The Basketball Player's Wife

Chapter 12: My Baby

"How many weeks are you now?" Alex asked.

"I'm just about in my second trimester." I replied nonchalantly as I took a bite of my Caesar salad.

"You don't seem very excited about it sis." Alex noted sipping her Shirley Temple. She was trying to be supportive of me by not consuming any alcoholic beverages in front of me since I could not have any.

I didn't really care if she did but I found it endearing that she was trying to be supportive.

"Can I be honest?" I sighed.

"Of course you can. I'm your sister who use to strip for a living. I am definitely not one to judge." As Alex and Ray's progressed relationship, she stopped stripping for good.

"I don't think this baby was a good idea. I honestly wasn't ready but who's ever really ready for a baby, you know? Tre had been wanting this for so long and he's sacrificed a lot of his wants for the sake of my career...."

"But?"

"But now that this baby is coming, I don't think he's the kind of man I want to raise a baby with. I don't recognize the man I married." I said.

"Woah sis, what are you saying?"

"Alex, I found cocaine in Tre's closet and his car. I was already suspicious when he came to some of our ultrasounds for the baby, loopy as hell. But I didn't want to confront him without being sure." I exhaled the information that had been weighing on my chest.

"I know you be on some Sherlock Holmes stuff. What did you do sis?"

"I got some of his DNA and had it sent to the lab. Alex, it tested positive for cocaine."

"Oh my gosh. What has gotten into Tre? Did you confront him?"

"I don't know Alex but I'm not going to tolerate it. When I asked him about, he looked me dead in my face and lied. I told him I'd support him through rehab and go to counselling like he's been begging me to do."

"What'd Tre say?"

"He said he wasn't some crack fiend like my daddy...Alex, I'm not proud of it but I slapped him." I confessed.

"As you should. Tre has no right bringing up our dead father especially since he's in the wrong."Alex stated while grabbing my hand to give me a comforting squeeze.

"After I slapped him, I told about himself and gave him an ultimatum. It's the drugs or his family. I already called the my lawyer and had him file for a legal separation. And I told him to draft some divorce papers." I continued. It felt good to finally tell someone what I had been going through alone.

"Divorce? That's a big word Gab. You always told me you wanted to get married once in your life. Are you ready to walk away from your marriage?" Alex asked in a concerned voice. I know Alex wants the best for me whether I'm with Tre or not.

"Alex, I don't have in me to find my best friend dead from an overdose. I can't stand by and watch Tre kill himself and destroy his career. If me leaving Tre is the wake up call he needs to go to rehab and save his life, I'm willing to do it because at least he'll be alive." I said as my voice cracked and a few stray tears left my eyes.

"Oh baby come here. Have you guys talked since you confronted him?" Alex asked as she hugged me.

"We've been texting and he claims he's going to do better. And he claims he's been sober for the last two weeks but I can't be sure. I know better than to trust an addict. But, I'll admit, a large part of me wants to believe he's telling the truth. I want to believe Tre would choose me over an addiction like Dad did."