Chapter 168 Disfigurement
While everyone was arguing about whether Niamh was to blame for today's two disasters, the fire trucks arrived.
But because the road wasn't finished yet, the fire trucks couldn't get in.
Only a group of firefighters ran over.
"The trucks can't get in. Is anyone still inside?"
Before anyone could answer, the waitress suddenly screamed.
"Look! There's a window open where the fire is!"
Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing.
They saw a window on the fourth floor of the hotel pushed open, and through the smoke, a shadowy figure stood by the window.
"Help!" she shouted.
Amelia recognized Yasmin's voice.
She glanced over at Samuel.
Samuel looked back at her.
Without saying anything, they both knew what the other was thinking.
"Go save her!"
The person in charge shouted.
The firefighters immediately tried to rush in.
But the fire was burning too fiercely, and they were soon forced to run back out.
"We need to change clothes," the fire captain explained to them. "We need to put on gear that can protect us from burns before going in."
Everyone understood.
Firefighters were human too—they couldn't be immune to fire.
But in the time it took to change clothes, Yasmin couldn't wait.
She had already spotted Amelia in the crowd.
The fire had burned her face, and the pain almost made her pass out.
Seeing Amelia, she thought Amelia was preventing the firefighters from coming to save her, so in desperation, she jumped straight out of the window.
She couldn't let herself burn to death here!
The firefighters shouted, "Don't jump!"
But it was too late.
Yasmin leaped down and fell heavily.
She was both lucky and unlucky.
She didn't hit the ground but landed in the bushes surrounding the hotel.
Though she didn't die from the fall, one of her legs broke.
And quite coincidentally, after her leg broke, just like Niamh's, her foot ended up pointing backward, with the whole leg twisted around.
The pain made her pass out immediately.
The firefighters rushed over to help.
After some emergency treatment, Yasmin came to.
But before she could feel relieved about surviving, a pair of cold handcuffs locked around her wrists.
She looked at the person in shock.
It was an ordinary-looking man.
"What are you doing?!" She glared at him. "I didn't set the fire!"
"I know, but you're Yasmin, right?"
Yasmin froze for a second, vaguely guessing his identity.
"You're a cop?"
"That's right!"
The others walked over at this moment.
Samuel asked what was going on.
Brady then pulled out his police badge.
"I'm a police officer. This Yasmin is suspected of murder. We've been trying to catch her, but we didn't know where she was hiding. Until today, when we found out she might be in this area, so we came to arrest her."
Kyle and another officer arrived at this moment.
Kyle glanced at Yasmin.
The fire had destroyed her face—her former beauty was gone.
Kyle found her especially unfamiliar, and despised his former self even more. How had he been so blinded by love?
In front of everyone, he laid out Yasmin's crimes.
Yasmin had no defense and was taken away directly.
But because she was seriously injured, she had to be sent to the hospital for treatment first before any follow-up procedures.
Still, no matter what, she couldn't escape legal punishment.
"Ms. Richardson, thank you..." Kyle stammered, having much he wanted to say.
But Samuel directly put his arm around Amelia's waist and led her away.
Not giving Kyle a chance to say more.
The other guests also dispersed.
Marlon got in his car and headed toward the city.
Marlon breathed a sigh of relief that no one else had died.
But Janet in the car couldn't help speaking up: "Dad, I think both incidents today were very strange."
"What do you mean?"
"Amelia and Yasmin don't get along. They had a conflict at the Luminance Art Gallery that day, as you know. Now, Niamh took in Yasmin, but at this exact time, she fell off a horse and died. Yasmin's room also suddenly catches fire..."
"So?"
"I suspect Amelia did it."
Marlon glanced at his daughter.
"Even if she did it, so what?"
"Of course, we should investigate thoroughly."
Marlon gave a cold laugh.
"Investigate thoroughly—what good does that do us? That Ms. Armstrong is dead, so what? Yasmin has nothing to do with us either."
"But this way Amelia could face legal consequences."
"Yes. She faces legal consequences, but what about us?"
"Don't forget, we've invested a lot of money here, almost all our family assets. The reason I listened to Mr. Hays and came to work in Goldenvale was to help the Royal Stirling Racecourse develop better. Now, if we investigate thoroughly, do you want to ruin the Royal Stirling Racecourse? Let people know that before it even opened, someone died here, and there was a fire?"
"The richer people are, the more superstitious and afraid of death they are. If they know something happened here, they definitely won't come. Phoenicia is so big—this isn't the only racecourse."
Janet fell silent.
