Page 84 of The Coffee Bar on Camellia Court

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 shehadgiven 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."

---