Chapter 161 Eavesdropping
A guess flashed through Amelia's mind.
Her eyes darkened.
She hoped Scarlett wasn't as crazy as she thought.
But she didn't know Scarlett well enough, so just to be safe, she needed to prepare a backup plan to make sure nothing went wrong.
Because when you're unlucky, that one-in-ten-thousand chance will land right on you.
Especially since she and Scarlett had such an awkward relationship.
Holden's car passed by Charles's Spring Renewal Clinic. Amelia said she wanted to buy medicine for Scarlett's grandfather and told Natalie to go back first, while Amelia went to the Spring Renewal Clinic herself.
She first had Charles get her two prescriptions.
The prescriptions were exactly the same as the ones she had given Bobby.
Then she called over someone from the Shadow Operations Division who was lurking nearby and quietly instructed him to handle something.
After that, Amelia looked up where Scarlett was staying and went to that hotel in person.
After finishing all this, she returned to the Richardson family.
By then, it was getting dark. After dinner, she ran into Felix coming back.
His shoes were still muddy.
Amelia ignored it and just asked him: "How's the investigation into the remaining members of Combat Arts going?"
Felix said, "Do you know Harmony Heights Resort?"
"Go on."
"That's a property under Combat Arts. All of Combat Arts' other properties were seized, only this hotel was kept. But I haven't seen the former Mr. Cox from Combat Arts, so these next few days, I plan to stake out near there."
Amelia nodded: "Okay. Need any help?"
"No, too many people make it hard to move around. I'm more flexible alone."
"That works."
Amelia didn't say more. After going upstairs, she called Lyndon.
Lyndon picked up quickly.
He knew what Amelia wanted to ask and got straight to the point: "I personally followed him today. I found that in the morning, he first went to the outskirts, then went to Harmony Heights Resort. In the evening, he went to the outskirts again. But there weren't many people around, and I was afraid that, if I kept going, it would be too obvious, so I didn't keep going. What do you think... should I keep following tomorrow?"
"Where did you stop following?"
"A gas station in the outskirts. It's hard to explain over the phone. I'll send you the exact location on my phone."
"Okay."
After hanging up, Lyndon indeed sent over an address.
Amelia looked at it - it really was a very remote place, near the airport road.
A moment later, she took out her phone and called Geraldo.
"Tomorrow I'm going to see Yasmin. Have Kyle bring the police and come with me. I'll give you an address, and Kyle and I will meet there."
Geraldo didn't waste words and agreed directly: "Okay."
After the call ended, Amelia sent Geraldo the location Lyndon had sent.
Soon it was late at night.
Amelia went to Liam's room to treat him.
"Liam, with this set of needles today, you'll feel cold all over, like you're in an ice cellar..."
Liam knew she was preparing him mentally. He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's begin!"
Amelia hesitated and said, "You've been through so much suffering lately. If you feel like you need a break, we can wait a few days."
Liam said without thinking, "Amelia, I can handle it. Compared to this, the days of not being able to walk and being disabled are more painful."
Amelia saw the determination in Liam's eyes.
Before, she thought that among the brothers, Liam was the most fragile and gloomy.
Now she knew she was wrong.
Liam's inner strength was actually very strong.
He had just given up on himself for a while.
Now that he had regained hope, he had become himself again.
"Okay, let's begin."
Amelia said no more. She took out a set of gold needles and began treating Liam.
That night was especially long.
Liam shook from the cold, his lips turning dark purple.
Several times, he even wanted to hurt himself to ease the pain.
Natalie came several times, but Amelia blocked her out each time.
Neither she nor Liam wanted Natalie to come in and see what was happening inside.
Inside the room, it was already a mess.
But no matter how much pain he was in, Liam never asked Amelia to remove the gold needles.
In his daze, Liam remembered the past.
Before he met Tessa.
He was number one on the global hacker rankings.
Countless big companies reached out to him.
Countless hacker experts respectfully called him "King."
He was at the peak of his glory.
Until that day when he saved Tessa from falling off a horse, and that horse crippled both his legs.
And Tessa, unharmed, was protected by him.
Liam's hands gripped the bedsheets tightly, veins bulging on his arms, but the light in his eyes didn't dim at all - instead, it grew brighter.
Amelia saw it all but said nothing, just quietly stayed by his side.
She knew this eagle with broken wings was about to soar in the sky again.
Meanwhile, at Thornfield.
Marlon reported the situation in Goldenvale to Leonard Hays during a video call.
Beside him sat Alton.
Leonard's eldest son, Francis, stood behind Leonard.
