Chapter 124 The Truth Exposed
Chapter 124 The Truth Exposed
"Mason!" Max glared at him through gritted teeth.
"Move in." Mason ordered coldly.
At his command, the NSA tactical team positioned around the perimeter stormed the warehouse and locked down the entire storage area.
"Boss." Black Cat ran over to Ophelia.
"What are you doing here? Are you fully recovered?"
"Yeah. You went in alone and everyone was worried sick. They insisted I bring backup." Black Cat grinned.
Max's men raised their weapons and fought back, but these desperate, cornered criminals were no match for the well-trained NSA tactical team.
In just ten minutes, every last thug on the perimeter was taken down. The cool, mocking look on Max's face shattered, leaving nothing but a grim, ashen expression.
He never expected that the perfect trap he had so carefully set would end up as a cage for himself.
Silver Fox tensed every muscle, standing firm in front of Qiana and Emily, ready to go down fighting.
At the far end of the room, Qiana watched everything unfold in terror, while Emily stood beside her, trembling uncontrollably, every trace of her usual arrogance completely gone.
Medical personnel carried the unconscious Cynthia to an ambulance. The tactical team moved in swiftly, training their guns on the remaining suspects and snapping cold handcuffs onto their wrists without mercy.
News of the arrests reached the Jones family almost instantly. Liam rushed to the scene with Brandon, Jeremy, and Terry. When all four of them saw Qiana and Emily in custody with their own eyes, they froze.
None of them had ever imagined the two women would go this far — kidnapping a family elder, crossing legal lines, committing crimes this serious.
As the interrogation unfolded, a secret buried for nearly twenty years finally came to light.
Liam never saw it coming — Emily was Qiana's child. He could have accepted Emily being an orphan with no parents, but he couldn't accept that Emily was his own niece by blood.
His own sister had been playing him all along. It was almost too absurd to believe.
All eyes turned to Qiana. Liam held back the sharp pain and rage in his chest and asked, word by word, "Qiana, we never did you wrong. So why would you do something this shameless?"
Faced with his question, Qiana showed not a shred of guilt. She snapped her head up and screamed at everyone, "Never did me wrong? How dare you say that! You ruined my entire life!"
"Raymond and I were genuinely in love, but you kept picking him apart, saying he wasn't good enough, blocking us at every turn. That's why he felt he had to prove himself. He took a risk, got lured to that shady operation near the Rainbow District border, and nearly got himself killed. That was on you. You tore our family apart!"
"And what about you all? Happy, picture-perfect lives, even a baby on the way. While you were living your perfect little life, did any of you ever stop to think about how desperate I was? I couldn't stand it. I wanted to tear your happiness apart!"
"So what if I switched the babies? Emily lived in luxury with the Jones family for twenty years. That was what you owed me — a debt you had to pay!"
Qiana's twisted, unhinged rant chilled everyone to the bone.
Even now, she showed no remorse and refused to face what she had done, instead laying every bit of the blame on others. It was beyond comprehension.
Liam looked at this sister he had loved and looked after since she was little, and the last trace of warmth in his eyes went out. "She's beyond saving. Let the authorities handle her by the book. No need to go easy on her."
He had met Raymond back then. His objection had nothing to do with the man being poor — it was that he was poor and restless, always chasing big dreams with no real plan, clearly not someone who would step up when it mattered.
If Raymond had been willing to put his head down and work honestly, how would he have been so easily lured away by some too-good-to-be-true job offer?
But Qiana couldn't see through him. She was set on building a life with him, got pregnant before they were married, and ran off with him.
They had planned to go to Majestic City to talk some sense into her — and if she wouldn't listen, they were prepared to let them marry and give the couple money to get on their feet. But then Cynthia went into early labor unexpectedly, and they never made it.
Later, Qiana came back on her own and said she had ended the pregnancy and broken up with Raymond. So they let the whole thing go.
He had only ever wanted what was best for her. And she had twisted his intentions into something else entirely.
The thought left Liam with a hollow, bitter ache.
Beside him, Emily had already gone weak at the knees and collapsed to the floor.
"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. Please, please help me. I didn't know what was really going on — everything bad was Aunt Qiana's idea. I'm innocent! I'll change, I swear. I'll never go after my sister again. Please don't send me to prison."
Everyone watching her beg felt a flicker of reluctance. Twenty years of shared life wasn't easy to set aside.
But just as that hesitation crept in, Brandon picked up a thick stack of investigation files and held them open. "Didn't know? Innocent? Emily, can you even say that with a straight face?"
"All this time, you and Qiana set Ophelia up again and again. You even paid people to destroy her. You knew you had taken over Ophelia's life, and instead of feeling any shame, you pushed her down harder at every turn. Nobody forced you to do any of this. You're not an innocent victim — you're a repeat offender who never learned."
Emily's sobs caught in her throat. She couldn't make a sound. She felt ice-cold all over.
It was over. Everything was over. Every single thing she had done was now laid out in front of everyone. No one would ever believe her again.
At that moment, the last trace of reluctance in Liam's heart disappeared completely.
His eyes went flat. "Whatever punishment you face, you brought it on yourself. Every wrong thing you did — you own the consequences. From here on out... that's on you."
With that, the tactical team pulled Emily up off the floor and put her in a vehicle.
"No — Mom, Dad, save me — please, someone help me! I really know I was wrong!"
Emily's cries echoed through the empty warehouse, raw and desperate. But this time, no one's heart softened. No one spoke up for her.
After the case was closed, the verdicts came down.
Raymond was convicted of cross-border crimes, espionage, premeditated kidnapping, and intentional homicide, among other serious charges. He and Max, whose criminal record was equally extensive, were both sentenced to death in accordance with the law.
Qiana, for her role in the kidnapping and the deliberate attempt to harm others, was sentenced to twenty years in prison, where she would spend the rest of her days living with the consequences of what she had done.
Emily, who had aided and abetted throughout, received a lighter sentence. Since she had not directly carried out the kidnapping, the attempt on Geraldo's life had not resulted in serious harm, and some of her offenses had not been completed, her combined sentence came to five years.