in a prison cell with no hope of her husband coming home to her, or their daughter. It made life feel not fair.
And knowing her daughter might be facing a fight. She felt like a failure of a mother. Yet she knew her daughter was just like her in many ways, and yet was facing a dilemma that was faced by her father at one time. At least this time, she could stand the father of her daughter’s baby.
Their grandchild. She never would want to push her daughter into a decision.
Hell, I have no idea what I would have done if it had been earlier in my relationship with Max than it was… or if it had been with someone else. Max had been with someone else and was forced to confront that question.
As she told her daughter. She knew Max had wanted to be a father to that baby and had planned to spend his life with someone he did not love because he wanted it for the baby. Growing up how he did. He had a lot of questions. Yet when it came time to decide, he had chosen adoption because they believed the baby was human.
That was a whole new ballgame she mused as she drove and thought of how she had resented
that baby.
She had dreams that had Max in them. And they did not include being a teenage mother to a baby her true love had with some else.
Especially a murderous traitor So, she was let off the hook when Max chose what he did. And truthfully putting her feelings on the matter aside, both knew it had been the right choice. While she had goals, she wanted to reach for once the graduated. Max was directionless. He did not seem to have a map planned for him. So much of their senior year had been geared towards finding that baby that Tess took off with. They had not talked about what it meant if the baby was found and came back to Max.
We only wanted to be together. We did not talk about the complicated matters she mused.
We never talked. We just wanted to be together, and to reveled in each other because we had spent so much time apart, and now we had that chance.
Still those months were hard to get through as Max’s search took over and their relationship and basically her came backburner as they also dealt with their parent’s opposition to them. Of course, they had not helped matters by doing their Bonnie and Clyde impersonations and charging right into life changing consequences. Fortunately, they managed to get out of them, just barely and it was right back to looking. She had helped it along…
Because she knew there was a chance the baby could come back. But she figured that Antar was not like Europe, and it was kind of hard to come back from that…
She figured wrong…
Because Tess and the baby had. It was instantly was a reminder of the past that she had tried to forget as she tried to concentrate on her relationship with Max as graduation approached. Only Tess took that quest out of her hands, and forced a final decision on both her and Max.
Tess had forced them into that with her choice to go out in a blaze of glory. And it had ultimately took them down, and separated her from the man she loved, and the father of her daughter. She had achieved the one goal that seemed unattainable in the beginning. Being with Max and being his wife. But that was cut short. Sure, she was married to him, but her husband had been in prison for nearly seventeen years.
Kind of hard to have a marriage when he is behind bars and will not see you? she mused as she took the exit that took her into town limits, and she sought out the hospital. She was reminded that she had one last memory of him laying in a hospital, waiting for her to return to town from a visit to her father. Max had made the brave choice once, but she did not know what the choice would be today. Would it be taken out of their hands?
As she parked and rushed into the hospital. “Where is she, where is my daughter. Olivia Parker” she asked
reminding once more that that she probably hurt her husband when he realized that their daughter had her mother’s name, not his And yet she was an
Evans in every way that matter down to her special abilities, and her strength. “I need to see my daughter?” she demanded of the hospital front desk. “I am Olivia’s mother?”
“Mrs. Parker,” the nurse said immediately as the others saw Liz rush in and came running.
“It’s just Ms. Parker,” Liz muttered. “She wished she could claim her rightful title as
Mrs. Evans” but that would put too much pressure on her and Olivia as the media would make mincemeat of them as they had done all those years before when they posed as judge and executioner with their opinion on her relationship with Max. Wondering what kind of woman stays with a man who nearly killed her, and would have gone on to marry him after such a incident. She put down her head and gave Olivia her maiden name when she was born, and the limelight did start to fade.
Except on every anniversary of the explosion when the press and other media outlets would post
Where are they now pieces in relation to the base explosion. They never came to her and ask for her opinion, nor did they go to her daughter and ask why she did not have her father’s name. But they knew the rumors existed as they often wondered why she stayed married to a man she did not see. Because of the prison logs tended to get printed every couple of years and they knew she had not visited.
