Ethan's Pov

A week has passed and me and Spencer have been sleeping over at Aria's house.

Neither of us wanted to go home because of what we found out. We didn't want to look or talk to dad so we asked Aria if we could sleepover and we're lucky that she agreed and didn't ask any questions.

Spencer's been sleeping in her room while I've been sleeping on the couch.

It's not really that bad but my body's beginning to ache and my neck is starting to hurt.

But I can handle it, especially for another few days.

"Our championship Rosewood Sharks are running a little behind but they'll be here any minute"

"Where are they?" Spencer asked.

"I told my mom we'd be studying at the library so that's covered" Aria said.

"Good" Spencer nodded.

"Ethan, are you sure you want to do this tonight?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, are you kidding? We have to find out what this guy knows about Ali. And why his number was in Ali's, or well, Vivian's coat" I said.

"And we finally got this meeting set, so it's gotta be tonight" Spencer said.

"I get that, but what if something happens to Ethan? What if this guy isn't all that he says?" Aria asked, worried.

I smiled softly at her and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Aria. I'll be fine. And besides, I can handle anything" I reassured her.

"Yeah, and we're gonna have his back the whole time, always" Spencer nodded.

Aria sighed and nodded, making me smile at her.

Aria glanced at me and Spencer before looking at both of us.

"So, my mom talked to your mom" Aria said.

This made Spencer close her eyes and take a sharp inhale, while I clenched my fist and took a few deep breaths.

"Look, it wasn't just one sleepover, guys. It's been a whole week. My mom just wants to know why you guys aren't going home. Ethan, my mom's worried that if you continue sleeping on the couch you won't be able to move properly" Aria said, looking at us in worry.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"We just, we can't deal with our family right now" Spencer said.

"Can I help?" Aria asked.

Me and Spencer glanced at each other before sighing and shaking our heads.

We're not ready to tell the girls about Jason being our half brother, or well brother, with everything that we're dealing with we don't want to add anything else to the big mess we're stuck in.

We'll tell them when the time is right.

Suddenly we heard cheering and clapping and we turned around to see Emily and her team walking out with smiles on their faces while Emily was carrying a huge trophy in her hands.

"Yeah!" me, Spencer and Aria cheered for them.

We saw Maya walk towards Emily as Emily handed the trophy to another team member and made her way towards Maya.

I smiled as I saw the two of them hug before me and the girls walked towards them to congratulate Emily.

"Way to go, champ" I grinned.

"Hey" Emily chuckled.

The two of us hugged before pulling away as she hugged Spencer and Aria.

Hanna smiled as she walked towards us.

"Em, my mom said that we could have the team party at my house" Hanna said.

"That's great" Emily smiled.

My eyes then wandered over to the other side of the room and my smile disappeared when I saw Garrett and another police officer walk in.

The girls noticed my change in behavior and turned around, only for their eyes to widen when they saw Garrett and the other officer.

They walked past us and continued walking.

Hanna's eyes widened and quickly followed behind them, making me more confused and worried.

We waited for a few minutes before we saw Garrett and the officer walking back, a computer in Garrett's hands.

Hanna walked back towards us and we looked at her in confusion.

"What just happened?" Spencer asked.

"Garret took Caleb's computer. Court order" Hanna sighed.

This made our eyes widen in shock and confusion.

Why would they take his computer?

We all heard our phones ring and took them out to see the message.

Now it's Caleb's turn

- A

This made our eyes widen in worry as we all looked at each other.

Shit, A's going after Caleb now.

After School

I left school to go see if I could go talk to Jason. I needed more answers and I needed him to give me some.

But when I went to his office I saw that it was closed.

Just my luck.

I sighed in annoyance and turned around to leave, not wanting to waste my time just by standing there.

However, I stopped when I spotted Jason at a fruit store, and he was talking to someone.

I walked closer to see who he was talking to, only for my eyes to widen when the person he was talking to was Maya.

What is she doing with Jason?

More importantly why is she talking to him?

I shook my head and watched as Maya walked away before making my way towards him.

"Jason" I said.

This made him turn around and he stared at me before a small smile made its way onto his face.

"Hey, Ethan, good to see you" Jason said.

"Good to see you too I've been looking for you. Your office is closed" I said.

"Yeah, I only work a couple hours a day. Getting the place up and running again" Jason said.

I hummed a little at that and nodded.

"Look, Ethan, I don't want to assume but are you here because your father sent you?" Jason asked.

