Picking Up The Pieces Chapter 21 on FFn
Picking Up The Pieces Chapter 21 on Stars
Picking Up The Pieces Chapter 21 on AO3
Picking Up The Pieces Chapter 21 on Wattpad
Jessica Stanley was terminated from her position at Forks
Elementary. After a thorough investigation, she’d been having an affair with
several male parents. When those relationships ended, she’d take it out of the
students. When the parents threatened to go to Alice or me, she’d threaten to
show wives proof of their husband’s infidelity. It was the kids’ word against
hers, but when one of John’s friends, a little boy named Silas, his father came
forward with proof of what Jessica was doing, her job was effectively gone.
He lost his wife and access to his son when he came forward,
but he was also dealing with the aftermath of his tryst with Jessica –
gonorrhea. I felt for the guy, but he’d made his bed. I was grateful for his
corroboration and I hated that his life was in shambles, but Jessica needed to
pay for her transgressions.
On top of being terminated from her job, she was in trouble
with the law. She was being investigated for blackmail and extortion. She could
serve jail time if the evidence was substantiated. Because of Edward’s
relationship with me, the Port Angeles police were heading up the
investigation.
“Bella, are you going to city hall with Edward?” Alice asked
as we waded through resumes for Jessica’s position. “It’s election day. Your
fiancé could become the next chief of police of Forks.”
“I am. The kids are staying with Rose and Emmett tonight, so
we could celebrate, if he gets elected,” I said.
“He’s running uncontested. He’s going to be elected,” Alice
giggled. I rolled my eyes as I scanned a resume. “I hope whoever we hire is
going to be an improvement from Jessica.”
“A sea slug would be an improvement from Jessica,” I
deadpanned. “I do know that John is much happier in Mr. Molina’s class. He’s
enjoying school again.”
“That’s good,” Alice nodded. “Now, what about Victoria
Caine?” She handed me a short resume, but filled with positive, glowing
reviews. “She’s a new teacher but wasn’t hired because of some snafu with her license.”
“Is the snafu fixed?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Alice replied. “They lost her transcripts and check,
delaying her getting her license. However, she fought them, and they found her
paperwork. She’s good to go.”
I read her resume and letters of recommendation. “Set up an
interview, Ali-cat,” I said, sliding back the resume to her. “I also like this girl,
too. Sierra Jones … she reads well from her resume.” I handed her another set
of papers.
“I’ll schedule both of them,” Alice nodded. “Now, how is the
wedding planning going?”
“We’ve got the location figured out. We’re renting out
Tuscany,” I said. “We’re having the ceremony at the local church and the
reception is at Tuscany. At some point, I do need to go shopping for a dress,
but after dealing with the corset for Halloween, I know that my wedding gown
will not be corseted. That was hell.” I blinked to her and smiled slowly.
“Grace is going to be my maid of honor, but she can’t really sign the marriage
license. Would you be my matron of honor?”
“I’d thought you’d never ask,” Alice smiled, hugging me.
“But, Alice, as much as I love you, you cannot control my
wedding,” I said, arching a brow at her. “Between Esme, my mom and me, we’ve
got it covered. It’s not going to be a huge, over-the-top event. We will have
fun, celebrating our nuptials. No crazy bridal showers, bachelorette parties or
anything else. We went with the engagement party for Esme and it was amazing.
We’ve finally finished sending our thank you cards. Oh, speaking of which …” I
reached into my bag, handing her a cream envelope. “Thank you for the beautiful
frame, Ali. It’s on our dresser, with a picture from our engagement shoot.”
“I saw the pictures in the paper. Despite my trepidation
about your attire, the photos were gorgeous. I’ve never seen you so happy,”
Alice said, her voice wistful. “Okay, the few photos I saw with you and Jake,
you were happy, but the happiness you have with Edward is different.”
“I will always love Jake, but the love I share for Edward is
different. Jake was my first everything, but Edward is my last,” I murmured,
looking at photo on my desk that had been taken from the past Mother’s Day,
with Edward and I, cuddling our children. “Enough reminiscing. We’ve got
lunches to supervise.”
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