Though paralyzed, still radiantly charming!

Chapter 185: The third thing

At the meeting, Lorenzo burst out accusing Alice of crimes, instantly grabbing everyone’s attention.

Someone next to him tugged at his sleeve, urging him to sit down. They’d let him rant about their personal issues before, but now, wasn’t he just risking his own neck to make Alice look bad?

“Alice, I’ve got something to say! If you’re really innocent, then no amount of framing by me will stick!” Lorenzo shrugged off the well-meaning attempts to silence him and continued to speak.

In his mind, he probably thought standing up to power made him look cool, but to Ryan, he just looked like a pathetic, mangy dog.

Even Ryan, usually a saint, felt his anger flare up. Breaking just one of Lorenzo’s arms would be letting him off too easy.

Alice, watching Lorenzo stand up, just pursed her lips in disgust.

She had expected to be targeted,it wasn’t a surprise.

Many of the gang leaders didn’t like her, and they wouldn’t dirty their hands—Lorenzo was just the puppet they’d pushed forward.

The other attendees were buzzing with talk, and Alice’s bodyguards were ready to drag Lorenzo away. They’d been lax once before,they couldn’t afford to screw up again.

The room, with many on Alice’s side, was filled with anger. Challenging authority was a serious breach in their strict hierarchy.

Yet, Alice didn’t move, and her bodyguards surrounded Lorenzo so tightly they dared not touch him.

Dante squinted at the scene, then simply closed his eyes to rest.

This wasn’t his fight, so he chose to be an observer.

The room fell silent, no one daring to speak first. In this tense quiet, Lorenzo’s face showed a flicker of panic.

He had always been bold against Alice, the current gang leader, because he had backers. But if they didn’t stand up for him now, his charge wouldn’t just be about breaking an arm.

Damn, was he being thrown under the bus?

Sweat broke out on his forehead as he glanced nervously at Rocco next to Dante. Alice smiled slightly and followed his gaze.

There it was—Rocco was probably behind the previous assassination attempt.

He had always been disobedient, and now his true colors were showing.

Rocco looked terrible. In his view, Lorenzo should have just kept quiet instead of dragging him into this mess.

He had planned to discard Lorenzo after using him, but now he had to protect him.

And damn it, why did Alice have to survive that sniper to make it to this meeting?

Internally fuming, his hands clenched into fists under the table, his temples throbbing, but he still put on a smile.

“Mr. Rocco, why don’t we hear what he has to say?”

“If I’m really blameless, no one would nitpick unless they had a rebellious heart,” Alice said with a smile that, while pretty, felt chilling to Rocco.

If things couldn’t be settled here, his days ahead would be tough, possibly even leading to war.

“Miss Alice, what are you talking about? How could you be wrong? The gang exists just as you wish, who would dare disagree?”

“Lorenzo’s just spouting nonsense. If you want to listen, then listen,” Rocco said.

The tension was palpable. Alice had labeled Lorenzo a rebel, while Rocco implied the whole gang was under Alice’s tyrannical command, with no autonomy.

Lorenzo breathed a sigh of relief. He had seen Rocco’s reluctance to support him, realizing Rocco was ready to cut him loose.

But luckily, now he had dragged Rocco down with him.

Ryan massaged his temples. This intense confrontation was something only Alice could handle. He was too straightforward to play these games.

Now that it was settled that Lorenzo would continue, Alice didn’t care. She looked down at her nails, waiting for the onslaught.

“First of all!” Lorenzo cleared his throat and began speaking loudly, now fully committed to his course.

He had managed to offend both Alice and Rocco. If he didn’t prove his worth now, even if Alice let him go, Rocco would skin him alive.

In other words, the only way Lorenzo could see himself getting out of this alive was if his accusations could seriously threaten Alice.

“The former boss had set several operational guidelines for our gang, and everyone has been following them peacefully, living quite well.”

“But Miss Alice, last month you unilaterally cut off our drug dealings with foreign contacts. Several areas in our city are now facing shortages, causing massive losses to our gang in just ten days!”

Lorenzo was shouting, his broken left arm pinned to his side, as he banged the table with his other hand, pointing directly at Miss Alice.

“What!”

“No wonder my bar’s been short on supplies… It was Miss Alice…”

As soon as he said this, everyone started murmuring, even those who were initially on Alice’s side seemed to look at her differently.

For the gang, the supply chain was already fragile. The profits were huge but risky, and everyone there was essentially on the run.

Subduing them wasn’t hard, but cutting off their money supply could lead to a collective rebellion.