"No, no, he didn't. I haven't talked to him after finding out the truth. I can barely even look at him" I said.

Everytime that dad calls I ignore him. Same for when he texts.

I only talk to mom and beg her not to tell him anything because I just can't face him at the moment. I still need time. Me and Spencer both need time.

"Understandable, but you and Spencer should talk to your dad" Jason said.

He paid for his fruits before grabbing his bag. He tried walking away but I stopped him.

"No, I'm talking to you" I sternly said.

Jason turned to me and sighed.

"Look, I didn't come back here to get between you and your father" Jason said.

"It's a bit late for that" I said.

"I'm sorry, Ethan. I really am. This was never about hurting you" Jason softly said.

"Well, what is it about?" I asked, desperate for some answers.

Jason sighed and shook his head, making me more desperate.

"Please, Jason. You left town the night that Spencer and I were arrested. So what made you come back now?" I asked.

Jason bit his lip and looked around, not sure what to say.

"Jason, please, you're my brother. My best friend. I need answers and I'm not getting them from my parents, let alone from my dad, and I know that you can give them to me. So please don't shut me out from the truth" I begged.

Jason looked at me and his eyes softened at the tone I used.

He sighed before nodding his head, making me slightly smile.

He led me to a nearby bench and we both sat down there in order to talk.

"It was another one of those boxes Ali liked so much. I found it under the floorboards of a room at my grandmother's" Jason said.

"Why hide things that stay hid?" I chuckled.

Jason looked at me with raised eyebrows and I shook my head.

"Something Ali used to say" I said.

"There were letters to my mom from your dad" Jason said.

"Love letters?" I asked.

"Couple of those. Then I'm born, and he starts sounding like a lawyer. 'In light of recent events'. 'Under the current situation'" Jason said.

"That's my old man" I nodded.

Jason chuckled at the name, making me smile.

"There was something else in that box. $15,000 in cash. In envelopes. $5,000 in each one" Jason said.

My eyes widened slightly at that, that's alot of cash.

"Where would Ali have gotten that kind of money?" I asked, confused.

"Think about it" Jason said.

I did and my eyes widened as I nodded, sighing as I looked at my hands.

"She found those letters and figured out what they meant and then she blackmailed my father to keep from blowing up both families" I said, putting the pieces together.

And dad let her because he didn't want our family to fall into chaos.

He didn't want mom to know or he would lose her, and he didn't want me, Spencer or Melissa to know because he would've lost us as well.

"I know. It's hard to believe when you say it out loud" Jason said.

"Yeah, but if anybody had the nerve to do something like that it was Ali" I sighed.

Whatever Alison had against anybody she would use it to her advantage to get what she wanted.

Makes me glad that she never, ever, found out about my only secret. The last thing I wanted was for her to use that against me.

"Are you angry at me?" I asked, looking at Jason.

"Why would I be angry at you?" Jason asked, confused.

"Because my, our dad, was never apart of your life even after he found out you're his son. That I got to do fun and amazing things with him, like going to the park, playing soccer, skating and every other stuff while you didn't" I said.

Jason sighed and looked at me.

"I'll admit that when I found out I was pretty jealous. But, I knew that you were nothing like your father, you were so different from him that it was hard to imagine you were his son. And while I don't really like him that much, I can't find it in my heart to hate someone as amazing as you" Jason softly said.

I smiled softly at that and nodded my head.

"Are you angry at me? You know, for not telling you the truth sooner" Jason asked.

"I'm not angry at you. And I'm not angry at my mom. I'm angry at my dad for cheating on my mom, not being apart of your life and lying to me and my sisters all our lives" I said.

Jason nodded at that, understanding where I was coming from.

I sighed before looking at him.

"But at least something good came out of all of this" I said.

"Like what?" Jason asked.

"I got a brother, something that I've always wanted" I smiled.

Jason's eyes softened as a smile appeared on his face. He ruffled my hair, making me glare at him and playfully smack his hand away.

At A Restaurant

Me and the girls went to the restaurant. It's the restaurant the guy told me to meet him.

Right now I was sitting at a table, alone, drinking some coffee with the Lolita book on the table.

The girls were sitting together at a table behind me, that way they were close by in case anything happened and they could hear what me and the man would be talking about.

I sighed as I patiently waited for the man to show up.

"So, you're a friend of Vivian's" a man said.

I looked up and saw a man around his 30's or 40's looking down at me. I set my coffee down and sat straighter.

"Yeah, that's me" I nodded.

