"You mean she's being released?" I called after Jason, as he headed into the kitchen. Barely a month had gone by.

"Yeah." He answered simply, pulling cereal from the cabinet.

"Jason, that's great!" I grinned.

"You won't be saying that when the press shows up." He retorted, and my face immediately fell. He was right.

"Go to school. I'll see you later squirt." He said, grabbing his bowl and heading outside to the garage.

I was left in the quiet morning light, alone in the kitchen. "Sounds great." I murmured, and grabbed my books to leave.

Coming back from school, I was greeted not only by Jason, but by the police.

Alarmed, I yelled out for Jason, dropping my stuff, and heading into the next room.

Ali, Dad, and Jason were all sitting on the couch together…surrounded by more officers.

"What's going on?" I asked warily, sitting beside my sister.

"We're going to catch Andrew—the one who has kidnapped your sister's friends. The press will be arriving soon." The officers explained their plan to me, and soon after, Ali went outside to greet the reporters and beg for her friends lives, to ask for privacy for her and her family, and so on.

After Ali came back in, we were supposed to wait for something to happen. But, feeling awkward around the cops, I dragged my backpack upstairs and did my homework. Jason also left to run to the store. Hours later, I looked out the window to see blue and red lights flashing all around.

Jason met me at the bottom of the stairs, explaining that the girls had all been rescued. "They're all in the hospital now. Toby's outside if you want to go with him."

I didn't waste a single moment. I jumped into that car, and within twenty minutes, I was standing in Spencer's room with her boyfriend. After listening to her story, I heard a knock on the door. We all looked over to see Mike, shaking.

"Can I borrow Mads for a minute?" he asked quietly.

Spencer nodded her head and I smiled apologetically before exiting the room and closing the door behind me.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, rubbing his arm.

"What if I go in there, and say the wrong thing to Aria. What do you say when your sister has gone through hell and you couldn't help her?"

"Oh, Mike. It sucks, I know." I pulled him to me and embraced him. "You just have to be there for them. Listen to them, get them coffee if they need it. A hug is always appreciated. Just go in there and be her brother. She needs her family."

He sighed into my shoulder and stepped away.

I smiled as he headed to Aria's room. He paused by the door and I nodded. "You got this." I mouthed.

"Love you." He mouthed back, and opened the door, smiled as he greeted his sister, and closed the door again, leaving everyone outside of the Montgomery family out. Including me.

"Maddie, ready to go?" I heard behind me. I whipped my head around to see Ali.

"Yeah," I said, "Let's go home, Ali." That was something I could get used to saying.

"Charlie actually exists." Ali threw a photo in front of me.

"No way, it was Jason's imaginary friend. Just like how Princess Twinkle was mine was I was a baby." I snatched up the picture. "Where did you find this?"

"An old photo album. We need to show Dad."

"Definitely," I agreed, looking up at her.

Together, along with Jason, we confronted our father. Charles turned out, to be our troubled eldest silbling. And none of us had ever known. Jason felt the most betrayed, because he had actually known Charles. Although he was supposedly dead, no one felt secure in that knowledge and went digging. I was ordered to stay out of it for safety reasons by Ali and Jason, who then invited Mike over to babysit me while they followed a lead to Aunt Carol's place.

"Mona's coming back to town soon." Mike whispered halfway into the day, as we relaxed on the couch after grabbing coffee.

"She's alive yeah. I wonder what it'll be like with the police, and saying she isn't dead after all." I pondered.

"She let me believe she was dead!" he grit his teeth.

"Mike…she had no other choice if she wanted to convince her kidnapper. You…" I swallowed. "As her boyfriend, you were one of the most important people in her life. This person would look to you, see your grief, and know whether you were faking or not."

He looked at me. "Mads…I still care about you."

"But you're going back to her, I know. That's okay. You're still my friend." I got off the couch and walked to the window, to stare into the front yard.

"Mads, I—" he began, but my phone went off. Jason.

"Hey, what's up?" I answered cheerily, brushing any hint of sadness out of my voice.

"Charlie is dead. We found the grave. We'll be coming home soon."

For some reason, I didn't believe him.