Under certain general conditions, we prove that the stable central limit theorem holds in the total variation distance and get its optimal convergence rate for all $α\in (0,2)$. Our method is by two measure decompositions, one step estimates, and a very delicate induction with respect to $α$. One measure decomposition is light tailed and borrowed from \cite{BC16}, while the other one is heavy tailed and indispensable for lifting convergence rate for small $α$. The proof is elementary and composed of the ingredients at the postgraduate level. Our result clarifies that when $α=1$ and $X$ has a symmetric Pareto distribution, the optimal rate is $n^{-1}$ rather than $n^{-1} (\ln n)^2$ as conjectured in literatures.