Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 78: Breakfast in Front of the TV

So much for sending Rosie to prep dinner. King and I slept through the night. At least, I assumed King slept through the night. He was still in bed when I awoke with my head on his shoulder.

"How did you sleep?" King asked.

That was my cue to slip back to my side of the bed as if it were a natural progression and not me avoiding King’s touch. Which I wasn’t, only I was.

"Good. You? Are you in pain?"

"Not bad. I should eat before I take more pills, right? Bad for my stomach otherwise?"

"True."

"Would you mind helping me up? I’d like to brush my teeth first."

"Oh, sure."

The hardest part was getting King upright. Something about raising to a sitting position caused King’s injury to throb.

King was able to take care of his needs in the toilet area while I stayed near the sink, putting toothpaste on his brush, filling his water glass, and laying out a warm, wet washcloth.

I wanted to stay nearby until I was sure King was steady on his feet. Once he brushed his teeth and washed his face, I helped him into the wheelchair.

I rolled him out to the dining room where Ben and Min were eating pancakes and link sausages. A red smoothie waited for me. I smiled and darted off to take care of my morning needs before joining the men who were gathered around King’s chair watching what sounded like the news on Ben’s tablet.

I wasn’t paying much attention until I heard Daniel Heavenly’s name. Now I wanted to see. I squeezed in with the guys and watched as the police officers led Daniel away in handcuffs. Daniel’s head was ducked so low that his beard brushed his shirt.

In the background, Maylean cried while Thing One and Thing Two clung to her.

On, geez! Were they blood relations to Lettie or were the twins victims too?

I darted back to my room for my laptop, thankful I had left it here. I brought it back to the dining room, pausing long enough to chug some of the smoothie. My tastebuds identified strawberries and watermelon. And then my fingers went to work researching the Things while listening to the newscast as a female reporter listed the charges against Daniel.

He faced so many counts of each crime that it was impossible to guess his sentence. If he received as little as one year per count, the eldest Heavenly son would die in prison.

He deserved it. The Things did not. I didn’t know about Maylean. She was an afterthought. In many ways, she always had been. She wasn’t strong enough to stand up to the other women in the family and not cruel enough to cause me much grief. If she weren’t the Things’ mother, I could forget her totally.

I suspect for much of my stay in the Heavenly household, people thought the same of me—forgettable.

As the newcast wound down, all our phones lit up with calls. I put in my earbuds and picked up Stiff’s call.

"Did you see the news?" Stiff asked.

"Yes, Daniel will get his."

"I’d feel better if we found the other two boys first."

"We’ll find them." I continued my research, the keys clicking as I spoke.

"What are you working on?"

I was filling Stiff in on my concerns about the Things, including a lot of tech talk about the path I’d take to find my answers and verify they weren’t forged results planted by Lettie. I wasn’t thinking about my audience until I glanced up and saw four faces, including Rosie, staring at me slack jawed.

My fingers slowed to a stop.

"Hello? Hello?" Stiff was asking in my ear.

"I’m here." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"What’s wrong?"

"I think the lightbulb just went on. I’ll talk to you later."

I tapped my earbud to hang up and faced my audience.

"Um, everything okay?"

Phones were still ringing, but no one seemed to care.

Ben said, "Teela, are you some kind of computer genius or something?"

"I wouldn’t say that."

And that was true. I never thought of myself as a genius. I was just fluent in computer language, culture, and logistics. A lot of people were.

Not everyone would agree with my assessment. I made a lot of money quickly because of my reputation.

King asked, "What are you doing?"

"I may have picked up a few computer skills while earning a master’s degree in computer forensics. I thought I’d make sure the Things aren’t, you know, more kidnapped kids."

"You could have asked," King said. "Ben and I were at the hospital when the twins were born."

"Sorry." I closed the computer. "Habit."

King’s eyes narrowed as if he could see into my soul. "Is there something you’ve not told me?"

I shrugged. "Probably."

There was no way I was going to admit I was the very same person he was paying to prevent me from infiltrating his systems. Nor was I going to tell him he was paying me to spy on him and his family. In fact, the very fact he was paying me to act as his gatekeeper was the reason I was able to put together such a tight case against Daniel.

"Teela, I don’t like secrets."

"Think about it. We all know things we don’t think to share. It isn’t personal. We all have secrets whether it is intentional or unintentional."

"Like the fact you never told me you have an advanced degree in computer forensics? I would think that might have come up."

"And I would think it would have come up on the background check that I’m sure you had done on me before you ever agreed to go on a date with me.

"Besides, I’ve tried to tell you before. You never believed me."

"I think I would have remembered that detail."

"What did I tell you after the office computer was hacked? You know, when I froze up the computers? And how did you respond?"

King looked confused until he recalled the conversation.

Banging at the condo door brought an end to our conversation. I texted the security detail while Min went to answer the door.

As soon as Min opened the door, Anya and Lettie barreled in with Lettie’s goons pouring in after them. But our guys were seconds away. I wasn’t so worried about Lettie’s people today. We had the numbers.

Lettie pointed a ringed finger at me. "That woman had your brother jailed."

"Technically, I didn’t. I was in bed with King when Daniel was arrested."

"But you were behind it. It is all your fault."

"No, Lettie, I’d say that is all your doing. You and your years and years of feeding off the misery of others. Just like it is all your doing that King and Ben left you. Just like it will be all your fault when the next arrest warrant has your name on it."

Lettie stumbled back. Anya caught her and held her up.

Anya said, "Watch what you say to Mother. She’s the family elder."

"She’s your family elder, Anya, not mine. Oh, wait a minute. No, she isn’t. Joshua isn’t any more of a Heavenly than King and Ben. You’ve been dupped like everyone else."

"You don’t know what you are talking about." But Anya didn’t look nearly as confident as she sounded.

King stopped me. "Enough! Teela, this isn’t the time."

By now, I was seeing red. I wasn’t ready to be stopped. Not by words and not by King Heavenly.

"Exactly when is the time, King? When you’re all better? After Lettie goes to jail? When the twins are adults? When am I free to share the truth, the real truth, not Lettie’s warped version of the truth?"

"Ben, take Teela to her room while I talk to Mom," King said.

"Oh, it’s mom again, is it? What changed, King?"

"I’m not leaving," Ben said.

King motioned for Min to take care of me, but I shook Min off.

"I’m a member of this family too, King Heavenly, at least for now. I’m not going anywhere."

"Bitch!" Lettie yelled as she clutched at her chest. Even with Anya’s support, she slid to the ground, her face red and her breath coming in gasps.

For the briefest of moments, I felt guilty for bring this elderly woman down to this level, but before I was done, she had a lot further to fall. I stood my ground.

"Bitch or not, I have the right to be here."

Lettie tried to catch her breath as she chose her target. "King, the press is downstairs. You need to go down and speak to them as the CEO of Heavenly Enterprises. You’ve got to take control of the press before they tear down everything I created apart. Are you ready to lose everything?"

"I-I-I can’t," King said. "If I go down now, looking like this, it will only make matters worse."

"I’ll go," I said.

King said, "No, you can’t. You don’t have any authority to speak for the company."

I flipped my laptop open and found a generic proxy. "Give me five minutes, and I will have. I’ll prepare a proxy for your signature. I’ll go down with all the authority of your shares behind me."

I didn’t want to go. I wasn’t even sure what I would say, but I also didn’t want King to lose everything he had worked for.

King looked from his fake mother to me and back again, confusion, fear, and pain were etched across his face.

"I can’t—"