Chapter 174 A Thrilling Yet Clichéd Story
The whole room erupted in chaos.
"This is way too shocking!"
"I love hearing this kind of gossip! Keep going!"
"How old is Thomas? Wait, does this mean Colin cheated on his wife with Michelle after getting married? But Michelle was Colin's older brother Kirk's mistress!"
Michelle pointed at me, telling me not to talk nonsense. She was so worked up that she accidentally knocked over a glass nearby. Water spilled on Amelia's leg, soaking her pants, but Amelia didn't react. She just stared blankly at Michelle, then at Thomas.
Thomas and Colin wore identical gloomy expressions.
But if you looked closely, you'd notice neither of them seemed shocked.
Wendy suddenly stood up. "Impossible! How could Thomas not be my son!"
I pulled out a medical record I'd worked hard to investigate and handed it to Felix, who was frowning in silence. "This is Wendy's medical record from when she gave birth, with a voided birth certificate attached. It says Wendy had a daughter."
Felix carefully examined the medical record and birth certificate, then pressed his lips together and nodded at Wendy.
"A daughter?" After hearing she'd given birth to a daughter, Wendy actually seemed less agitated.
But Felix had to condemn Colin. "Where is Wendy's daughter? The Marr family shouldn't have married such a good girl into your family! When Kirk ran away from the wedding and you stepped in, I thought you were a responsible man. But you actually—"
Felix's finger trembled as he pointed at the silent Michelle, then at Colin. "You actually had an affair with your brother's wife! How can you face Kirk, who's dead?"
"There's nothing to feel bad about." Colin wiped his face and suddenly laughed. "Kirk had weak sperm. He couldn't have children, so I helped him. Michelle gave birth to a son to be my heir—that was Kirk's compensation to me!"
He glanced at Wendy and said wearily, "Instead of blaming me, you should reflect on why you couldn't give birth to a son. If you'd been more capable, you'd have your own child by now."
Wendy finally snapped out of it and slapped Colin hard across the face.
Thomas reached out to stop her, but Wendy looked at him with eyes full of hatred and pain. "You knew all along? You two, father and son, have been lying to me this whole time!"
I snapped my fingers to draw everyone's attention back. "You two can talk about your marital issues later. I'm not finished yet. Everyone, did you notice? Colin just said 'Kirk gave him a son as compensation.' The implication of that statement is that Michelle gave birth to more than one son."
Gale and Brian had helped me investigate all this. Marcus was hearing it for the first time and was completely absorbed in this exciting yet clichéd story. "And then? Bella, keep going! More than one son—does that mean twins!"
"Correct!" I clapped for Marcus. "That's Marcus for you, so smart! Yes, Michelle gave birth to twin boys back then. Colin took one child back to the family—that's Thomas. The other child stayed with Michelle in Silverpine Town."
"You're lying!" Amelia stood up and excitedly refuted me. "I never saw Mom with another child!"
"Was Michelle very busy when you were little? Often not at home?" I asked her.
"So what if she was?" Amelia said hesitantly.
"She was busy because she had more than one home," I said.
Amelia was stunned again. "If that's true, Mom, you never wanted to take me with you at all. The part of Dad's inheritance I get can only be accessed after I'm married. You just wanted the money! You want to give all my money to your son!"
"Stop crying for now," I waved my hand. "That's not my main point either. What I want to say is the identity of Michelle's other child—he's here today."
Everyone was shocked, even Michelle looked surprised.
I observed carefully and realized her astonishment wasn't fake!
After thinking for a moment, I still pointed toward Gerald's group sitting in the observer section, who had no voting rights.
"That child had an accident over a year ago and lost his memory. His name now is Beckett."
Gerald's mouth dropped open. "Oh my God!"
Jonas was also sitting in the observer section. He seemed to realize something and instinctively moved Della behind him, shielding her completely.
"Oh my God!" Marcus slapped his thigh several times. "But they don't really look alike."
"Beckett's face was severely injured in the accident. He had reconstructive plastic surgery." Lucas answered for me.
"What a messy situation, but it's quite a story." Stephen slowly clapped a few times. "But Isabella, I still don't understand the purpose of telling us all this."
Felix said impatiently, "Isabella, if you think people interested in Michelle's assets will give up because of these stories, you're too naive!"
"Don't rush, I'm getting to the most important part." I pressed my hand downward and pulled up some news articles on my tablet, passing them around to those in the central seats.
"Serial killer? Torturing and killing women?" Stephen quickly skimmed through and looked at me in confusion, asking for an explanation.
"The killer who murdered these women is Beckett." I looked toward the Woods family members. "The other day in the woods, Octavia was most likely also attacked by Beckett."
The Woods family members, who had been keeping a low profile and staying neutral, trying to stay out of it, suddenly all had sharp, murderous looks in their eyes. "Isabella, is what you're saying true?"
I didn't answer directly but said, "Not long ago, I caught a hitman who has close ties with Michelle. His name is Albino. He has a distinctive trait—he likes to collect body parts after killing. But he told me that many years ago, he took a large sum of money from Michelle to take the fall for a teenage boy. Later, neither he nor that boy went to prison. The boy grew into a young man who still enjoyed killing, while Albino handled the cleanup for him."
"Albino is still in my custody. I can hand him over to you for questioning," I offered.
Octavia's father slammed the table, staring viciously at Michelle and Beckett. "Once I get to the bottom of this, the Woods family won't let you off."
Everyone knew the Woods family valued their family members deeply. Now Michelle could forget about joining a new family—even staying alive had become a problem.
Michelle felt ice-cold all over. She wanted to find a way out, wanted to defend herself, wanted to gain sympathy again, but couldn't say a word.
I had achieved my goal.
From the beginning, I never truly intended to let her join our family. How could I let her taint the "Sorelli" name? My purpose was simply to make sure no one would dare accept her or protect her.
I looked at the pile of assets, my eyes full of amusement. I hadn't expected that the treasures that had been hidden would also be voluntarily exposed by Michelle. Now getting them back would be easy, wouldn't it?
Just then, seeing their assets slipping away and their future hopeless, the Gambino family members suddenly rushed toward the pile of gold, silver, and treasures in the center of the venue.
"That's our money!"
"Grab it back! We can't let others benefit!"