Both the prison and the media would probably figure out the truth about her visit in due time. But now she just worried about her daughter. “How is she?” she asked of the nurse. “I need to see her.”
“She wants to see you…” the nurse said. “She’s been asking for you?” she nodded. “Come this way”
Liz followed and the walk felt endless. “A doctor will be in shortly” the nurse said as she left the room. Liz looked around the room and saw Alex in the corner as her daughter slept. “What happened?”
“She’s sleeping…” Alex said softly as he did not want to deal with it.
“Obviously,” Liz muttered as she continued to look around. “How is she?”
“She’s doing better,” Alex said. “The doctor’s say her blood pressure is really high and are keeping visitors to a minimum” he muttered. “I have been sitting here thinking it’s all my fault…”
“It’s on both of you,” Liz muttered because fault is always shared in this kind of situation. “Have they said anything about the baby?” she asked of the dreaded question and Alex only shook his head. “I think it’s stable, but they won’t tell me anything because I am not family…”
“You’re about to be family.” Liz mumbled. “Whether you two are ready for it or not… “
“I am sorry Liz,” Alex muttered. “If only…”
Liz mumbled
If only, right she mused. “We can all say we’re sorry all we want but the question is what you two are going to do about it, now”
Alex nodded as the doctor came in. “Ms. Parker?” she asked. “I am Dr. Grant, and I have been caring for your daughter since she arrived. “I understand you’re a doctor as well?”
“Yes,” Liz muttered. “Dr. Parker,” she acknowledged as she knew she gotten her degree under her maiden name to stop the questions and the stares.
I wish I could claim my married name she muttered to herself again. “My daughter?”
“Olivia is resting…”
“What’s wrong?” Liz asked.
“We think her blood pressure spiked to such a level and she collapsed. Otherwise her overall condition is stable, and nothing else seems to be an issue…” Dr. Grant murmured. “Your daughter seems to be a bundle of pressures?”
“Yeah, she’s very overwhelmed about a lot of things in her life,” Liz acknowledge as she looked at Alex who nodded and left the room. “The baby?”
“Right now, stable, but I am told your daughter hasn’t seen a doctor since being informed of her pregnancy?” Dr. Grant asked. “She got a second opinion from the Planned Parenthood office here in town after a home pregnancy test?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Liz muttered. “She will admit and I will too that we have been in kind of a denial since she found out, until the last few days where she’s been trying to figure out what she wants to do as she also deals with other personal family matters at the same time.”
“Then it could be why she’s so stressed out” Dr. Grant asked.
Liz nodded.
“I’ll schedule a ultrasound so we can make sure all is stable, and I would like to keep her in the hospital overnight so that she can relax, if she can, and then she should stay home for a week until her stress levels are lower…”
Liz nodded. “Thank you, Dr. Grant”
“I’ll let you visit with your daughter. We’ll move her to a room in a little while after we schedule the ultrasound,” Dr. Grant nodded and left the room.
Sighing Liz glanced at her sleeping daughter who was starting to fidget. She could see Max in her as she slept. She could only pray that they could come through this in one piece as eyes opened, and she saw Olivia glance at her. “Mom?” she whispered.
“You’re going to be fine…” Liz sighed as she assured her daughter because she knew it would be awhile until the knew for certain if they were going to be fine.
“Dad?” Olivia asked.
“He sends his love,” Liz said simply. “He wishes he were here, but we know why he can’t be, but just like him, you are your father’s daughter, and you’ll get through this. We both will get through this together. Okay. I love you. No matter what happens from now one. You do not have to worry about disappointing me. All you need is to take care of yourself because this was a bad scare Olivia.
Olivia nodded.
“Rest okay rest…”
Olivia nodded as her eyes closed, and then moments later quickly opened. “Mom, you should be warned because Zan is here…”
Zan Liz’s eyes popped open. “What are you talking about?”
