Liz thought for a moment and then said, "Partly, yes, but I'm sure I saw Max die, as well as you and Michael.”

"Do you have any idea how far in the future this was?" Max asked.

"Fifteen years," Liz replied immediately.

Max started at that. There was something unnerving about her certainty. "That is pretty exact. Are you sure?”

Liz nodded and said, "I recognized you…" Then she shot a glance at Maria, and something passed between the two girls.

"Future Max!" Maria exclaimed.

"What?" Michael said. "Who is that?”

Maria immediately looked sheepish, as if she had said too much.

Max looked down at Liz and said, "Future Max?”

"Who the hell is Future Max?" Michael said to Maria. "What are you two talking about?”

"Sorry, Liz," Maria said.

"It's okay," Liz replied. Then she turned to Max and said, "There's something I have to tell you.”

"We'll just give you guys a minute," Maria said.

"No," Max said, raising his hand. "This involves all of us. No secrets.”

"This involves Tess and Kyle and…" Liz collected her- self for a moment, and then spoke quickly and clearly. "It goes back to just before you found Kyle and me together.”

The memory of that night came back suddenly, like a blow. He remembered seeing Kyle and Liz in bed together. He remembered the shock and the feeling like someone had reached into his stomach and twisted his insides.

"Max, it wasn't an accident that you saw us. I set that up for a reason," Liz said.

Max felt the beginnings of understanding and said, "You wanted to be free of all this. You wanted a normal life.”

Shaking her head, Liz said, "No. I did it for you, because you asked me to.”

Max could remember few times in his life when he was as surprised as he was now. "I asked you to?”

"The night before you came to visit me, but not you, exactly. It was you from the future, fifteen years in the future," Liz said.