Chapter 132 His First Love, Is Her
Natalie had originally planned to call Stanley to cancel the arranged marriage between the two families and thank him for his kind offer.
But at Amelia's welcome party, Samuel made his feelings clear, so she didn't make that call.
That's why Stanley asked Samuel about it.
He thought Samuel would definitely refuse, and was ready to persuade him, even planning to pressure him by saying he didn't have much time left and wanted to hold a grandchild before he died.
But unexpectedly, Samuel said right away: "I think Ms. Richardson is nice."
Stanley was stunned on the other end of the phone for quite a while.
All the words he had prepared were useless, so he didn't know what to say for a moment.
"You..."
After a while, he finally spoke: "You've met the girl?"
"We're already friends," Samuel said.
Stanley was even more surprised.
But the weight on his heart lifted.
A slight smile appeared on his somewhat sickly-looking face.
"In that case, I'm relieved. When are you planning to get engaged?"
"I'm too busy lately, probably not until the end of the year."
Samuel didn't mention that Amelia had no interest in him at all.
Stanley frowned.
"End of the year is too slow."
Then he said: "Fine. End of the year it is."
Samuel was silent for two seconds, then voiced his question.
"Dad, the Richardson family has already gone bankrupt."
What he meant was asking Stanley why he would be interested in the Richardson family.
Stanley was someone who valued benefits. Even if he was eager for a grandchild, he would still consider the woman's family situation.
And the current Richardson family was clearly not a match for the Crawford family.
Stanley coughed and told the people in the room to leave, then spoke: "Quinton has an unusual relationship with the Porter family."
Samuel understood immediately.
Right now in Phoenicia, the Porter family and the Richardson family were fighting each other.
From this perspective, Stanley thought The Porter family would win.
The things that had puzzled him before now made sense to Samuel.
The Richardson family was The Porter family's secret backer.
Once The Porter family won, Quinton would be out soon, and the Richardson family would quickly regain its former glory.
Stanley wasn't really eager to hold a grandchild after all - he wanted to make his future path smoother, or rather, wanted the Crawford Group to go further.
"As for The Hays family, don't be too cold to them either. Keep dealing with them as you should. At least don't offend anyone on the surface."
Samuel nodded.
He knew these things even without Stanley saying them.
Before the results came out, he couldn't offend either side.
That's why, on the surface, Stanley had a closer relationship with The Hays family.
But secretly, he had Samuel consider the engagement with Amelia.
This way, no matter who won in the end, the Crawford family would benefit.
"Alright, I'm tired. I'll hang up now."
"Rest well."
Samuel hung up the phone, his gaze drifting away.
Outside the window, the maple trees were shaking violently - the wind and rain had gotten even stronger.
He only learned today about the relationship between the Richardson family and The Porter family.
So was Quinton being taken in for investigation something The Porter family did on purpose?
To make the other side let their guard down, they cut off one of their own arms first.
He thought this was very likely.
No wonder the Richardson family, despite going bankrupt, had Natalie looking increasingly energetic.
And Amelia never mentioned her father's situation.
Samuel lit a cigarette.
Because of this phone call, his feelings were complicated.
He felt like he had unintentionally used Amelia.
His feelings for her were genuine, with no personal gain involved.
After a while longer, after Samuel had smoked three whole cigarettes, he finally stood up from his office chair and walked out.
"Did you look at the results?" Samuel asked.
Jeremy nodded. He was about to speak when Samuel said: "I'll look at it myself."
Jeremy swallowed his words back.
Samuel went to the computer room across the hall. Jeremy had already cleared everyone out.
He took a deep breath. His heartbeat had long since lost its usual rhythm.
He was very nervous.
Earlier, after taking Amelia's call, he hadn't gone to look at the results immediately. Instead, he had called Stanley.
All of this was because he was too nervous, so he was subconsciously avoiding it.
He was afraid that the woman wasn't Amelia.
At the same time, he was also afraid that the woman was Amelia.
If it was Amelia...
Either way, even though he had been drugged, he had still hurt her with his actions.
If she knew that the jerk that day was him, would she push him even further away?
Samuel stood in place for a long time without moving.
"Mr. Crawford?" Jeremy couldn't help but speak up.
Samuel came back to his senses and walked straight toward the computer.
He picked up the mouse and clicked into the video that had been restored to ultra-high definition.
In the video, the girl's body was swaying unsteadily; clearly, something was wrong.
Soon, the girl turned her face around.
He could clearly see the girl's face.
The girl's face was like a doll's.
Her eyes especially seemed to have a soul, lively like a cat's eyes.
Her face was delicate and beautiful. Even though she looked very weak, it added a kind of soft, stunning beauty.