“Zan… Dad’s son Zan is here…” Olivia murmured as her eyes closed and she fell off the sleep, as Liz was forced to look around the room in incredulous fashion.
What the hell?
*
Liz was reeling when she walked of the room. She did not know what to make of her daughter’s final words before falling back asleep.
It makes no sense but the moment she came out of the room and found the crowd and she spotted the one intruder who did not fit in her small circle. It was like a worst example of
Where’s Waldo because she knew where Max’s son was. Standing right in front of them.
The exact copy of both his biological mother and father but
fortunately for him, he had more of Max’s essence to him despite his blonde hair which is all Tess, unfortunately she mumbled to herself.
“How’s Olivia?” Isabel asked softly. “They wouldn’t tell me anything once you got here…”
“She’s going to be fine. She’s stressed out and needs to spend the night in the hospital as a precaution” Liz muttered as her eyes drifted over to the newcomer in the room. “Otherwise she should be fine.”
“The baby?” Maria asked.
“They want to do one more test, but all indications are that it is okay” Liz sighed. “Thank you for to all of you for being here when I couldn’t…”
“I am glad she’s going to be alright,” Isabel murmured. “I’ll go and call Kyle as he stayed home with the kids.”
Liz nodded. “Alex, you can go back in and see Olivia if you want?” she sighed as the teenager walked back to the room, he a short time vacated.
“How was it with Max?” Maria asked softly.
“It went better than I expected,” Liz admitted but before we get into it. “Before we go into that, I want to know about what’s going on here?” she asked of the newcomer in their midst. “Olivia seemed to think you are…”
“Your husband’s son that he gave up for adoption?” Zack muttered as he faced his birth father’s wife. “Yeah I am. But my name is now Zack Mason” he sighed as he watched as Liz’s face became pale. “You can stop your worrying because I am not here to cause trouble…”
“Whatever you said to Olivia caused her to collapse,” Maria muttered as anger started to appear on Liz’s face.
“What are you talking about?” Liz asked as she turned to the newcomer in the room.
A carbon copy of part of her past that I would love to forget
“Did you get in my daughter’s face?”
“We both said things we wish we hadn’t,” Zack muttered. “I am sorry for that. It was not my intention as I was only curious as I was getting the lay of the land. I did not mean to stir up anything. I wasn’t aware of what your daughter was going through, and I am sorry…”
“We saw you around town” Amelia muttered. “You were laying in wait for the perfect time, weren’t you?” she asked because she now could see it that Zack was just waiting for the perfect time to approach her friend and upset her world. She did not care how hot the guy was, she did not like his methods.
“Heck no,” Zack muttered. “All I was, was curious…” he admitted. “My plan wasn’t to introduce myself, but when I saw Olivia at her grandfather’s place, and she was intensely looking at something, so I got curious, and so I thought why not introduce myself, but she saw through it pretty quick and of course she wanted answers,” he sighed. “She must get it from all of you?”
“She does,” Liz muttered at her daughter’s tendency to fight back. “Well whatever you said to her sent her here to the hospital,” Liz muttered.
“Which is something she doesn’t need given all the stress in her life. So, maybe you can take your curiosity and leave,” Liz muttered. “Olivia right now only needs rest, and not more confusion.”
“Fine by me,” Zack muttered as he walked away without giving any protest. Amelia watched him walk away as she could not believe she wanted to know more about this mystery guy.
*
“Maybe we should take a break,” Olivia said as she laid up on the bed back in the room she was being observed in as she visited with Alex. She knew her mother was giving her privacy.
