Chapter 220: Chapter 214: A Forceful Smackdown on the Guthrie Family

The scandal surrounding the Guthrie Family continued to escalate. As the Morgan Family remained silent, netizens who had once sided with them gradually began to attack them and Aurora Sinclair online.

Seeing that public opinion was turning in his favor, Reina Guthrie initiated the second wave of his plan: leaking information that Alvin Morgan and Aurora Sinclair were seen entering and exiting the same residential complex.

The Great Families of Kingsford were in an uproar.

The young ladies of the Great Families cursed Aurora Sinclair, calling her a homewrecker and a public menace, which in turn dealt a severe blow to the Sinclair Family.

The smaller families, bribed with large sums of money by the Guthrie Family, began to frantically suppress the Sinclair Family, looking for opportunities to carve up their assets.

Even a major shareholder of the Sinclair Group, enticed by the Guthrie Family, brought people over to cause trouble.

The Sinclair Group Headquarters.

A number of major shareholders burst into the chairman’s office.

“Mr. Sinclair, don’t you think you owe us shareholders an explanation regarding the Second Miss Sinclair?”

The speaker was a major shareholder, a very ambitious man who had long coveted the Sinclair Family’s assets.

He was the one who had instigated Hailey Gordon to create a schism within the Sinclair Family, intending to control her and seize power.

Master Sinclair’s eyelids were lowered, his expression unreadable.

Beside him, Janet Sinclair lit a cigarette and sneered, “Explain what?”

The major shareholder glared with his narrow eyes and snorted coldly. “The rumors are running wild out there. They say the Second Miss Sinclair hired an assassin to murder a daughter of the Guthrie main family. Is the Sinclair Family planning to cover for her again?”

Janet Sinclair took a drag from her cigarette and brazenly blew the smoke in their faces. “You all seem more anxious than the Martial Affairs Bureau!”

The major shareholder waved the smoke away, his face contorted with annoyance. “With the Young Master of the Morgan Family protecting her, of course no one dares touch your niece. But the Sinclair Family is a different story. The Guthrie Family could crush you with one hand. I suggest you be smart and sign this share transfer agreement.”

No longer hiding his ambition, the major shareholder slapped a Sinclair Group share transfer agreement on the table, a triumphant glint in his eyes.

Janet Sinclair picked it up, glanced at it, and scoffed as she threw it back. “You dare talk about a transfer with this paltry sum?”

“The price I’m offering is already very high. The Sinclair Group’s stock has plummeted. You can’t be sure anyone will offer more than me tomorrow,” the major shareholder said, his eyes narrowing and his tone laced with threat.

But Janet Sinclair slammed her hand on the table. “The deal is off. If you want to pull your investment, be my guest—”

“You…”

“Show yourself out!”

The major shareholder’s face turned livid. He glanced at Master Sinclair, who had remained silent the entire time, then snorted coldly, turned on his heel, and left.

“Mr. Trent, are we just going to let it go like this?” the other shareholders asked.

“Of course not. A large portion of the Sinclair Family’s capital is held overseas. Cut off their funding, and we’ll see how long they can last.”

Immediately after, the major shareholder rallied several others for a collective divestment, intending to shatter the Sinclair Group’s capital chain. However, to their surprise, the moment they pulled their funds, a capital injection from the Morgan Group arrived.

The two groups then carried on with business as usual, securing financing and continuing their collaborations, which infuriated Reina Guthrie into pressuring the Sinclair Family’s internal shareholders once again.

But the Sinclair Family held firm, weathering every divestment and the mass exodus of employees.

This started to make some of the shareholders uneasy.

’Have the Sinclairs lost their minds?’

Just when everyone thought the Sinclair Family was on the verge of collapse,

the official account of the Martial Affairs Bureau headquarters suddenly released three consecutive announcements, delivering a resounding slap in the face to the Guthrie Family.

[Joyce Guthrie and Eve Lowell are suspects in a kidnapping and hired assault case. The evidence is conclusive. Criminal suspect Eve Lowell has been lawfully arrested. Suspect Joyce Guthrie is deceased.]

[Joyce Guthrie is suspected of planning the major “819” kidnapping and murder case from fourteen years ago. The evidence is conclusive. As the suspect is deceased, this case is now considered closed.]

[S-Level Wanted Notice:

Name: Unknown

Sex: Unknown

Height: 176-184cm

Distinguishing Features: Wears a silver mask and a black cloak, speaks with a voice changer.

This individual is a professional assassin suspected in several murder cases in Kingsford. They are considered extremely dangerous. A reward of 100 million is now being offered for any leads.]

