Chapter 18:

"Dianne?" Aria called out for the hundredth time. She had been walking in the woods for over an hour and the only thing Aria had seen was a squirrel and a few rabbits. Another rustling of leaves revealed a bird.

"Dianne, it's Aria. Can you hear me?" she called out again. This time she heard hasty footsteps and turned around, calling Dianne's name again. When there was no response, Aria began to panic and pulled out her phone. Quickly calling Ezra, Aria almost screamed when a head popped out of the thick foliage.

"OH MY GOD! YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME!" Aria shrieked, looking at Spencer. "You could have at least announced yourself!"

"Sorry, it's me Spencer, coming out of the trees." Spencer said, hiding a smile.

Aria rolled her eyes and then realized the phone was on and Ezra was calling her name.

"Hey, sorry to scare you, I heard someone and I panicked, it's just Spencer." she said into the phone.

"It's okay, any sign of mom?"

"Not yet, but we'll find her. I promise." Aria said, trying to reassure him.

"Yeah," Ezra sighed.

"Call me if you need me. I love you."

"Love you too." Ezra said, hanging up.

"Where's Hanna and Emily?" Aria asked Spencer.

"I'm not sure, we split up. I was trying to find you and they went the other way, looking for Ezra's mom. Where's Daisy and Sophia?"

"We left them with mom. Come on, let's keep looking." Aria said, pushing a branch out of the way.

"Mom? Can you hear me?" Ezra called. He tried dialing her number again, but it went straight to voicemail. The phone was probably dead but Ezra still continued to call it every few minutes with the hope that maybe she would pick up.

"Mom, please answer me. Where are you?" Ezra called desperately. He began running through the thicket, calling frantically for his mother, praying that she was okay. Unshed tears blinded his vision and panic started to overcome him. He kept running until he ran straight into something, or someone rather. He heard an "oof" as the other figure fell to the ground. Scrambling onto his knees, Ezra saw that it was Spencer that he had run into and Aria was standing right behind her, shocked for a moment and then she let out a breath.

"Sorry Spencer, are you okay?" Ezra said, helping her to her feet.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Spencer replied, rubbing the dirt off her jeans. She winced slightly but nobody noticed.

"Ezra, what happened? Did you see something?" Aria asked, placing a hand on his arm.

Ezra shook his head and looked at the ground, feeling tears well up behind his eyes. Aria tilted his head up so she could see his face and then she wrapped her arms around him, rubbing his back, whispering that things would be alright. Ezra leaned into her embrace, resting his head on her shoulder and she ran her hand through his hair.

"Hey, it's okay. We're going to find her, okay?" Aria said. When Ezra didn't respond, she pulled back a little and forced him to look at her. "Don't worry, we'll stay here as long as it takes, but we're not leaving until she's found, okay?"

Ezra nodded before resting his head back onto her shoulder. Aria embraced him once again for a few long moments before they pulled apart and started walking again. This time, Aria refused to leave him alone, and they set off with Spencer, looking for Dianne.

As they walked through the woods, all three of them calling for Dianne, Ezra felt a vibration in his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Hello?"

"Ezra!"

"Mom! Where are you?" he said, stopping. Aria and Spencer stared at him, listening closely.

"I don't know." she whispered. "I can see a sign up ahead, and I'm going towards it. Hang on...okay I'm at some place called the Westview Airfield."

"Westview Airfield." Ezra said, looking at the two girls.

"I know where that is." Spencer piped up. "Come on!"

They started running, Spencer in the lead as Ezra talked to Dianne.

"I don't see any buildings, just more trees, and there's a clearing up ahead. I'm assuming this is where the airplanes land, but there doesn't appear to be anyone here. Not that I can see anyway."

"We're on our way. Mom, why didn't you pick up the phone before, I've been calling for hours?" Ezra said, frustrated.

"I couldn't. I had to turn the phone off in case Todd heard it. I needed to be sure I was far away from him before calling again." Dianne explained.

"Okay, well don't hang up, we're on our way and I want to be sure you're safe."

"I'm fine, and I'm not going anywhere." Dianne promised.

About twenty-five minutes later, they were nearing the airfield. Ezra was still on the phone with his mom but her batter was going to die soon so they were rushing to find her. Aria had texted Emily, Hanna and Wes to come to the Airfield ASAP. Spencer parked and the three of them got out of the car, running through the field.

"Okay, mom we're in the clearing, can you see us?" Ezra asked. There was no response on the other end. "Mom?...Shit, I think her battery died."

"Dianne?" Aria called.

"Over here." a voice called out. The three of them turned around to see Todd staring at them. He had a gun in his hand and was holding Dianne against him.

"You bastard!" Ezra said, going towards him.

"Take another step and I'll kill her." Todd said, not missing a beat.

Ezra stopped where he was as Todd raised the gun to Dianne's head. "What do you want? Why are you doing this?"

"I tried to be a good father, to raise you and your brother to be good men."

"Like hell you did. Mom raised us, you left." Ezra spat.

"No, not willingly, I didn't. I wanted to stay and be there for you too but she kicked me out" he said, shaking his ex-wife.

"No, you can't put this on mom. You were the one that screwed your co-worker, you were the one that cheated on your wife, you broke our family up. It was your goddamn fault!" Ezra yelled. "Don't you DARE blame mom for this because it's not her fault, it's yours!"

"I may have made some mistakes, but I still wanted to be there for you boys. You were too young to notice it, but your mother and I were going through a rough time. Even if I hadn't cheated, we might have still gotten a divorce."

"We could have worked through it, you know that." Dianne said.

"No I don't. Nothing was going right for us and then you took away my sons, the boys that I had helped raise for 10 years!" Todd roared.

"Even if you were going through a bad time, marriage is a commitment. You don't just run off with a random woman if things aren't going right in your marriage, you work through things." Ezra said. "That's the point in a marriage. And you know what? I'm glad you weren't there for the rest of our childhoods because I don't even want to think of how I would have turned out with a role model like you. NOW PUT THE GUN DOWN!"

"You don't mean that. You can't possibly mean that." Todd said.

"I do. I don't want you in my life and I haven't for years. So please, just do us all a favour and leave!" Ezra said.

Todd's face grew red with rage and his grip on the gun tightened. He pulled the trigger.

Oh my God, yes I'm going to be cruel and leave you on a cliffhanger. Next chapter is the last one. Don't forget to review :)

xox Sobia