Wife's Bitter Revenge Against Neglectful CEO Husband-Chapter 109: Doing the Dirty Deed

The apartment Stiff rented for us was a simple one-bedroom affair. He staged it like the first apartment of a couple of kids straight out of college.

We made a show of coming and going, and once in a while, we mixed things up with a loud argument for the sake of appearances. In the meantime, I had my job. I had taekwondo with Alec. And I had my lovely Bea, who was still waiting for a kidney.

Fortunately, Jake’s boys were home, though. And next week, they would return to school. With any luck, Jake and I would be done playing pretend by then. Alec had been patient, but his patience was wearing thin, and mine was too.

I rolled over on the couch and tried to sleep, but I ached to be close to Alec. Just that short time together had turned him into my addiction. Add to the interrupted romance the eagerness to find Bea’s tormenter, and every second of every night felt like an hour, and every day stretched interminably long.

My phone buzzed with an incoming message.

Mrs. H: Don’t go home tomorrow night. Make sure you have witnesses to your location.

"Jake!" I called out, oblivious to the hour or the fact Jake was probably sleeping.

Jake stormed out of his room wearing a pair of athletic shorts and no shirt. I took a breath to enjoy the view. In the next second, I wallowed in guilt for looking before I reminded myself that looking wasn’t cheating. It was just an appreciation for something aesthetically pleasing, no different than going to an art gallery and appreciating the lines and curves of a sculpture. However, I wasn’t stupid enough to think Alec would see it the same way.

It was then I noticed the revolver Jake carried in his right hand. I never expected to see a gun in my home, whether it was my real home or a fake home with a fake boyfriend. The gun was real, and it scared me.

I pointed at the gun. "What is that?"

Jake looked down at his hand before tucking his gun hand behind his back. "Protection. Don’t worry about it."

"Too late."

"We don’t know who Mrs. H will line up or what weapons they might bring with them. It’s better to be prepared."

"You could have given me a heads up."

"Teela, you know we have guns. They were spread all over the Crazy Code conference room before we secured an equipment vault."

"That was different. It wasn’t my home."

"This isn’t your home."

"It is for now. You should have warned me."

Jake nodded. "I’m sorry. You’re right. I didn’t realize it was a big deal to you."

"Now you know."

Jake looked guilty. "Teela, we keep guns at the church as well."

"Does Father DiMarco know?"

"Yeah, he knows."

I took a deep breath and blew it out. "Okay, I’ve got it now. Thanks for the heads up."

"Teela, you might have this discussion with Alec, too. A lot of people keep a gun at home for protection."

"You’re right. I shouldn’t assume just because I don’t see a gun that one isn’t around. But that isn’t what I called you in here about."

I showed Jake the text message.

Jake said, "Okay, good. I was tired of waiting."

"Same. So, what is the plan?"

"You do exactly what she said. You go to work as normal tomorrow. After work, go to Alec. Stay with him until I let you know it’s over."

"I feel like I should be here. You know, to see this through."

"Okay, then stay at work with Stiff. This place is wired to the max. You’ll be able to see and hear everything that is going on. I can’t have you here with me. I’d be too worried about you to focus on what needs to be done."

"And yet another thing you guys didn’t tell me."

"Come on, Teela. You know Stiff better than any of us. Do you honestly think he would set us up here to face some kind of tough guy without surveillance?"

"Yeah, I guess you’re right."

I was a little bit upset for not thinking of that for myself. It seemed there was a lot I wasn’t thinking about lately. At this rate, King would be right in no time. I would be useless for anything but housework.

I needed to focus. I’d like to think I could blame my inattentiveness to being in love, but I knew it was more than that. I had too many projects on my plate. I was too involved in the lives of the people around me. And I was tired. Most nights, I slept fewer hours than most people spent preparing and eating meals for an entire day.

If I didn’t start setting boundaries and taking care of myself properly, I’d end up putting the people I love in danger. I begrudgingly had to admit Alec was right on that point. I hated it when others were right about how I should be living my life. But, hey, to my credit, I was exercising regularly and surrounded myself with a much better class of people than before.

We weren’t sleeping, so Jake and I staged a fight that included furniture, pottery, and glass breakage. Then I stormed out, slamming the door loud enough to wake all the neighbors on the entire floor for good measure.

Alec was waiting for me downstairs. I slid into the back seat with a sigh.

"Madam, I am your driver for this trip. Where to?" Alec said as he smiled at me through the rearview mirror.

"I don’t know. Where do women usually go after they have a fight with their fake boyfriends?"

"What is the saying? The best way to get over one man is to get under another one. How about I take you to a cheap hotel where you can pretend I’m your fake one-night stand?"

"I don’t know. Have you had all your shots?"

"All of them."

"Then let’s do that. There’s a really big tip coming if you can make me forget my name before dawn."

"My pleasure."

And he did make me forget my name—twice—before he made me sleep with a promise to wake me up in time to make it to work on time. Then he passed me off to Stiff before leaving for his own busy day.

Stiff, on the other hand, spent the day giving me other things to think about, like the source of financing for Mrs. H’s business. No one starts out in the loan shark business without capital. Where did hers come from?

The last three years of bank transactions were online with her bank. The amounts didn’t line up with the amounts posted to her business ledgers. If I had to guess, she had a side hustle in money laundering. She did quite well for herself, and she wasn’t totally heartless. Just as she showed me compassion, she frequently donated to charities, mostly those supporting domestically abused women and children.

I set CK to tracing Mrs. H’s history. It didn’t take long for him to find a whole slew of medical records from ten years prior that indicated she was a victim of abuse herself. It was right after that time frame that she started her company.

By the time Jake settled into the apartment to await his attacker, we had a pretty complete story about Mrs. H, except for the answer to how she funded the company and whose money she was laundering. That would take more time.

Jake played his part right up to the end. He returned from work to stretch out on the couch with a beer and the TV remote. The TV was tuned to a ball game. The mess from the fight the previous evening still littered the room, presumably for me to return home and take care of. Like that was happening.

About an hour later, Jake dozed off, and the assailant let himself in with the door code I had provided. He was on the smallish side. Maybe not as tall as me. He wore a gray hoodie. His hair was shaggy. As soon as he closed the door behind him, he pulled out a switchblade. With a click, the blade extended.

He carried it with the blade down as he crossed the room to where Jake appeared to be sleeping in front of the TV. I had no doubt Jake was wide awake and waiting for the optimal chance to foil the guy’s plans. Broken glass crunched under his feet.

Jake let him get right over him before he sprung to life and had the assailant disarmed and subdued in seconds. It was anticlimactic to say the very least. But excitement wasn’t what this was all about.

It was about securing a robust case against Mrs. H and forcing her to reveal the name of the person who put out a contract on Bea.