Unforgettable.
If it wasn't Amelia, who else could it be?
Samuel's heartbeat gradually quickened.
He wasn't nervous anymore.
He had already gotten the answer he wanted.
Even if Amelia pushed him further away, he had good leg strength - he often trained his legs at the gym. No matter how far away, he could run back.
Samuel's heart was surging with emotion, but his face showed no unusual expression.
Only when he turned around did he say to Jeremy, "Everyone's worked hard these past few days. After the typhoon passes, take them out to have fun for a couple of days."
Jeremy understood that Samuel was in a good mood.
He was always very strict with his subordinates and almost never let them have fun for a couple of days.
"Yes." Jeremy also smiled, feeling even more certain that in the future, Amelia would be Samuel's wife.
It was lucky that the woman in the video wasn't someone else; otherwise, things would have gotten very tricky.
"Also," Samuel spoke again, "Have someone clean up the gym. I'm going to train my legs today."
Jeremy looked at him strangely.
"What's wrong?" Samuel asked.
"Nothing." Jeremy quickly shook his head.
He actually wanted to say that men training their legs had many benefits.
One very important benefit was: it increased "that aspect" of ability.
Samuel starting to train his legs this early showed he was determined to win Amelia over.
"...I'll go get people to clean it together right away."
"Good. After cleaning, you should relax too. With the typhoon these days, there won't be too much work."
"Yes!"
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Amelia received the information Byron had found for her in the evening.
The man Mason had sent to prison was named Leo Hays.
A very elegant name, but he was a jerk who killed someone while drunk driving and tried to escape punishment.
But more than this person's character, what caught Amelia's attention was his family situation.
His grandfather was Alton Hays.
Alton was a famous person in Phoenicia.
The only one comparable to him was the Porter family.
Mason had unintentionally offended someone from The Hays family.
No wonder his career hadn't gone well these past few years, hitting obstacles at every turn.
Now knowing the truth, Amelia even felt that just having career obstacles was lucky for Mason.
Normally, Mason should already be a dead man by now.
But the reason he was still alive was, first, that the Richardson family at that time was a force to be reckoned with.
Second, Leo had an older brother, Francis Hays.
This man graduated from a prestigious school and was the Hays family's great hope.
Although he was just over thirty now, he had already reached a position others couldn't reach.
As for Leo, he was a notorious playboy.
The Hays family had long given up on cultivating him.
Amelia was certain that if it had been Francis who went to prison, Mason would definitely be dead.
Not only would he definitely be dead, Francis absolutely wouldn't have been sent in.
Mason's luck was bad, but he was still fortunate.
At least he kept his life.
Amelia let out a heavy sigh.
She never made useless resistance. This time she could only rely on strategy.
Amelia called Byron and had him investigate the family of the girl who died.
"I want information on everyone in their family."
"Yes." Byron didn't ask why and went straight to work.
The girl was a member of the Cole family.
Because it was a very ordinary family, investigating them was easy.
Amelia quickly found someone useful from the pile of information.
Alex Cole was the girl's cousin, the son of her uncle.
He liked prostitutes and gambling. Later, because he met bad people at the gambling table, he got into drugs, and his family was dragged down by him.
Their family originally also lived on Willowbrook Road, but drugs and gambling ruined them so much that they had to sell their property. Now the whole family could only squeeze into a rental apartment.
Amelia called Byron and carefully explained her plan to him.
Byron agreed and told her that this matter could be settled tomorrow.
This day was still raining heavily, but fortunately, the wind wasn't as strong.
Alex had just finished drinking and was about to leave when he was grabbed by two loan sharks.
"When are you going to pay back the money you owe? If you don't pay soon, we'll break your hands!!"
Alex was so scared he knelt down.
For someone like him, dignity didn't matter at all.
"Three days, give me three more days. Within three days, I'll definitely pay you back!"
Those guys didn't really want Alex's hands - they just wanted Alex to pay back the money.
"Then we'll give you three more days!"
The group quickly left.
Alex breathed a long sigh of relief and slumped to the ground.
On the way home, he kept thinking about how to get money.
He had borrowed a hundred thousand dollars from them and lost it all in one night.
If his family knew he went gambling again, they definitely wouldn't give him money.
Besides, the family had no money left anyway.
Just then, two people passed by him, arguing loudly.
"Why won't you call the police? He was drunk driving when he hit us!"
The other said: "Are you stupid? Calling the police will only send him to jail, and we won't get anything out of it. But if we don't call the police, he'll bring us money tomorrow."
"Really?"
"You don't believe me? Just wait and see!"
Alex watched their retreating figures, lost in thought.