Chapter 65: Where Did She Get the Child?
This time, the media at least knew to protect minors, so all photos and locations involving the child were blurred. There was only one distant shot showing the back view of Amelia holding hands with a child wearing a backpack.
Perhaps fear of William also played a part in this.
But netizens started heated discussions—
"When did Amelia have a kid?"
"Right? Didn't Amelia and William just get married a year ago? Where did this child come from? I never heard about her having a baby before."
"According to the reporter, the child is already old enough for school, so pretty big. But isn't Amelia only 25?"
"Is this Amelia's scheme? She saw William and Isabella getting closer, so she deliberately staged this!"
"I think so too. She might have even bought this trending topic herself!"
"How awful! Can't she wait even six months? Isabella only has half a year left!"
......
While everyone was discussing heatedly, at Floral Haven, Isabella angrily smashed the cup in her hand.
The cleaner quietly picked up the broken glass from the floor and left.
She took out her phone and called someone.
"What's going on? How does she suddenly have a child!"
A voice came through the phone: "Not sure yet, need to investigate. It feels strange. If she really had a child years ago, William should know. Do you want to test him?"
"You mean?" Isabella's eyes narrowed dangerously. "This is fake?"
"It's possible," the person said. "Anyway, you can ask William first. Whether it's real or fake, we'll have ways to deal with it."
The person paused, then added: "Isabella, I've got this."
Only then did Isabella hang up with some relief.
She paced back and forth in the room, imagining various possibilities.
First, the child is real. Impossible, because William values children highly, and they got married a year ago. If there really was a child, there's no reason to hide it.
Second, the child is fake.
Then why would Amelia do this?
A flash of insight, and Isabella suddenly smiled.
Why would Amelia produce a child at this particular moment? Connect it to recent events and it becomes clear.
Amelia must feel she can no longer suppress Isabella's influence, so she staged this.
Thinking of this, Isabella's eyes filled with mockery.
"Amelia, I didn't expect you to be this stupid!" Isabella said, then found William's number and called him.
The Brown Group.
William's office.
Rhys stood in front of William's desk, handing him a tablet.
"Mr. Brown, this is the latest information. I've already done as you said and asked the reporter about the specific situation."
William flipped through the content on the tablet. Besides the gossip online, there was also information Rhys had gotten from the reporter.
"The currently known information about the child is visible to you, Mr. William Brown. It's a girl, looks like she's not yet 5 years old. They photographed Mrs. Amelia Brown at the kindergarten entrance."
Rhys continued: "The information has been bought out across the entire network as you instructed, Mr. Brown. What appears online later won't be more detailed than this."
In this era, reporters were everywhere, and they would sell information.
This time was clearly such a case.
The tablet showed Amelia in a coat, crouching down to adjust a little girl's clothes. The little girl softly called out: "Mommy."
This was the source material, so it wasn't blurred.
William frowned slightly. What was she trying to do?
Where did she get a child?
William was about to call Amelia when his phone vibrated.
It was Isabella.
After thinking, William pressed the answer button.
"William." Isabella's voice came through the phone. "Um... did you see the information online today?"
Her voice carried some probing, cautious and careful, sounding heartbreaking.
"You mean about Amelia?" William said directly.
"Yes." Isabella responded. She "hesitated": "William, is that your child with her?"
William thought about it. Over these seven years, Amelia had been with him the whole time, never separated for long periods. If she had given birth to a child, he should have known.
So he shook his head: "Not sure, probably not."
"William, you don't need to be afraid of hurting me." Isabella's voice came through, with a slight nasal tone. "You two have been together so long, having a child would be normal. I... I'm fine, and besides..."
Isabella stopped there, and both fell silent.
About half a minute passed before Isabella spoke: "Never mind."
William looked at the clouds drifting past the huge floor-to-ceiling window and said: "I'll get to the bottom of this."
But Isabella didn't respond as she usually would.
"William, I don't want to hurt her." Isabella said. "I'm dying soon, I don't actually want that much. I just... want you to love me."
"But if this makes her unhappy, William, go back and be with her."
"I'm fine."
Isabella spoke with a choking, broken quality in her voice.
But at Floral Haven, her face was full of smiles.
Sometimes, refusing is easier than holding on to get what you want.
Sure enough, William's voice came through the phone.
"I'll handle this." He said. "Isabella, take care of yourself."
......
On the other side.
Amelia looked at the information online.
After learning that the information had been bought out across the entire network, she stopped searching.
Looking at the little girl's drawing beside her, a smile appeared on her face.
A few days ago, Amelia found medication in the car, and her condition flared up again.
By the time she got to Skylar's place that day, it was already very late.
Her emotions were completely out of control.
"Your condition is very bad right now." Skylar told her. "I've seen most of what's been happening these days online, but I didn't expect you'd also lost a child."
In the hospital, Skylar's face was full of pity.
Sitting across from her, Amelia had severe physical symptoms but looked completely numb, with only tears flowing continuously.
"What should I do?" Amelia said. "I'm so sad."
"Dr. Tate, is there some medicine that would make me not sad after taking it?"
Skylar felt helpless.
In just over ten days since Amelia's last visit, her condition had worsened considerably.
"It all needs a process." Skylar said. "Let's do an IV today, okay?"
Today was an acute episode. If it really didn't work, they might need to do MECT.
In that case, they would need a family member present.
Based on her understanding of Amelia, if they needed to contact family, there were only two people: one was her mother Beatrix, and the other was her husband, William.