Chapter 178: Is She A Gangster?
The air in the locked foyer was suffocatingly thick, heavy with the scent of ozone, spilled blood, and cold marble.
The moment the enforcers carried the silent, sobbing Emily out, and the heavy oak doors clicked shut, the remaining family members exploded into a flurry of frantic, chaotic shouting.
"Y-You!" Clara shrieked, her voice cracking as she backed against the staircase, her fingers pointing wildly at April. "Who the hell are you?! We just saw Emily go out that door! Where did you come from?!"
Victor stood frozen on the steps, his chest heaving as his eyes darted between the doorway and the cold, armed woman standing before them.
"A... a twin?" he choked out, his mind utterly reeling in sheer, unadulterated confusion. "My daughter’s twin?! But... but she died! The hospital said the second child died at birth! She was gone! Lost! How... how can you be standing here?!"
"She’s a fake!" Eleanor suddenly screamed, her voice shrill, desperate, and laced with a terrifying edge of mania.
She clutched Victor’s arm, her nails digging hard into his sleeve as she tried to spin the reality unravelling before her eyes. "Victor, don’t listen to her! She’s an impostor! A fraud! She got plastic surgery to look like Emily! She’s a street criminal colluding with the Golden Dragon to extort our estate!"
April didn’t interrupt her. She simply stood in the center of the grand room, her handgun resting casually at her side. She watched Eleanor’s frantic performance with a cold, unblinking detachment—like an audience member watching a cheap, poorly scripted tragedy.
"Are you done?" April asked flatly, her voice cutting through Eleanor’s shrieks like a sharp blade.
Eleanor flinched, her breath catching in her throat.
"It is time to confess," April said, her dark, brown eyes locking onto Eleanor’s terrified face. "Confess now, and I might consider giving you a lighter sentence."
A frantic, bitter laugh bubbled up from Eleanor’s throat. "Hah! Who do you think you are to give me a sentence?! Just because you brought Nat Collins along doesn’t mean you can hold us hostage! This is illegal! You can’t just barge into a private residence and shoot guns!"
BANG!
Without a single change in her posture, April flicked her wrist and fired a round directly into the ceiling. Plaster and dust rained down on Eleanor’s immaculate hair, making her scream violently and dive behind her husband.
"Apparently, I can," April said, watching as they ducked their heads. "Now, I am not going to ask twice," she murmured, her tone devoid of any human warmth. "Confess, or this is going to get exceptionally ugly."
Victor was trembling so hard his teeth were literally chattering. "Why... Why is she just shooting?! Is she a gangster?! What kind of woman is so violent?!"
Apparently the kind who’s been through hell and back.
When Eleanor pressed her lips tight, refusing to speak a word, Nat let out a low, amused chuckle from the doorway. He pushed himself off the frame, stepping forward with his hands tucked lazily into his deep coat pockets.
"You know, sweetheart," Nat drawled, a dangerously handsome smirk sliding across his face, "if they aren’t going to cooperate politely, I can always resort to what my boys do best. Torture is remarkably efficient at loosening tongues."
"Torture?!" Johan yelled, clutching his bruised stomach as he cowered near the banister. "You can’t do that! That’s illegal! It’s against the law!"
Nat threw his head back and laughed—a rich, cynical sound that echoed against the high ceiling. "The law? You imbeciles actually think the surface law reaches into my sector? I am the law in this underbelly, you absolute idiots."
April let out a slow, quiet sigh, completely unbothered by Nat’s threats. She didn’t have time to wait for a physical interrogation. Her insight had refreshed since it was past midnight. So, she was going to dissect every single dirty secret this household was hiding.
If not for the sake of a human conscience, but for her own curiosity and satisfaction.
"Put them in chairs," April ordered flatly. "All of them."
"You heard the lady," Nat waved his hand. "Tie them up."
Within two minutes, Nat’s enforcers dragged four heavy dining chairs into the foyer. Despite their frantic screaming, kicking, and threats, Victor, Eleanor, Clara, and Johan were forced into the seats and bound tightly with zip-ties.
"What are you doing?!" Johan thrashed against his bonds, his face flushed with rage and embarrassment. "Let me go! I don’t even belong to this household! I don’t know what kind of sick family drama you’re running here, but my family has power!"
April ignored his shouting and walked straight up to him.
She already knew from Nat’s briefing that he was cheating on Emily, but she wanted to see the full, unvarnished diagnostic. She wanted to see all the crimes he had committed against that innocent woman before she laid out his sentence.
She would even risk using up all of the insights she was supposed to keep for her fortune telling if she had to. This matter was that important.
[Would you like to read Johan Le Moreno’s Fortune?]
[Number of Insights Left today: 5/5]
Yes.
Instantly, blue translucent text expanded across her field of vision, laying out his hidden timeline and domestic history in cold, narrative detail:
[Target Profile: Johan Le Moreno]
[Hidden Financial Crimes]: Has been systematically embezzling corporate capital from his own family’s holdings (The Le Moreno Estate) to fund Clara Gabriel’s secret luxury offshore accounts.
[Domestic Violence & Exploitation]: For the past three years, target has forced Emily Gabriel to complete all of his project proposals and architectural blueprints under threat. Target repeatedly abused, starved, and spat on Emily, comparing her to Clara and telling her she was ’worthless trash compared to her stepsister.’ Target has been cheating on Emily with Clara even before they got married and has caused Emily to miscarriage three times with no remorse and calls her unlucky.
...
April took a slow, deep breath. The raw, disgusting absurdity of the data hit her like a foul stench.
Without warning, April raised her palm and delivered a brutal, stinging slap directly across Johan’s face.
SLAP!
The force of the slack cracked through the room, snapping Johan’s head violently to the side. His cheek instantly turned a dark, angry red.
"I never thought I would get dragged into a pathetic family drama like this," April said flatly, her voice chillingly calm as she stared into his shocked eyes. "My only objective was to hoard resources, build my fortress, and live in peace while the rest of the world burns. But suddenly, a twin sister appears out of nowhere, and I discover the family she came from is entirely composed of human filth. Garbage."
She leaned in slightly, her dark eyes piercing straight through him. "I wonder... who between us was more privileged? Her, or me? Well, I suppose karma dealt us both a trash hand, because the Morgans were no different than you lot."
Hearing the name Morgan, Eleanor went entirely rigid in her chair. Her eyes widened in pure, paralyzing terror. The Morgans... That name. It really is her...
"I don’t know what is worse," April continued, staring down at Johan. "Being betrayed by teammates... or being abused, cheated on, and beaten by a man you swore vows to for three years."
SLAP!
She struck him again, harder this time.