A Life Remembered (Hard Time Series-Book 7)

Noah's Secret

LENA POV

Despite everything going on in our lives, I still worked full time, but I was now the Head Director of the Juvenile Center for Rehabilitation. It was a job I still loved and still cared about very much. The fact that I could now fully run the center was the icing on the cake for me.

At times, I thought about the teaching job I had passed up in San Diego a few months ago. However, I still felt deep in my heart that it wasn't the right time.

Yes, Stef didn't want me to keep putting my dreams on hold, which I understood, but being there for my family during that time was crucial, and I did not regret my decision.

In fact, it just opened my eyes a bit to what I could do maybe in a year, and I was pretty sure I could present this class idea to another college that was closer to our home. It wasn't something I had even considered, but it was now an idea planted in my head along with teaching history. Which was another dream of mine.

There were an array of options out there and part of me felt that once our grandkids were a little bigger that my wife may venture back into what she used to do at the center as well.

Stef had so much to give, and if someone could get almost forty girls to change their lives around and not renter jail or re-offend, that was a pretty powerful influence and power she held.

I wasn't even aware if she knew that, but it was rather amazing to see and witness. But I did miss working with her at the center and that entire spectacle with Devon that happened more than a decade ago felt like another life.

Sometimes in my quiet moments, I wonder how I could have even let such a thing happen. How I allowed myself to let some other woman make me feel special or wanted. I knew Stef, and I were going through a rough patch at that time, and I should have NEVER, EVER let that happen. Ever.

I think she had grown tremendously in the last decade. Not just her, but myself as well. Our children forced the two of us to grow, especially our grandchildren, in ways we couldn't imagine. I know Stef didn't like it, but she had mellowed a good amount in the last few years. Especially once Faith and JJ were born, I had seen it more and more each day.

Not to say she didn't have the Lion's Den inside of her, because that would always be there, and inside of me as well. But my lion was tamer now, and I absolutely loved that softness she had. She was prideful, though, and still hated the fact that she wasn't working.

But, I had to remind her she was taking care of Faith, Antoinette, and JJ every day, and that was ten times more work than what I was doing all day in my eyes. The only difference was she didn't see it as working. She saw it as what she was put on this earth to do, and I believed it was well.

As I pull up to the driveway of our home and park my car, I decide to read Callie's recent letter before heading inside. The two of us had been writing back and forth ever since she arrived in LA a few months ago and we spoke on the phone about twice a week.

Usually I called her, because I knew she was very reluctant to call home in case Stef or Baby Stef answered the phone.

No one in the family would be rude to her. We all knew she was trying hard to recover. But, I didn't want to put her in that position or my wife, so I called her at night when I knew she was back at the halfway house.

Callie seemed to be doing well, even if I was worried about the area she lived in down in LA. But I had to remember she survived Chowchilla twice, and despite how innocent and naïve she looked, Callie was really anything but that.

The past seven years had changed her, of course. How could they not? Yes, she was still rather embarrassed and unsure of herself, and her confidence was rather shot. But, I felt as time went on, she may gain some of her confidence back, especially if she decided to reconcile with our family face to face.