Her hands were on her pants, clenched tightly.
Her guess couldn't be wrong, and she'd been watching Amelia the whole time.
After Niamh fell from the horse, everyone was panicked, but only Amelia was unusually calm.
It was like Amelia had anticipated all this would happen.
And when the fire started, she saw Amelia and Samuel exchange a glance.
As for that officer who pulled out handcuffs, Amelia had arrived with him.
But everyone was discussing whether Niamh was bad luck—no one paid attention to Amelia, let alone suspected she might have caused all this.
"Janet."
Marlon's large hand grasped his daughter's hand.
"I've told you, right now you just need to wait and not do anything else. Especially regarding Amelia—Samuel treats her very differently. Maybe he really will marry her despite the Richardson family's downfall."
"But didn't you say the Crawford family supports them? They support Mr. Hays, so how could Samuel marry Amelia?"
"Samuel is still young—it's possible for him to be dazzled by a beautiful woman. The Richardson family has already gone bankrupt and poses no threat to the Hays family. His marrying her doesn't prevent continued support for Mr. Hays."
Janet felt a bit dizzy listening.
Or maybe it was car sickness.
She pulled her hand back and rolled down the window, feeling the breeze on her face, which cleared her head a bit.
"Dad, you're right. I shouldn't keep investigating this."
Either way, Amelia's fate wouldn't be good.
Even if she really married Samuel, and Samuel really did support the Hays family.
Given men's typical nature, Samuel getting tired of her was just a matter of time.
This world had no shortage of young, beautiful women.
And Amelia would eventually lose her youth and beauty.
"That's right."
Marlon nodded with satisfaction. "In fact, maybe today's two incidents really were just accidents? Anyway, let's just stay out of it."
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Amelia and Samuel came to a place with no one around.
The hotel fire was indeed something she had arranged.
She had Brady go to the room next to Yasmin's to prepare to set the fire while she went horse racing.
She also messaged Liam to have him hack the hotel's surveillance first, so they wouldn't trace the fire back to Brady.
In all this, Yosef had also helped.
The tools used to start the fire were found with Yosef's help.
After confirming that Yosef and Samuel had a good relationship, she asked Yosef for this favor in the stables.
Later, after Niamh fell off the horse, Amelia asked about her condition with concern, and Niamh handed her her phone.
She used Niamh's phone to message Yasmin.
She said setting the fire was her idea, that she wanted to frame Amelia as bad luck, and told Yasmin to stay in her room and not wander around.
Because of this, after the fire started, Yasmin didn't run out immediately.
By the time she realized something was wrong and wanted to escape, it was too late.
The fire had blocked her way out.
After Amelia finished explaining to Samuel, she said, "About Brady—if possible, could you help me give him some reward?"
Though Brady was Lloyd's man, everyone has their own interests.
She had promised Brady that if he followed her plan, he would get what he wanted.
Samuel readily agreed.
"I'll look after him."
This was worth more than any money or position.
Being Samuel's person meant a bright future.
Lloyd had reached his current position precisely because he was the Crawford family's man.
Amelia nodded her thanks, then pulled a card from her pocket and handed it to Samuel.
Samuel looked puzzled.
"What's this? Are you trying to buy me?"
Amelia rolled her eyes at him.
Every time she thought Samuel was actually a decent guy, he'd turn cocky again.
"There's ten million dollars on the card, to compensate for the hotel's losses. I don't know if it's enough? If not..."
"I don't want your money." Samuel pushed the card back.
Amelia said, "You should still take it. I can't just burn down your hotel for nothing."
Samuel's lips curved into a flashy smile.
"I said I don't want your money. But you can use this money to buy me a gift—that would count as compensation."
Amelia thought about it and agreed.
"What gift do you want?"
"Whatever you buy me, that's what I want."
"Then I'll just buy something random."
"Whatever you randomly buy, I'll like it. Oh—" Samuel paused and reminded her, "I like black."
Amelia looked him up and down and nodded. "I can tell."
He always wore all black.
Samuel cleared his throat and brought up Felix.
"I already asked that waitress for you. It was Felix who found Niamh and had her take in Yasmin."
Amelia's eyes darkened.
"I know."
Samuel asked, "What do you plan to do about him?"
"Do about him?" Amelia smiled slightly. "No matter how much I dislike him, he's still my mom's son. If something happens to him, I'm afraid my mom couldn't handle it."
It wasn't that Felix was important to her, but that Natalie was important to her.
Hurting someone important for someone unimportant—that wasn't a good deal.
Samuel said, "I have an idea."