Chapter 49: Chapter 49: What Background?
Assistant Scott tossed the slippers onto the floor and put them on.
The air was quiet for only a moment before a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the room.
"AHHH..."
Emotionlessly, Sebastian Hawthorne lifted his foot and brought it down on the man’s hand, which was planted on the floor. He ground his heel into it, slowly and deliberately.
"Tell me, who contacted you?"
The man, enduring excruciating pain, spoke.
"It was Mr. Hawthorne, of course. Sebastian..."
He couldn’t finish his sentence before another wave of pain cut him off, and he let out a choked grunt.
Sebastian Hawthorne lifted his foot. He looked down at the hand on the floor, its finger bones now dislocated, and raised an eyebrow. He parted his thin lips.
"Hm? I didn’t quite catch that."
The man on the floor was deathly pale. The pain from his knuckles was like a drill boring into him, and he couldn’t struggle anymore.
"Mr. Hawthorne, I won’t... I won’t let you off..."
He was still trying to act tough.
A cold sneer played on Sebastian Hawthorne’s lips as he kicked the man square in the solar plexus.
The man’s breath hitched in pain. He lay prone on the floor, catching his breath for a moment, but as soon as he did, Assistant Scott stepped in and delivered another kick.
The man on the floor nearly passed out.
"You..."
Once he’d recovered slightly, Assistant Scott landed several more kicks, each one heavier than the last.
"I’ll talk, I’ll..."
The man couldn’t take it anymore and started to beg for mercy.
But Assistant Scott gave him no chance, kicking the man in the mouth.
"You wanted to act tough when I gave you a chance earlier. Now I’d like to see just how tough that mouth of yours really is."
Sebastian Hawthorne watched from the side without intervening.
The other men lay on the floor, trembling and trying to make themselves as small as possible.
Sebastian Hawthorne slowly walked toward one of them. The man hastily pulled his hand back and confessed before Sebastian could even speak.
"It was Mr. Keller! Mr. Keller paid us off, told me and my brothers to come here and teach this woman a lesson. He even arranged an escape route for us to a neighboring country."
Sebastian Hawthorne glanced sideways at Cecilia Croft.
Cecilia Croft took a deep breath, her expression stiffening slightly.
"Which Mr. Keller?"
Even though she already knew the answer in her heart, she couldn’t help but ask.
"Zane Keller. It was Zane Keller. He had us brothers do something like this before. That was three years ago, and nothing happened, so when he came to us this time, we naturally agreed."
Cecilia Croft’s beautiful eyes were filled with coldness. She felt no satisfaction in having guessed correctly.
’To think Jude Sheridan actually listened to Zane Keller’s advice and used such a dirty trick on me.’
Three years ago, something happened to Zane Keller’s wife on the eve of their wedding.
The night his wife had her accident, Zane Keller was out drinking with Jude Sheridan and the others. His wife made many desperate calls to him for help that night, but Zane ignored them all.
It was precisely because of this incident that Cecilia Croft had told Jude Sheridan to stay away from Zane Keller.
After the accident, his wife almost never appeared in public again. In recent years, with the government cracking down on crime, her parents’ businesses were affected. So, they simply handed everything over to Zane Keller to manage and focused on staying by their daughter’s side.
After Zane Keller took over the businesses, he spent his days carousing and womanizing, going through one woman after another, and her parents turned a blind eye to it all.
But could Boss Sawyer, a formidable figure in Silvercrest’s gray areas, really just stand by and watch his own daughter suffer through a torturous marriage, tolerating Zane to this extent?
That day, when Zane Keller was giving Jude Sheridan "advice," he let slip a bit of information. Cecilia Croft overheard it and committed it to memory.
Zane Keller was teaching Jude Sheridan the "successful method" he had used, intending to use it to control her as well.
’There truly isn’t a shred of affection left between me and Jude Sheridan.’
"Originally, my brothers and I didn’t want to do this kind of thing again, but Mr. Keller just offered too much money."
"And he also said he’s already made a connection with Mr. Hawthorne. He said that as long as we helped him this one time, he wouldn’t forget us when he made it big. Then we’d get to live the high life with him."
Sebastian Hawthorne sneered.
"How much did he give you?"
"Three million."
’Three million.’
’For unemployed thugs like them, getting to sleep with a woman and get paid for it... why wouldn’t they do it?’
Besides, it wasn’t their first time doing this kind of thing.
At worst, they could just go abroad for a few months like last time and then come back.
Cecilia Croft’s hands, hanging by her sides, clenched into tight fists.
Three million was the amount Zane Keller had told her to bring.
’He wanted to use my own money to pay these men to violate me.’
’His heart is truly rotten and malicious.’
Cecilia Croft picked up the money bag from the doorway and threw it in front of the man.
Sebastian Hawthorne glanced at her, then motioned with his eyes for his men to release the thug.
The man was let go. He slowly reached for the money bag, a hint of disbelief in his eyes. He asked cautiously.
"Are you... asking us to do something for you?"
Cecilia Croft said, "Lure Zane Keller out. Do to him what he told you to do to me."
The man looked troubled and spoke sheepishly.
"But... me and my brothers, we’re not into men."
"If you’re not into it, I’m sure someone can make you into it," she said, her eyes filled with cold malice.
"Otherwise, you might just have to spend this money in the afterlife."
Hearing this, the man’s face stiffened. He reached out, opened the money bag, and saw it was filled with joss paper.
"Fuck..."
Realizing he’d been tricked, he swore, but in the next second, he was pinned to the floor by Sebastian Hawthorne’s men.
"Three years ago, Zane Keller didn’t tell you about the background of the person he had you go after, did he?"
This man was the most cowardly of the group. At Cecilia Croft’s words, he flinched.
"What background?"
Cecilia Croft didn’t answer, merely looking toward the door.
The door to the private room was pushed open from the outside.
A middle-aged man in a silver suit, leaning on a cane and wearing a hat, stood silhouetted against the light at the door.
He stepped onto the soft carpet, his footsteps silent, yet his presence made the hearts of the men on the floor pound with dread.
As he walked through the dim entryway, a terrifying scar on his face came into view.
Any native of Silvercrest would have heard of a figure like Fourth Master Sawyer, also known as Scarface Sawyer.
In his early years, he was a man known in Silvercrest as "The Night King."
Though times had changed, he still had a group of loyal scapegoats under him, ready to die for him at a moment’s notice.
Fourth Master Sawyer’s gaze passed over the men on the floor and landed on Cecilia Croft.
Sebastian Hawthorne sensed the man’s hostile aura. He calmly took Cecilia Croft by the wrist and pulled her to his side, shielding her.
Cecilia Croft gripped Sebastian Hawthorne’s wrist in return, signaling for him to relax, and took the initiative to greet Fourth Master Sawyer.
"Boss Sawyer, I believe you heard what they just said. Your willingness to come here must mean you have no intention of letting the person who made Miss Sawyer suffer get away with it."
Fourth Master Sawyer removed his hat and handed it to the man he had brought with him.
"Then I, Sawyer, must thank Miss Croft for this."
If it weren’t for Miss Croft, they would never have known that the person who made his precious Pearl suffer had been right beside them all along.
