I knew the moment Alex stepped foot in the conservatory, my skin tingled and I was reminded of the first time we’d met. I turned to face him and caught his worried look before he hid it with a smile.

“What’s wrong?” I asked in concern. Alex is usually unflappable; nothing ever worried him because he always solved the problem.

“Nothing’s wrong, baby. Are you enjoying yourself?”

His smile didn’t drop, but I sensed he was lying. I didn’t push him because I figured he'd tell me when he was ready.

“Yes, it feels like I haven’t painted for years even if it’s only been a few days.”

“Can I see?”

I shook my head. “It’s not finished yet, but when it is, you’ll be the first person I show it to.” After all, it was for him. I hadn’t been able to think of anything or anyone but Alex so when I picked up my paintbrush it was only natural for me to paint him. I couldn’t wait to finish it but I was hungry and in need of a break, I hadn’t realised how long I’d been in here or how long it had been since I’d eaten. My tummy rumbled loudly making Alex laugh.

“Lunch?” he asked.

“I didn’t realise I was hungry.”

“Good job I came to find you then.”

“I need to wash up first; I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

“Ok, hurry, though. I wouldn’t want you wasting away, I love your curves.”

I was laughing as I made my way to the bathroom, but my reflection startled me into silence. There were paint splashes on my face and Alex had said nothing, but he was probably used to it. He used to tease me all the time about the messes I got myself in.

I wasn’t sure what was going on between us, but since the phone call we’d been getting on so well. He hasn’t said a nasty word once and now he’d had a studio made for me. Did this mean things had changed? I’d like to think they had and he definitely seemed to have changed his attitude towards me. Could it be possible to have a normal marriage?

One day at a time, hadn’t I already decided that? I dried my hands off after checking all the paint was gone from my face. It occurred to me I hadn’t checked my phone for a long time so I went to find it. I had a few texts, three from Jon just checking on me and to tell me he’d sold two of my paintings. Holy smokes! The other two from a number I didn’t know. Opening the first one I wasn’t sure how I felt. It was a photo of Alex walking down a small path and in the background was Sofia Cooper standing in a doorway of the house. I quickly opened the second message and wanted to cry. I read it out loud.  “He will always come back to me”

Well, I had proof it was Sofia I guess. Would Alex believe me though? There was only one way to find out. I walked to the kitchen on shaky legs. Alex stilled, in the process of placing a red rose on the table set for lunch he dropped it when he saw my face.

“What’s happened?”

I couldn’t find the words so I held out my phone to him and he took it from my shaking hand. His eyes studied mine before he looked down at the screen. His face turned to stone.

“There’s another one too.” I whispered.

He opened the photo, and I took a step back, away from the fury in his eyes. Taking a deep breath he held out a hand for me to take. “Come with me.”

I placed my hand in his and let him lead me to his office. He closed the door behind us and pointed to a chair. “Sit down, baby.”

I did as I was told, sinking heavily into it. He picked up his phone and dialled a number. I watched him as he watched me; it was easy to see he was struggling to keep his cool.

“Hi.” He said into the phone. “Callie just received two text messages. One is of me dropping Sofia at her door the night I met Callie and the second says ‘he will always come back to me.’ It’s our proof isn’t it?”

I listened to the one sided conversation conflicted. His eyes never strayed from mine and I felt caught in a trap. I knew he was trying to tell me to believe him, and I did, but I also knew he was hiding something from me. After Alex said goodbye to David, he stared at me like he was looking into my soul.

“I’ve never touched her Callie; I’ve never laid a hand on her. Do you believe me?”

This is where I should say no, he didn’t believe me, but I couldn’t do it. “Yes, I believe you.”

He released the breath he’d been holding. “I have things to tell you.”

“Ok,” I said, and my wariness must be obvious because he crouched in front of me taking my hand.

“I think Sofia is having you followed.”

That wasn’t what I’d expected him to say. “Why would she do that?”