The man nodded before sitting down across from me.

It was silent for a few seconds before he spoke.

"How much money does she owe you?" the man asked.

"Vivian owes you money?" I asked, confused.

"She owes me a lot more than money. She owes me a job and she almost owes me a girlfriend thanks to you calling that number" the man said.

The last part made me confused, why would his girlfriend think that?

I shook my head, that was the least of my worries right now, and spoke again.

"You said that she cost you a job. What did she do?" I asked.

"I worked at Allegheny Cellular. Human resources. Your friend came in asking for a job, but she didn't want a job, she wanted information, and she said she'd pay for it" the man explained.

"What kind of information?" I asked.

The man stared at me for a few seconds before a smile appeared on his face as realization dawned on him.

"Oh, I get it. You're friends with Alison" the man said.

I pushed down the shock and confusion I felt and decided to play along with what he said.

"Oh, Vivian told you about Alison, what did she say?" I asked.

"She said she had a friend named Alison that was getting texts from somebody. The number was blocked and she wanted to know where they were coming from. She'd pay to find out" the man asked.

"Did you find out?" I asked.

"Yeah, I found out. Then I made the mistake of telling your pal before I had the money in my hand. She dropped off the map and I got fired for accessing restricted information" the man explained.

Yeah, that sounds like Alison, or well Vivian.

"What did you find out about the person that was sending those texts?" I asked.

"Are you listening? I did not get paid. I want what she owes me" the man said, annoyed.

"How much does she owe you?" I asked, taking my wallet out and opening it.

"$2,000" the man said.

My eyes widened at that as I closed my wallet and put it back in my pocket.

"$2,000?" I asked in disbelief.

"That's the price today. But it could go up depending on market conditions" the man said.

He grabbed a napkin and took out a pen from his pocket.

"Don't ever use that number again. If you wanna do business, call me here" the man said.

He handed me the napkin with his number on it before getting up to leave.

"Oh, who do I ask for when I call?" I asked.

"Tell them you wanna talk to Jonah" the man, Jonah, said.

He nodded before turning around and walking away, making me sigh and rest my head on the table.

A Few Minutes Later

After I made sure Jonah was gone I went to go sit with the girls so we could discuss about what happened.

"He knows about Alison, it means that he doesn't know she's dead and if he finds out there won't be enough money in the world to make him talk" I said, worried.

"If this Jonah had real information, Ali might've known who A was. And that's why she was killed" Emily said.

"We have to find out what he told her about those messages" Spencer said.

"What are we supposed to do? Throw a bikini car wash? Even if we talked Prudence Finn into a tube top, we wouldn't raise enough money" Hanna said.

This made us sigh in annoyance before Aria looked at me and Spencer.

"Spencer, Ethan" Aria said.

When we realized what she was trying to say, we shook our heads.

"Our account's been on lock down since we were arrested" I said and Spencer nodded.

"So where are we gonna get the money from?" Emily asked.

I don't know where we're gonna get the money from, but we need to get it soon.

Otherwise Jonah won't tell us anything and we won't know who A is.

Late At Night

It was the night of the celebration party for Emily and her team.

However, when me and Spencer arrived at Hanna's house we saw that her and her mom weren't there, it was just Emily and the team.

Emily told us that it was because the cops called them down to the station.

"The cops called them down there? Which cops?" I asked.

"I don't know. There was a note on the counter when I came downstairs with Maya" Emily said.

We saw the front door open and saw Hanna and Ms. Marin. We walked towards them just as Ms. Marin walked upstairs.

"Hey. What's going on with Caleb?" Spencer asked.

"I don't know. That's not why we were called down there. Wilden's back. He still thinks we had something to do with Ali's murder" Hanna sighed.

"Yeah and he's an annoying asshole, what else is new?" I sarcastically asked.

"There's a photo of the three of us outside the coroner's office looking for page five" Hanna said, gesturing to her, Spencer and Emily.

"A was following us?" Emily asked, shocked.

"No. Security cameras. There's an investigation going on; He said the copies of that page are missing" Hanna explained.

"Copies? As in every copy?" Emily asked.

"Well if the cops don't have it then it had to have been an inside job" Spencer said.

"Garrett" Emily angrily said.

"Officer two-face is gonna open that laptop" I angrily said, clenching my fist.

"Exactly. What if Caleb goes to jail? It's gonna be all my fault" Hanna said, completely worried.

"It's not gonna happen" Spencer said. 

She opened a closet door to take her jacket out.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked, confused.

