Chapter 167 She Died
But Niamh didn't care anymore. Even if it meant dying, she had to make everything clear today.
Besides saying Amelia had harmed her, she also wanted to say that Yasmin had used her.
But the doctor inserted a long tube into her mouth.
And Floyd beside her, thinking she was just agitated, gripped her hand tightly and said, "Don't be afraid, Dad is here with you."
Niamh knew she would never be able to speak again.
She closed her eyes, tears rolling down her face.
She hadn't managed to scheme against others, but had harmed herself instead.
Meanwhile, Amelia had already ridden the white horse and brought the black horse under control.
The black horse had gone crazy only because of pain.
Now that it wasn't crazy anymore, it just stood quietly in place.
In a spot where no one could see and there were no cameras, Amelia pulled out a silver needle from the bottom of the black horse's hoof.
But in the next second, she heard the sound of approaching hoofbeats.
Alarm bells went off in her head. She turned around and saw Samuel riding toward her.
His hair floated with his riding movements, his eyes sharp, as if even the wind had to make way for him.
But he also seemed very scared, his face very pale.
Only when he saw both horses standing quietly behind Amelia did he exhale and rein in his horse to dismount.
"Are you hurt?"
Amelia shook her head. Just as she was about to say "no," Samuel suddenly reached out and pulled her fiercely, forcefully into his arms.
He held her so tightly she thought he might crush the space between them until they were one.
Her instinct was to struggle.
But pressed against Samuel's chest, she could feel his heart beating fast, very fast.
And his body was trembling slightly.
At this moment, Amelia suddenly couldn't bring herself to push him away. Instead, for the first time in her life, she raised her hands and hugged Samuel back.
It didn't matter if Samuel was dangerous;
It didn't matter if Samuel might change later.
It didn't matter if they had a future together.
At least in this moment, he was genuinely, wholeheartedly worried about her.
"I'm fine," she said.
"Thank you." He rested his chin on Amelia's shoulder, his nose catching the scent of her hair.
"Thank you for being okay."
Amelia's heart skipped a beat.
When Samuel finally let her go, she understood why he had been so scared.
"I saw Niamh lying on the ground. She probably didn't even know that her right foot was already twisted and broken, with her toes pointing backward..."
"There was blood everywhere."
"From her nose, her ears, her head—blood was flowing."
"It's not that I haven't seen blood before. I've seen scenes several times more gruesome than that, but at that moment I thought of you."
"I thought, what would I do if it were you lying there?"
So the more he thought about it, the more scared he became.
When he found Amelia, his whole body was shaking.
Amelia listened quietly, then looked deeply at Samuel.
"Actually, the person who should have been lying there was indeed me."
Samuel froze for a moment, his brows furrowing tightly as he glanced at the black horse and asked, "Niamh originally planned to have you ride this crazy horse?"
Amelia shook her head and opened her palm.
In her palm were two needles.
One was the kind that came with the hotel room, meant for guests to mend clothes.
The other was a silver needle Amelia carried with her.
After Yosef brought her in, she ran into Niamh and guessed that Yasmin was most likely here.
So she deliberately provoked Niamh with her words.
Sure enough, after Niamh left the changing room, she went to find Yasmin.
Amelia left through the side door and quietly followed Niamh to learn where Yasmin was.
"The room wasn't very soundproof. I vaguely heard something about a horse, something about making me disabled, so I suspected that Niamh was going to use the horses at the stable to hurt me."
"I originally wanted Brady to go straight to the hotel to arrest them, but after hearing that they still wanted me dead, I decided I couldn't let them off so easily."
Sure enough, Niamh later invited her to race and even helped her choose the white horse.
"Niamh suspected I was having an affair with Yosef, so I used Yosef to send her away."
After checking, she found a needle stuck in the white horse's hoof.
"I pulled out her needle and used my own needle to pierce the hoof of the black horse that Niamh had chosen."
The silver needle was very thin.
At first, the black horse would feel a bit uncomfortable, but wouldn't have a particularly strong reaction.
Unless it did some difficult moves.
"So I deliberately took the inside track, using other people's reactions to stir up Niamh's jealousy."
"Sure enough, she also started taking the inside track."
"After that, you know what happened."
Amelia calmly recounted what happened, but cold sweat broke out on Samuel's forehead.
He thought again of how Niamh looked after falling from the horse.
And if Amelia hadn't been smart and sharp enough, she would have been the one thrown from the horse.
"Niamh really deserved it!"
"Yes." Amelia nodded. "So when I saw her in that state, I didn't feel sorry for her at all."
Samuel straightened her riding helmet for her.
"You did great."