“I received an email this morning, enclosed was a photo of you and Jon hugging at an event he held three months ago. The message said “once a cheat always a cheat.” I know its lies, I know you’re only friends, but someone wants me to doubt you.”

“Again, someone wants you to doubt me again.”

He looked away and when he looked back, his face was pained. “Yes Callie, again, but I don’t believe it.”

“I suppose I should be grateful you aren’t kicking me out again.”

“I don’t want you to be grateful, I’m trying to explain that I know someone is plotting against us, trying to break us up and we won’t let it happen this time.”

“It’s Sofia,” I told him.

“Tell me why you think so.”

I raised my chin. “The night before you threw me out she was acting differently like she knew something I didn’t, it’s hard to explain. It bugged me, but I didn’t think too much of it. Now I know it’s because she’d sent those photos.”

“I think you’re right baby.”

I stared in shock at him before bursting into tears. He picked me up and sat down in the chair pulling me onto his lap.

“You believe me?” I asked through my noisy sobs.

“It’s overdue, but yes I believe you.”

“Oh thank god, thank god,” I whispered. My hands went around his shoulders and I pushed my wet face into his neck trying to calm myself. How long had I waited to hear those words? I felt like there should be fireworks or something. His hands rubbed my back in gentle circles until my tears stopped.

“Why didn’t you tell me about her acting differently if it made you uncomfortable?”

“I’d planned on speaking to you in the morning, but well you know why I didn’t.”

“Anything upsets you Callie I want to know immediately, you don’t wait. Ok?”

“Ok.”

“I mean it; it upsets me to know you were anxious.”

He sounded serious. “I’m sorry; I promise I’ll tell you from now on.”

“If I find out you don’t, there will be consequences. One’s you won’t like.” He warned.

“What are you going to do, spank me?” I teased.

“I can tell you that if I do, you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”

I gasped. “You’re serious?”

“Yes, I think you understand I mean it. No more secrets.”

“No more secrets.”

“I’m glad you agree.”

“Like I have a choice,” I grumbled.

“Now, I’ll tell you why I believed you’d cheated on me. I received an email when you were in the ladies room. The photo was a bit of a shock as you can imagine and I didn’t have time to process it, to think clearly about it all before you came back. I should have looked harder at them, but all I saw was your smiling face.”

“There isn’t any point thinking like that now, there is a lot of what- ifs and they'll drive us nuts.”

“I know, but I’m trying to explain why I believed them.”

“You don’t need to explain Alex, I was upset, and I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself I hated you, but if I’d known why you had turned on me, I would have understood. You saw a photo of me in another man’s arms why wouldn’t you believe it? Photos don’t usually lie.”

“A proper man would have taken one look and known it wasn’t his woman, but I was blinded by my anger. When David first had a look, he was convinced it wasn’t you.”

He didn’t look pleased with that. “David’s emotions aren’t involved, you said yourself you were blinded by your anger. Did he say how he knew it wasn’t me?”

“Yes, he said the body is too skinny to be yours.”

“He thinks I’m fat?”

“No baby, he thinks you’re curvy. I think you’re perfect.” He kissed my nose. “I’m sorry I thought it was you.”

“I’m sorry too.”

“My reaction, the way I’ve treated you… it’s unforgivable. I wouldn’t blame you if you can’t put it behind you, behind us. I’m so sorry I blackmailed you. In my defence, I couldn’t stop thinking about you and when the opportunity presented itself to get you back in my life, I had to use it.” He shook his head. “It was such a stupid thing to do, but all I could think of was having you back, seeing you smile and getting my revenge. I wanted to make you forget all the others and think only of me until I grew tired of you.”

“Wow, should I be flattered?” I laughed. “I never stopped thinking of you either even though every time I did it was painful.”

“I have no right to ask this, but I have to. Has there been anyone else?” He closed his eyes as if he was afraid of my answer.

“There’s been no one but you.”

His sigh of relief tickled my hair. “There was no one else for me either. I wanted to be over you, I wanted to lose myself in other woman, but I couldn’t do it. I loved you and it would have felt like cheating, I love you still.”

