Chapter 81*

Ella's POV*

It was only after I had walked out of the house, driven by urgency and desperation to do something to protect Aria, that I remembered that I didn't have my car. It was still downtown in Philly outside of the art gallery. The plan had been to drive the girls back home and maybe grab some takeout on the way, seeing as Aria had been too nervous to sit down and eat anything before the opening. Which meant that as I stepped out onto the porch, there weren't a lot of options in front of me. Despite the fact that the police were right outside, and would be willing to drive me back to my car, as the officer driving us home tonight had suggested. I didn't think I could take a minute alone in the car with any of the police, nevermind the half hour ride back into Philly. My behavior would be too strange. It would draw too many questions. And before a couple glasses of wine, I didn't think I could manage to hold anything together.

Instead, I was desperately trying to figure out just where I could go. Who would understand even a fraction of what had happened tonight. And while I was searching the horizon for an answer, anything to tell the officer that was approaching me with a kind but concerned expression, I spotted Ashley's house. It was across the street and just a little ways down the block. A quick walk that would only do me good. And it might dispel the shaky feeling.

"Evening, Mrs. Montgomery. Can I help you out tonight?" the officer asked, giving me a smile as though to reassure me.

But it suddenly felt like a threat. Like they wanted to pry the secrets out of me. It was an unfamiliar sensation, being this afraid of even talking to the police, but it was also one of the first times that I knew that I was hiding things from them. Was this how Aria and her friends felt all the time? With all the meetings that the girls had needed to have with the police over the last couple of years, I hoped not. But if it was, then it was a reminder of my daughter's strength, and the desperate position that she was still in, and it fortified my own determination.

"No, that's alright, thank you. I'm just going to head over to see Ms. Marin." I dismissed the officer with a plastered on smile. Hoping that the discomfort would just be taken as part of the stress of the night.

After all, having to take your daughter to the hospital because she collapsed at the sight of herself being tortured displayed across photos on a gallery wall would be enough to stress anyone. The young man wished me well, and I tried to keep my gait normal as I headed towards some semblance of safety. I needed to call Veronica, needed to get my car back, needed to get myself back under control. I realized as I sped towards Ashley's house that I was shaking with anticipation and fear. Even though I knew that I needed to call Veronica, that the sooner the better given it was a Friday evening and she was sure to have some type of plans, even if it was just working from her couch with a glass of wine. I didn't want things to get too late. But I didn't trust myself to dial her number correctly.

I pressed the doorbell a couple of times, unable to stop my quaking hands from repeatedly hitting the button. Hopefully it wouldn't give away too much how stressed I was to the officers that were watching me from the curb. I had just moved from one house of being monitored by the police to another. At least they hadn't needed to talk to me as I approached the front door. They must have radioed about me coming over. So that the other officers would anticipate me. I felt suddenly like the world was closing around me, the bounds of my independence straining as I realized just how very exposed and observed that I was.

And I realized that this was exactly what Aria was feeling. The same level of being watched all the time, or worse. I knew that the police weren't watching my every moment all the time. Instead they were just keeping an eye out for me tonight, recognizing that I was stressed and giving me some space. I didn't think that all my actions were being judged and reported on the way that I was sure that Aria's were. How did they deal with this? I hated the sensation for the few minutes that I was actively aware of being subject to it.

The images from the gallery wall flashed across my mind again. Images that though they were zoomed in, with a startlingly high definition camera, were obviously from some type of security camera. There was no way that Aria wouldn't have reacted to the presence of another person in the room with her. It drove home that she had been watched for so long. And I felt the wave of guilt rise back up over me as I got just a taste of what she had been going through for the last few years. Was it always like this?

"Ella? Are you okay?" Ashley's voice startled me, and I couldn't help the little jump as I was pulled back to the moment.

"Can I come in?" I asked, shaking my head slightly. Trying to find the balance between conveying to her that I really wasn't okay and not giving anything away to the cops keeping an eye on our interaction.

"Of course, Hanna is out with the girls still. At Aria's gallery opening." she explained, stepping back from the door and letting me into the house. The unspoken question of why I wasn't also at the gallery opening still lingered in the air.

