TENACITY

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Monday, June 26, 2016
T

rey's House
20 weeks...

"Touch her and I'll kill you myself—jail be damned."

Melissa pulled Alexandra away to Trey's side, so grateful he'd come when he had. Trey's anger filled eyes softened a little when he looked down at them.

His eyes raked them for bruises. Satisfied there were none, he addressed Melissa. "Take her upstairs." When Lexi opened her mouth, he silenced her with a glare. "And stay there till I say otherwise," he added, leaning down so he was looking in her eyes, "I mean it."

She hesitated for a moment, looking from Valerie to her husband, then nodded. "Be careful," she whispered in a shaky voice. Trey nodded once, turning away as she and Melissa went upstairs.

"You have lost your manners," Valerie said, looking down her nose at him. "That wench is ruining you in every manner possible. You deserve better than her. Why can't you see that? You choose this... filth over the perfect woman for you. —"

"She is not filthy, and she has a name—Alexandra," Trey spat; he was fuming. The nerve of this woman to think she had the right to choose a wife for him.

"Are you going to defend her over me?" she asked, disgust filling her voice. Then she turned on Andrew. "Andy, talk to your son. He's being utterly disrespectful."

Andrew didn't move his gaze off his phone - not even for a split second. "Son, listen to your mother."

"Two things," Trey snarled, his anger bursting at the seams. "Don't ever call me son. You lost the right to do that when you left me to care for myself and my stepsister."

"You both were old enough," Andrew cut in dismissively, no sign of remorse etched on his granite face.

"Old enough?" he echoed, looking at the man who'd fathered him. "Does leaving a 10-year-old girl to your 20-year-old son to fend for sound okay to you? Especially when you were off parading the only parent she had left around?"

Andrew's gaze moved from the phone to Trey, and he could've sworn he'd seen a flash of remorse in the man's eyes before it hardened. But he refused to be swayed.

"Secondly," he pressed on, too filled with rage to be polite, "she is not my mother and will never be. She can't even be a mother to her own daughter."

Valerie's usual cold demeanor broke, shock splashed across her face. But he wasn't done. "All she wants is your money," he growled, looking straight at Andrew, "and you're either too blind to see it or you just don't care.

"She married her ex-husband for money, and when things went south, she abandoned him. She doesn't care about you, her daughter, or anyone! Why, she held her own daughter over my head to make me do whatever she wanted!"

He was so mad his veins popped. "Don't ever make the mistake of calling her my mother again. I have one mother and I'm not trading her for anything or anyone, much less her," he spat seething.

Andrew gave him a look of disappointment. "I knew you had changed. I just didn't know you had gotten this bad."

Trey's brows merged into his hair. He said what? His father just went on, fixing the cuffs of his sleeves. "I did not raise you to let your emotions cloud your judgment, nor for you to grow up into a disrespectful boy."

"You hardly raised me at all," Trey growled, his fists clenching harder than he thought possible. "My mother, Ashley," Andrew jerked at the mention of the name as if he'd been slapped, "was the one who raised me, and she taught me to stand for what I want.