Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 134: Thawing the Frozen

"It will give you time for the doctor to put a cast on your ankle and for you to catch up on work."

"And?"

"And I have a couple of projects I want to finish first. I need the closure to move forward."

Alec held up two fingers. "Two weeks. One day more, and I’ll be on your doorstep again."

"Deal!" I held out my hand to shake.

The rest of the morning flew by as we prepared for Alec’s departure. This was harder than I expected, but I put on a brave face. I suspected Alec was doing the same because he refused to look at me.

Too soon, Doctor Mark arrived. As soon as I heard the helicopter in the distance, I knew it was time. I helped Alec into the SUV for the short trip to the clearing.

My whole body ached as I tried to keep it together. I didn’t want Alec’s last memory of me to be me as a slobbering mess, begging him to stay. He deserved better.

I kept telling myself this time apart was for me, too. I had stuff to do. Plus, I could always go with Alec. This was my choice to stay.

The time to say goodbye arrived. I dreaded this part. It would be easier to avoid it, but sometimes easier equated to cowardly. I’d already played my cowardly card when I ran away to live in a cabin in the woods. I would be courageous this time.

Alec kissed my forehead. "I love you."

"I love you."

"It’s just two weeks—piece of cake. And now you have a phone, and you check your emails. We can talk every day. Touch base. Text. It’ll be easier this time."

"Sure it will."

Alec held me tight and kissed me until Doctor Mark patted Alec on the shoulder.

"I’ve got to get back for surgery," Doctor Mark said before leading Alec away.

I stayed to watch, waving at Alec when he looked in my direction. It wasn’t until the copter took off that I allowed myself to fall apart. Ten minutes. I gave myself ten minutes to grieve for my loss before pulling it together and driving back to the cabin. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

It was only yesterday that the cabin felt overwhelmingly full of our guests. Now, it felt like a ghost town that was haunted by memories of Alec.

I picked up the mug Alec had left on the coffee table. It was still warm. I took a sip and grimaced. It was too bitter. Alec and I would never agree on coffee. I took the cup to the kitchen to wash and dry it before placing it in the cabinet. I’d be back to only using one set of dishes for a while.

This ritual helped me feel more normal than I had all day.

With a cleansing breath, I went to my office and texted Cometkazee.

Night Shadows: Any updates on your bro?

CK: Tee! Where are you? We’ve missed you.

I couldn’t help but wonder who the we in that sentence entailed.

Night Shadows: Nearby. I’ll be home soon, but I wanted to take one more stab at finding Colby first.

CK: Nothing.

Night Shadows: Not even on the fake social worker?

CK: I’ve not looked into her again recently.

Night Shadows: Let me try.

CK: Have you talked to Stiff?

Night Shadows: No. Why?

CK: Tee, he’s struggling without you.

Night Shadows: I’ll see what I can do.

It was time to see what Stiff had to say. His emails totaled about half as many as Alec had sent only where Alec emailed me from day one, Stiff was silent for almost a month. The tone of his emails was a lot more vicious.

I hate you.

I hope you are dead.

You killed Bea. Who’s next?

But then he mellowed.

I miss you. I hate you, but I miss you.

Come back. We can work it out.

Fuck you, Teela. You are a shit friend.

I miss my friend.

So maybe he was open to hearing from me again.

I finished his emails before logging onto a private forum. I knew if I signed on, Stiff would know about it. I sent out a challenge to a one-on-one battle.

And then I waited.

I didn’t have to wait long before challengers lined up. Most weren’t real competition. They were challenging me just to say they went up against the best.

No Stiff.

I picked a name I recognized. We’d battled before. I had to stretch my skills to the limit to beat him. He would give me a good hacking workout.

Halfway through the match, my system froze. Ah hah. Stiff was busy backdooring me while I was hacking my way to a victory.

I smiled. So predictable.

I’d helped Stiff perfect his freeze code. It was what he was best known for. I knew the code inside out, and I’d prepared for it. I set my computer up with a manual drive switch that flushed the freeze from my primary drive and initiated a pushback that would keep Stiff busy long enough for me to finish the battle.

I won even with Stiff’s attack. That win was enough to help me regain my confidence as Night Shadows.

When Stiff didn’t contact me on the forum’s private messaging, I messaged him.

Night Shadows: Did you figure it out?

Stiff: Fuck you.

Night Shadows: Is that a no?

Stiff: How did you get around my virus?

Night Shadows: I helped you design it. Of course, I was ready with counter measures. Dude, learn new tricks.

Stiff: Fuck you.

Night Shadows: You said that already.

Stiff: Are you back?

Night Shadows: Am I welcome back?

Stiff: You have to ask?

I did have to ask. Stiff hurt me as much with his striking out over Bea’s murder as losing Bea. Maybe more because Stiff was hurting me intentionally. Bea had no choice in leaving me.

God, I missed her.

Stiff: Crazy Code needs you. I’m not built for all this administrative business. I’m a hacker, not a CEO. If I wanted to be a CEO, I’d take over my dad’s business.

Night Shadows: Not my forte, either. Hire someone.

Stiff: You hire someone.

Night Shadows: Are you sure?

I knew just the person to ask.

Stiff: I’m sure. What are you working on?

Night Shadows: CK’s bro.

Stiff: lost cause.

Night Shadows: Hope not. We promised.

Stiff was silent for so long that I thought he was gone.

Stiff: Can I call you?

Night Shadows: Tomorrow.

I needed to renew my bank of courage first. I’d used everything I had for the day.

Stiff: But you’ve locked my computer today.

I sent him a share access request.

Night Shadows: Give me access.

Stiff did without hesitation. I quickly undid my dirty work and returned control of his computer to Stiff before logging off.

I’d logged on through a VPN but I knew that wouldn’t stop Stiff from tracking me. Then again, if Alec found me, I was pretty sure Stiff already knew where I was.

Why hadn’t he reached out if he’d forgiven me?

The rest of the day, I focused on Dorsey Schumaker, the so-called social worker who had kidnapped Colby.

Dorsey was a Heavenly Logistics employee in reality. She worked for the company six months prior to approaching CK and Colby. She lived in a two-bedroom house with her sister Candice. They were five months into the second year of the lease when both sisters disappeared not long after Colby did.

We had initially assumed Dorsey had kidnapped Colby to get back at his dad, who had a falling out with the company, but there had been no ransom demands. Nor had we found any record of Colby in the human trafficking records we’d uncovered.

It was more likely Dorsey kidnapped Colby for her own purposes. Maybe the single woman had always wanted a child and took Colby because he had no mother and an absentee father. Never mind that he had a brother who doted on him.

Whatever the reason, the best way to locate Dorsey was to understand her, and the best way to understand her was to trace her history, explore her finances, and analyze her shopping habits. These were the same factors merchants and marketing gurus analyzed when deciding how best to sell you the biggest, baddest fidget at the optimal price to maximize both the odds that you and millions of your closest friends will pay the price and urge friends and family to do the same.

So what made Dorsey shoplift Colby?

Dorsey and Candice weren’t rich, but they got by. The bank history for both women was solid. Their credit scores were above average, and they lived frugally, shopping at discount stores, limiting their entertainment spending to the occasional movie, Wednesday night bingo, and an annual trip to their home state, presumably to visit relatives.

Dorsey’s work at the logistics company was above average based on her monthly performance reviews. Her emails indicated fellow employees liked her. The same could be said at the company she’d left to work at Heavenly. She had worked with the previous company for over a decade and left because of mass layoffs.