It was always an immaculately clean house, floors waxed and decorations limited, but carefully selected. It felt far more organized than my own apartment, or even the house that I had shared with my family. The design was colder, less homey. But still beautiful. And it seemed to frame Ashley and Hanna nicely, showing off their beautifully designed lives to others, and keeping their struggles quiet.

"I just opened a bottle of Merlot, would you like a glass?" she asked, leading me through the narrow hallway towards the open kitchen.

"Yes, please." my voice at least didn't sound too shaky now that I had gotten inside.

There was the sound of glass against marble and then a glug sound from the bottle as she poured a healthy amount into the large wine glass. I took it gratefully, taking a large gulp and letting the acidic taste burn against my mouth and throat as I swallowed it down. The wine still needed to breathe for a few minutes, but I wasn't in a place to wait. Not right now. It wasn't the healthiest response, but it was helping to calm me down right now. Giving me something to focus on that was tangible and real.

"Ella, what happened?" she questioned, voice taking on her concern as she watched me.

"The police aren't doing enough to protect our girls." I informed, it was the first thing that I could manage to get out.

Looking at Ashley, she was so relaxed. So comfortable and trusting. The image of Hanna's face covered with a combination of vomit, icing, and tears flashed into my head. Had Hanna told her about what had happened while she had been taken? Did Ashley already know? We hadn't all gotten together since the first couple of days that the girls were home, comparing notes about how our daughters were responding to being home and safe again. The nightmares had been a commonality, but as the days passed, we had all pulled back, focused back in on our lives. And for the most part, the girls had seemed like they were starting to adjust back to being at home, even though Aria had never been up to going back to school. Now I was wondering how much of a lie that had been. And how we might have been able to do something to help sooner.

"Ella, did something happen at the gallery?" she was gripping the edge of the counter, holding on for dear life. Eyes glancing over towards the front door, as though she was expecting the police to knock on her door and give her bad news.

"The girls are physically fine, last I saw them all at least." I reassured, but it didn't seem to offer her any comfort. "Can you call Veronica and Pam? I think we should all talk."

Her face twisted up with concern, eyebrows drawing together. But she pressed her lips together, holding back her questions and giving me a nod. She grabbed her phone off the counter, scrolling quickly through contacts before bringing the phone to her ear. I swallowed more of my wine, focusing in on the sensation of drinking to keep me grounded to reality. It felt like my head was swimming, not from the alcohol, but from everything that had happened tonight. I slid onto one of the barstools at the counter, leaning against the countertop for support.

Ashley slid the bottle of wine towards me, before stepping away and beginning the conversation. I focused on breathing deeply, not falling into despair. I didn't know what all I could tell the others. I definitely wasn't going to mention what Aria had said about Shana. But I knew that I had to share what I had seen at the gallery tonight. They needed to know what had happened to their daughters, hopefully it would let them support them better. My hands had stopped shaking by the time that Ashley came back to the counter and topped up her own wine glass.

"They'll be over here in just a few minutes." Ashley explained, taking a drink of the dark liquid, her lips pursing at the dry flavor. "Do you want to wait until they're here so we only have to go over everything once?"

I gave a nod, sharing with them what I had seen was already going to be unpleasant enough as is. I didn't need to rehash things again and again. Once more I felt the heaviness of the business card in my pocket. I wouldn't be able to avoid talking with the FBI about what I had seen from Aria, not just over the last few months but over the years of her dealing with getting messages from A. Whether that was just when it had been Mona, or when Charles had seemingly come into the picture. I ran a hand through my hair, nails scratching gently at my scalp as I thought over when that change could have happened. The time waiting for them to get here helped, eased some of the tension that was knotting me up. At least I wouldn't be alone with most of this. Hopefully they would have a better idea of how to move forward. Other than just getting a lawyer, which was about as far as my planning had gone.

"Hey, is everything okay?" I was broken out of my thoughts as Pam walked into the kitchen.

She moved towards me and clasped her hand onto my shoulder, seeking to reassure me. She looked upset though, her face taut with worry that something had happened. I didn't want to worry her, but I couldn't lie and say that everything was okay. Nothing was. It hadn't been okay for a while, I just hadn't noticed. Hadn't been aware as everything spiraled.

