Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 55: Ben’s Basement Adventure

Ben

Ben continued pacing as he texted Teela.

Ben: I need an hour. Can you give me that?

Stiff: Tee is still asleep. I’ll buy you an hour. Call if you need us.

Ben went back downstairs to assess the situation. A quick cruise through the house and a chat with the new maid confirmed what he suspected. His family was out. He knew better than to play hit-and-miss with the basement door lock keypad. If it was like the one at work, more than two unsuccessful attempts would set off an alarm somewhere. Knowing Mom, the notification would go straight to her.

If that happened, Ben might as well move to a deserted island, dig a very deep, dark bunker, and stay there for the rest of his pathetic life.

Granted, he was loyal to King and Teela, but not enough to destroy his life. Ben’s sense of self-preservation was stronger than that.

Ben headed to security central. He didn’t recognize the guard on watch, which wasn’t surprising. He didn’t stay home any more than he had to, and when he was home, the staff rated notice about as much as the furniture. This was in direct opposition to his relationship with the Well Water staff, whom he knew intimately. Then again, the Well Water’s staff was his responsibility. The estate staff was someone else’s problem.

What was important was the guard recognized Ben as a member of the Heavenly family.

"I need to see the feed from the room in the basement. Can you pull that up for me?"

"No, sir."

"Why not?"

"The feed has restricted access. Mrs. Heavenly, Daniel Heavenly, and maybe my supervisor are the only people with access."

"Any chance your supervisor is around?"

"It’s his day off. Can’t you ask your mom?"

"She’s out. Say, do you have the door code to the basement? I don’t need in the room. Just the basement. I left my mountain bike down there."

"That I might be able to help with. Let me look."

Such a lie. Ben was the only son who never went to the basement. Maybe it was time, though.

Ten minutes later, Ben left with the door code. Five minutes later, Ben stood at the bottom of the basement stairs smack dab in front of Lettie and Daniel Heavenly, who were comfortably seated on camp chairs waiting for him.

"Did you really think it would be that simple?" Lettie asked.

"With you, Mom? No, but I had to try."

"Why, Ben?"

"He’s my brother."

"It’s never caused you to interfere in the past."

"Things are different now."

"How?"

Because Ben was an adult. Because he was tired of people taking care of him. Because he admired Teela. It took a lot of guts for Teela to walk away. It took even more guts for her to volunteer to come back to save King, especially after just escaping Mom’s clutches mere hours ago. And he owed King.

Because Min asked him for the one favor for the first and only time.

For once, Ben felt like he was on the right side of a bad equation, and even though he’d gotten caught, it felt good to stand up and do the right thing.

"Does it matter, Mom?"

"No, not really."

"So, what happens now?"

"I don’t know. Daniel, what do you think?"

Daniel said, "We could put him in the room with King. Let him see what he’s missed out on all these years."

"It defeats the process to double up."

"I could take him to one of the other locations."

"Like you did Teela? You lost her in what? Less than eighteen hours. Hardly long enough to make an impression."

"Yeah, that won’t happen twice. We’ll be ready next time."

Lettie grunted. "Call Joshua. We’ll put Ben on ice until I decide how many sons I can afford to lose without causing suspicion."

Teela

I awoke to find Stiff sitting in a chair by my bed. He was scrolling through his phone with a sour frown on his face.

Someone had opened the curtains. The sunlight was bright through the windows. The bed behind me was cold. Bea had gone already.

Through a foggy brain, I managed to put together a sentence. "What’s up?"

Stiff pierced me with an accusing gaze. "What makes you think something is up?"

"You look like someone killed your puppy, and it was probably me."

Stiff nodded. "Kind of feels that way."

I was awake now. I sat up on the edge of the bed, hugging the covers around me. "Okay, then tell me, what did I do?"

Stiff scrolled through his phone until he found what he wanted. He held the screen out to me. "I can cope with standing in line behind King for your attention. After all, he is your husband, but Teela, how could you flirt with that kid on my phone behind my back?

"Cometkazee is just a kid. There’s no way he can keep you happy. Not like I can. And why the hell can he flirt with you, and every time I come close to flirting, you shut me down?"

"It’s not like that, Stiff. I’m not interested in CK. Like you said, he’s just a kid. I hardly know him. That little bit of flirting last night, I don’t know. It just felt good to let go for a little bit, and I knew it wasn’t going anywhere."

I pointed at the screen. "You’ve read it. It was innocent, and I cut off the conversation pretty quickly."

Stiff said, "Why couldn’t it have been me, Teela?"

He looked so hurt that I wanted to make it all better, but I didn’t know how I could without making promises to Stiff that I couldn’t keep.

"Stiff, there is a big difference between flirting with someone you know for sure nothing will ever happen with and with someone, you know, like you."

"What’s the difference? Say it, Teela."

I curled up in a ball under all those covers and avoided Stiff’s gaze. "You know. If things were different, if I wasn’t married and we weren’t business partners and fighting bad guys and all that other stuff, you’d be, you know, someone I might want to get to know better."

Before I knew what was happening, I was flat on my back, and Stiff was on top of me, a Cheshire grin lighting up his face.

"Say it again, Teela."

"Get off me." I pushed against an admittedly firm chest, but Stiff remained where he was.

"Say it again." Stiff kissed my cheek. "Just one more time."

I sighed. "I don’t remember exactly what I said the first time. What part do you need to hear again before you will let me up?"

"The part where you would date me if you weren’t tied to that asshole King."

Suddenly, it was hard to breathe, hard to think, hard to keep myself from wrapping my arms around Stiff’s neck and pulling his mouth closer to mine.

But I managed. I lay there with my hands pressed to his chest, determined to keep whatever distance that was left between us empty. If I had given in now, it would only have been harder later because I knew that with every inch I gave Stiff, he would press for a dozen more, and the timing would be off.

And then there was King. I could not do this to King. No matter how he treated me, I couldn’t betray him this way.

"I never said the word date. I would remember it if I had. I do remember saying if things were different, I’d like to get to know you better. That is all I’ll admit to, so get your massive frame off me."

"Good enough."

Stiff sat up and helped me to sit beside him. He recovered his phone from where he had tossed it on the bed and pulled up a list of a dozen names and addresses. He sent the list to my email address.

"I just sent a list of a dozen top-notch divorce attorneys. Hire one. Hell, hire all of them for all I care."

"I can’t afford—"

"I don’t want to hear it, Teela. I’ll pay the legal fees. You can pay me back if you want after things slow down. We’ve got a big deposit coming from Heavenly Enterprises, plus I’ve lined up a half dozen quick and profitable gigs that we can complete within a week. You’ll have plenty of funds to pay an attorney." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"It’s not a priority. We need to take care of Jake and his boys first, and I need to make it up to Bea for the damage King did to her business, and then there is—"

"Teela, stop it. In your mind, there will always be something more important, someone who needs your help more, but Teela, you need to do this for you. The Heavenlys are doing everything they can to ruin you. You need to cut ties with them. The sooner, the better."

Stiff pointed toward the door. "I bet if you ask any of those people out there, they will agree with me. Because I’m not the only one who loves you. We all do. You brought us all together, and we want to see you happy.

"So, Teela, promise me you’ll call and make an appointment to start divorce proceedings."

All I could do was nod.

Stiff’s phone vibrated. It was a message from Ben.