Heart & Sincerity

10/ Alice's Son

Betty came down the stairs as she tied her ponytail. She swerved around the railings and into the kitchen.

"Hey, mom. Did dad leave already?" She noticed he wasn't in his chair.

"He just left," Alice handed her a smoothie. "But it's alright. You still have me as your breakfast buddy."

Betty smiled and took a sip out of her drink. "Maybe even better."

Alice laughed, "I could agree with that."

The women heard a knock on the door. "Oh, that might be Archie." Betty said. "It's open!" She walked towards the door.

Archie pushed the door open. He poked his head in. "Hey, Betty. Ready to go?" He spotted Alice in the background. "Good morning, Mrs. Cooper."

"Good morning, Archie."

"Yeah," Betty looked down at her smoothie. "Guess I'll take it to go." She grabbed her bag from the couch. "Bye, mom!" She opened the door wider. "Oh, Jughead, you're here too?" She was surprised to see him.

Jughead shyly waved hello. "I just stopped by Archie's place for a book I left behind before going to school. He just mentioned that you two walked to school together, so here we are." He looked passed her to see Alice walking around the kitchen. "Can I talk to your mom for sec before we go? It's about the interview."

"Uh, sure. We'll be right outside."

Jughead walked to the kitchen, holding onto his backpack's strap nervously. "Before we go, I just wanted to apologize again for what happened."

"It's okay," Alice interrupted him. "It's really not your fault. I just jumped into things a little too soon. A meeting like that takes time."

"So everything is okay? I swear he said he was okay with it when I asked. I don't know what happened, but I already gave him an earful for what he did."

"Yes, don't worry about it, dear. I still encourage you to work on your draft if you're still up for that."

"Okay," Jughead nodded. "Well I got to go. They're waiting for me. Bye."

"Bye," She waved him off. Once the kids left Alice mentally prepared herself for her meeting at the Five Seasons. If she was confirmed correct then her life would change drastically.

***

Alice walked into the hotel and looked around. She didn't necessarily know where to meet the FBI man. She loitered in the lobby until he tapped on her shoulder. "Follow me," Charles lead her down the hall into a room. "Take a seat." He pointed at one of the chairs. "This is going to be quite the conversation." Charles closed the door behind them. "I know you have many questions and so do I."

"Charles, do you know who I am?" Alice threw the question right at him. She couldn't wait. She couldn't keep her hands still either, so she clasped them together.

"Yes...I actually do." Charles slowly revealed. "And I think you might know who I am." He avoided looking into her ocean eyes. "It's actually not much of a coincidence I ran into you during this investigation. I know you were once Alice Smith, a young teenage girl who put a baby boy up for adoption back in '92."

Alice dug her face into her hands to hide the tears that were about to come out. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She needed to apologize to him. She couldn't believe she was sitting in front of that beautiful baby boy.

"I understand why you did what you did," Charles calmly assured her. He learned to accept it as he matured, especially when he worked on cases that involved families. "Things must have been hard at the time. I hold no hard feelings."