Chapter 13 Fierce Collision, Abdominal Pain
Meanwhile, on the other side.
In the recording studio.
Amelia was preparing her piece for the first live broadcast of "Voice of Heaven."
But no matter how many times she tried, she just couldn't get into it.
So she simply changed her clothes and went to the dance studio next door to work on some simple choreography to go with it.
Although "Voice of Heaven" was a music show, adding a bit of dance would make for a better performance.
This practice building, which combined dance areas, vocal areas, and multi-functional zones (including makeup rooms, a café, changing rooms, and storage areas), belonged to the Adams Group.
The Adams Group was a well-known entertainment company in Shadow City with many related businesses, and all their equipment was top-notch.
Many artists who weren't even under the Adams Group would come here to practice or rent space.
After Amelia married William, she mainly had three things to do on a daily basis.
First, take care of Finn and Cleo's health and visit them regularly.
Second, manage William's personal schedule and other matters, including handling many confidential documents from the Brown Group together with the secretarial staff.
Especially after the Martinez family's downfall, the Brown Group had taken over everything from the Martinez family. Even now, the Brown Group still had a department managing what they'd taken over from the Martinez family back then.
Although after the Martinez family went bankrupt, the staff and many things were no longer the same as before, she handled those matters with ease.
Third, regularly go to the Adams Group's practice building to train, publicly saying this was her longtime hobby as a musician.
But in reality, Amelia was recording demo tracks here under the stage name "Quiana."
So it wasn't strange for Amelia to come to this practice building.
Since she was working on choreography, she had already tied up her hair and was wearing her old practice clothes, so she looked pretty much the same as before.
She just didn't notice that compared to before, there was now an extra pair of eyes watching from outside the dance studio.
Amelia tried several different choreographies but felt none of them were quite right.
For some reason today, nothing felt right.
Neither the songs nor the dances.
She kept feeling this strange sense of irritation.
Like something was about to happen, making her inexplicably anxious and restless.
This greatly affected her thinking.
Amelia took a deep breath and closed her eyes to calm herself down.
After trying a bit longer, she finally scrapped everything from today.
Looking at the time, it was already 9 PM.
Amelia shook her head, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and decided to go home and rest, continuing tomorrow.
Too much had happened today. Amelia felt exhausted, so she didn't even change her clothes or shoes, just threw on her jacket and headed to the parking garage.
It was April now, and Shadow City was starting to heat up.
At 9 PM, the nightlife was just beginning.
Outside, traffic flowed endlessly, creating the city's tired yet vibrant sense of prosperity.
Amelia took the elevator down from the practice building and arrived at the parking garage.
Before she even reached her car, she suddenly felt her heart skip a beat.
For no reason at all.
Her heart pounded like a drum, instantly echoing through her entire brain.
Her adrenaline spiked. Amelia immediately reacted, jumping into a nearby planter.
The next moment, a car brushed past her body.
It came very close, the wind it created whipping up her jacket with a loud flapping sound.
For a moment, Amelia broke out in a cold sweat.
If she hadn't just jumped into that planter, that car would have hit her head-on.
Before Amelia could process her fear, she saw the black car, having missed her once, now turning around and heading back toward the planter where she was.
The planter had a knee-high cement border. Now with the car charging straight at it, the intention was obvious.
It was coming for her.
Who was it?
What was their purpose?
What should she do?
How long had this person been waiting here?
Had they been watching her from beside the dance studio?
Or were there accomplices inside the practice building?
One inside the building and one in the parking garage, just to hunt her down?
How should she deal with all this?
In half a second, all these thoughts flashed through Amelia's mind.
Then she immediately made a decision.
Watching the black car charge straight at the planter, she quickly dodged to the side.
The black car crashed into the planter.
The black car's engine roared wildly.
Taking advantage of the car being stuck in the planter, Amelia quickly ran toward her own car.
There might be someone lying in wait at the practice building, so going back that way could be dangerous.
The crowded plaza was also some distance away, and with not much cover nearby, if she ran that way, she'd get hit before reaching it.
So the best solution was to run to her car and drive to the police station for help.
Fortunately, Amelia wasn't far from her car to begin with.
Driven by survival instinct, she moved incredibly fast. In just a few strides, Amelia quickly got into the driver's seat.
But just as she closed the door—
BANG!
The black car slammed hard into Amelia's car.
The entire vehicle shook violently, and even Amelia sitting in the driver's seat felt dizzy from the impact.
She felt nauseous.
The black car backed up again, then sped toward her once more.
Amelia suppressed the nausea and started her car.
She floored the gas pedal.
VROOM—
Amelia's car shot forward suddenly, so the black car ended up crashing into the car next to hers instead.
Without hesitation, Amelia gripped the steering wheel and drove crookedly but quickly toward the main road.
In the rearview mirror, the black car was chasing her again. She pulled out her phone and dialed 911.
Someone answered quickly.
"Hello, there's a black car following me. The driver just tried to ram me with their car. I'm driving to the police station now and need police protection!"
Amelia watched the car in her rearview mirror and gave the police the relevant information as concisely as possible.
They responded quickly, contacting the appropriate police station to handle the matter.
Amelia floored the gas pedal, racing toward the police station.
Everything had happened so suddenly.
Her mind was a mess.
Who could it be?
Amelia thought through the people and matters related to her.
William, Isabella, the Brown family, the Martinez family, and so on.
Too many people to narrow it down.
Amelia kept checking her rearview mirror.
At the next intersection, the black car seemed to realize where she was heading and turned off at a side road.
Watching the black car turn away, Amelia finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She kept the call with the police connected the whole time.
Now, following their guidance, Amelia still drove her car to the police station.
Only when she saw the police station entrance and the officers waiting for her outside did she relax.
Amelia parked her car in the designated spot as instructed and finally completely relaxed.
Just then, the discomfort she'd forcibly suppressed due to tension suddenly hit her hard.
A violent wave of nausea came over her, and Amelia's stomach started to hurt.