Chapter 178 Stephen’s Gift
I trust Karen won't lie to me.
Using the bathroom as an excuse, I headed to the room marked on the key card with Cole and Adrian—308.
The third floor was too far to hear the noise from downstairs. The hallway was covered with thick carpet that completely swallowed our footsteps.
We barely saw any other guests along the way. The passing waiters were all well-trained, eyes lowered, bowing slightly, looking straight ahead, even breathing quietly.
The door to room 308 was unlocked. It opened with a push, and inside was empty.
I sat down on the sofa, looking around while waiting.
Adrian and Cole expertly checked the room. A few minutes later, Cole made a discovery. "Ms. Sorelli, there's a hidden room here."
I got up and walked over.
The hidden room wasn't large. On the left wall was a one-foot-wide one-way glass through which I could clearly see what was happening in the adjacent room 309.
Six men were scattered on sofas drinking. They were all between twenty and thirty years old, dressed in expensive clothes, with arrogant and unrestrained expressions—clearly from privileged backgrounds.
Each had a young, attractive male or female companion in their arms. Their behavior was frivolous—some groping and touching, some feeding each other drinks mouth-to-mouth. The decadent atmosphere hit me in the face.
They were probably the "gift" Stephen wanted to give me.
I raised my hand, took a photo, and sent it to Karen, asking, "Do you know them? Who are they?"
Karen quickly replied. These six all came from the five great families. Two belonged to the Valeri family and were already dead drunk.
The man from the Thornfield family was a somewhat famous rapper in the entertainment industry. He was being clung to by a hot-bodied female model.
The model's voice was sweet and coquettish, her hand gently caressing his chest. "Jasper, why do you look so troubled? Are you in a bad mood? Let me cheer you up."
Her hand slid down to Jasper Thornfield's abdomen, where he suddenly grabbed it.
"Enough." His tone was impatient. "I'm not interested. You can leave."
"No, I'm not leaving." The model acted coy and refused to go. The blue-haired man next to them clicked his tongue impatiently. "Jasper, why are you showing us this ugly face when we're out having fun? Such a buzzkill."
He was from the Marr family, with heavy dark circles under his eyes and cloudy pupils—a typical look of excessive indulgence.
He pulled the model over, roughly into his arms, his hand brazenly groping her chest, laughing frivolously and lewdly. "Don't be sad. If Jasper won't treat you well, I will."
Jasper's face turned dark. He suddenly kicked over the ice bucket by the table. Ice and liquor splashed everywhere as profanity burst from his mouth. "Fuck, how can you still be in the mood to play at a time like this! The Sorelli family has risen, and sooner or later they'll come for revenge!"
"So what?" The blue-haired man was busy kissing the model and didn't even look up. Another man answered instead, from the Caudill family, with features somewhat similar to Simeon's.
He wasn't favored in his family, but his tone was extremely arrogant. "Our families are the most powerful forces in this city! The Sorelli family has already gotten revenge on the Gambino family, and all the stolen goods have been returned to them. What more do they want?"
Jasper waved his hand and kicked out all the drinking companions. Once the door closed, only the six of them remained in the room.
"Stupid. Do you really think this is over?" He laughed coldly, his eyes sinister. "The Sorelli family is showing their strength now. Isabella is the Miracle Surgeon, and she has that devil Lucas protecting her! Can't you see the families' attitude? They don't want to offend them at all!"
He drained his whiskey in one gulp. His eyes became somewhat hazy, but his voice was extremely low yet crystal clear. "If Isabella and the others find out we were involved in the massacre of the Sorelli family back then, we're all dead!"
I looked up, killing intent gathering in my heart.
"As long as they don't find out, isn't that fine?" The man sitting on the far end of the long sofa was from the Woods family. He spoke casually.
"Easy for you to say." Jasper acted like he'd heard a joke and laughed viciously. "But can this secret really be kept?"
He pointed at the two dead-drunk young men from the Valeri family. "These two wastes called us out today just to threaten us, didn't they?"
The blue-haired man shrugged indifferently. "They won't survive tonight. Drunk—fell to death, died from alcohol, drowned, any accident is possible."
Jasper didn't care about these two lives. His gaze swept over everyone present, his finger pointing at each one. "Besides them, what about you all? Back then, the families just wanted to please that big shot. Massacring the Sorelli family wasn't in the plan at all. It was you, you, and you—"
His voice suddenly turned shrill. "We accidentally killed a Sorelli family girl first, then her mother caught us, so we had no choice but to kill her whole family of six! Plus those wastes from the Gambino family lost their minds on drugs and played their torture-killing game. Too many people died, and we couldn't contain it!"
"What's the point of saying all this?" The man from the Caudill family stared at him warily. "You're not planning to kill us too, are you?"
The atmosphere seemed to freeze for a moment.
"You guys must be drunk." A few seconds later, the blue-haired man broke the silence. He sneered dismissively. "What's done is done. The treasures and women we stole back then—were we the only ones who enjoyed them? The money I got, I gave it all to my older brother!"
"Your brother is one of the Marr family heirs. What are you?" Jasper mercilessly shattered his wishful thinking. "When the truth comes out, we'll be the first pawns the families abandon!"
"Then what do you suggest?" the man from the Caudill family asked. "You've been going on and on. What's your real purpose?"
Jasper was silent for a few seconds, then said viciously, "Either we leave the country soon and hide for a few years, or—we strike first!"
He made a killing gesture.
Hearing this, I curved my lips, though there wasn't a trace of a smile on my face.
Jasper wasn't wrong. He had already become a discarded pawn of his family. But what was Stephen's purpose in letting me know all this?
While thinking, I sent the video I'd recorded to the group chat with my brothers.
Whatever Stephen's purpose was, I wouldn't let any of these people go!
I expressionlessly tagged Marcus alone. "Kill them."
A few minutes later, Marcus replied cleanly and efficiently, "OK."
After leaving 308, I returned to the main hall. The table in our booth was already piled with drinks, food, and board games.
Cressida was hugging a champagne bottle, pointing at Karen, Julie, and Jacqueline. "You, you useless women! Coming to a club to play board games—don't you know what this place is for!"
Karen said, "I have a fiancé. We have a great relationship. I can appreciate handsome guys occasionally, but physical cheating is absolutely not okay!"
Julie chimed in, "I have a boyfriend. Our relationship is stable."
Jacqueline cupped her face in her hands, looking a bit shy. "I, I also have someone I like."
"Not playing with men, not seducing men, not flirting with men—then what are you doing here!" Cressida was quite drunk, her eyes red. "This is terrible. I'm the only single one! My crush is over. I'm heartbroken!"