Chapter 171
Grace shrank back with a flushed face, not daring to speak. William looked embarrassed: "You're talking nonsense. Stop making yourself look good. You're just a psycho, a lunatic. I should have drowned you when you were little."
Alan took a deep breath, slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the viciousness had almost completely disappeared. He smiled at William in a way that gave people goosebumps: "Really? What a shame. Since you didn't kill me back then, I'm afraid you're going to die by my hands now."
William finally remembered his current situation—he wasn't in a position of power anymore. Alan had brought him here. The lives of his whole family were in Alan's control.
His lips trembling, he looked at Alan with growing fear: "What... what do you want to do? I'm your father. If you kill me, you'll get what's coming to you."
"Let's see who gets it first then." Alan casually clapped his hands, a smile on his lips, looking satisfied at how they were all trembling.
He turned to look at Oscar and me, raising his eyebrows with a smile: "Uncle Oscar, Emily, you've watched enough of the show, right? You asked me why I wanted to work with you back then—do you understand now?"
William looked at Oscar with an "I knew it" expression: "I said you must have had a purpose for coming back. Turns out you two were in on it together all along."
Oscar ignored him and asked Alan seriously: "So you called me here today just to tell me they deserve what they get?"
Alan laughed twice: "What else? I just wanted you to see what kind of people you're being soft-hearted about. Him—"
He pointed at William, his voice full of accusation: "Back then, any woman in the house who was even slightly attractive probably got touched by him, right? My mom was just a housekeeper. She told me she just wanted to earn money to buy an apartment in the city with her man and get married and live a good life. But he destroyed all of that. She traded me for their real son. I think that's understandable, right?"
Oscar remained silent. After all these years, how could anyone sort out right from wrong?
Alan sneered: "Sure, they raised me for over twenty years, but during those twenty years, I was like a puppet on strings. I couldn't have my own thoughts, my own thinking. Everything I said and did was controlled by their strings. You think that's love? To me, that suffocating control - I never wanted it."
He looked at Grace again, his smile turning vicious once more: "Especially you. The moment you found out I wasn't your son, you could take back all your feelings without hesitation. You didn't dare do anything to William, so you focused on destroying me. You made me drink that drugged wine, got into my bed, and just smiled watching me fall apart. You're the crazy one."
Grace shook her head helplessly, especially facing William's disbelieving and angry gaze. She kept denying: "It wasn't me, I didn't, I never did that."
William asked through gritted teeth: "You didn't what? You didn't drug him or you didn't sleep with him?"
Grace was almost incoherent: "I didn't do anything. William, let me explain. I... I didn't know what happened at the time either."
Perhaps remembering that all their lives were now in Alan's control, she quickly looked at him and said, "Alan, you're my child. Even Gregory can't compare to you. You're the one I love most. That incident was completely accidental. Nobody outside our family knows about it. I don't blame you anymore. It's all in the past, so let's just let it go."
Alan looked at her coldly: "Let it go? This kind of thing doesn't just go away."
He looked at me: "Why don't you ask Emily? Can she forgive The Brown Family for what they owe her?"
He said to me with a light laugh, "We're essentially the same kind of people. If we don't get revenge, we can't even sleep. But Emily, you're still not as ruthless as I am. You only brought down The Brown Group, and at most helped push Jasper abroad. I don't think that's satisfying enough. So now I don't want to see them hiding away safely. I need to drag them all out and get revenge on them."
I said slowly, "Is it possible that you and I aren't the same? I just want revenge, while you're more like venting your anger."
Alan nodded without concern: "Say whatever you want. You don't need to understand my situation. I just hope you won't stop me."
He looked at Gregory, who was huddled in a corner almost curled into a ball. With just one look from Alan, the bodyguards behind him went forward and pinned him to the ground.
Gregory screamed at the top of his lungs: "Alan, Alan, I was wrong! Don't kill me, I really was wrong. I shouldn't have been jealous of you, shouldn't have doubted you. I was misled. I thought you did that to Mom. You used to care about me so much. Look at me, Alan. I'm still your brother."
He was almost babbling incoherently.
Alan smiled faintly: "It's okay. Your life or death will be decided by your dear parents. William, is it you who dies, or him?"
His gaze swept across their faces. With a turn, he already had a dark handgun in his hand: "I'll give you one minute. After one minute, we'll let fate decide."
Gregory immediately looked at his father: "I don't want to die, Dad. I'm only in my twenties. I can't die."
William's face became extremely ugly again: "Alan, you just hate me for abandoning you back then, right? Fine, if someone has to die for you to feel better, then kill me. Let's see if someone who dares to kill his own father gets what's coming to him."
Alan gently lifted Gregory's chin with the gun barrel, praising, "Looks like he really cares about you. He'd rather die in your place. You know, back then, for the sake of reputation, he wanted me dead."
Gregory's face showed a pained expression. He looked at William somewhat desperately: "Dad, I'm sorry. I'm useless. After you're gone, I'll take good care of Mom."
Alan seemed bored. This scene of fatherly love and filial piety made him somewhat dissatisfied, so he gritted his teeth and quickly pointed the gun at William: "This is your own choice. Don't blame me."
"Wait." Oscar, who had been silent, finally spoke.
"Uncle Oscar, you're not going to plead for him again, are you?" Alan looked at Oscar with contempt.
Oscar's voice was calm: "Not pleading. Warning. Even though this is the border, it's still a society ruled by law. Whatever they did should be judged by the law, not decided by you."