32. Alex
32
Alex
Alex led her down the hall to Lena's bedroom, hoping Lena would be okay with how things had turned out. He knew she was excited for her mother to see her room, and he prayed Melissa would respond with enthusiasm, for Lena's sake.
Lena must have heard their footsteps, because before they could knock on the door, the child opened it and looked up expectantly at them. "Are we going now, Mommy?"
"I wanted to see your room, sweetie." Melissa managed a smile. "And then I thought we could go get something to eat together. Just you and me. Would you like that?"
Lena's eyes lit up. "Can we get hamburgers and fries?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of caprese salad and involtini."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Lena bounced up and down on her toes, licking her lips exaggeratedly. Her reaction told Alex that he could learn a lot about his daughter from Melissa if he gave her the chance.
He gestured for Juno and his mother to join him in kitchen, giving Lena time to give her mother a private room tour. "I'll tell you about it in a minute," he said when Juno gave him a demanding look. "Don't worry. It's all good."
Juno and Roxanne exchanged chagrinned glances, but sat down at the table where he and Melissa had talked only moments ago.
Several minutes later, Melissa and Lena emerged from the bedroom and Alex got up to meet them, his mother and Juno following a few steps behind.
"We're gonna go get dinner, Daddy, then we're coming right back, so you don't have to say goodbye yet." Lena hugged him anyway, then Roxanne, and lastly, Juno. She looked up at both women and whispered, "She really liked my room. She loved it, especially the glowy stars."
And then they were off, heading down the stairs and out to where Melissa had parked. He watched from the landing as Melissa helped Lena into the back seat of the Mercedes, glad to see how animated his daughter—no, their daughter was. Before getting in herself, Melissa looked back at him and gave a small nod. It felt like an acknowledgment of their agreement, a promise to honor it.
Alex stood there long after they'd left, a strange mixture of emotions churning inside him. Relief that Melissa had agreed to primary custody. Fear that she might change her mind. Worry for Lena and how she would process this transition. And beneath it all, an undercurrent of cautious hope.
"Alex?" Juno's voice pulled him back to the present. She stood beside him, her hand finding his. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, squeezing her fingers. He turned to face Juno and his mother. "Melissa is giving me primary custody of Lena."
Juno's eyes widened. "What? Just like that?"
"Oh, Alex," Roxanne gasped, her eyes filling with tears of relief.
"She'll still have visitation rights, and at least for now, we're going to share legal custody, which essentially means that we both have to agree on big decisions like education and health stuff." He gestured for them to head back to the kitchen. He was suddenly ravenous now that the mess of nerves in his gut had settled. "But Lena will live with me permanently."
"That's fantastic news." Juno searched his face. "This is even more than you'd hoped for!"
"How are you feeling about all of it, honey? You don't think she'll change her mind, do you?" His mother's voice trembled.
"Relieved. Terrified. Grateful. Starving." He opened the fridge and pulled out an enormous container of spaghetti and meat sauce his mother had brought with her. "Are either of you hungry?" It was a little early for dinner, but he didn't care. If he didn't eat something soon, his stomach would start cannibalizing itself. "She's taking Lena for Italian food to talk to her about it."
Roxanne looked up sharply. "She's telling Lena about the custody arrangement? Now?"
"She wanted to explain it herself," Alex said. "I think she's trying to do right by Lena, in her own way."
Roxanne called her husband to let him know to come straight to Alex's from work. "Your father will want to hear everything."
While the spaghetti heated on the stovetop, Alex sliced up a crusty loaf of bread for garlic cheese toast in the broiler, Juno put together a green salad, and his mother set the table. His father showed up just as the toast was coming out of the oven.
During the homecooked fare, Alex filled them in on his conversation with Melissa. He watched them processing it all, their expressions shifting between relief and concern and back again.
"It's good that Lena will have stability," his father said finally. "But I hope Melissa follows through on her promises to visit."
"Yes," agreed Roxanne sagely. "Lena adores her mother, despite everything."
"I think she will," Alex said, wanting to believe it. "She seemed hopeful."
He and Juno exchanged happy smiles, but his mother's expression remained somber. He was just about to ask her if she had any other concerns, when she cleared her throat and set down her fork.
"Alex." Roxanne's voice was strained. She glanced at her husband who gave her a gentle nod.
Now Alex was really starting to worry.