She has been a saint Which she appreciated but it only led to more questions and feelings, and she needed to sort her own life out. She was out of sorts on all kinds of fronts, She knew she needed time and while she did feel less stressed, yet she knew because she had landed in the hospital, spinning out of control and trying to ignore was not something she could keep on continuing and she needed to figure out where she was in her life. She was too young to be facing all this and yet she was, and she did not want to hurt Alex, but the overwhelming feeling that came over her that she needed to step back at least for awhile. “I need time.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked although he knew what she meant. “If this is about everything?” he asked. “I hope you don’t think I am pressuring you into anything because I only want the best for you…”
“I know you’re not. That is the one thing I love about you is that you do not pressure me. Whatever we have done together has usually been me not you, but still it doesn’t change the fact life has changed and I haven’t able to keep up,” Olivia sighed because she had known she was the instigator about how serious she and Alex had gotten lately. “I don’t want to hurt you either, but I can’t stop the feeling that this is telling me that I have to slow down.”
“We can slow down if you want?” Alex murmured “It’s not like I want to do anything that you’re not ready for?” he asked. “You are too important to me?”
“What we have already done has changed everything, and I think I need to step back and figure out what is going on and what I want,” Olivia asked. “And I do not want to force you to wait if I do not know what I will want tomorrow, or six months from now…”
“What did that guy say to you?” Alex muttered because he had to wonder if this change had something to do with whatever her mystery brother had told her.
“It was nothing important,” Olivia sighed. “He made a lot of assumptions, and so did I. Neither of us know our birth father. While I was left with just Mom. He got a loving family. He made me see that a lot of my issues stems from the fact I do not know my father. We wondered into something together, and I wanted it to mean something, and maybe it does, but there is a lot about myself that I still do not know. I have not even begun to come to terms with it and I need to start. I should not have let him push my buttons, but I did, and I suffered as a result. Coupled with the baby, and everything with us so I need time…” she murmured. “Can you give me this time?”
“If you want time, I can do that” Alex sighed but knew she was right. It was something he had been thinking in recent day. Neither were ready for what the future will hold, and they needed to understand more before they tried, if they tried again. “I hope you know that I will still support you, no matter what you decide to do” she sighed. “I will want to be involved?”
“Yeah,” Olivia sighed. “Time is ticking down,” Olivia muttered. “I know I am not ready, but this scare has made me worry not just about me, but you know, the baby” she asked of herself. “It makes me know I have to make the right decision.”
Alex nodded. “It will get easier…”
“Will it though? As I learn more about my parents, and I understand more of their crazy adventures with each other. I do not know if I want to be that invested in anyone right now. They loved each other so much and they lost each other. I know we work. I do not know why we do. But we are so young. Maybe we need to figure out how to make us work outside our relationship.” Olivia asked. “Maybe Mom is right, and I need to understand my father’s side of the story. To be okay with my life, no matter where it goes…”
“Our parents will be pleased” Alex asked as he was not pressuring her to change her mind because he knew what they were facing was big league and he was not sure if they were ready for that stage. “We can’t expect to have what our parents have” Alex asked as he also had the same questions
whether a love like his own parents was attainable? Because he had more than once seen how much his parents loved each other. And knowing even a small fraction of things they had gone through together, it made him wonder what he would want from his life.
“Yeah,” Olivia sighed
Our parents screwed us up about the nature of expectations of love she mused to herself. “I hope you understand?”
“I understand and maybe one day we can make it work again,” Alex murmured. “I do love you” he asked. “We had fun together.”
“I do too…” Olivia sighed. “And yeah, we did have fun…”
“About that other thing, let me know what you decide?” Alex asked.
“I will,” Olivia nodded as she watched as she watched him walk away. Sighing she knew she was doing the mature thing,
but it hurt like hell as she felt a pain in her heart as he watched her walk away and knew she had wanted it.
Why could not growing up be easier? Love sucks “You can come in Mom; I know you heard all that…”
“I am sorry,” Liz mumbled as he had come close to the room only moments before and heard the final words, and didn’t like knowing that trying to obtain what their parents might have had was affecting her daughter on many fronts “I know what it means to make the mature decision?”
“I hurt,” Olivia acknowledged. “Why does it have to hurt so bad?”
