Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 161: King’s Intervention

"Why should I tell you?" King asked. "That’s private."

"Private? Do you hear yourself? You are all over my business plus you’ve practically begged me to come back, where I’d most assuredly discover the information on my own. Not to mention, if I can hack the Pentagon, I can surely hack your medical records.

"Save me the trouble. Tell me. If you care about me and you expect me to care about you, tell me. Have a conversation."

King said, "Clean out the room. I’ll tell you and you alone."

Alec and Wyla said, "That is not going to happen."

I scrambled for compromise. King wouldn’t hurt me, and there was only one way in and out of the room, so he wouldn’t be taking me anywhere. That didn’t mean the encounter would be pleasant, but maybe I could get the answers I needed.

"What if Min stayed or Ben?" I suggested.

King considered my request. "Min can stay."

When the room cleared, I turned to King. "Okay, it’s just us. Tell me."

"I don’t understand why this is so important to you. I was feeling anxious. The therapist suggested an experimental medication. I’ve been taking it since we were in couple’s therapy."

"You were taking them by the handful earlier today. How many are you supposed to take?"

"I take as many as I need based on the symptoms."

"Medication doesn’t work that way usually."

"That’s what makes these special. I only take them when I need them."

Big red flags flashed in my head. Most medications required time to work, and no pharmaceutical company would trust patients to take as many pills as they wanted.

"How often do you need them?"

"I don’t know. I don’t keep track. I pick up a refill once a week or so, I guess."

"What is the medication called?"

King reached into a pocket and pulled out a pharmacy bottle. He tossed it at me. "Here. I have more. Now can we talk about what I want to talk about?"

The bottle indicated it contained sixty pills. That seemed like a lot for a week. It would be a lot even if it were candies.

"Give me a minute." I went to work on researching the medication, but I wasn’t getting far. The only med that came up in the results that were close to what was printed on the bottle was spelled differently, and it treated menstrual cramps.

I redirected my attention to the manufacturer, which didn’t exist, at least not as a pharmaceutical company. Roofing materials, office supplies, balloons, yes, but not drug production.

"Teela, you’re stalling," King said.

"No, I’m not. I was researching your pills. King, they don’t exist. Not the medication and not the manufacturer. You said your therapist prescribed these? Did you do a background check on her?"

"I don’t know. Nan lined her up. She must have. It was protocol."

Nan, another Lettie lackey. Anything and anyone under the control of Lettie was suspect.

I couldn’t believe Lettie was dead and possibly still making my life hell. I was never going to shake this woman. I’d leave town, but my life and friends were here. Besides, I left town once, King had me followed, and Alec pleaded with me to come back. It didn’t help.

"King, can you stop taking the pills while I do a deep dive on your therapist?"

"Why should I? They help me."

"King, you’ve changed. We’ve all seen it. I’m concerned these pills are changing you, and not in a good way."

"I don’t believe you."

"Min, tell him."

Min said, "Ben and I told him at the police station. He won’t listen."

"King, you have to listen."

"You do your research. I’ve taken these pills this long. A little longer won’t hurt anything. I’ll stop if you find out they aren’t good for me later."

I put a hand on King’s arm. "I can’t let you do that."

King looked at me hopefully. "Because you love me?"

My hand fell away. "King, no. I’m sorry, but I do care about you as a person."

"You’re blowing me off, Teela. Just like you always do."

"It’s not like that, King. Give me two days—no, one day. Let me work this out. I can have the pills analyzed and the therapist checked out."

"If you come home with me, I’ll stop, Teela. Just come home."

Oh, that wouldn’t go over well with Alec. Me either, truth be known. I had too many bad memories of the Heavenly family home to go back there willingly. If I could talk him into going to the condo instead, it would be better, but if I was busy taking care of King, then I wasn’t free to check into the meds.

Min suggested, "King could stay with me and Ben for a couple of days. We could keep him off the stuff."

"Thanks, Min," I said, "but you are practically still on your honeymoon."

Min shrugged. "King is family. What is more important? He can make it up to us when he feels better by sending us on an island vacation."

I looked to King for cooperation. "King, please? For two days? Stay with Min and Ben. Take it easy for two days so you won’t need the drugs while I figure this out."

"What’s in it for me?" King asked. "If you won’t stay with me, I don’t have a reason to cooperate."

How old was this man? I felt like I was negotiating with Thing One and Thing Two over going to bed on time.

"What if I promise to have dinner with you every night until I’m done?"

"Without Alec or that Amazonian warrior princess?" King asked.

"Deal, but you’ve got to stay with Min and Ben and stop taking the pills. No ducking out to follow me. No just cutting down on how many of the pills you are taking. No running into the office to cope with business issues. I’ve seen you work from home before. You can do it again."

"And you’ll for sure have dinner with me each night?"

"As long as you live up to your end of the bargain, I’ll be there."

"Starting now?" King asked. "Teela, have dinner with me. Send Alec home. I’ll take you to a quiet restaurant where we can talk."

"That is not how this works, King. You receive a reward at the end of each day. Today, you’ve disrupted my day twice, and you’ve been taking those drugs off and on all day. You don’t qualify for a dinner."

"Oh." King pouted.

The man literally pouted like a child. I didn’t even know he was capable.

"Come on, don’t be like that. Spend some time with your brother. You like Ben and Min. Spend the time doing something you like."

"I like spending time with you."

I patted King’s arm. "Tomorrow night. Now, I’ve got other business to tend to. I’ll go to work finding out what is up with your medication first thing in the morning."

"Teela, don’t tell anyone, okay? If this does go bad, I don’t need the publicity."

"I’ll keep it down to need-to-know personnel only."

"Especially not Alec or Stiff. They hate me."

"King, you are kind of tying my hands here. Stiff is my partner. We work as a team."

"You’ll find a way, but don’t mention my name. It shouldn’t be hard."

"Fine. I’ll keep your name out of it."

I left Ben’s office with more answers than I had going in, but those answers led to more questions. I was eager to go to work on answering those additional questions, but then again, I was also anxious to talk to Wyla about her relationship with Eugene Crest, and I wanted to throw myself back into Alec’s arms.

I wasn’t convinced going back to Alec was totally a good idea, but it is what felt like the right thing to do. At some point in my life, I had to stop running away from my problems and learn to work through the hard times, preferably in tandem with Alec.

I put off addressing the inquisitive looks both Alec and Wyla were sending me to thank Ben for assisting with King. I filled him in quickly on what I had learned and confirmed he agreed with Min. He was in full agreement to watch over King while I did the research needed.

I then turned to Alec. "Thanks for coming tonight. It felt good to have you at my side."

"Anytime. And I do mean it, Teela. I’d rather be next to you than anywhere."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"Do you think you can come home now? I can have someone pick up your things from the hotel."

I squeezed my eyes shut before peeking out. "Can you hold that thought for about an hour? I have one more meeting to attend tonight."

"I can. Should I go with you. You know, for security?"

I glanced at Wyla before answering. "Not this time, Alec. It’s private."

Wyla said, "He can come, I mean if you want. I mean, you trust him, then I trust him."

"This may be a better conversation for just the two of us this one time, Wyla."

"I mean, if it is just about employment, it isn’t that personal, right?" Wyla said.

I really didn’t want to get into this here. But it wasn’t fair to keep her in the dark either.

"It’s not all about employment, Wyla. It is about your past."