TENACITY

CHAPTER ONE

Part of him desperately wanted to believe in her innocence, but her failure to deny her actions had driven the final nail into her own coffin. It hurt more than he was willing to admit.

"You were the only one who saw me working on those projects. They were here in the house, with you," he continued, his gaze locked onto her, taking in every detail of her face. He knew he would miss her after what he had to do.

"Trey—"

"I thought you said you were over Ethan," he whispered, hating how broken he'd sounded.

"I am. I am over him," she assured, lowering the glass of water. He wasn't going to drink it anyway.

"I told you to drop the act because I know. And I'm begging you now to please stop breaking my heart even more," he muttered, locking gazes with her. "You gave him the project, didn't you?"

"I did not," she stated firmly.

"Are you lying to me?" He asked suddenly, his left eye twitching. He was close to snapping, and she could tell. So close.

More tears fell as she racked her mind for something that would appease him. "I'm serious." Trey pulled on his hair, irritated she wasn't exactly admitting or explaining anything. Maybe there was nothing to explain.

He saw the glass of water in her hand and that reminded him of how life was before today. So annoyed, he took it out of her hand and threw it to the floor, leaving her gasping. 

"You know what else I found out?" Without waiting for an answer, he went up the stairs. She pressed further into the couch, scared, because this was not the same man who'd showered her with love and attention for three years.

She allowed her body to slump, feeling a slight pain in her belly. Trey was wrong. She hadn't done anything and didn't remember the last time she saw Ethan—well except that one time he'd managed to sneak past security to 'pay her a visit'.

She shuddered, regretting not mentioning it to Trey. Had it been some kind of warning? All he'd said was 'you're mine Alexa, remember that', then he was gone.

Trey returned with a duffel. He dropped it to the ground with a thud, and several packets of birth control pills—used and new—spilled out of it.

"Did you ever want kids with me?" he asked, a broken man appearing before her once more. "While I was trying to get you pregnant, you were taking these," he waved a hand in the direction of the pills.

Alexandra went stiff, wondering what was going on, but Trey took it as a sign that he'd been right. "You could've told me you didn't want any. We could have found a way—adoption, any other way. I love you that much." 

He sounded so dejected that Alexandra wanted to crawl into a hole and die though she'd done nothing. "God knows that since your first 'accidental' pregnancy, I've been obsessed with the idea of having our kids filling this empty house with life."

Alexandra still couldn't speak. Was he blaming her for not giving him children? At this point, it was safe to say she was confused. Almost nothing was clear. Where had all these pills come from? And why would she waste money buying a whole duffel of pills? Nothing was adding up.

"Shocked?" he said with a dry but pained laugh. "What of the miscarriages? Did you. . .?" He left the question hanging, but she knew what he was asking.

"Trey, I swear, I don't know what is going on. You have to believe me." When he remained indifferent, she turned away from him. 

It hurt... so bad.