The Teachers Inmate

Chapter Sixteen.

Belle was sitting at the kitchen table, Seth was planted in the other room in front of the television and Olivia was asleep in her playpen, across the table Jade sat drinking her tea.

"He won't talk about what happened, I keep...trying and...he just won't," Belle said with a shrug.

"Prison was probably hard for him Belle, it's a time I doubt he wants to remember."

"I needed him...I'm so...angry and hurt and...I don't know what I'm feeling."

Belle leaned forward wrapping both hands around her mug of hot tea that she hadn't touched.

"He's had a rough few years, then Maggie..." Jade pointed out.

"So have I," Belle said.

"I know."

"I just...I have so much to say and so many questions and I...I need to talk about it. I can't keep living in this house with these kids and have him around and never know..."

"Is he living at home still?" Jade asked.

"No, the last I heard he had bought a small house...he gave me the address in case of an emergency."

"Then go, go now. Tell him what you need to and get it off your chest, " Jade encouraged.

"Do you really think I should?"

"You were in love with him for a long time, long after he went to jail and...he deserves to know that. You deserve some closure."

Belle rolled the idea around in her head, Jade was right she did need closure if she ever hoped to move on with Landon.

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She left the children at home with Jade, hoping Alex would be more willing to cooperate if there didn't have a small audience watching and listening to them.

She was listening to her phone give her directions and looking at the houses on the street, they were all decent family sized. Most were around the same size as Maggies, and she thought that was weird since he lived alone.

She came up in front of a two-story house, it had a large yard and curved driveway, a front porch and from the road, it looked like some construction was going on.

She parked at one end of the driveway, taking a minute to steel her nerve. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the weathered photograph, staring at it for a long minute.

When she turned back to the house Alex was standing on his porch and he was not alone.

He was wearing loose blue jeans, a gray shirt, and no shoes. A woman about his age with long red hair was smiling at him her hand on his arm.

She was wearing a red cocktail dress and black heels, Belle stared a second longer. The woman leaned in for a chaste kiss that Alex allowed.

When the woman turned to exit the porch Belle moved.

Dropping the photograph she slid down in her seat as far as physically possible, hoping to hide in her car.

Her heart was pounding in her chest, she heard a car door and a few minutes later a car exit the other end of the curved driveway.

She waited another minute, maybe two. Hoping it was enough time for Alex to have gone back inside, it wasn't.

A soft knock jolter her to attention and she jumped before gazing up at Alex, he was leaning with one arm on the roof of her car and had knocked on her window.