You can spend your whole life with someone and think you know them inside and out but then one day find out something that's a complete game changer.
Emily thought by now she had the hang of Alison but as she sat there, listening to Paige's story she felt the bile rise from her stomach and tickle the back of her neck. How could she have been so wrong about her? She should have never given her any chances. She suddenly retreated into the palace of her mind and went searching through her memories for any indication that backed up what Paige was accusing Alison of but she never noticed anything wrong. She squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to see if Alison was false but couldn't, so that must mean that Paige isn't right, but she knew in her heart of hearts she had to be, and that she'd never make up anything like that so she looked back in her head again and tried to remember if there were any small moments, this time around, that might indicate that Alison's feelings were false.
She remembered a party where the adults were standing around the barbeque and someone insinuated that Alison put a ring on her finger and she rolled her eyes. She never noticed it before but Alison had always been against PDA and when they were in public she almost acted as if she was ashamed to be seen with her. In fact she never initiated any contact between them at all, both at home or otherwise, except for when Emily was upset. When Alison did or said something inconsiderate and hurt Emily's feelings, she'd suddenly switch and try to put the moves on her. Was this all just a way to get her to forget about what they were arguing? Was she stalling or placating her with sex acts?
She tried to think back to the birth. Alison insisted that she wait outside. The nurse made some comment about whether she wanted them to call her husband and Emily dismissed her remark as ignorance but what if she was still in cahoots with her husband? Was he still alive? Or what if Elliot or Archer or whatever- wasn't her husband? What if it was someone else all along? What if the babies belonged to someone else? Emily shuddered at the thought. Even if they weren't her own, she'd already grown so attached to them that there was no limit to what she would do to protect them and if Alison was working with their enemies, then she might turn out to be one of the things she has to protect them from.
Suddenly she shot up, reached for her back pocket and snatched her phone out, frantically dialing her mother's number.
"Mom... Are you and the twins allright?"
"Of course, sweetheart! Everything's fine, what's the matter?"
"It's Alison!"
"What's wrong with Alison? She seemed fine a moment ago!"
"You saw her? When?"
"Just now! She just came and picked the girls up. She said she was taking them out. She said you were staying behind to support Spencer."
"Do you know where she went?"
"No, sorry. All she said to tell you was "don't wait up" for her. Then she got in her uber and went off."
"Oh, Jesus Christ!"
"Emily, what have we said about using the Lord's name in vain?"
"Don't do it.. Is there anything else you can remember? Anything can help."
"No, I'm sorry."
"What about the car? Anything?"
"No. It was a dark blue sedan, that's all I know."
"You let her just drive off with the kids?"
"No, somebody else was driving. I assumed it was an uber, I didn't get a good look at the driver. But I think it was a man."
"Allright, don't go anywhere. I'm going to tell the police what's just happened and they'll probably want to go over everything with you."
"Emily, what's going on?"
"Alison's not the person we thought she was. She kidnapped Paige... I think she has something to do with the A's."
"Oh my goodness. Listen, if it helps any, I noticed she had a different phone with her. It was some sort of android. Maybe the police can try tracking it..."
"Thanks mom. That actually might help a lot."
Emily turned around and immediately dialed Hanna's number. After two exasperatingly long rings, she answered. Emily quickly caught her up with everything and asked her to get Caleb to check if he can find that phone her mom was talking about. She gave her the exact time she left, the exact street number and he checked the wifi to see if anything had connected around that time. Luckily enough, Alison's phone had opened a bluetooth connection and been sharing some files around which enabled him to hack into her phone and create a connection. While he wasn't able to switch the GPS on, he DID manage to copy her files. Her recent calls indicated that she'd been in touch with another burner phone which was stationed in Alberta, and she also had a missed call from Hong Kong.
None of this was making any sense so he decided to comb through her photographs for anything out of the ordinary. Sure enough, he quickly stumbled onto something he recognized; a picture of Noel Kahn's cabin. She posed for it recently, doing some outdated duck lip pose. He quickly texted Emily and Spencer and before Hanna even finished her phone call they were on their way to the lake house.
