Chapter 238 Let Her Pay with Her Life
A few days passed in the blink of an eye, and news about the rift between Samuel and Amelia spread like wildfire.
Samuel had deliberately leaked the information to Stanley at Thornfield Manor.
Stanley was delighted and called to praise him.
"I was worried you'd really get tied down by Amelia and lose your mind. You did well, worthy of being my son."
Samuel didn't say much and hung up the phone.
Stanley was a very perceptive person - the more you said, the more mistakes you made, and the easier it was to give yourself away.
Being cold and taciturn as usual was the best way to fool people.
On the other end of the line, Stanley didn't mind at all that Samuel had hung up on him.
Because that's how Samuel always was.
There were too many barriers between father and son.
Stanley knew full well it was all his own fault.
If he hadn't cheated back then, Samuel wouldn't have had his identity switched and become an illegitimate child.
So when Samuel had a bit of an attitude, he wouldn't get angry.
The Crawford family's butler spoke up, "It seems the message the Hays family sent us earlier was wrong. Samuel isn't deeply in love with Amelia after all."
Stanley completely agreed.
"He has a cold personality, takes after his mother. He won't easily fall for someone. I should have trusted him. His thing with Amelia was just an act. Now that he doesn't need to pretend anymore, of course they can split up."
He added, "I wonder what the Hays family's real intentions were in doing this."
Butler Nash thought for a moment and said, "Everyone in the Hays family has deep schemes. They probably did this to create conflict between you and Samuel."
"But doing this doesn't benefit the Hays family. No matter how chaotic our family gets, it's not The Hays family's place to interfere."
"How could there be no benefit? You favor Micah more, while Samuel is firmly neutral. Once you and Samuel fall out, they might be able to win Samuel over. Isn't it common for sons to disagree with their fathers?"
Stanley nodded.
"My illness has made me confused; my mind isn't as sharp as before. Good thing I have you."
He sighed, "You'll surely outlive me. If I die, please help me look after Samuel. He's good in every way, except he's too ruthless. A leader needs to learn how to use both kindness and authority."
Nash quickly said, "You're talking nonsense again. Didn't Ms. Russell come by and say she could find the Miracle Physician for you? That Miracle Physician will definitely cure your illness."
Stanley's expression became complicated. "But she still hasn't brought the Miracle Physician to see me."
Nash consoled him, "That Miracle Physician is from the Shadow Operations Division. Shadow Operations Division has been suppressed and has completely collapsed, so the Miracle Physician is probably hiding somewhere and hard to find. But since Ms. Russell has this intention, she'll definitely find the Miracle Physician."
Stanley nodded. "If the Miracle Physician she brings can really cure my illness, I'll allow her to join our family and become Samuel's wife."
He added, "It's a shame that the Russell family is aligned with The Hays family. That puts me in a difficult position."
Nash said, "Who wins and who loses hasn't been decided yet. If The Hays family wins in the future, and Samuel marries Ms. Russell, she'll naturally speak up for us in front of The Hays family."
Stanley scoffed, "Even if the Hays family wins, they wouldn't dare go after the Crawford family. I don't need anyone from the Russell family to speak for me."
"Yes, I misspoke."
As the two talked, they didn't notice a servant's figure flash by the doorway.
Ten minutes later, Samuel received a call from the Crawford Manor.
He returned to his room to answer it.
"You have news?"
The person on the other end said, "It's Ms. Russell."
"Evelyn?"
"Yes." The person said, "I was afraid of being discovered, so I didn't dare get too close to listen. I only vaguely heard the tittle, Ms. Russell. The only one Nash would respectfully call Ms. Russell is Evelyn. Plus, Ms. Russell did visit Mr. Crawford two weeks ago."
"I understand. Keep watching for me, and report any developments immediately."
"Yes."
After hanging up, Samuel felt very irritated.
He wanted a cigarette.
He walked to the coffee table before remembering that after learning Amelia hated the smell of smoke, he'd thrown away all the cigarettes and lighters in the house.
Right now he really wanted to smoke.
He called York, wanting to ask him to bring cigarettes.
But after the call connected, he swallowed his words.
Since Amelia didn't like the smell of smoke, he should just tough it out and quit.
"Mr. Crawford?" York asked, confused after not hearing Samuel speak for a while. "Did something happen? Should I come over now?"
"No need." Samuel came back to his senses. He didn't mention the cigarettes, only asked, "Has there been any activity from the Young family lately?"
Mark had died at his engagement party, and everyone was saying Tessa brought bad luck.
Plus, he and Amelia had previously destroyed Efrain.
The Young family would definitely blame both the Richardson family and him for these two incidents.
They might not dare do anything to him yet, but they might not hesitate to go after the Richardson family.
York didn't have much thinking ability, but Jeremy had reminded him to pay attention to the Young family.