***

Each announcement from the Martial Affairs Bureau was more shocking than the last, especially the final S-level wanted notice, which stunned the entire nation of Veridia.

An S-level wanted notice wasn’t something issued lightly. It was the highest level of warrant in Veridia, typically reserved for individuals or organizations posing a grave threat to national security, such as major traitors, enemy spies, or assassins from the Shadow Organization.

The fact that this wanted notice was issued along with the two announcements about the Guthrie Family made it impossible for people not to connect them.

[Holy shit! I wake up and the world has turned upside down. The victim was the real killer?]

[Three posts in a row… does this mean Joyce Guthrie hired an assassin and was then silenced by them?]

[No wonder the Morgan and Sinclair families stayed silent. There was more to the story all along.]

[The Guthries really thought they were clever, the real thief shouting ’Stop, thief!’ It’s disgusting.]

[Guess it’s true that pitiful people have their hateful side. Joyce Guthrie wouldn’t even spare her own cousin. Pure evil.]

***

「At the same time」 Zane Guthrie and his family received a notice from the Martial Affairs Bureau, telling him to come and identify his daughter’s remains.

He and Reina Guthrie were from the same clan; their fathers were brothers. They had practically grown up together. He never imagined that Reina’s daughter would turn out to be the mastermind who had orchestrated his own daughter’s kidnapping and murder.

No wonder the investigation had been so difficult. No wonder they had been unable to find any surveillance footage of his daughter from before she disappeared.

“Reina Guthrie—”

Zane Guthrie’s eyes burned with an all-consuming rage as he clenched his fists.

「That night」, Zane Guthrie led his men to the old Guthrie family residence, carrying Jessica Guthrie’s coffin with them, to demand judgment from the surviving family elders.

Reina Guthrie had only just learned about Joyce Guthrie’s crimes and was in shock. He had been on the verge of mobilizing the full force of the Guthrie Family against the Morgan Family.

He never expected the Martial Affairs Bureau to expose the case at this critical moment. It had caught him completely off guard.

“Zane, I just found out about Jessica’s case myself. The Morgan Family has immense influence within the Martial Affairs Bureau. We need to approach this matter with a long-term strategy.”

“Are you saying the Martial Affairs Bureau is lying?” Zane Guthrie’s face was grim, his eyes fixed on Reina Guthrie. He suppressed the inferno of rage in his heart, his voice seeming to be ground out from between his teeth.

“Zane, you must not lose your head. There’s something very strange about all this. I refuse to believe Joyce would do such a thing. She’s dead now; the dead can’t testify. So how could they possibly have investigated this? They’re clearly just trying to sling mud at her. The Young Master of the Morgan Family… his heart is truly black…”

“Then what about Aurora Sinclair? How do you explain your daughter and The Lowell Girl hiring someone to kidnap her? The Lowell Girl has already confessed.”

“I…”

Before Reina Guthrie could offer an explanation, Jensen Guthrie lunged forward and grabbed his collar, only to be forcefully repelled by one of Reina’s confidants.

“Insolent—”

Jensen Guthrie glared at Reina Guthrie, speaking each word with chilling clarity. “Slinging mud? How did Joyce Guthrie know where Jessica’s remains were buried? And how did she just ’happen’ to set a trap there for Aurora Sinclair?”

He had already learned many of the case details from the Martial Affairs Bureau, and his heart seethed with hatred for Reina Guthrie and his daughter, Joyce.

“It could have been a coincidence. If it weren’t for Joyce, you still wouldn’t have found Jessica, would you?”

“So we’re supposed to thank her for it?” Jensen Guthrie ground his teeth, his usually gentle face now a mask of towering rage.

Just then, a clansman loyal to Zane Guthrie shouted, “Reina Guthrie allowed his daughter to harm one of our own blood! He has violated the clan’s rules! He should be stripped of his title as Family Head and replaced!”

The clansmen who had long been dissatisfied with Reina Guthrie quickly voiced their agreement, glaring at him with hostility.

Reina Guthrie’s expression shifted. He glanced at his confidant, who immediately shot back, “The truth has yet to be revealed, and you’re already acting like this? It’s clear you’ve had treacherous intentions for some time. According to clan rules, anyone who shows disloyalty to the Family Head is to be expelled from the family as a warning to others!”

Reina Guthrie’s confidant was a Martial Arts Master of considerable strength, and his presence was usually intimidating. As the “Power” emanating from him began to rise, the faces of those in Zane Guthrie’s faction paled slightly.

None of them were particularly strong, so they dared not risk a direct confrontation.

Just then, a fiery female voice cut in from outside the door.

“If that’s how it is, then let’s split the family.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep