Page 88 of Never Started
"Ander! Isn't this hers?" I shout, lifting up Via's phone. She must have forgotten it when she got out.
Ander nods, swallowing with an audible gulp.
"Should I—" I’m debating going through it.But what if?What if something is wrong, and her phone holds the answers?
"Just do it," Ander says, turning his head back to face the road. I can see every emotion he’s bottling in.He’s terrified.
Wasting no time, I get to work, my fingers moving a mile a minute, searching through everything I can think of.
"Ander, these texts between her and I... These aren't from me. Not for the past five days, at least.” My voice is shaky, but I force it out through newly falling tears.
The panic is setting in for all of us.
"What the fuck? How is that possible?" Maverick asks firmly, his tone fierce.
"I don't know!" I shout back at him, confusion replaced by rage.
"What about her emails? Look and see if there's anything there," Maverick suggests.
"Okay." My fingers shuffle around on the screen, swiping, clicking, and pressing away. "Geeze, does she ever check this shit? She's always been so bad with emails."
Via often jokes about how many emails she can "collect." And I sit there, searching, snooping, and looking through all of them. For anything that seems out of place. Junk email after junk email. Just when I’m about to swipe out and give up on the email escapade, I see it.
RELEASED.
My heart sinks in my chest, my palms grow sweaty, and my breaths grow heavy.
Liam—Via’s adopted brother. The man who has always made it his mission to make her life a living hell.
Don’t think like that, Izzy.Ignore the subject line and open the email.‘Released’ could mean multiple things. It may not even concern Liam.
I check the sender, and just as I thought, it’s from the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. It can only mean one thing.
I open the email and am met with the exact thing I was terrified of.
I clutch my chest, the pain too intense, my breathing too difficult.Panic.
"Go faster, Ander, GO FASTER!" I scream at him frantically on repeat. Tears are falling down my cheeks in rivers, and there’s no point in swiping them away. They aren’t stopping.
"Izzy, what?! What did you find?!" Maverick shouts over my screaming.
"Izzy, you need to calm down, breathe, and tell me exactly what you found that freaked you out," Ander demands, placing a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to help calm me.
It doesn’t work. Through the panic, I shrug him off, too. Nothing will calm me down. Not until we get to her.
I take a few breaths, pulling my legs to my chest.
Wrap my arms around them.
Then, I scream out in desperation, "He's out! There's an email that Via never read, mixed in with the hundreds of other unopened ones... Liam was released in September!"
Part Two
Before
Chapter forty-one
Izzy