"Many people went to Frank's son's tenth birthday, including the Richardson family."
Leonard's expression changed slightly.
"What did the Richardson family people go there for?"
Marlon said, "The Young family people I sent said it was two women from the Richardson family who went, bringing a homemade birthday cake."
"Just brought a cake?"
"Yes." Marlon said, "The Richardson family went bankrupt. They can't afford expensive gifts anymore, so they deliberately flattered them by bringing a homemade cake, which made Mrs. Hagen very happy."
Leonard sneered and said, "The Richardson family really has gone bankrupt. They think a cake can win over Frank."
Alton nodded.
"The Richardson family probably came back empty-handed from this trip. Frank is a man who advocates neutrality and just wants to live his own life. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have agreed to send Frank to handle the Goldenvale case."
But Francis pointed out something suspicious.
"If the Richardson family can't even afford a decent gift, why are they still living in such a large manor? They should have sold the manor long ago to get some money."
Marlon said, "I was worried there was a trap in this before, so I specifically looked into it. I found that Ms. Richardson, the Richardson family, brought back from outside has very advanced medical skills. The Richardson Manor was already up for court auction, but this Ms. Richardson happened to come back and bought the house back."
The doubt in Francis's eyes faded slightly, but not completely.
He still felt something was off.
"No need to doubt the Richardson family." Alton suddenly spoke.
Everyone looked at him.
Alton said, "The Richardson family already tried to curry favor with us a while ago. It seems they know they're at a dead end and can't rely on Micah anymore, so they want to find a way to survive in the middle."
As he spoke, he took out a letter.
Leonard took it and looked, his eyes flickering with excitement.
"They're willing to settle that case?"
Alton nodded: "Get ready to bring Leo out. He's been in there so long, he must have suffered a lot."
Francis frowned.
"Dad, Grandpa, I think we don't need to rush to bring Leo out right now. I've been taking care of things for him there. He has everything he wants inside. A while ago, he even called me asking me to send him a game console, which I already sent in."
Leonard was displeased.
"Francis, that's your own brother. Even if he's doing okay in prison, can it compare to being outside?"
Francis's hands tightened slightly in his sleeves.
His birth mother died early. Leo is Leonard's son from his second marriage.
Leonard favored Leo more.
It was precisely because Leonard spoiled him too much that Leo developed such a rebellious character.
Leo hit someone while drunk driving. Not only did he not take them to the hospital in time, but he also actually backed up and ran over them repeatedly before fleeing.
If not for the Hays family's connections, it wouldn't have been possible for him to just sit in prison for a few years when the other party refused to write a letter of forgiveness.
He should have been sentenced to death.
He took a light breath and met Leonard's displeased gaze: "Dad, I don't mean anything else. I just think that for the next two years, it's best to keep Leo inside. So he doesn't ruin our big plans."
Mentioning their big plans, Leonard rarely continued to insist on Francis.
Alton also said, "Then let's keep that letter of forgiveness for now. After everything settles down, we'll bring him out."
Francis breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Leonard said, "So it seems the Richardson family really has shown weakness to us."
Alton nodded.
"No need to watch the Richardson family anymore. Have people watch The Porter family."
Alton's words were final.
But no one noticed that where the letter was sealed with glue, there was a microscopic listening device invisible to the naked eye.
Their conversation was all monitored by Shadow Operations Division personnel.
The next morning, Amelia learned of their conversation from last night.
She called Anna.
After chatting briefly, she had Anna pass the phone to Frank.
Frank was about to go to work - today was his first official day.
"Ms. Richardson, what can I do for you?"
"Mr. Hagen, I need to trouble you with something..."
"Go ahead."
"I heard that supervision at Goldenvale Prison is chaotic, and some prisoners with connections can even play games inside..."
Frank frowned.
"Is this really happening?"
"I only heard it through the grapevine."
"Then I'll look into it today."
"Thank you for the trouble."
"It's not a big deal."
Frank hung up.
His alliance with Amelia wasn't very solid yet. If Amelia's first request was something very difficult, he might reconsider the alliance.
But just cleaning up prison problems was easy enough.
After all, he was specially appointed by the upper officials with a wide jurisdiction. Reforming prisons and detention centers was within his responsibilities.
On the other end, Amelia's eyes glinted slightly.
Through that microscopic listening device, she already knew that Leo was the key to destroying The Hays family.
The Hays family presents a united front - they're untouchable. We need Leo as our inside disruptor to create internal conflict and exploit the cracks. That's how we destabilize their power structure.
After hanging up, Amelia let out a soft breath.
She had another important task today.