His Last Command Came Back to Kill Him novel Chapter 146

After Whitley left, Clive returned to the house.

His gaze fell coolly on the splintered jade scattered across the floor. He was rarely a man of many smiles, but right now, the atmospheric pressure around him was terrifyingly low. The air itself felt frozen.

Leroy stood to the side, his previous arrogance entirely evaporated. He shrank back, not even daring to make eye contact.

"Did you break this?"

Leroy hid his hands behind his back, dropping his head further, but his tone was defensive. "No... I was going to give it to her, but she didn't catch it. It slipped."

"It broke. Why is it my fault?"

Clive lifted his eyes to the nearby housekeeper. "Take him to his room. He's grounded for a week. No electronics. He stays there until he admits what he did."

Leroy instantly exploded. His eyes went red and he started wailing. "I didn't do anything wrong! I want Yelena! You're all bullying me!"

Clive didn't even flinch. Completely ignoring the tantrum, he turned on his heel and walked into his study.

The housekeeper let out a quiet sigh in her heart.

The mister was disciplining his brother, but anyone with eyes could see that while his anger was directed at Leroy, his mind was on someone else entirely.

Last night, Whitley had walked out into the storm, drenched and burning with fever. He had known, yet he hadn't uttered a single word to stop her.

Ever since Whitley moved out, Leroy had become increasingly unmanageable. The lying, the entitlement, the blatant destruction of things others cared about—all his worst traits were on full display.

Leroy didn't even last a day in confinement before he cracked.

When Yelena heard the news, she showed up right at the front door. She breezed through the villa unchallenged; even the staff didn't dare block her path.

She pushed open the door to the study—a room even Whitley, the actual wife, wasn't allowed to enter freely.

Clive was at his desk, reviewing documents, his expression severe.

Yelena glided over, her tone gentle but threaded with reproach. "Clive, Leroy is just a kid. He doesn't know any better. Don't be so hard on him."

"As long as he knows he made a mistake, there's no need to be this strict."

Clive looked up at her. "Spoiling him will only ruin him."

"You can't blame the boy entirely," Yelena murmured, her words carefully laced with poison. "It's really Whitley's fault for not teaching him properly. She never paid enough attention to him, and now that there's a problem, Leroy is the one being punished."

"Just leave Leroy to me from now on. I'll make sure he learns."

Clive remained silent, offering no response.

***

That rainy night, Whitley had dragged herself back to her small apartment.

The place was pitch black and devoid of life.

The only thing she wanted to grip tightly right now was the project timeline.

She needed to get everything on track and reclaim all the time she had wasted.

Drowning in the past would only rip open old wounds.

Zinnia felt her forehead again, her frown deepening. "The fever hasn't even broken. Any normal person would be resting, but you open your eyes and start talking business."

Whitley looked up at her. "The proposal I sent over yesterday—was it implemented today?"

"Relax. With a genius like you on board, the second that proposal went live, it completely bypassed a bottleneck the tech team had been stuck on for ages. The whole lab is obsessed with you."

Whitley let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Chisholm specifically told me to make sure you rest for the next few days." Zinnia sighed heavily. "You're fighting for your health, fighting for this project, and dealing with those two pieces of trash constantly orbiting you. Do you think you're made of steel?"

"They," Whitley said evenly, "stopped mattering a long time ago."

Zinnia stared at her, feeling a prickle of unease.

She was entirely too calm. Too calm for someone who had just suffered that kind of humiliation and a raging fever.

Whitley knew exactly what she was doing. If she wanted to return to the pinnacle of her field, she had to endure. She had to fight.

Scientific breakthroughs didn't just fall out of the sky; they were bled out through countless sleepless nights in the lab.