"Don't you think I'm cruel? Niamh won't survive."
Samuel smiled.
"Why would I think you're cruel? If you sympathize with your enemy, you're the one who dies. Amelia, you didn't do anything wrong. You just gave her a taste of her own medicine. I actually think you were too kind. Dying like this is already letting her off easy."
In his opinion, Niamh should have died a more miserable death.
Amelia shook her head. "This is enough. Before she died, she must have been full of regret. She tried to scheme against me, but ended up being caught in her own trap."
Samuel reminded her, "What about Yasmin? She's still safe and sound in the hotel."
Amelia met his gaze.
"Of course I won't forget about her. Soon she won't be unharmed anymore. Just wait and see."
Samuel smiled. "Okay."
He increasingly felt that he and Amelia were made for each other.
The two of them led the three horses back to the side of the track.
Yosef came forward and asked first whether Amelia was hurt.
After getting a negative answer, he said, "Niamh is dead. Didn't make it to the hospital."
Samuel nodded, showing no reaction.
But Yosef's view of Amelia changed somewhat.
He no longer looked at Amelia just as a beautiful woman.
There was now a hint of admiration.
He used to think Samuel liked only Amelia's appearance.
He wouldn't think that anymore.
"Mr. Crawford." The racecourse manager walked over, his face somewhat heavy. "We're very sorry that this happened..."
"It has nothing to do with you," Samuel said. "She didn't wear a helmet and overestimated herself doing difficult moves. That's why the accident happened. It's not your fault."
The manager breathed a slight sigh of relief.
But since someone had died, it wasn't appropriate to continue the horse racing today.
Everyone is prepared to leave.
It was just as they were passing by the hotel that they suddenly saw thick smoke coming from one of the rooms.
"Look! There's a fire!" someone shouted.
Others looked over and indeed saw that the hotel was on fire.
Many people quickly ran out.
The hotel hadn't had any guests check in yet, so everyone running out was staff.
Samuel glanced at Amelia discreetly.
Seeing her staring at the hotel with piercing eyes, he knew in his heart that this was Amelia's doing.
He just didn't know how she had managed it.
"Have you called 911 to notify the fire department?" Samuel asked.
The staff quickly nodded. "We did. I don't know what's going on today—one thing after another."
"Lucky we haven't opened yet," Samuel said in a calm voice. "I'll have someone come in to bless the place—clear out whatever bad energy's hanging around. And what happened today stays in this room. We don't need gossip scaring off future customers."
The staff all responded in agreement.
Hearing this, the guests also didn't dare spread the news.
Royal Stirling Racecourse was built at great expense. If anyone spread word about today's events, Samuel, Marlon, and the others wouldn't let them off.
A staff member asked, "Is everyone out?"
"Everyone's out."
But a server hesitated and said, "There might still be someone inside."
At these words, everyone looked at her.
"Who else is inside? Aren't all the servers out?" the manager asked urgently.
The server stammered, "A few days ago, Ms. Armstrong brought a friend over and checked into the hotel. I didn't see her come out..."
Samuel frowned, looking very displeased.
"How could someone be staying here before we've officially opened?"
The server was so scared she was about to cry.
"It was Ms. Armstrong's orders. She told me not to tell anyone."
"Foolish!" The manager scolded the server, but as he looked at the growing fire, he was also anxious.
One person had already died—they couldn't afford another death.
"Mr. Crawford, Marlon, what should we do now?"
Marlon was also annoyed.
This was one of his important investment projects. How could two such incidents happen in one day?
"Send two people in good shape, wrapped in blankets, to rescue whoever's inside."
Samuel said No need.
"The fire trucks will be here soon. If you go in, you'll just add to the casualties. Besides, the hotel has so many rooms—the fire might not even be in the occupied room."
That made sense.
Marlon also nodded in agreement. "Our people don't have experience rescuing people from fires. If they go in, they'll just die for nothing. Better wait for the firefighters."
Otherwise, instead of two deaths, it would become four.
Yosef sighed.
"This Ms. Armstrong really knows how to cause trouble. Not only did she hurt herself, but she also harmed her friend. I don't think we should bless the place here. The Armstrong family's better suited for it."
Everyone started gossiping about Niamh.
Someone even brought up, "I remember Ms. Armstrong's birthday is April 4th. Could she be a jinx?"
Some people who were on good terms with the Armstrong family spoke up for Niamh.
"What jinx? This is just an accident! The person's dead—can't you say something nice?"
But no matter what people said, no one paid attention to or focused Amelia.
She was innocent and had even eliminated the danger that the black horse might have posed to everyone.
However, just at that moment—