"There's something I need to tell you. To tell you both," she added, turning her gaze to include Juno. "Something I should have come clean about years ago." She wrung her hands in her lap, a gesture so unlike his normally composed mother, and Alex was relieved when his father reached over and covered her hands with his.
"What is it, Mom? What's wrong?"
Roxanne looked to Juno, then back at Alex. "It's about some letters Juno wrote to you." To Juno, she said, "It was years ago, right after you and your family left Autumn Lake."
Alex felt a chill run through him. "What about them?"
"I—" Roxanne's voice cracked. "I never gave them to you."
The room seemed to tilt beneath him, turning his stomach the same way a night of too much drinking did. "Why? Why not?"
His mother's eyes filled with tears. "Leonard Thomas... your father, Juno..."
Dwight picked up when his wife broke off. "Leonard scammed us out of some money just before leaving town. He came to me and told me about a family business he was starting, and he asked me to invest. He talked about how serious you two were about your future together, and thought we might like to be a part of it."
Alex glanced at Juno, whose face had gone ashen. "How—how much?" she asked, her question breathy with anxiety.
His mother must have noticed. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. I know this must be such a shock to you, but I'd hoped, now that you know what your father does, that you would perhaps understand."
Juno shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. "But how much? I—I'll pay you back." She tried to pull her hand free of Alex's, but he refused to let go. He would not let her withdraw into herself. What her father did was not her fault, no matter how much she'd conditioned herself to believe it was. He slid his chair around to sit closer to her, even though he knew it might look like he was taking sides with her against his parents.
His father shook his head. "The details don't matter, Juno. We wanted to offer Leonard a good faith gesture; it's not easy moving to a new town and starting over, and with you two having gotten so close, as he pointed out, it seemed like something worth investing in at that time. But then he took the money and we never heard from him again. It wasn't a terrible loss to us financially, and no investment is a hundred percent sound, is it? And because we knew how you felt about Juno, Alex, we decided not to press charges. In hindsight, we should have reported him to the police, maybe saved countless others the same heartache," Dwight added. "But at the time, we thought it best to put it behind us."
Roxanne took a shaky breath. "But I was so angry." She looked at Juno, remorse etched into every line of her face. "And when your letters came, I wanted nothing more to do with your family, nor did I want that for Alex. And so I took them."
"What did you do with them?" Alex asked, angry at his mother's interference, even though he could maybe understand her perspective.
"I put them away, thinking after things cooled a little in regards to Juno's family, maybe after high school when you were old enough to make decisions for yourself, that I would give them to you then. Besides, I was certain your high school romance would fade like most of them do. And then we lost Jason, and for a while, I forgot about them." She turned to Juno and added, "Until you came back to town, Juno."
Alex's whole body tingled at his mother's words. He turned to his father. "Did you know about this?"
Roxanne shook her head, tears now flowing freely. "No, Alex. He knew nothing. I only told him about the letters last week." She looked back and forth between Alex and Juno. "It was all me. What I did was wrong. So terribly wrong, and I'm sorry. To both of you." She reached into her cardigan pocket and withdrew a small bundle of envelopes wrapped in a rubber band. "I've kept them all these years, too ashamed to admit what I'd done. But when you came to our home a few weeks ago, and I saw the way Alex looked at you…." She shook her head, her face a mask of abject misery. "I knew I needed to confess my actions to both of you."
She held out the packet toward them, her hand trembling. "I can only hope that you will forgive me."
"Did… did you read them?" Juno's voice came out a hoarse whisper.
For a moment, Alex thought his mother might not have heard the question, but then she nodded. "I read the first one." She met Juno's eyes. "We couldn't have you live with us, Juno. We would have had to have your parents' permission, and there was no way we were going to engage in any kind of transactions with your father again." To Alex, she said, "And I knew you would fight us on that, Alex. I knew you would push and push for us to change our minds."
Alex stared at the bundle of letters, the familiar slanted script that had become more refined over the years. He wanted to tear them open, to see the proof for himself, evidence that Juno hadn't just abandoned him without a word, even though he already knew it to be true. Glancing at Juno, he saw the same longing in her eyes.
"You had both changed so much by the time you returned to Autumn Lake, Juno. You had your head on your shoulders and you were determined to be a successful member of society," Roxanne said, her voice growing steadier. She dabbed at her eyes with her napkin. "And Alex, you were so lost back then. I thought if I told you about the letters then, it might make things harder for you."
