chapter forty three
breaking the code
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"We're giving him all of it?" Emily asked as the girls stood around Spencer's locker. "Two thousand dollars is a lot of money." she added. "Emily, if he can finally tell me who 'A' is, I would hand over a million." Spencer said. "Yeah, and not ask for change." Aria added. "How'd you get the money so fast anyway?" Josie asked, but Spencer seemed to avoid looking at her friends and looked into her locker. "What? Um... I have a relative." she said, finally looking at them.
"Which one?" Emily asked, making Spencer turn to her. "I promised that i wouldn't say." she said suspiciously, making Hanna and Josie share a look as Emily turned to Aria. "What time did Jonah say to meet him?" she asked. "Six, but, um, look, not all of us are gonna go, it's just me and Spencer so we'll meet up with you afterwards." she said, making Josie frown in confusion. "Why just you two?" Hanna asked.
"Because I'm the face that he knows and she's the bank." she said, tilting her head towards Spencer. "If we crowd him, he's gonna think something's up." Spencer said. "Something is up." Emily said. "Well, we're finally gonna find out who's been torturing us, since Ali's funeral, and hello, I kind of wanna be there for that." she continued. "Em, volume." Josie reminded her. "Hey, Ladies!" Mona said as she walked up to the girls.
"Hey!" They greeted her in sync, creeping her own a bit. "Okay." she said before shifting her focus to Hanna. "Umm, Hanna, can I borrow you for a sec?" she asked and Hanna nodded and then those two walked off. "So, Josie, where is Richie today?" Aria asked. She had noticed his absence. "He's visiting his father, it's his birthday today so.." Josie trailed off sadly and the girls nodded knowingly.
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Josie sitting in her kitchen, her mother was at work, when the backdoor to her house opened, making her jump, startled before she relaxed, seeing Richie coming in. "Hey." she greeted softly as he sat down next to her. "Hey," he replied. She could tell he'd been crying, afterall, it was a hard day for the Myers family. "How are you?" she asked, running a hand through his hair as he rested his head on the countertop of her kitchen island. "I'm... okay, it gets better over the years but... still hurts, doesn't feel the same without him." he admitted, moving his head up.
"I woke up this morning, and for a second I forget he was gone, thinking he'd be downstairs with mom, making a big breakfast but i remembered when I found her on the couch this morning, she had been watching old home movies from when I was younger." he said, his voice shaky, making her pull him into hug as he began to cry softly.
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Later that night, after Richie had gone home to be with his mom, Josie had headed over to Spencers after receiving a message. "So... that's why you were never charged with shoplifting?" Aria asked as they sat around Spencer's room as Hanna paced, apparently Mona had been getting messages from 'A'. "Okay, you know what? Please no jones, no judging." Hanna said, stopping in front of her friends. "All of this was over a pair of designer sunglasses." Spencer said in disbelief, making Hanna give her a look. "I'm sorry, I'm just still processing." she defended herself.
"God, if my mom knew that I told you guys this—" she started but cut herself off. "We'd never judge her! She took me in, she's amazing." Emily said. "My mom would have driven me to the station and offered to take the mug shot." she added. "The real question is why is 'A' suddenly going after Mona?" Josie asked. "What, we're not enough?" she added sarcastically as Hanna joined them on the bed. "'A' knows we're getting closer." Emily said.
"And they can't turn us against each other, so they're using our friends to hurt us." Aria said. "How much did you tell Mona about 'A'?" Email asked Hanna. "Nothing. I didn't... say anything." Hanna said. "I feel like I should, we all know what 'A' is capable of." she continued. "Yeah, that's exactly why the less Mona knows, the better." Spencer said. "Guess you're right." Hanna said sadly. "I just feel bad lying to her." she added before getting off the bed.
"Where are you going?" Josie asked. "I haven't eaten anything all day, I'm starting to get a twitch." she said before she opened Spencer's bedroom door. "When you go down there could you look outside and see if Garrett's car is still out front?" Spencer asked. "Yeah." Hanna said with a nod before leaving. "He followed me home." Spencer said before getting off the bed. "'A' sent my dad a letter trying to get him to catch me and Ezra and now my mom's on the hunt to find out who 'A' is." Aria blurted out, making them turn to her.
"Wait, woah, wait" Spencer said, turning back around. "Back up." she said. "Why would 'A' send your dad a letter like that if you weren't still seeing Ezra?" Spencer asked, causing Josie to mentally facepalm. "Because I am. Still seeing him." Aria admitted, making her friends look at her in shock. "Guys, I, I'm sorry, okay? I really wanted to tell you, I just... I thought it'd be dangerous." she said. "We understand," Emily said as she reached and gave Aria's hand a gentle squeeze. "No! Speak for yourself." Spencer exclaimed as Josie stayed silent, not knowing what to say.
"Didn't we have, like, multiple conversations where we talked about how heartbroken we were over losing Toby and Ezra?" Spencer asked. "I know." Aria said softly. "God, you deserve an Oscar for that performance." Spencer said. "Look, i'm sorry, okay, but if it's any consolation my dad is doing everything he can to make sure Ezra's out of my life and Rosewood, for good." she said, making them confused, "What?" Josie asked but Aria didn't get a chance to respond because Hanna shouted from downstairs. "You guys, come down here!" she said, making the girls get off the bed and rush downstairs.
