Chapter 261
Thomas flashed a sly grin at Natalie, "Grandma, you gotta ask yourself. Just spill where the key is, and you can save Ximena. Why won't you save her?"
Natalie shook with fury, "Thomas, are you seriously going down this path?"
"Right or wrong? I don't give a damn. All I know is my parents were killed by Ximena and Connor, and you've been shielding them for years!" Thomas yelled.
"Your parents' car accident had nothing to do with Connor and Ximena!" Natalie shot back.
"Shut up!" Thomas's face contorted with rage, barely keeping it together.
"Even now, you still wanna protect them. I gotta ask, weren't my parents your son and daughter-in-law? Am I not your grandson? Why are you so biased towards Connor's family?"
Natalie's eyes were icy with disappointment, "I've never been biased. I was gonna give you Harmony Garden and half my shares. But the moment you drugged me, you lost any right to those things!"
Thomas sneered, "I don't need your handouts. I can get those things myself!"
He turned to his two goons, "Get started."
As soon as he said it, the two goons began to strip Ximena.
Ximena struggled and screamed, "Ah! Let me go! Get off! Get off!"
Seeing Ximena struggle, Thomas laughed heartily and pulled the pale-faced Bella towards the basement door.
"Bella, let's bounce. You might have nightmares after seeing this."
Bella's body shook uncontrollably, thinking Thomas was a madman. 'How could he do this to Ximena, especially in front of Natalie?'
Soon, Ximena's clothes were stripped off, and she screamed in terror, looking at Natalie.
"Mom! Save me! What is that key? Just give it to him! Please! Otherwise, I won't survive!"
Natalie trembled all over, glaring at Thomas's back and cursing, "Thomas, you are a bastard!"
"Grandma, you shouldn't be cursing me. Whether Ximena can be saved is up to you. How can you blame me for not saving her?"
He looked innocent, like he was the victim. Natalie pointed at him, nearly fainting from anger.
"Natalie, you better decide quickly, or it might be too late!"
Natalie bit her lip hard, her face turning completely ashen.
"Fine, I'll tell you!" Natalie sighed.
Thomas waved his hand, and the two goons stopped.
"The key is in Harmony Garden, under the third floorboard beneath the bookshelf in the study."
Thomas immediately called his guys who were searching Harmony Garden, telling them to find the key ASAP.
He didn't notice that Bella, standing on the steps, also sent a message while he wasn't looking.
Soon, a message came back saying they found a small safe, but it had a password.
"Bring it over immediately!" Thomas ordered.
He wanted to see what the key Mr. Moore had been after was. Judging by Mr. Moore and Natalie's attitudes, this key must be super important. He wouldn't hand it over until he knew what it was.
While waiting for his guys, Thomas looked at Natalie and asked, "Grandma, what is the key for?"
Natalie gave him a cold look, "You've gone through all this trouble to find the key, how could you not know what it does?"
"I never knew the Clinton family had such a thing. This time, it was the people helping me take back the Clinton Group who told me. If the key is really important, I can't hand it over. It's something that belongs to the Clinton family."
Natalie mercilessly exposed his intentions, "You wanna keep the key for yourself, don't you?"
Thomas just smirked, "Anyway, you ain't got much time left. The key's gonna end up with me or Felix eventually. I'm just speeding things up. I ain't keeping it for myself."
"No way. Even if I gotta destroy it, you ain't getting that key!"
Thomas looked at Natalie, all chill, and grinned, "But the key's already mine. If you don't tell me how to use it, I'll just hand it over to someone else."
"Do whatever you want!"
Even if they got the key, they couldn't use it without Felix.
When Felix was just a baby, Natalie and Mr. Clinton had already decided Felix would inherit the key. Back then, the Clinton Group was in Jesse's hands, and unless something crazy happened, Thomas would eventually run the show and become president.
But then Jesse and Maria had that car accident, and Thomas vanished for six years.
Now that Thomas was up to no good, she couldn't let him get the key.
Seeing Natalie's calm face, Thomas raised an eyebrow, "If I'm not wrong, this key needs some special way to use, right?"
Natalie decided to ignore him.
A flash of anger crossed Thomas's eyes, and he said coldly, "Grandma, if you don't tell me, Ximena will..."
"Enough! Thomas, the key is to open..."
Before she could finish, Thomas's phone suddenly rang.
Seeing it was Mr. Moore's guy, Thomas's grip on the phone tightened.
As soon as he answered, an arrogant voice came through.
"Thomas, I heard you got the key. Mr. Moore says bring it over now."
Thomas's face darkened, "Mr. Moore's got someone watching me?"
"Thomas, don't ask questions you shouldn't. Remember how you lost your finger."
With that, the other guy hung up.
A flash of anger and frustration crossed Thomas's eyes. Just a lackey of Mr. Moore, and he dared to boss him around!
Putting away his phone, he looked coldly at Natalie, "What's the password for the safe?"
Natalie, stone-faced, gave him a series of numbers. Thomas memorized them and turned to leave.
But his two goons didn't follow him; they started stripping Ximena again.
Natalie's face went pale, and she shouted at Thomas's back, "Thomas, I gave you the password. Why won't you let her go?"
Thomas snorted and said through gritted teeth, "She killed my parents. Whether you told me where the key was or not, I wouldn't let her go."
"You're a bastard!"
Thomas ignored her and walked out.
Ximena's screams echoed, and Natalie, overwhelmed with anger, fainted.
Thomas waited in the villa for about half an hour before his guys brought the safe over.
Taking the small safe, Thomas said coldly, "Alright, you can go now."
After his guys left, he immediately entered the password.
He opened the safe door, and inside was a blue crystal.
Thomas frowned, took out the crystal, and saw a golden ring inside the transparent crystal, engraved with all sorts of weird patterns.
He looked at it for a while but couldn't see anything special about it other than the ring.
If it weren't for the urgency, he would've made a fake one to give to Mr. Moore.
After staring at the crystal a bit longer, he snapped a photo with his phone, put the crystal back in the safe, and walked out of the villa, telling the driver to take him to Lose Demon Bar.
Not long after leaving the villa, while Thomas was still pondering the key's function, the car suddenly made a loud noise and his body lurched forward, hitting the partition hard.
Thomas was furious and gritted his teeth, "What's going on?"
The driver trembled and said, "Mr. Clinton, the car was hit by someone!"
