Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 76: Unexpected Visitor
I had time for a nap before King awoke. Good. My thoughts were much clearer now. I should be celebrating. While we didn’t have evidence of Lettie’s crimes in the last couple of years, we had enough to send to the police as soon as we reconstructed it. It should provide enough information for the cops to secure a search warrant for the Heavenly estate for the missing pieces.
King was, in essence, a hero. True, he was a messed-up hero who needed a cocktail of drugs to find reality again, but the end result was the same.
"You’re still here," King said as soon as he opened his eyes and saw me.
"Yes, I promised I would be. How are you feeling?"
"I’ve been better."
King looked around his hospital room. He raised his arm and checked out the bandages. In his other arm, an IV tube attached him to a bag hanging from a rack.
"What happened?" King asked.
What were we supposed to tell him? It didn’t seem like a full honesty kind of moment. Telling him the entire truth would be the same as poking his wound through bandages—painful and not conducive to a quick recovery.
Ben made the decision. "You got drunk and had an accident. We brought you to the hospital."
Later, when the drugs wore off, King’s memory would return to him on their own. He didn’t need us to rush the process. We had time.
"Well, I’m better now. Let’s go home," King said.
I nodded. "I’ll go sign you out while the guys help you dress."
I exited the room just in time to come face to face with the last person I wanted to see—Lettie. She wore a paisley dress and a pillbox hat with a stunning peacock broach. Two of her bully men flanked her.
"Out of the way. I’m here to see my son."
"I don’t think so. King is mine, and he doesn’t want to see you."
The last thing King needed right now was to see Lettie and, more importantly, to hear her spew her poison.
"I didn’t ask."
Lettie kept advancing.
If there was one thing I learned in my one taekwondo class beyond the fact I was hopelessly out of shape, it was about stance.
Traditionally, women were taught to keep their feet and ankles together, to maintain an hourglass silhouette because that is what attracted a mate. High heels also lend themselves to a shorter, more aligned stride. Neither was particularly useful in maintaining solid balance, particularly in a fight.
Men, though, the hunters, gatherers, and protectors, were taught a wider stance. The wider stance made it harder to knock them over, making them better warriors and protectors.
Taekwondo was a gender-neutral sport. All participants were taught the same stance. This stance was wide enough to maximize balance and survivability.
As Lettie charged forward, I opened my stance, slightly bent my knees and put my arms up to block her.
Look at me! One lesson, and I’d already found a use for my new skills.
Lettie had fifty pounds on me, and she was a moving force. But I was younger and stronger, and I had my wider stance. On the other hand, Lettie had two goons. I had none.
I wouldn’t win the battle without help. I called out for Min while wishing I had Jake at my side.
How many times since this all started had I warned everyone to never go out alone? We’d gotten complacent. I didn’t even know the last time I’d seen my security detail.
What the hell were we paying these guys to do? Sit around the penthouse doing facials and giving each other pedicures? I did have time for a pedicure. Why did they?
Lettie reached me and tried to shove me out of the way. I was ready for her with my stance. While she rocked me, she didn’t knock me out of the way.
"Min!"
Lettie cursed at me and tried to slap me, but the blocking technique saved me from a stinging cheek.
"Get her!" Lettie called out.
Her goons advanced on me. I was no fool. One taekwondo lesson wasn’t enough to defend myself against these behemoths.
I fell back, my heel bumping into the door a second before it gave, and Min’s firm body pressed against mine.
Min jerked me to the side and attacked, closing the door between me and the action. The attack sounded violent, with cries of pain, bodies crashing against the wall, and the sounds of flesh pounding into flesh.
Lettie kept calling out orders, but they sounded like they were coming from farther and farther down the hall. Meanwhile, a stranger was calling out for security.
The battle was over in less than two minutes. With the end came silence, and I stared at the door, willing it to open and Min to return safely.
Behind me, Ben rushed King into his clothes.
Ben called to me. "King will need a wheelchair. He’s too weak."
I nodded, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything until I knew Min was okay.
The door handle turned as if by my will, and then Min was standing in the open doorway panting. His normally meticulous attire was askew, and a trickle of blood stained his lips. More blood stained his knuckles. But the fire in his eyes said he was just warming up for a bigger battle if needed.
"You’re okay." It was an affirmation, not a question.
"We need a wheelchair," Ben said as he helped King with his shoes.
"I’ll go," I said.
"We both will," Min said. "No one goes anywhere alone."
Ben said, "Right. I should have thought of that. I’ll call our security detail."
Min and I headed to the nurse’s station. We had work to do if we planned to take King home with us.
Lettie was at the nurse’s station talking to security. "That woman attacked me and my men. She’s keeping me from my son. Arrest her."
She pointed at me.
Now, honestly, I couldn’t blame the hospital security. Lettie looked like a wealthy old lady who was traumatized by an evil daughter-in-law. Then I stormed toward them with Min, who looked like a menace on a good day, but this was by far not a good day, so he was more demon than man at the moment.
The guards charged us. Min went ninja on their asses while I forgot all about the discharge documents. I grabbed the first wheelchair I came across and dashed back to King and Ben.
Hearing the commotion down the hall, Ben ran to backup Min as soon as I was there to take care of King.
By the time I had King in the chair and was rolling him out, an alarm had gone off. When I cleared the corridor to the nurse’s station, the area was deserted except for Min, Ben, Lettie, and the unconscious bodies of the guards.
"I’m your mother," Lettie yelled at Ben.
"No, you’re not. You’re just some mean old woman who kidnapped us and spent our entire lives fucking with our heads. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll see you in jail, Lettie Heavenly."
Lettie blanched, "Who told you that?"
Ben let out a nasty, bitter chuckle. "You did! I read it from your own handwriting, and do you know what else? I took pictures of it. If you don’t clear the way for us to leave here today, I swear, I’ll send those pages to every news outlet in the country."
Lettie clutched at her chest. "You wouldn’t."
"Watch me."
I loved seeing Ben take power away from Lettie. It was so gratifying after watching her browbeat people into submitting to her will so often.
Min said, "Call off your dogs, Lettie. Let us take King out of here, and you buy another day of freedom."
Lettie lowered herself to the floor. "King’s my creation. He’s mine. You can’t take him."
King looked up from where he slumped in the wheelchair. "You’re wrong, Lettie. I’m my own man now. I might have been yours in the past, but not now, and never again."
King forced himself to his feet. He was wobbly. I supported him as best as I could.
"We don’t need this old woman. I’m the head of Heavenly Enterprises. I have the power now. Not her."
And he proved it as soon as more security showed up with the police. Gone was the weak man who wanted to die. Here was the dominant CEO who ruled an empire. And the men around us listened to him without question.
They let us go as Lettie seemed to shrink in on herself as if she were trying to disappear.
When we reached the front entrance to the hospital, our security people stood at attention to each side of the doorway.
What good would they do us now was beyond me, but I felt like a queen walking past them to the awaiting SUV and freedom.