They entered Spencer's living room to see Hanna at Spencer's computer. "Cale sent me an email, he told me to open the attachment immediately." she said as she clicked on the computer as the girls surrounded her. "Can I do it on your laptop?" she asked Spencer. "Yeah." Spencer responded. "What is this about?" Josie asked as Hanna opened the same video they've seen before. "Did he crack more of 'A's phone?" Emily asked. "If he did, I want two thousand dollars back." Spencer said bitterly.
"What are we supposed to be looking for?" Emily asked as they looked at the video. "She's coming upstairs." Jenna said, as the video showed Alison's bedroom door. "Are we about to see Alison get killed?" Hanna asked fearfully. Suddenly the door to Alison's room opened and Melissa Hastings walked through the door. All the girls gasped as they watched the laptop screen. "Where is she?" Melissa asked. "Oh, my god." Emily in shock. "It's Melissa." Spencer said, shocked to see her sister on the video as the girls looked from the video to Spencer then back to the video.
"Quick, guys, we need to give this to the cops like, right now." Aria said, freaking out. "I agree." Emily and Josie said. "Yeah, me too!" Hanna said. "No." Spencer said, making them turn to her. "Why?" Aria asked. "I, I need to talk to Melissa first, we need to find out what she was doing in Alison's room." Spencer said, stuttering, clearly nervous about this whole thing. "Isn't it obvious?" Emily asked. "She was a part of that night, they–they were all after Alison." she continued. "Okay, you don't know that, she, she just..." Spencer stuttered as she moved back and paced. "She could have just been looking for Ian." she said with her back to them before turning around again, but the doubt on her friends' faces were clear.
"Look, okay, I know that Melissa had her issues with Alison but I'm not about to turn in my pregnant sister." She said, defending her decision. "I will, watch me." Hanna said. "Hanna, you just asked me not to be so quick to judge your own mother, and now you're ready to throw my sister behind bars." Spencer yelled, her voice getting louder. "Spence, Melissa had lied to you so many times, why do you think she's gonna tell you the truth now?" Josie asked.
"Because I haven't always been so honest with her either, but maybe if I come clean and tell her what we saw–" Spencer started but Emily cut her off. "She'll come up with a bigger lie." she said. "Not if she knows what's at stake." Spencer said, making the friends go quiet and share a look. "Please, okay. Just give this one night to talk to her." Spencer begged and Josie looked back at Emily, Aria and Hanna and they all reluctantly agreed. "Fine, fine, go to Melissa, okay, and... we'll try to figure out where 'A' was sending those texts from." Aria said as Josie walked back over to the other girls as they all grabbed their stuff and left.
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Later on, Emily, Hanna, Josie and Aria were at a place where they think the texts are coming from, a 'Froelich Williams & Lang LAW OFFICE' it had a large metal gate surrounding it. "This is it." Aria said as they stared at the house that was on the other side of the gate. Emily and Aria looked at the gate to see it was locked by chains, making them try and open it. "There's no way we're gonna get in here." Josie said as Aria tried figuring out the lock and chain as Hanna found a way in, the door was broken on the other side and opened. She opened it and walked through, making the others laugh in disbelief before following Hanna.
The girls ventured up the stairs of the house, it looked to be abandoned but you never know. Josie shines her flashlight around, trying to peek into the windows but the curtains on the inside blocked everything from the outside while Aria jiggled the doorknob, trying to see if it would open, but it didn't open. "Now what?" Emily asked. "Let's look around." Hanna said and Emily and Hanna started looking through windows, Aria saw mail hanging out of the mail slot, she went to grab it, but as soon as she did, someone took it from inside, making her look up to see an old man in the door window, making her scream, and fall backwards as an alarm started blaring.
"Aria!" the girls yelled as they rushed to help her. "You okay?" Josie asked as she reached Aria. Hanna and Emily helped Josie get Aria up from the ground and they rushed away, only Emily looked back, to see the old guy on the front porch watching them run away. "That's definitely not 'A'" she said as they all stopped to look at the old guy. "Come on, let's go." Hanna said as they ran away from the house, alarms were still blaring through the quiet street.
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The next day at lunch, Josie and Richie were sitting with Aria when Emily joined them. "Hey, have you heard from Ezra?" she asked as she sat down next to Aria. "Yeah, his plane lands in an hour." she said and it was silent before Josie looked up and noticed Mona and Hanna were talking, and it seemed serious "Wonder what that's about." she uttered to her friends and Richie as they spotted Mona and Hanna looking over at them before Mona stood up and she and Hanna walked over and sat down with Josie, Emily and Aria. "Hey Mona, how's it going?" Richie asked and Mona nodded. "I've been better." she admitted and Richie nodded before trying to steal food from Josie.
⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapter. things are starting to heat up as we near the end of season two, soon we'll be on season three !! countdown till season three: four chapters