“Because you love him, and that doesn’t instantly go away. Maybe you two will make it work, but you will be stronger when you do, whenever that does happen…”
“Was that the way it was with you and Dad?” Olivia asked. “Were you stronger?”
“No doubt about it,” Liz murmured. “If we had been untested and who we were before everything happened, I don’t know if we could have made it. I know I said we were always destined to make it work, and to marry, and maybe I should not have listened the future version of your father. If I had, then we might have been happy.” Liz asked. “But there is no question, going through what we did, and all the hell, in the end we were stronger for what we went through. Our love was stronger. We were tested, and we knew we could make it together” she sighed. “I don’t know if that couple of the first timeline would have been as strong as we were in the end…”
“And yet you couldn’t…” Olivia asked. “Will that be me and Alex?” she asked.
“You won’t know until you get to the other side…” Liz murmured. “And yet you do share something together, that I didn’t until we were at the end…”
“Yeah,” Olivia murmured
Will I also be alone with a baby in the end? “I wished I had clarity?”
“We all want clarity” Liz assured her daughter. “One day you might get it” she sighed. “All you can is do what is best for you today” she assured her daughter. “Tomorrow is always another day…”
“Are we ready?” came Dr. Grant as she walked into the observer room. “I know you haven’t decided what you want to do Olivia. You have options?”
“I know,” Olivia sighed. “All I want is to make a decision I won’t regret.”
“As I told your mother. We want to do an ultrasound to make sure the baby is okay. Are you okay with that?” Dr. Grant asked. “Or would you wish we didn’t?”
“Go ahead,” Olivia muttered as she knew she was getting closer to a decision about path her life was going to take.
“Okay” Dr. Grant as she set up the machine and Olivia held her mother’s hand as she sought support. As they both knew by doing this, it was going to be hard to make any other decision once it occurs…
*
“I am getting some fresh air,” she said out loud to her mother who sat in the waiting room and waited for Liz to return. Michael had gone off to do something work related with Isabel who was going home to her family but Maria wanted to wait, and Amelia was waiting but she needed some fresh air as she felt cooped up in the hospital as he had seen Alex go off, and from the tense look on his face, she knew his talk with Olivia hadn’t gone well. And with Liz in with her daughter, he had not wanted to stick around as she understood her friend was going through an ultrasound, and so she wanted to also wait to see how it all went.
Alex just wanted to go off and sulk Walking out of the hospital entrance, she spotted her mystery man. Zack had not left as he had been asked to do by Liz, and it made her curious why he would want to stick around when there was still a lot of tension. “What do you think you’re going to accomplish by sticking around?” she asked bluntly as she approached the fellow teenager. “No one wants you here…”
“And yet here you are?” Zack asked as he turned and focused on the blonde. “No one can tell me what to do because this is a public place. None of you have authority to kick me out, so, since you are out here, something tells me Olivia is going to be okay?”
“Nothing has changed on that front, except being forced to make some decisions she would rather not have to make” Amelia said realistically as she didn’t relish the choices her friend or her brother might have to make one of these days. She did not know what she would do if given the same set of circumstances.
“So, your brother would be the father, huh?” Zack asked.
“Yeah,” Amelia confirmed. “Not exactly the most welcoming news in the family, either of them but nonetheless it’s happening assuming they make that decision” she sighed. “They don’t want history repeating itself, but it is, so I am trying to be more careful. But one can’t be careful all the time?”
“No, you can’t” Zack muttered as he suspected Amelia could cause a lot of trouble given the chance. Because obviously she had that kind of spark to her. “Olivia seems to have a caring mother?” she sighed as he could tell how Liz had been frantic with worry, and it did seem his half sister did have at least a parent who cared. “She’s lucky.”
“Aunt Liz is the best,” Amelia smiled. “She does love her daughter and does support her through anything” she sighed. “I only wish her father could be involved with her life…”
“You think she’s missed out on something?” Zack asked as he thought of his loud discussion with his half sister. “Not everyone needs two parents…” he muttered as Amelia looked at him with half amusement.