I was still trying to process what he’d said when I heard those words. My eyes flew to his and there was no doubting the truth in his eyes. “I still love you. I never stopped.”

Suddenly I found myself pulled closer to him and his lips crashed down on mine. I could taste his love, feel it with every thrust of his tongue against mine and I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. He felt them and tore his lips away from mine to kiss them away gently, causing more to fall.

“Don’t cry.” He groaned. Giving up on kissing them away he used his thumbs to wipe them away instead.

“They’re happy tears,” I told him through my sniffles.

“I’d rather see no tears.” He said on a grumble.

“Sorry, I’ll stop.”

“Thank you. As much as I’d love to take you to bed and show you my love baby, we still need to talk.”

My whole body shivered at his words, it didn’t go unnoticed. His hands tightened on my hips.

“Talk,” He groaned.

“Ok.” I knew he was right.

“No one knew about the original email except me, David and whoever sent it. The email I received earlier said they didn’t want you to pull the wool over my eyes again. It’s the same person doing it, the emails and now your text messages prove it. It has to be Sofia and if it isn’t then she’s being set up.”

“No one is setting her up. It’s her, I’m positive. Her behaviour that night proved it for me.”

“And I played right into her hands.”

“We both did. I could have tried harder to find the reason you’d turned on me, but I didn’t.”

“I didn’t give you a choice; I was so furious I think I would have followed through on my threat to have the police escort you out.”

“We won’t get anywhere if we keep blaming ourselves. Sofia is to blame and we’ll make sure she pays for it.”

“Ruthless. I like it.”

“She almost ruined our lives.”

“Almost… She lost us six months. It would have been more if I hadn’t blackmailed you.”

“Thank god for your blackmail plot.” I grinned.

“How can you say that? I was a bastard, and I threatened you for god sake.”

“I know, but it got us back together.”

“You’re a special woman Callie, and I’m a lucky bastard.”

“I know. That's why you love me.”

“For that reason and many more, I just wish we hadn’t gone through all this to find that out. I need to ask Jon who told him about the blackmail. I should have done it before, but I haven’t exactly been acting myself.”

“He doesn’t know it’s true remember.”

“He deserves the truth.”

“Maybe I should tell him.”

“No, I made you lie to him I have to be the one to tell him. He’s special to you and he’ll be in our lives so I need to clear the air and make peace.”

“Are you sure? He’s tough when it comes to me.”

“We both love you, we both want to keep you safe, and I’ll remind him of that. I’ll invite him to the event tonight.”

“You can’t invite him to an event that isn’t yours.”

“Yes, I can. The host wants to impress me and for once I’ll use that to get my way. There’s a good chance he already has an invitation, though.”

I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, Jon worried about me, and I was scared of his reaction. He’d nearly raced to Alex’s house when he’d seen the state of me. It took all my strength to talk him out of it. When he finds out the blackmail is true, I fear he’ll flip his lid and try to rip Alex’s head off. I was so glad I wasn’t the one telling him.

“I hope it works out, I’ll leave you to call him.”

“Chicken.”

“Yep, that’s me. I reckon I’ll be able to hear Jon shouting in the next room, there’s no way I’m staying here.”

Alex chuckled. “I love you.”

My pulse leapt.  “I love you too.”

He walked me to the door and opened it for me like a gentleman then he ruined that thought by giving my bottom a gentle smack. “Go relax, I’ll come and find you after I’ve finished speaking to him.”

“Good luck,” I said sweetly. “He’s stubborn. He’ll be cross with me for lying to him, but he’ll forgive me, you though not so much.”

“It’ll be fine, you’ll see.”

“I hope so.” I pressed a kiss to his chin, the only place I could comfortably reach and walked out the door. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed just in case.” 

Nerves assaulted me when I thought of tonight, Jon would be there, I knew he would and with Alex in my corner too I knew I would be safe, but the thought of seeing Sofia made me sick to my stomach. How could one woman hate me so much?