"The girls are okay." I reassured, breathing a sigh of relief when Pam gave me a hug.

"Are you, Ella?" she asked, her face tightening with concern.

I took another drink of my wine, not wanting to talk about my feelings. Knowing that anything that wouldn't freak her out would be a lie. There was the sound of the front door closing again, then two sets of heeled footsteps coming back into the kitchen.

"Veronica, Pam, do you want some wine?" Ashley asked, already heading for the wine glasses.

"Just a small one." Pam conceded, while Veronica said thanks and stood across the counter from me.

"So what's going on?" Veronica questioned, more in line with an interrogation than worrying about my feelings.

I took a deep breath, swallowing down another gulp of merlot. Before looking at the others. I didn't want to share the horrors that the girls had gone through with them, but knew that I had to.

"Charles replaced the photos at Aria's exhibit tonight." I spit out, looking over their faces for reactions. Mostly I saw lips pursing, could hear them shifting in anticipation. "It was a rotating gallery, starting with pictures of the girls posed like corpses on autopsy slabs."

I could hear the sharp intake of breath from Pam, concern already radiating off her about what else I had seen. Which while the first set of pictures had been disturbing, they didn't hold a candle to the rest of the images I had seen.

"And then it changed to what he had done to the girls while they were taken."

"What did you see?" Ashley asked, leaning forward.

"The girls haven't told you anything either?" I asked instead, wondering if this was going to be the first that they heard about it.

There was a moment of silence, filled with furtive glances as the others checked to see if anyone had known more about what had happened to our daughters.

"Hanna told me that he made them play games." Ashley ventured, breaking the silence of the group. Looking at the others, I was surprised that they didn't have more to share. It made me feel a little better, that at least Aria wasn't the only one who had clammed up. And shut me out.

"Ella, what did you see?" Pam encouraged.

"Spencer was covered in blood and looked terrified that she had hurt someone." I made eye contact with Veronica, before my attention moved to the others. "Hanna looked like she had been forced to eat cupcakes until she was puking, and then was still having to eat them. And Emily had her arms held back and stretched behind her. It looked like it really hurt her shoulders."

I saw the tears burn in Pam's eyes, and knew that they were also in mine. I remembered the injury that Emily had suffered, how Pam had been trying to get her in for treatments for the damage to her rotator cuff. Trying to get it so she could swim competitively again. And I worried about the long term damage that Charles had done to her. How he had probably ensured she would never be able to compete again, would never get that scholarship.

"What about Aria?" Ashley asked, taking a drink of her wine to brace herself for the conversation.

The images came back to my mind. Seeing her stripped bare, strangled, raped, electrocuted. Seeing the despair in her eyes. Hearing about how she had been pushed so far that he offered her suicide as a way out. It broke my heart. I didn't want to share with them what all I had seen. Didn't want them to know what Charles had done to her. But I knew that I couldn't hold it back from them. We needed to work together. And there was already too much that I would have to withhold.

"There were more pictures of Aria." I started, not knowing just where to start with it. "But he made her crawl over broken glass. Electrocuted her. Hung her by her ankles from the ceiling. And he strangled and raped her."

The words fell like a hammer into the silence of the room. Too hard and brutal to be able to soften the blow. And I could see the way that they impacted the other moms, see them flinch back, even passed the tears in my own eyes that had started falling down my cheeks.

"Why were there more of her?" Veronica asked, her voice surprisingly shaken unlike every other time that I had heard from her. Veronica was usually the calm island through any storm, made of iron.

"The police aren't sure whether it was because of it being her exhibit tonight." I started, not really wanting to share the last piece that I had put together from what Agent Reid had told me. "Or if it was because of something else."

"What else could it have been?" Pam seemed afraid to ask the question.

I took another drink of my wine, taking another moment before I had to answer. I had put it together over the car ride. That what Agent Reid had been talking about, but not saying directly to me because he wasn't sure if I already knew about it, was the abortion. It was a nightmare, what he had done to all our daughters had been awful, but we had all worried over the possibility that he would do to them what he had done to Aria.