“He’s her father, so, of course she missed out on something” Amelia sighed. “Sure, some might not need two parents if it only leads to disappointment and especially if there is abuse or something going on, but for Olivia, from all I have heard, yeah she should have had the opportunity to have her father in her life, and because she didn’t, she has been deprived of something fundamental because of a set of unfair circumstances…” she muttered. “It’s not a life she or her mother should have gotten, but then I am not one to judge and neither are you before you know the situation”
“You don’t always need a father to succeed at life,” Zack asked, “Maybe he’s in prison for a reason,” Zack asked. “Maybe that reason is that he’s guilty?”
“Then why are you here?” Amelia asked. “We all know that the legal system is a joke…”
“You really think so?” Zack asked as he ignored her question on why he was here because
He didn’t know why he here he mused to himself. Ever since he left home, he’s been on this journey to this town, and he didn’t even know why, except now to know that maybe his sister was someone like him and that maybe he didn’t have to be different alone.
Because being different in this world and alone sucks.
“I won’t even say I know the situation as Aunt Liz has been filling in Olivia on more of her history in recent days but still when it comes to her husband, we all now Max shouldn’t be in prison. That he is innocent” she declared as she sighed “Growing up the way I did in my family. The fact that Max was given a raw deal is something that was pretty obvious from day one, and you won’t be defending the cops even if I do have a grandfather as my town Sheriff.”
Maybe you’re gullible he mused to himself because to say it out loud would immediately get a punch in the face because Amelia looked to be that type of girl “Oh, come off it, he confessed,” Zack muttered “You are incredibly naïve if you think of him as some poor victim,” he murmured and got a death glare from Amelia as a response and it did not take a genius to know that he was walking a thin line because of his already conflicted feelings on the matter. On one hand the more he read on the case, he wondered he could not help but wonder if he was innocent when he knew what he held back in his motel room, and wondered if his biological father had gotten a raw deal but of course, the media reports, and the footage that had leaked out was pretty incriminating. So, to make any conclusions was going to be complicated and confusing, and he was walking a blurred line as he continued to concentrate on Amelia. “What he confessed to was pretty heinous. Why would he confess if he weren’t guilty?”
“Because he had more to protect than we will ever know,” Amelia sighed as she had heard her father’s confession about some ugly actions he committed. “Maybe it served him better to be in prison where he could protect those he loved as opposed to what he stood to lose if he was free…” she sighed. “Still we can’t judge.”
Man, you are truly gullible he mused “You can’t but I sure can,” Zack asked. “There is video of his attack on his soon to be wife” Zack asked. “How anyone could think he was innocent after such an attack?”
“I admit it doesn’t look very good,” Amelia bristled. “But you cannot judge because you do not know what it was like to be around here back then, and neither do I. But I do know what it is like to live the life we lead today and because I do than I know that we should be fortunate that we were not here in those days. I can understand that you’re not exactly someone without a vested interest in this and you have a right to wonder about the circumstances back in those days, and even today, but all I know is he wouldn’t have done it, confessed, unless he had a good reason to…”
“Maybe he had a good reason to, because he was actually guilty?” Zack muttered. “And that isn’t the only thing he was convicted of you know. He’s in jail because he nearly killed the woman who later would become his wife…”
“That was a misunderstanding,” Amelia muttered.
“Oh, come off,” Zack asked. “Have you seen the footage?” he wondered. “How can that be a misunderstanding. She almost died, because of him…”
“You don’t know what happened that day…” Amelia muttered.
“And you do?” Zack asked.
“Of course not, and I don’t claim to” Amelia sighed as she had researched the subject after hearing from her brother, and from Olivia what happened and she knew it didn’t look good To
a moron, they could understand how bad it looked for Uncle Max. “My mother was part of the story.”
“And you still believe he’s innocent. I know the rumors say it was your mother who was one of his victims?”
“She doesn’t hold it against him,” Amelia tried.