Alex nodded, even though he wanted to rail at her that if she had given him the letters then, that maybe he would have been motivated to find his way out of the black hole he'd been in way back then. "I thought Juno walked away without even saying goodbye, Mom. It broke my heart. And Juno thought I didn't care enough to even respond to her, when I would have fought tooth and nail to get her back here. You were right about that, because we weren't just some high school romance. I was completely gutted."
"I know," Roxanne whispered. "I was there, Alex. I know. And I'm so sorry."
The silence that followed was heavy with decades of loss and pain. Juno's fingers intertwined tightly with his, and when he looked at her, he saw not anger, but a reflection of his own grief for what might have been.
"I forgive you," Juno said quietly, looking at Roxanne. The simple words held such power, such grace, that Alex felt his own anger begin to dissolve.
"I do too, Mom," he said after a moment. Hadn't she given him second chances, he reminded himself. And third and fourth chances? Didn't she deserve as much and so much more? He held the letters against his chest. "Thank you for having the courage to give these to us today. I need you and Dad in my life, maybe more now than ever before, now that I have Lena."
Roxanne covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Her husband rose and pulled her to her feet, then wrapped his arms around her as she leaned into his comfort.
Alex rose, too, and circled the table, wrapping his arms around them both, then he felt Juno behind him, circling one arm around his waist, and one around his mother's shoulders. "Group hug," came Roxanne's muffled voice out of the middle of the huddle.
"My elephant family," he thought he heard Juno whisper. Maybe he was mistaken? He'd have to ask her to explain when they were alone again.
Standing with his arms around the people he loved, Alex was overcome by a sense of peace. The past couldn't be undone, but it no longer had the power to define their future. They had all made mistakes, had all failed one another in some way. And yet here they were, finding their way back to each other.
The sound of tires on gravel outside broke the moment. They looked up, startled.
"Could Melissa be back already?" Juno asked, moving to the window. Alex joined her, surprised to see Melissa's rental car pulling up.
A few moments later, the front door of his apartment flew open, and Lena burst in, her face alight with excitement. "Daddy! Guess what? Mommy says I get to live with you forever now! Well, not forever-forever, but like, all the time except when she visits!"
Behind her, Melissa followed more slowly, a bittersweet smile on her face as she watched her daughter's enthusiasm.
"Is that okay?" Lena asked, suddenly uncertain as she looked between the adults. "Mom says it's because you can take better care of me, and she has to travel a lot, and—"
"It's more than okay," Alex assured her, kneeling to her level. "It's wonderful news."
Lena beamed, then turned to include everyone in her joy. "Mom's still gonna visit lots, and maybe someday I can go see her in Paris if she still lives there when I'm old enough. And she says we can talk on the phone every day if I want!"
Alex glanced at Melissa, who stood awkwardly in the doorway. "You're welcome to come in," he offered.
Melissa hesitated, then stepped inside. "Lena wanted to come back and tell everyone the news herself. She was hoping her grandma would still be here." She looked uncertainly at Dwight. "Hi. I'm Melissa. Lena's mother."
"Oh, Melissa, this is my husband, Dwight," Roxanne said, quickly wiping away the last traces of tears. "I'm so glad we got to hear the news from you, Lena-bug," she said to Lena as she opened her arms for a hug.
Alex's father shook Melissa's hand. "Good to meet you, Melissa. Your daughter means the world to us. Thank you for sharing her with us."
Alex felt humbled by his father's kind words toward the woman who had, only days before, been threatening to take Lena away from them.
Then Juno stepped close to Melissa and asked, "Would you like to come in for some coffee and cookies? We still haven't indulged in Lena's snickerdoodles, and I know she'd love for you to try them."
To Alex's surprise, Melissa agreed, and let Juno link arms with her and lead her into the kitchen. With all six of them gathered in the small space, it felt full, but not crowded. He watched as Lena proudly carried her cookie platter around the room, uniting the most important people in her life. Melissa caught his eye over Lena's head, a silent understanding passing between them. They would make this work, for Lena's sake.
He took it all in: his parents with their adoring expressions following Lena's every move, Melissa, almost shy, discovering that she didn't need to impress anyone, and Juno. His beloved, beautiful, second-chance-romance love-of-his-life Juniper Bernice Thomas… soon to be Juniper Bernice Frampton, if he had his way about it.
This was his family now. Unconventional, imperfect, still healing from old wounds. But a family nonetheless.