"Aria got an abortion earlier this week." I blurted into the room, watching them all freeze up at the news. Rosewood hadn't ever been the most progressive town, it suffered from the fate of most small towns. Image was so important here, despite the fact that my family had tried to avoid playing into that. "It's possible that Charles knew about it, and so he put the pictures of her up to punish her."

Silence reigned in the kitchen for a full minute, the only sounds were the wineglasses being moved from the counter and swallowed down.

"Was Charles the father?" Ashley questioned after a moment.

I could only nod. I didn't want to admit that out loud. It was bad enough that so many people knew about this now. Especially when I knew that Aria didn't want to say anything. She hadn't even wanted me to know about it. Not to mention the police, all the moms, or the general public.

"Where do we go from here?" Pam moved the conversation on, shifting on her feet uncomfortably.

"Have you had a chance to speak with the police yet, Ella?" Veronica was already typing away at something on her phone, maybe an email or looking at her schedule.

"Only enough to give my statement tonight." I assured, knowing that she had been acting as all of our legal representation with the police through this whole ordeal. "But they want to talk to the girls more in depth."

"What more do they want to know?" Ashley sounded defensive, obviously feeling that the girls had already shared enough with the police, who should be doing their job and catching Charles.

"Everything."

I heard the huff of a laugh from Veronica, and knew where she was coming from. None of the girls had been that open with us in the last few years. And they definitely had been hiding even more from the police.

"That's not likely to happen. Can they be more specific?" she shot the idea down, taking a drink of her wine.

"The profiler they brought in, Agent Reid, he told Aria that he is only interested in catching Charles. And that he doesn't care about anything else."

"What does that mean?" Pam questioned.

"It means that they think the girls are hiding things from them. Probably because they're worried about getting in trouble for something smaller, so the police aren't able to catch Charles." Veronica explained.

"What like they've done something illegal? And are hiding it to stay out of trouble?" Pam asked, sounding the most naive out of us.

"Of course they are." Ashley responded, and I couldn't help turning my attention to her. Wondering just what she knew. "Caleb told me about how he found the girls outside of a data center, where they had seemingly broken in to look for records."

"What data center?" I hadn't heard anything about this. "When was this? Before the bunker?"

Ashley shook her head, sipping at her glass of wine before explaining. "It was a few days after they got out of the hospital. I guess Hanna explained that they were looking for Spencer's file, but I don't know if that's right. Caleb said he saw them coming out of a restricted area."

"Okay, so before we have them sit down with the profiler, I'll work out an agreement with the District Attorney. See if I can get them immunity for the small things in exchange for their speaking out about everything that they know."

"Is breaking and entering a small thing?" Pam sounded concerned, and I felt my heart clench in my chest.

If that was too big of a thing to get them immune from, then there wasn't a chance that the girls were going to be able to open up and share what they knew. I already knew that Aria was going to have to hold back on some things, and it was likely that the other girls would have to as well. Did they know about Shana?

"Smaller than murder, kidnapping, and rape." Veronica rationalized. "I'll set up a meeting with Tanner and the DA tomorrow. Ella, do you have the contact information for the profiler?"

"Yeah, here." I passed her the card that felt so heavy in my pocket. It meant that I didn't have his number now, but I trusted Veronica to be able to manage the contact with the police for us.

"Did anything else happen tonight?" Pam sounded nervous as she fiddled with the wineglass in front of her.

"Aria had to go to the hospital from the gallery." I informed, knowing it was the less critical information tonight and had just gotten pushed to the back burner. "She fainted when she saw the photos."

"Is she okay?" Ashley leaned forward, reaching her hand out to comfort me.

"Yeah, she's alright now. It seemed to just be stress. She's a little anemic right now. But they're also waiting on a blood test to see if she might have been poisoned." I hoped that it was just stress. They hadn't seemed that worried about it being poison, given the fact that no one else had dropped after eating the quiche.

"Poisoned?" Pam sounded shocked that it was even a possibility.

"She had some quiche at the gallery opening, and it seemed like it might have been possible. But not overly likely." I dismissed the concern that was radiating off her. Somehow I had managed to come to terms with the fact that Charles had no compunctions about hurting and almost killing Aria. I wasn't surprised at anything that he did at this point.

"What photo was it when she fainted?" Veronica was looking at her phone again, and I felt a little annoyed that she was focused on something else.

