Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 69: The Drama Before the Party

"My husband left me because Ben is the child of my rapist, and my husband couldn’t stand the reminder that he wasn’t man enough to protect me."

Lettie’s eyes went wide as she realized what she said, and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

The auctioneer said, "Going twice."

Ben stood up to go to his mom, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Lettie, remember the family mantra. Whatever you do, wherever you go, someone is watching. Whatever you do, whatever you say, someone is listening. Privacy is an illusion. Self-control is power. Restraint is vital.

"Or do you need some time in the reflection room as a reminder?"

King called out, "Teela, that’s enough!"

But I was on a roll now. All the poison Lettie had injected into my system was spewing out by a hundred-fold.

"Or don’t you want your friends to know about the reflection room and what you’ve subjected your boys to over the years?"

The auctioneer said, "Sold!"

King left the stage and stormed to my side. He gripped my arm hard enough to make me wince as he said in a hushed whisper, "Don’t become my mother. Keep your shit together."

That caught my attention. There was no way I wanted to turn into Lettie. Just the mere suggestion that what I was doing put me on the same level as her had the same effect as if King had dumped a pitcher of ice water over me. I shut up.

But now what? I needed a way to end this production with a bang without stabbing Lettie in the heart with family secrets.

I fell back on what had become familiar. I kissed King there in the middle of the banquet hall with hundreds of eyes focused on us. I kissed him as if I were starving and his lips were my only means of sustenance. For a moment, King froze, but then his arms wrapped around me, and he met my fervor.

We kissed until Anya cried out, "Mother!"

We broke apart to see Lettie had fainted. Joshua was at her side taking a quick assessment of her situation. He ordered Daniel to fetch his medical bag from the car.

Ben and King darted to their mother’s side, and I felt the ache of defeat. No matter what I did, King and Ben’s first loyalty would always be to Lettie. It didn’t matter if she was a good person—she was their mother.

I nodded to Bea, who sent a message to Stiff. Daniel would be tied up here for a while. If they were going to put their plan into action, it was now or never.

Once Joshua had his bag, he was able to revive Lettie pretty quickly. The family argued about Lettie going to the hospital. Lettie wanted to go home. Her sons wanted her to go in for a full checkup. Of course, Lettie won.

Dejected from the loss, I was done with the auction. I wanted to go home and wipe off all the makeup. I wanted to burn the heels, and I wanted to curl up under the quilt on my bed at the church and cry. No matter what I did, King would always, always choose Lettie first.

I was right to leave him. I was right to want a divorce. If I couldn’t come first in the eyes of my husband, then I didn’t need a husband.

"Let’s go. The show’s over."

Bea said, "Sure, honey. Let me help you with your jacket."

Bea helped me put on my jacket and gather our things. Someone slipped a note in my hand in passing. I wasn’t paying attention as to who it was, and at that moment, I didn’t care enough to read the note, so I slipped it in my pocket.

We were crossing the hotel lobby when I felt a hand on my elbow. I turned to find King standing there with Ben at his side.

"I thought you left with your mother."

King said, "No. I stayed long enough to make sure she was okay."

I nodded. "Then she’s fine?"

Ben said, "She had enough energy to start cursing you again as soon as she was in the car. Mom really hates you."

"Yeah, she’s made that abundantly clear."

"Can I give you guys a hug?" I asked, so relieved that they came back that I wanted to cry.

While revenge was fun, my ultimate goal was to help the kids who Daniel and Lettie had taken and to save King and Ben from their vindictive mother. I truly did think of these two men as mine and I truly wanted to protect them from the mind games their mother had been playing on them since they were kids.

King’s response was to hold me close and place a kiss on the top of my head. Ben wrapped his arms around the two of us.

Bea said, "Don’t forget me." She squeezed into the hug, and we stood like that for the longest time until I got my emotions back under control.

"What now?" King asked.

"Party time," Bea said with a little dance. "Ben owes us a party, and that means I’m not banned from the Well Water anymore. I want to get my groove on."

"Bea, this might not be the night for it, remember?"

King and Ben weren’t privy to Stiff and Jake’s plans, and I didn’t think now was the time to do it.

Bea said, "Why not? Is sitting around going to make the time go by any faster? The guys don’t need us right now. We might as well burn some energy off."

"What if Stiff needs us?"

"Then he’ll call, and we’ll leave. Besides, I think all of us could use a stiff drink."

"One drink, Bea. I don’t want a repeat of taekwondo night. My poor brain is still recovering."

King said, "We could go back to the condo. I’ve got a full bar."

Ben said, "Bea wants to mark her territory."

Bea said, "I do. I do. One drink, and then we’ll go."

The Well Water was busy, as usual. Ben excused himself to check in with the manager on duty for the evening, while Bea made a beeline to the DJ booth, leaving King and I looking for a table.

We hadn’t gone far before JJ found me. "I’ve got a table for you upstairs. Follow me."

The table was actually a full-sized booth in a private area cordoned off for VIPS in a quieter section of the club. I showed JJ a picture of the drink the guy had presented me at the auction, and JJ assured me he knew exactly what to get me.

And then King and I were alone. I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I wouldn’t apologize for upsetting Lettie or for spilling family secrets. The Heavenly family had way too many toxic family secrets. It was time to let the bad stuff out so the good stuff could come in.

"Are you okay? Do you think Ben is okay?"

"Yeah, we’ll be fine. I never knew Ben was my half-brother, but it doesn’t matter. I helped raise him. He’ll always be important to me."

"I never expected Lettie to give us answers about why she treated Ben differently. And I didn’t expect it would be for something so horrific as rape. That must have been traumatic for everyone, including your dad."

"Teela, I really don’t want to talk about it right now. I’m still processing."

"Sorry."

"Don’t be. Like you said, if it weren’t for you, Mom may never have told us the truth."

After that, I didn’t know what to say, so I watched the crowd as Bea took over the DJ booth and whipped the crowd up. The crowd roared as she played high-energy party music and did what she did best.

JJ came with the mystery drink for me and a scotch on the rocks for King. We took our time with our drinks to give Bea time to enjoy being back in DJ mode. I was halfway through my drink when Ben joined us with a bottle of water.

Shortly after, JJ returned with what looked like one of everything that was on the short order menu.

"Ben, who’s supposed to eat all of this?" I asked as I picked up a cheese fry and popped it in my mouth.

"King has never tried our food. I thought I would give him the crash course sampler version."

"You’re trying to kill me with grease and salt," King said as he selected a southwestern egg roll and dipped it into a guacamole dip.

Ben said, "You’re young. You’ll survive one junk food meal."

King said, "My entire youth was filled with junk food meals. It’s all we could afford. I could eat vegetables and fish for the next ten years and still not make up for all the nutrients I missed out on as a kid."

Ben said, "I’ll have Rosie make you a veggie smoothie in the morning. You’ll be fine."

My phone vibrated, and I checked it. Stiff. I needed to take this.