"Jonah knows something that could help us figure out what really happened to Alison. Wilden is just gonna keep on coming after us. So we need to find out who killed Alison so we can prove it wasn't us" Spencer explained, putting her jacket on.

"Ok, unless you found $2,000 while I was out-" Hanna started but stopped when Spencer opened the door.

"Where are you going?" Emily asked.

"Home" Spencer sighed.

I looked at her in worry and was about to offer to go with her, not wanting her to do this alone, when she stopped me.

She sent me a small smile and mouthed 'I'll be ok' before leaving.

I sighed and shook my head.

An Hour Later

I was enjoying the party, eating some cupcakes when Hanna texted me from her room, an S.O.S text and I ran up there as fast as I could.

When I got there I opened and shut the door.

"I got the S.O.S, what's wrong?" I immediately asked.

"Please tell me you know how to hack into computers" Hanna said.

"Well, uh, a little but I'm not that great at it. That's kind of the reason we had Caleb" I said.

"Well, Caleb is at the police station right now cooperating with this whole investigation. Unless we figure out how to hack into his hard drive and delete all the files A planted, he's screwed" Hanna explained, worried as hell.

My eyes widened in shock as Hanna nodded her head when she saw the state I was in.

"Ok, do you know his password?" I asked, sitting next to her.

"I did" Hanna sighed.

Great, we're gonna be working on this for a while.

A Few Minutes Later

I was helping Hanna try and remember what Caleb's password was so that we could work on hacking into his computer and delete the files.

I ain't letting my hacker bestie go to jail because we asked for his help, hell to the fucking no.

"Ok, it's the first initials of every city he's ever lived in. Seattle, Wilmette, Salt Lake, Denver, Allentown, Rosewood" Hanna said.

I nodded and quickly wrote them down.

"In that order?" I asked.

"In that order? Yes. Oh, and he alternates capital and lower case letters" Hanna said.

"Wow this is almost as complicated as my password" I chuckled.

"And Spencer's" Hanna said, making me nod.

"Any punctuation?" I asked.

"Yes! An exclamation point after the last four numbers" Hanna said.

"Last four numbers? There are four more numbers? Ok, what are they?" I asked.

I looked at Hanna, only for my eyes to widen when I realized that she didn't know what the numbers were.

Damnit.

Hanna began pacing back and forth, trying to come up with an idea what the last numbers could be but she was having a very difficult time.

"What else could it be?" I asked.

"I don't know! We only have one more try until we're locked out of the system" Hanna said.

"Just think, buttercup!" I yelled.

"Bubs, I am thinking! This is me thinking! And molting!" Hanna yelled back, frustrated.

"You said, 1, 1, something, 5. 1, 1, something, 5. 1, 1, something-" I started but Hanna cut me off.

"That is not helping!" Hanna yelled.

"Is it a...a code? Is it a date? Or part of a phone number? Is it a birthday? Is it an anniversary? Or-" I started but stopped.

Hanna looked at me with wide eyes and I immediately knew that she remembered.

She quickly sat down and typed in the password before hitting enter.

Me and Hanna anxiously waited before we let out gasps when we finally got into the computer.

"Oh, my God! We're in! We did it!" Hanna cheered.

"Buttercup" I said.

"Yes?" Hanna asked.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

Hanna immediately began scrolling through the flies, trying to find the right one.

"There are million files on here" Hanna gasped in slight awe.

"It's like looking inside of his brain. Which one is it?" I asked, confused.

"It's gotta be hefty. That bitch" Hanna angrily scoffed.

I chuckled lightly at that and shook my head before Hanna clicked on the file.

"This is it. Social Security number, credit card information" Hanna said.

"Student records" I gasped in disbelief.

"Bubs, how much is on here?" Hanna asked.

"Somebody who really wants Caleb out of their way" I said.

Hanna immediately began working on deleting all the files but she was taking too long. Even as she tried deleting as much files as she could together it would still take another hour or so.

"We're taking too long, Hanna. Just Control, A" I said.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Hanna yelled.

"It's not fast enough, Hanna! Just Control, A. Control, A!" I yelled back at her.

"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do?" Hanna angrily snapped at me.

"No, buttercup, hit Control, A on the keyboard!" I yelled back at her.

Hanna quickly did as I said and just like that the rest of the files began to delete.

Me and Hanna sighed and slumped back in our seats, tired and sweaty.

But relieved because we helped Caleb and stopped A from getting rid of him. Thank the lords.