“This is a bizarre little cult you guys have here,” Zack muttered. “Maybe I should leave before you guys pull me in…”
“You came without any invitation from any of us,” Amelia muttered. “We didn’t ask you to come into this story,” she gritted. “You are part of this whether you like it or not, and you’re right to your opinions if you know the facts surrounding the situation and before you say it, but no, I am not trying to excuse anything, and neither should you unless you do know more about the story. I don’t so I am not making judgements of facts I don’t know…”
“He sent a woman out of window, down to her certain death and attacked yet another one. It is a downright miracle neither died, and you say neither woman hold it against it against him. One of them was choked nearly to death, because camera’s show your mother leaving the area with bruises on her neck?” Zack asked. “She denied it, but it was obvious…”
“Yeah she denied it,” Amelia muttered
“And then the other one, the one who went crashing through a window later married him” Zack asked. “So, are you telling me this is not some cult, and some brainwashing going on here…”
“I am not saying it’s not complex,” Amelia sighed. “But you don’t know what is going on, and why even come here if you are going to think badly of the situation before you even know any of the facts?”
“Because I wanted to know why, how someone could get it so wrong” Zack asked.
“All you have to know is he’s innocent,” Amelia sighed because she did know that she was in a losing battle. Zack was going to believe what he was going to believe, and she knew to anyone, it looked bad
Because it was bad. “Being in prison was not something he would have wanted to do but it was because it was that, or risked something worse…”
“What would he have risked?” Zack muttered.
“Total calamity,” came a voice and they turned and found Maria. She could only shake her head because she had watched her daughter try to battle when she did not know half the story, and she admired her daughter for trying. “All because of your birth mother,” she gritted through her teeth. “Otherwise he might have been able to spend these last sixteen years raising his daughter, but instead he’s sitting in a jail cell. And it is because of one woman, and that is your mother”
“If you’re going to blame my birth mother, you can turn around and head back into that hospital” Zack sighed as it hadn’t been easy to find out when he was old enough to know, that his biological died when he was a baby, and led to the circumstances of his adoption. “She’s dead.”
“I know,” Maria muttered. “Otherwise if she was alive, she might be in prison herself instead of Max. In fact, she should have been in jail a long time before you were even born, but she wasn’t and she was on the loose causing havoc but you are right, she did die, and with her death, she ruined countless lives” she muttered with lethal hatred for a woman who took such a dear friend from her. “If you want me to say she’s a saint than you came to the wrong person because she was anything but a saint. A saint has morals.
Tess Harding had none…”
“I am out of here because I am not going to listen to you blame it on someone who can’t defend herself,” Zack sighed.
“No, you wait,” Maria sighed. “You want to know the truth. You came here obviously thinking badly of the man who gave you a better life than the one he could have given you himself at that age. You got a chance to live, and at a life full of love, and now you are blaming him for giving you a chance at a good life. When you see an example of how it could have gone for you if he had kept you, and still had ended up in jail when you look at Olivia’s life.”
“I didn’t ask to be born” Zack muttered. “You can’t know how it would have ended up…”
“None of you did,” Maria muttered as she glared at the reason for so much hurt and pain in her best friend’s life for so long before she and Max managed to make it through before their ultimate end and then also her own daughter, who didn’t know what to think and Maria hated how they were forcing the newest generation to live with what they had done before they were even a thought in their mind. “Your mother went down to save herself, and in the end left a trail that led to your father to make the only choice he could. Sure, a lot could have been different if only certain factors had been changed, but they weren’t, and here we are…”
“And you blame my birth mother?” Zack asked.
“Yes,” Maria murmured.
“Why?” Zack asked.
“Because she killed Alex and changed everything for everyone and made it instantly harder…” Maria glared at Zack. “It’s time you knew the truth. Your birth mother isn’t only the one who committed the army base massacre, but she also took someone else from us, and we’ll never forget that no matter how long we do live…” she said softly. “She took Alex from us…”