"The rotation came back around to the photo of them on the autopsy slabs." I started, watching as Veronica's mouth tightened into a line when she saw something on her phone. "And written across each of the girl's pictures was a different word."

"What words?" Ashley's face a mixture of concern and curiosity.

"He called Aria a killer." I started, the word tasting sour in my mouth before I looked at each of the women in turn. "He called Hanna a cow. Emily a d*ke. And Spencer a junkie."

I saw each of their mouths tighten in turn. Lips pursing in distaste and anger at what that monster had called our girls. Each word was seemingly intentionally chosen to hit at each of the girls and strike as much pain as possible. It was a strange look into how he saw the girls, what he had figured out about what would hurt them. Either during their time in the bunker, or before that while he had been stalking and harassing them from a distance.

"The pictures were posted online." Veronica broke into the silence, and turned her phone around to face us.

I could feel my heart drop into my stomach. There was no way to remove something from the internet once it was posted. The chance that someone would download them before they were able to be pulled down. It was too much of a risk. That meant that every photo of Aria's torture would be preserved forever. It wasn't enough that she had been exposed that way to a roomful of people. Endangering her chances at that competition, and potentially impacting her prospects going forward.

"Oh my god." I heard Ashley and Pam gasp at the sight of the photos. I couldn't bring myself to look at them, didn't know how Veronica had managed to find them so quickly.

"I've already sent the links to Rosewood Police, hopefully they can get them taken down immediately." she tried to reassure, but it felt like it was in vain.

I swallowed the last of the wine in my glass, before reaching out and grabbing the bottle for a refill. The last of the contents spilled into my glass, apparently we had worked our way through the bottle quickly. The large glasses that Ashley had lending towards larger pours. She gave a nod at the sight and set her glass down, moving over to the wine rack and grabbing another bottle of red wine out. I watched her practiced motions of uncorking the bottle and putting the corkscrew back into it's place, before placing the newly opened bottle back on the counter.

"How are we going to tell them about prom?" Pam questioned, voice full of worry.

I took another drink. Not wanting to be the first one to answer that. I looked between the others, but it didn't seem like anyone had a good solution right now. "Aria hasn't even been going to school. And I don't think she has a date lined up yet. So maybe she'd be alright with staying home?"

I knew it was a lie. Knew that she would be upset at the idea of being banned from the event. She had started to cry at the difficulty of scheduling her math exam to not be on school grounds. Being told that she wasn't wanted at a milestone event like prom, that felt like it would crush her spirits even more.

"Hanna picked out her dress and a matching suit for Caleb back in January." Ashley confided, her distress clear in her voice.

"Emily doesn't have a date that I know of, but I know she really wants to go to prom." Pam shared, and I knew that it was true for all the girls.

That if they could they would go to their prom in a heartbeat. So much of their highschool careers had already been marked by their experience. Losing more than a month of their senior year, when they should have been getting ready for graduation, planning for colleges, it wasn't fair to them. Losing one of the milestone moments of prom would just be a slap in the face. Even if it was to keep the other students safe. I hadn't believed it was about protecting our girls at all, though that had been the line that Hackett had tried to pass off. And it had made me hate the man a little, despite our professional relationship.

"Then we have to make the night special for them in another way." Veronica sounded assured. "We could let them have the barn for the night. Make sure that they have space to be kids still, while staying safe."

I could feel the frown on my face, knowing that wouldn't make up for it. Prom was a social thing. And while I hadn't seen Aria really make any friends outside of the girls since we had been back from Iceland, I knew that her classmates opinion of her mattered. The idea that any of them could find out about what had been shared tonight didn't feel plausible. She still had a little while that she should be able to avoid that from her peers at school. And then she would be away at college, or hopefully before that the internship in Los Angeles, that I was holding out hope that she was still in the running for.

"I don't know that they'll go for that." Pam sounded worried.

"We don't really have another choice. Either they can have a private prom function that we make for them. Or they don't get anything." Ashley was persuasive, and pragmatic.

"Then we go for the barn prom. And hope that they're okay with that."

End Chapter*

Hope you enjoyed spending a bit more time with the moms. Let me know what you think