Alice snorted coldly. Hearing Lorenzo talk about being law-abiding was a joke—if they were law-abiding, then the felons in prison could be considered saints.

“Miss Alice, do you admit it!”

Lorenzo almost jumped up, roaring loudly, pleased with the reaction from the crowd. He looked towards Rocco, wagging his tail like a pleased dog.

Rocco’s expression eased a bit. Lorenzo wasn’t completely useless, at least his words had some effect.

The decision Alice made was known only to the top brass of the organization and had been voted on. It wasn’t unilateral at all.

The problem was, the lower ranks weren’t supposed to know about the high-level meetings.

Now that Lorenzo had spilled the beans, it was clear Rocco had been stirring things up.

“Yes, that was a decision discussed with all the top leaders. What about it?”

“Are you so bold as to defy the orders of the organization’s top leaders?”

Alice blew on her nails, looking amusedly at Rocco.

Everyone’s gaze shifted back to Dante, who sighed and nodded slightly as the room fell silent again.

Since it was an order from the top, there was nothing to be done.

Although this placated the crowd, Alice knew her position was worsening. The money was genuinely gone, and some were already eyeing her greedily.

Ryan, listening to Lorenzo’s accusations, initially thought it would be something horrendous. But when Lorenzo actually spoke, Ryan couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Wasn’t this a good thing? Alice had cut off drug trafficking,she was trying to do something righteous.

He had misunderstood Miss Alice before,she was actually a good person!

“Second point! There’s a second point!”

Lorenzo, not waiting for Miss Alice to order his removal, hurriedly shouted out.

“When the previous boss was still in charge, he set a rule that personal assistants for the organization’s high-level members couldn’t be appointed without a vote.”

“If I’m not mistaken, Alice, the assistant by your side yesterday wasn’t the same one you have now, right?”

“Are you breaking the rules, or is this guy clearly an outsider pretending to be your assistant?”

Lorenzo sneered viciously, looking at Ryan with a fierce gleam in his eyes.

He still vividly remembered the slaps he had received earlier, and his greatest desire at that moment was to flay Ryan alive.

Daring to slap him in front of others, he swore to peel off Ryan’s face.

Alice huffed in displeasure, already anticipating that Lorenzo would use this issue to cause trouble. Honestly, she didn’t have a good way to handle it.

The rule about assistants being approved by everyone was partly for the leaders’ safety, preventing assistants from turning on their bosses.

It also allowed the leaders to plant spies among each other, serving as a check and balance.

Previously, because Alice hadn’t been involved in gang affairs, Hannah served more as a housekeeper. After Alice’s father died and she took over, Hannah naturally became her assistant.

Now with Ryan standing in Hannah’s place, even if it was a breach of the rules, it was a necessary one.

Lorenzo left no room for ambiguity with his accusations—it was either Alice or Ryan who had to take the fall.

If Alice wanted to save herself, she could easily have thrown Ryan under the bus, since to everyone else, Ryan was just an assistant.

But clearly, Alice didn’t see it that way.

“I broke the rules, and I’ll accept any punishment,” she declared nonchalantly, her natural authority making her words compelling.

“After we return, I’ll dismiss him. That settles it. Anything else you want to add?”

Punishment seemed trivial to her,even if it were ten times harsher, she would still protect Ryan. But this was a wake-up call—Ryan really shouldn’t be playing the role of assistant.

Although she liked having Ryan by her side, she feared exactly this kind of situation where hostility towards her could spill over onto him. Perhaps it was better for him to stay out of the limelight.

Ryan glanced at Alice, understanding this was her way of protecting him. He remained silent, standing behind her, glaring fiercely at Lorenzo.

Even if Miss Alice dismissed him today, he’d make sure to leave Lorenzo with a few more bruises before he left.

Lorenzo squinted his eyes,this second charge was just filler, not meant to have much impact, merely a way to irritate Alice.

The crowd lost interest—they didn’t really care who Alice’s assistant was,their own interests were what mattered.

The looks Lorenzo received from those around him were now tinged with pity, and even Rocco avoided his gaze. He had only asked Lorenzo to bring up these two issues.

The discontent among the ranks was rising, and Lorenzo was becoming useless.

But Lorenzo looked towards Rocco and smirked slightly. Rocco had used him, but he wouldn’t leave himself without a backup plan.

The third thing he was about to reveal could blow the roof off the meeting room.

The bodyguards moved in, ready to break Lorenzo’s limbs and throw him out—surviving this long after defying the boss was mercy enough.

But he jumped back, dodging the guards, and pulled out a package from behind him, sliding it across the table to land in front of Dante.

“Mr. Russo! Take a look at this!”