Chapter 85: After Trashing the Apartment, It's Your Turn
I headed toward Grace's house at full speed.
When I was still 0.6 miles from my destination, the bracelet's tracking signal disappeared.
My heart sank a little.
Grace's house was a three-story villa, one of the properties her first husband had left her. She usually lived at The Valeri Manor, but she hadn't rented this place out.
Alfred was farther away, yet he arrived a minute before me.
He brought at least twenty people with him, all looking tense, like loaded guns ready to fire at any moment.
"Ms. Sorelli, I've had my people surround the building," Alfred said.
I nodded. "Go ring the doorbell."
Alfred somehow got hold of a delivery person's hat and jacket. Grace fell for it easily and opened the door to let us in.
I reminded Alfred to stay alert and followed him into the apartment.
"Who are you?" With a large group of people bursting into her home, even Grace realized something was wrong.
"It's you!" Alfred took off his hat, and she recognized him immediately, then saw me.
"How dare you break into my house! Get out now!" she shrieked.
"Where's Lucas?" I asked her.
"That ungrateful guy? How should I know?" Grace let out a scoff. "You have one minute to leave my house!"
Alfred looked at me. I nodded. "Search!"
Grace had several guards, who were quickly subdued. Alfred led the search through the house.
Worried about Lucas's safety, he acted even more recklessly, knocking over decorations and furniture. Grace watched helplessly as her apartment became a complete mess.
"Isabella, the Valeri family won't let you get away with this!" Grace glared at me viciously, her voice as sharp and grating as nails on glass.
I sat calmly on the sofa, though I was quite troubled inside. But no matter how much I shouldn't offend the Valeri family, I already had!
"Ms. Sorelli, we can't find him!" Alfred's face looked terrible. "He's nowhere to be found!"
I glanced at him and coldly ordered, "Tear the apartment apart."
"Yes!"
Alfred immediately complied. The destruction made tremendous noise, enough to make anyone's heart race. I calmly threatened Grace, "After we finish with the apartment, you're next."
Upstairs, Alfred smashed something, and the noise made Grace flinch. "I'll talk!"
I had someone go upstairs to call Alfred down and urged Grace, "Talk! If you're lying, you won't leave here alive today."
"I've never been humiliated like this! One day, I'll pay you back many times over!" Grace stared at me with poisonous eyes, as if trying to kill me with her gaze. "Lucas is somewhere you'd never expect! Let me tell you—he's become my heir!"
This was terrible news.
Lucas would never agree to such a thing. Obviously, his resistance had earned him punishment.
"Lucas is truly excellent. My father once had high hopes for him and wanted to train him as an outstanding heir. But Lucas was too disobedient!" Grace smiled with a twisted expression. "This time, when he came back, Father wanted him to marry a girl from the Thornfield family. As long as he agreed to the arranged marriage, his status as heir would be announced."
"But he refused!" Grace paused, examining me with a strange look. "My father doesn't need a disobedient heir, so Lucas became my heir instead. His inheritance rights in the Valeri family were also stripped away."
"I'm not interested in any of this. I just want to know where Lucas is," I said. I guessed Lucas was ambushed when he met Holden alone, like an unarmed child falling into a pack of wolves, powerless to fight back.
"Why are you so desperate to save him?" Grace asked back. "You still love him, don't you?"
I keenly sensed something odd about Grace's attitude. "Are you stalling for time?"
I blurted out.
Grace showed a moment of panic. "What?"
That reaction meant I'd guessed right.
Lucas had become her heir in name. She wouldn't want to kill Lucas, but what exactly was she trying to do?
I looked at Grace with heavy eyes. The enormous pressure made Grace break into a cold sweat.
"Use force to get it out of her," I told Alfred.
"Yes!" Alfred eagerly walked toward Grace. She kicked her legs and backed away in panic. "Don't come closer! Don't! I'll talk! Lucas was taken away by Amelia!"
I frowned deeply and repeated suspiciously, "Amelia?"
Grace said, "I made a deal with Amelia. If she can marry Lucas, she'll help me transfer half of Lucas's assets to me."
An ominous feeling rose in my heart. "Where's Amelia? Where did she take Lucas?"
Grace answered, "I don't know."
Alfred grabbed one of her arms and broke it without hesitation.
Grace screamed continuously, lying on the ground convulsing, tears and cold sweat mixing together and soaking the floor. "I don't know! I really don't know!"
I had her contact Amelia, but Amelia wouldn't answer the phone at all.
"Let's go," I said with a dark expression, standing up. "To The Gambino Manor."
Night had fallen. People were still celebrating, but I had no mood to enjoy the festive atmosphere.
On the way, I got a call from Gale asking when I'd be back.
Feeling a bit guilty, I quietly explained everything.
Gale was silent for a minute. "So you're going to The Gambino Manor now?"
"Yes." I didn't know what reason I could use to convince Gale to forgive my recklessness, but Gale wasn't angry or opposed. He just told me to be careful and sent people to support me.
"Since you're going to make a scene, make it a big one," Gale said meaningfully.
I was lucky. At the entrance to The Gambino Manor, I ran into a group of women returning from shopping.
I directly ordered their cars surrounded and forced everyone out. All the bodyguards were knocked out and tied up. The hostages were divided into three groups: men, women and children under eight, and children over eight.
Then Alfred led the way, driving straight through and crashing open the manor gates.
The roar of the engine and the tremendous sound of the iron gates breaking shattered the peace of the night.
I jumped out of the car, my gun already loaded, my sharp gaze sweeping over the servants running around in panic in the courtyard.
Cole shouted loudly, "Everyone, freeze!"
Those who stayed still were tied up. Those who struggled to escape were each given a bullet in the leg.
Blood quickly spread. I felt a bit dazed for a moment. The night the Sorelli family fell five years ago—did it start like this, too?
Everyone in the Gambino family was alarmed.
The current Don, Colin Gambino, rushed out the door. Facing the semicircular formation surrounding him, he gasped. "Isabella, what do you want?"
I stared at him, trying to see fear and regret on his tense face.
"What I want is simple."
I didn't mention Lucas or the blood feud and old grudges between the Sorelli family and the Gambino family. I only mentioned Amelia.
"Just hand over Amelia, and I'll leave." I pointed to the six men among the hostages. "Starting now, one person will die every ten minutes. You can discuss who dies first. Of course, if Amelia shows up, none of you have to die."