Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 47: King Strikes Out

King exploded into the Heavenly family home. "Mother, where are you!"

Lettie looked up from her place on the sofa in the family room. A smile curved her lips. She looked to the girl serving coffee as King stormed into the room. "You can go."

"Where is she?"

"Where you can’t reach her."

"Let her go."

"I don’t think so."

"What did Teela ever do to you?"

Exasperated, Lettie said, "King, seriously? You have to ask me that? That woman has torn this family apart. I spent years wrangling you boys into good men and setting this family up for success. She destroyed it. Joshua is barely talking to me. You moved out. Ben hasn’t been home in days. School trip, my ass. He’s at his club every night. The boy is avoiding me."

"Mom, why do you think that is?"

"I think it is because that woman is toxic. She’s poisoned you against me."

"No, Mom, it isn’t. It is because you preached ethics to us until our ears bled, but you don’t practice what you preach."

"I never—"

"Are you telling me you honestly believe everything you’ve done to Teela was ethical? No, I’ll go a step further. Do you think everything you’ve done to me and Joshua and the others was ethical? How about when you used to give Ben sleeping pills when he was barely out of diapers because you didn’t want to deal with a rambunctious toddler? Or when you made Dainel drop out of school to help you with the business only to hand it over to me when I finished at the university? Daniel was doing a man’s job when most boys were still learning to shave. He earned the right to inherit the company from you.

"I’m surprised you gave him a break long enough to get married, but I suspect that had to do more with who he married than any thoughts to his happiness."

"That’s enough!"

"No, Mom, it isn’t, and if you don’t hand Teela over to me right now, I’m going to the press and blow apart this whole fairy tale you’ve got going of being the perfect mother and above-reproach businesswoman."

"You wouldn’t dare."

"Watch me."

Lettie crossed her hands over her chest. "Fine, hand over the shares you stole from the boys plus those I gifted you. I’ll trade your useless wife for the shares. However, I’m not sure why you would do it. She’ll leave you as soon as she’s able. I bet she’s already seen an attorney."

"Is that what this is about? I wouldn’t give you the company back, so you plan to extort the shares out of me?" King nodded. "All right. I’ll make it happen within twenty-four hours. But right now, this minute, I want to see Teela."

"You don’t have the upper hand to negotiate anything with me, King. You’ll see the woman when I get my company back."

"If you’ve hurt her, I’ll destroy you, Mother, and I mean it."

"Don’t threaten me, King Heavenly. I made you into the man you are, and I can certainly destroy you just as easily."

"I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t break easily."

Lettie snorted. "I wonder if that woman can say the same thing."

King got in Lettie’s face. "Mom, what have you done?"

"What I always do when someone defies me. I take control of the situation and make sure I come out on top."

King narrowed his eyes. "I should have destroyed the reflection room years ago."

He jogged from the room and toward the basement door. He punched in the lock code, but nothing happened.

Lettie followed behind him at a leisurely pace. "I knew you would try to free her. I changed the code, but King, even if you break down the door, you won’t find her. She’s not there."

"Then why did you change the code?"

"For this."

Lettie yelled for the guards.

Three men raced toward King. He fought against them, but they were bigger and more experienced in hand-to-hand combat. Before he knew it, his hands were zip-cuffed behind his back.

Lettie held his jaw in a vice grip that belied her age and size. "You think I can’t handle you just because you’re a grown man? You forget. I’ve got more money than god. I can hire all the muscle I want.

"I think you need to stop worrying about that woman and worry about yourself instead.

"Take him downstairs."

King’s legs almost gave out beneath him. No. He couldn’t...Mom wouldn’t. But she would. He knew she would. She’d sent him to the reflection room so many times, not just for his crimes but also for Ben’s. King had done whatever it took to keep Ben from facing the reflection room.

He remembered once Ben had broken a vase. Mom dragged Ben as far as the basement door before King devised a plan. He apologized to Joshua and then punched him in the nose. Ben got off with grounding in his room. Joshua went to the emergency room. King, well King was locked in the reflection room for three days with no food or water before Lettie hooked him up to an IV and left him for another five days.

But Ben was safe.

The guards pushed and dragged King downstairs, stopping at the padlocked door to strip him down. They knocked him out when he managed to kick one in the balls.

He woke up naked and alone in the reflection room. The lights were as bright as ever. The reflection of him alone and afraid stared back at him no matter where he looked. Terror threatened to choke him before he finally pushed it down.

Teela needed him, and now he couldn’t even help himself. He should have just agreed to sign over the shares and left, but no, he had to get in his mother’s face. He should have known this was coming.

Whatever Teela was going through, she would have to endure until he got out. King vowed to sign over the shares and then spend the rest of his life making it up to her, although he doubted he could. He would have to let her walk away if that was what she really wanted, but he hoped she would at least not hate him as much as he hated himself right now.

The lights went out. The neon messages came on.

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.

Nothing is more important than the Heavenly family.

Everything you do reflects on the family.

And then cold air poured into the room and over his bare flesh. King cuddled in on himself, trying to retain his body heat as best he could. This was going to be a long night.

I woke up naked and alone in the last place I wanted to be. The silence screamed at me. The lights were too bright, and whoever had brought me here had dumped me in an awkward position. My left arm was pinned under my torso. It had fallen asleep, and my shoulder was sore.

Why was I here? Had I upset King so bad that he felt the need to punish me, or had that bitch of a mother of his gone off the deep end again?

I didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The intercom crackled to life with Lettie’s voice.

"You think you are so smart, don’t you? You turned my son away from me, and you’ve defied me over and over again. Now you’ll pay for it. If I was a different person, you would be dead already. Be thankful.

"How do I turn this off? Daniel—"

I shook my head. No matter what I did, Lettie was determined to make my life hell. Now I had to endure her torture one more time. I could do this, I thought. I hoped.

I looked around the room. This wasn’t the same reflection room. The ceiling was wrong. There were acoustical tiles. And the portable toilet was different. To my left, a cluster of water bottles and granola bars awaited consumption.

Those startled me. If they left me water and food, they expected me to be here a while. The big question was how long was a while? I assumed I needed to ration the supplies, but for how long? Could I allow myself a bottle a day? A half a bottle? Could I even trust that food and water wasn’t poisoned?

The lights went out. No big deal. I was expecting it, but when the neon phrases didn’t light up the mirrors, I knew something was different. Cold air flowed through the room on the heels of heavy metal music so loud that I had to cover my ears against the assault.

I started counting, waiting for the lights to come on, for the music to stop. For the goosebumps covering my body to melt away. It was just a matter of time.

Only—