He always knew he wasn't as smart as Jeremy, so he took what Jeremy said to heart.
He reported, "After the engagement party, Tessa hasn't left the house. The power Billy got from Marlon has been taken away by the newcomer Finn. Their family is in chaos right now. But my people told me Billy met with Francis once these past few days."
Samuel nodded. "Keep watching the Young family."
"Yes!"
Billy and Marlon were Leonard's right-hand men.
With Marlon down, Leonard would definitely value Billy more.
His every move was authorized by the Hays family. By watching him, they were watching half of the Hays family.
"We need to find a way to keep them busy so they won't have time to harm the Richardson family," Samuel said.
York suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
"Mark is dead, right? The Rodriguez family has lost all hope. Why not have the Rodriguez family go make trouble for them?"
Samuel raised an eyebrow slightly.
"You've gotten smarter."
"I'll take that as a compliment then!"
"Do it. I'm putting you in charge of this."
"Yes!"
Two days later, it was Mark's funeral.
Billy asked Tessa to attend the funeral.
Tessa refused.
"Don't you know what people are saying about me out there? Going out at a time like this - who knows how they'll mock me!"
Billy was disappointed.
"If you don't go, people will talk even more. Mark's death was caused by the Rojas family. What does it have to do with you? Not going will only make people think you're guilty."
"I'm innocent! The police released me. Whether I go or not, I'm innocent!"
"Are you really going to argue with me? All this trouble was caused by you! If you'd just married Liam properly back then, would we be in this situation?"
"Wasn't it you who told me not to keep seeing the crippled Liam? I was going to visit him at the hospital, but you said not to, that Liam was ruined, and if I kept seeing him, they'd force me to marry him. Now you're blaming me?"
Billy raised his hand and slapped her.
"How dare you! Who gave you permission to talk to me like that?"
Felicity felt sorry for Tessa and cried, "Why are you hitting Tessa? Isn't she innocent in all this?"
The two adults started arguing.
Tessa was fed up and agreed with a dark expression.
"Stop fighting! I'll go to the funeral, okay?"
...
The Rodriguez family home was desolate.
They only had Mark as their son. With Mark dead, they had no heir.
The day before, someone had suggested to Idris that they adopt an heir from a branch family.
"Otherwise, who will inherit such a large estate?"
Idris listened but didn't dare bring it up to Gemma at such a sensitive time.
But somehow, Gemma still heard about it.
At the funeral that day, Gemma looked at Idris with extreme displeasure, and the two had a huge fight.
Finally, Idris gave in to Gemma, and the argument subsided somewhat.
Then someone mentioned to Gemma, "That day, Mark could actually have received timely treatment. He felt unwell and wanted to rest, but Tessa disagreed, saying he was just suffering from heatstroke and not to make a big deal of it. If Tessa had cared about Mark a little more then and taken him to see a doctor, Mark might have survived."
Gemma was already upset because Idris was looking for another heir when Mark's body was barely cold.
Hearing this, she became even more agitated.
"Tessa ruined Mark and me!"
"It's all her fault! If not for her, Mark wouldn't have died!"
"I'm going to make her pay with her life!"
Once this thought arose, she couldn't suppress it.
After sitting with the mourning guests for a while, she went back to her room to sit alone.
The servants explained to the guests that Gemma was very sad and needed to rest. The guests were all understanding.
No one suspected anything.
Soon after, the butler came looking for Idris and Gemma.
"Where are Mr. Rodriguez and Mrs. Rodriguez?"
"Mr. Rodriguez is in the back entertaining the male guests, and Mrs. Rodriguez is resting."
"Let them know that Ms. Young has arrived."
Because Mark had died at the engagement party, they hadn't had a wedding or gotten a marriage certificate, so Tessa was still just "Ms. Young."
But her status was more special than other guests, so the butler came to report personally.
Gemma soon found out.
Her face was slightly pale, but her eyes were frighteningly bright.
Tessa looked at Gemma, feeling inexplicably guilty.
Although Mark's death had nothing to do with her, when Mark said he wasn't feeling well, she really hadn't cared.
Because at that time, Liam had disturbed her peace of mind.
Under normal circumstances, she would have called a doctor to check on Mark instead of telling him to tough it out.
It was Liam's fault!
Liam shouldn't have come to the engagement party!
But Tessa forgot that it was her family who had repeatedly invited Liam to attend, just to clear her name of being ungrateful.
People only remember things that benefit them.
Tessa offered Gemma her condolences.
"Although I can't become your daughter-in-law, I'll visit you often in the future. You can think of me as your daughter."
Tessa said this very loudly.
She knew Gemma's temper.
She would definitely curse at her.
That way, the public would sympathize with her.
Before coming, Tessa had already planned it out - she couldn't come here just to get scolded for nothing. She had to at least earn some good reputation to take back.
However, contrary to Tessa's expectations...