Endless / Varchie

Chapter 21

Archies POV

Messages
Anonymous- it's the tape or him. It's your choice

I stared down at the picture of my father and the message attached beneath it and knew who exactly was behind it.

Hiram.

It was simple and he didn't even bother to try and hide his identity, all he cared about was staying out of prison and at the moment it looked like he had won. I looked up at Veronica who had her mouth hung open in shock "Veronica your dad did this... the message, everything points to him. Where's the tape we need to go now" I said quickly as I stood up.

Veronica shook her head "Archie we're trying to send my dad to jail and if we give him this tape he stays out and he may have a hidden agenda, we need to think about this" she said.

I frowned, she was seriously questioning getting my dad back as soon as possible "what is there to think about? My dad is out there bleeding and hurting and we're here deciding if we should even save him at all?!" I shouted angrily.

Veronica sighed softly "that's not what I meant. If we give this tape to my dad, who's to say he even gives your dad back? We don't know if this is all he wants or if it's an excuse to do something else" she said softly. I ran my hands through my hair and nodded as I paced the room back and forth, the picture of my dad stuck in my mind. I stopped when I felt two soft hands grab mine "Archie he's going to be ok" Veronica whispered and I nodded slowly, trying to convince myself she was right but all the worst possible things were flooding my mind.

I looked at her "what are we going to do then?" I asked, knowing all I wanted to do was run out the door and force it out of Hiram but that wasn't an option because Veronica wouldn't forgive me, even though Hiram was like a disease in her life he was still her dad and she cared about him deep down, even if she didn't want to admit it.

She looked up at me "we wait and make a plan"

***

After a few hours we were at the kitchen bench trying to find any possible way to get both the outcomes that we wanted. My dad back home safe and Hiram in prison. I had suggested we find another way to put Hiram behind bars without the tape but Veronica knew her dad wouldn't let anything else like this happen again and that he would have covered his tracks in any other dirty or incriminating things he had done in the past, this was the only piece of evidence we would find against him.

But nothing was working for us, I got up from my seat when I heard a knock on the front door but I frowned not knowing who it was because no one usually visited my house unless it was Veronica or when my dad was coming home from work. I cautiously looked through the glass that was on top of the door and saw the top of someone's head, I opened the door and saw my mom standing there with tears in her eyes.

"Mom..." I said confused by her expression and why she was even here, she lived in Chicago and it isn't easy to get to Riverdale from there and she rarely gets to visit me and my dad. She walked forward and hugged me "have you heard about your father?" She asked with a sob.

I hugged her back and nodded "yeah but mom we're going to get him back. Ronnie and I are figuring out a plan-" I stopped when she pulled back and looked up at me "Archie... what are you talking about there's no way to get him back" she said as more tears fell.

I frowned "but..."

"He's dead Archie"