Dangerous Lies

Chapter 4

When Jughead arrived at the police station, Veronica's mother was waiting in his office. Jughead of course wasn't surprised to see her, but when he did, he asked himself if he saw her at the crime scene. Maybe he was too blind in that moment to notice anything or maybe Hermione Lodge just wasn't there, maybe she didn't want to see her daugher dead. Jughead looked at her face, he never really liked his mother - in - love, of course he never said anything to Veronica, but to Jughead, Hermione was even worse than her husband. He had never seen her smile, not even once. He had never seen her cry, not even once, not even now. Her face was always the same, without emotions and rather impossible to read. He hated that.

He hated everything right now.

"Mrs. Lodge, I'm glad you waited for me here,
since I of course have questions." Jughead sat on his chair, he opened his drawer and took blank paper and pen, ready to write every single word that his mother- in - love is going to say.
"Jughead, I know this looks bad but Veronica would never-..." He raised his hand, signaling her to stop talking.
"I know", he said and he did know. He knew that Veronica would never cheat on him, he knew that there is explanation to all of this, he just didn't know if it was worth it anymore. Without her, his whole world didn't make sense anymore. Jughead fought back his tears again. He felt that if he could choke on his own tears, he would definitely be dead by now. But honestly, nothing else was important anymore, except that one question.
"Mrs. Lodge, how did you not hear Veronica when she snuck out, since I clearly remember that I dropped her home, after our date."
"I was asleep."
"At 10pm?" Jughead asked, raising his eyebrows. Few hours ago Veronica and him were on a date. Nothing seemed wrong, actually the opposite, everything was really good. He didn't notice anything wrong or maybe he did, maybe he ignored it, maybe for the first time he didn't want to notice anything bad. When you grew up in the Southside, evil is all you see and yet he didn't see the biggest evil coming to his way.
"And why do you think she snuck out at 10pm?" She asked, while holding her purse close to her chest, it was like she was trying to grab something, anything that would stop her from falling apart. Jughead saw how hard her fingers squeezed the purse, leaving traces of her fingers after she moved them on the top of the purse. She was sad or even nervous. Jughead couldn't tell.
"As I remember I dropped her off at 9:30pm, I saw her entering the house and if you weren't sleeping already, she would wait at least 30 minutes to leave the house again, she would wait for you to fall asleep." Jughead said, and after she didn't say anything he continued.
"We found Veronica and that man..." he cleared his throat, not wanting to say Hal Cooper's name, not wanting to remember him at all.
"We found them near the cliff, as you may or not know we don't really have much cliffs in Riverdale, so you may guess that the place we found them was 2 hours away from your house, it was a little past midnight, she couldn't get there on time even if she left at 10:30pm."
When he finished talking, she stood up ready to leave, clearly not having anything to say. Jughead didn't look up nor he felt the need to. Hermione was not really the woman that needs his comforting, on the opposite, maybe he needed one. But not from her. Not from his coleagues, but from his dad. Jughead bit his tongue, he didn't want to have anything with that man anymore, and yet he was longing for his hugs right now.
"Jughead..." Hermione called him, snapping Jughead from his thoughts, he almost forgot that she was there. When he finally looked at her, he noticed that something has changed, not her facial expression, but something that Jughead could and couldn't see at the same time.
"Veronica didn't cheat on you with Hal Cooper, you should now that." She said, opening the door, ready to leave.
"Wait." Jughead said, he stood up and walked up to her, he closed the door and calmly said.
"I've never said his name. I've never said it was Hal Cooper."

When Elizabeth got off the airplane, all she could think of was her dad and that woman. Veronica Lodge. Betty couldn't figure it out how her father who had 48 years had known the girl who was apparently her age. And why the hell they were alone in the car in the middle of the nowhere? When driver came to pick her up he said that her mother is wating for her in her Penthouse. The Penthouse that her dad bought her for her birthday, the birthday that was yesterday. He came to Italy to surprise her, he said that he missed her, he said that Alice couldn't make it, but that she would call her soon. Except when she did call, it wasn't to wish her happy birthday. She didn't notice anything wrong. He was just happy and cheerful like always.

The driver stopped in front of the building that Betty saw for the first time. Riverdale was not a big town, she did know every corner of it, but yet this part of the town was unfamiliar to her. When she got out of the car, she saw her mother coming out of the building. Her eyes were swollen and even if everyone would say that Alice Cooper is cold and heartless, she knew that her mother couldn't bear this alone. She loved her husband more than anything.

Betty run to her mother, not able to hold her tears anymore, tears that were burning inside of her. She hugged her mom tightly, the familiar scent of her mother calmed her down. Scent of the flowers she thought.

Alice lifted up Betty's head, not knowing what to say to her daugher or rather not wanting to say it. They were identical, same blonde hair, same green eyes and even now the same pain.

"Betty, your father cheated on me."