TENACITY

CHAPTER THREE

"To be fair, she agreed to marry me because she got pregnant with my child. But maybe, she didn't really want to, and this love I thought I was getting from her was all in my head," he muttered, rubbing his face tiredly. "I'm not going to think about it."

"She slept with you in the first place because she loved you," Melissa said, glaring at him.

Trey gave her a bland look. "You know, I'm quite surprised that you haven't heard of this, but your best friend cheated on me—quite a scandal." He took out his phone and scrolled through, pausing to show her the video. "See for yourself."

A few seconds in, she scoffed, asking, "You believe this?"

He tilted his head. "I don't think that matters. It's solid proof. What else is there to say?" He returned to his documents.

"Who gave you this?" she asked. Trey remained silent, working on the contracts he'd left for the last few days to go clear his mind. "Trey, who gave this to you?" she asked again.

He slammed his pen on the desk and growled. Then he looked up at her, his eyes clouded with pain. "Donovan." He could swear Melissa had muttered 'I knew I should've told you', but he shrugged it off.

"That son-of-a-gun rubbed it in my face that the girl I thought was mine was still hung up on him." He gave a little pained smile in the end.

Melissa stood to pace. "There must be some kind of misunderstanding," she said, desperately trying to convince Trey of her innocence without telling him Ethan had snuck into their house to warn Alexandra. It wasn't hers to tell. Or maybe she should? "Did you ask Lexi?"

She had denied it—everything, and damned if it hadn't hurt him. He was sure divorcing him before going to Ethan would've hurt him less, because then he'd know that she was no longer his to love.

He ran a hand over his face and swiveled around to gaze out of his glass window. Currently, the scandal made headlines. He had forgotten to tell that bastard to keep it under wraps until he confronted Alexandra—not that the maniac would have listened.

The idiot was glad he had gotten Alexandra back, that she had chosen him over Trey. Trey's hands fisted as he tried to fight back the ache barreling down his chest.

'In the end, she chose me...'

Now everyone—on TV, radio, newspapers, tabloids—spoke of it. He recalled one reporter mentioning how everyone had thought nothing could separate them, that they were the perfect couple. His mouth curled snidely.

'Didn't we all,' he thought bitterly.

He turned when the door opened—much against his will. However, he wasn't going to let her see how much she'd hurt him. Her gaze met his and he saw a faint flicker of something in her eyes before she looked away, focusing on Melissa.

"Hey Mel." Lexi gave her friend a strained hug, as if she knew Melissa could be aware of what had happened.

"Hey," Melissa replied, hugging her friend. She knew what she'd been shown was not true. There were a lot of facts to prove that. For instance, that had been a pale imitation of the room her brother and his wife shared—well, in addition to Ethan's 'claim'.

Alexandra was completely innocent, but what would it take to prove her right? Determined to get to the bottom of the whole thing, Melissa frowned down at Lexi. "Mind explaining what's going on?" she asked Alexandra, who kept her eyes trained to the floor.

"I know you love my brother," she went on. Alexandra flinched when Trey shot out of his seat and let out a string of obscenities about her supposed love. He asked no one in particular if love involved cheating, and if it made you look like a fool.