Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 56: King’s Rescue

Stiff rallied the troops while I showered and dressed. What a different clothing and my beloved combat boots made to my self-confidence.

We split into two vehicles and drove straight to the Heavenly Estate. As a family member, gaining access through the gate was a piece of cake. However, it was not so easy to enter the front door. Two men-in-black wannabes stopped us.

"Do you know who I am?" I asked the men.

"Yes, ma’am."

"Then let me in."

"Ma’am. Mrs. Heavenly left strict orders to prevent you from entering."

"Is Mother Heavenly home?"

"No, ma’am."

"Who else in the family is home?"

The men glanced at each other.

"We aren’t at liberty to answer that question."

I nodded. "Okay, then let me tell you how this is going down. You have one minute to let me into my home. If you do not, I call the cops. My friend here." I pointed to Stiff. "He has a press release ready to tell the world how the Heavenly family and staff treat the wife of the CEO of Heavenly Enterprises."

I posed as Stiff snapped a photo of me looking sad in front of the big security guards who were preventing me from going home.

"There is loads more to the story, including a little incident last night that might bring a whole lot of bad publicity to the Heavenly household. Maybe even criminal charges. Do you know how Lettie Heavenly feels about bad publicity?"

One of the men made a call, presumably to gain permission to let me in. On the other hand, with Jake and his men at my back, he could very easily have been calling backup. It didn’t matter. The call wouldn’t go through. None of our calls would. I had a signal blocker in my backpack.

"Come on, gentlemen. Make a decision. My dialing finger is itching to call the cops. What was that number again? Nine-one," I tapped in the first two numbers and paused. "Last chance."

Min drove up and parked in the circle drive. He joined us at the door. "What seems to be the problem here."

"These men won’t let us in the house."

Min addressed the guards. "Do you recognize me?"

"Yes, sir. You are Mr. King Heavenly’s personal assistant."

"Then you know I speak with the authority of Mr. Heavenly. This is his wife. She also speaks from Mr. Heavenly. Now, stand down." Min stepped forward into one man’s personal space to emphasize his point.

Silently, the guards made a decision. Since they couldn’t reach anyone way from the house, their best recourse was to follow the orders of the one person with the authority to make decisions, and that was Min. They stepped aside.

We were in. I sent Min and Stiff upstairs to look for Ben. Based on the garbled message received, Ben was likely being held in his room. If Josh was involved, he was probably drugged. Min and Stiff would locate and bring him down.

I led Jake and Sampson to the basement door. Jake’s other men were babysitting the door guards.

Jake asked, "Do you have the lock code?"

"No."

"If we guess wrong, it will set off alarms. If we break the door down, it will set off alarms."

"The alarms would signal over the wi-fi. The signal blocker will prevent the alarm from sounding, but I’d still like to get in an out as quickly as possible. The absence of a signal can distress Lettie as much as an alarm. She may take it as a sign and send people to deal with us."

"Good thinking. Back up."

"Hold on. Let me try this first." I turned off the blocker long enough to use the hack I’d set up on the way to the estate. With a few tweaks, I was able to unlock the door. I immediately reestablished the blocker. I hated that I needed to access the home network to unlock the door, but I figured it was the quickest way to get this done.

We proceeded downstairs. The camp chairs were new, but otherwise, the basement looked the same as the last time I was there.

I pointed Sampson to the door to the reflection room. He jogged over and, by the time we arrived, had the padlock cut off. He then threw open the door.

The room was dark, with the exception of the glowing neon. I peered into the dark, looking for King as my eyes adjusted to the dark. Someone lit up a flashlight and scanned the room. In the far corner, King was curled up on the floor with his head buried in his arms.

I ran to him, calling his name.

He was cold but breathing and shaking all over.

"King, King, wake up. It’s Teela. I’m here. Let’s get you out of here."

"Teela?" His voice was hoarse. He raised his head, but the glare was too much for him.

I angled my body between King and the light, shading his eyes while he adjusted.

"Yes, King. It’s me. We need to get you out of here, okay? Before your mom returns."

I tried to help him stand but he was too heavy. Jake joined us. King shied away from him.

"It’s okay, King. That is Jake. He’s accompanied me to therapy before, remember? He’s here to help. Let him help."

King nodded, his eyes wide. I wasn’t sure how much of his mind was with us right now. He seemed pretty dazed, but we didn’t have time to let him acclimate.

Jake called out. "Sampson, clear a path to the front door. Let Min know we’ve secured the target."

"On it."

This time, when we tried to help King up, he let us. He leaned heavily on me, but he was on his feet. He was able to walk from the room and to the bottom of the stairs. The stairs weren’t wide enough for all three of us to ascend at the same time.

Jake half-carried and half-walked King to the top of the stairs where Min was waiting with Ben and a blanket. They wrapped King’s naked body with the blanket as we rushed toward the front door.

A maid I didn’t recognize spotted us as we passed through the atrium. "Where are you going with Mr. King?"

I motioned everyone to continue to the vehicles and turned back to the woman. "King is my husband. I’m taking him home. If I were you, I’d leave and never come back. But if you decide to stay, pass this message on to Lettie. Tell her I’ve taken two of her sons. They’re mine now. Next, I’m sending Daniel to prison and her to hell."

"You’re Teela?" The woman’s eyes were wide with wonder.

"Yes, I’m Teela. Tell Lettie that. Or not. I really don’t care."

I climbed into the back of the van with King. I could tell his wits were coming back to him. Stiff was at the wheel. Jake was in the front passenger seat.

"Teela, you came for me? After everything Mom did to you? After the way I treated you?"

"Yeah, I couldn’t leave you there. You were trying to save me."

"Then you don’t hate me?"

"I never hated you, King. Now, let’s get you dressed."

I helped him dress while he talked. "She really hates you. Me too, I think. I promised to give her all the shares in the company to let you go. She locked me up instead. Now, I don’t know whether to give her the shares and break free from the company and family or keep them and force her into a care facility."

Stiff said, "I vote for the second option, only make that prison instead."

King turned to me. "Are you filing charges against my mom?"

"No, at least not yet. King, there’s a lot I don’t think you know, but this isn’t the time to get into it. We need to take you somewhere safe and make sure you’re okay."

"I’m okay now that you’re here. Don’t leave me, Teela, okay? At least not yet?"

"Sure, King, I can do that for a little while, but it doesn’t mean I’ve given up the plan of divorcing you. You understand that, right?"

King nodded, disappointment written across his face.

Jake said, "Where to, Teela? Back to the church."

"No." I didn’t even have to think about that answer. I wasn’t ready to let King into my sanctuary. "Can we set him up with a security team at his condo?"

"I’m on it."

I met Stiff’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

"Thank you," Stiff said.

I knew what he meant. He was glad I didn’t want King at the church. The church was his safe zone as well. Stiff would never feel safe with King there, but he wasn’t going to like what came next either, but I didn’t know a better way to handle the situation.

King gave us the address of a high-rise in the heart of downtown. We arrived just ahead of Min and Ben. Together, we took the elevator to the penthouse.