CHAPTER TWELVE

Epilogue-9 months later

The trial was long and messy but at its end, Wilden, Ian, and Eric Kahn were sentenced. Eric Kahn the least. He had to pay a fine and got five years of probation. Darren Wilden was sentenced to death because of Garret Reynolds. Ian Thomas was essentially given life without parole. The judge took the laundry list of his crimes and made the times serving each of them consecutive. Melissa was given 25 years to life, but she was allowed to remain under house arrest until the baby was born. Turns out Melissa did have a line when it came to Ian and she ended up testifying against him despite spousal privilege. She had no idea that he was planning on kidnapping Spencer and her friends and keeping them in an underground bunker where people could pay to either watch or participate in them being violated and tortured. Peter and Veronica took custody of the baby and promised to bring him to see Melissa whenever they could.

Mona was sentenced to spend some time in Radley for her role as A. She ended up helping them and rescuing Spencer, so the girls were willing to forgive but Mona still had broken enough laws to warrant some kind of punishment. The Hastings lawyers made sure she got help instead of prison time unlike their own daughter, Melissa.

Being in Radley ended up being more revelatory than any of them could have imagined. While there, Mona met a patient named CeCe Drake. She had taken an interest in Mona after a visit from the rest of the girls one day. Mona's keen mind became suspicious of CeCe when she seemed to know a lot about the girls, Emily in particular. When she talked to them about it, they had no idea who CeCe Drake was. Mona decided to use her A skills of manipulation to find out more about CeCe. It took a while, but they soon became friends enough for CeCe to trust Mona enough to tell her more. When Mona saw CeCe and Wren having a heated conversation, Mona made sure she was there for CeCe to confide in. It was then she learned about Wren's plan for CeCe to seduce Emily and that's when Mona realized Wren was in on the dollhouse plan.

Finding out Wren's involvement did come at a cost. The night Spencer found out, she overdosed. Up until that time no one, not her friends, family, or Toby had known that she was taking multiple does of hydrocodone on a daily basis. They had all assumed she was just being Spencer Hastings in how well she was handling all that had happened in the last year. The girls spent a lot of time together in a homeschool program. The purpose of the program was to accommodate them from having to return to school while the scandal was still so fresh. Spencer kept her grades stellar and helped them with their assignments the same as usual. She had everyone fooled.

Immediately out of the hospital, her parents checked her into rehab. The time in rehab was hard but it became much harder once she got out. Without the drugs, she was forced to actually deal with what happened. Everyday became agony for her. Nights were filled with nightmares. Days were filled with panic attacks. Gone was the Spencer Hastings they were used to, and her loved ones contemplated more than once if the drugs were so bad if they at least prevented this.

Ultimately it ended up being Toby who helped her the most, he convinced her to go to a rape survivor's meeting with him. She resisted at first but when Toby assured her with his intense blue eyes that he would be there for her the entire time and that she didn't have to say anything if she didn't want to, she relented.

At first, she was too uncomfortable to fully listen to other people's stories. But when her boyfriend's voice started speaking, Spencer was mesmerized. So much of what he said, touched on what she had been feeling. She didn't realize that part of her problem was that she felt so alone. She didn't think anyone could really understand. But to hear the person she loved so much share his story and put into words what she had also been feeling was both heartbreaking and freeing.

They continued to go to meetings twice a week.

During the fourth meeting, Spencer shared her story.

It was the night after a meeting that Emily joined that the girls had a sleepover. Prior to this the four of them didn't talk about that night at Jason Dilaurentis' house with each other or how screwed up Alison ended up being because of her brother. They hadn't talked about what could have happened to them if they had been put in the dollhouse. But on this night, they did. They talked about everything. And not just talked, they cried, yelled, argued, laughed, and bonded.

Their life wasn't all sunshine and rainbows afterwards, but they did make it through senior year and managed to thrive. And when the year was over and they each left for their respective universities, they were more than whole because they carried a piece of each other with them.

Whatever life threw at them, the bond of their friendship was always a place for which they could draw strength.

The end.