Chapter 261 The Female Con Artist Gets Caught
After sizing up Stanley's build, Amelia looked at his face.
His eyes looked a lot like Samuel's, just that his cheekbones were a bit high, and probably because of his age, his skin had loosened.
Still, you could see how handsome this face must have been when he was young.
Overall, he looked like a refined and easygoing person.
But Amelia knew in her heart that he wasn't easygoing at all.
"Dad." Samuel led her to the bedside and said, "How are you feeling?"
When Amelia had been looking Stanley over earlier, Stanley's eyes were closed.
Probably because the anesthesia hadn't completely worn off yet, he was still a bit groggy.
Hearing Samuel's voice, he slowly opened his eyes.
When his eyes opened, a sharp gleam landed directly on Amelia's face.
Amelia was surprised to find that Stanley seemed like two completely different people with his eyes open versus closed.
Earlier he seemed refined, but now he was cold and severe.
And probably because he'd been in a position of power for so long, he didn't hold back his imposing presence at all.
Seeing him looking at her, Amelia took the initiative to greet him.
"Mr. Crawford, hello, I'm Amelia."
Nothing more.
Stanley gave a slight nod, then looked past her to Samuel.
"You stay. I need to talk to you alone."
Amelia was about to leave when Samuel grabbed her hand again.
She heard Samuel say, "We're all family, no need to avoid her. Nash, you can go. The three of us will talk alone."
Nash hesitated and looked at Stanley, but Samuel spoke again, his tone full of cold mockery.
"Dad, seems like Nash is only your butler. My words don't count for much."
Nash's expression changed slightly, and he quickly left.
Stanley frowned, clearly unhappy.
Looking at Amelia standing next to Samuel, his expression grew even worse.
The person who should leave wasn't leaving, and the one who shouldn't leave had left instead.
"Let's hear it then." Samuel said, "No outsiders now. What deal did you make with Evelyn? That she'd risk her life to find a fake Miracle Physician to fool you?"
Stanley reflexively looked at Amelia.
Samuel said, "Why are you looking at her? I'm asking you."
Stanley's expression grew even worse.
Though Amelia was standing, she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles.
She hadn't known that this was how Stanley and Samuel normally interacted.
She suddenly understood a bit why Stanley was guarded against Samuel.
Samuel really did seem determined to anger Stanley to death.
If Samuel would just say something caring, Stanley probably wouldn't have this attitude.
But every family has internal conflicts that are hard to resolve, and Samuel wasn't born with this temper.
Besides, around her, his temper was pretty good.
Stanley took a deep breath, seeming to suppress his anger, and finally spoke, "You don't need to worry about what deal we made, none of it counts anyway. The urgent matter is finding that Miracle Physician."
"Miracle Physician?"
Samuel laughed, "She already ran away at the last minute, and you still think she's a Miracle Physician? She's a fraud!"
Stanley frowned.
"Impossible."
"Why impossible?"
"Evelyn wouldn't dare deceive me."
"But what if Evelyn was deceived too? Otherwise, why would she disappear right after the Miracle Physician you mentioned ran away?"
"She didn't disappear, she's just temporarily out of contact."
Even now, Stanley insisted something had gone wrong, rather than it being a scam.
Because his pride wouldn't allow him to admit he'd been fooled by two women.
Samuel looked at his stubborn appearance, so angry his chest hurt.
He should have held back, waited until Yosef and Jeremy brought the person they needed to bring, but now, he couldn't hold back anymore.
"You and Evelyn were both fooled by that fraud. The Miracle Physician you're looking for isn't her, she's just an imposter. The real Miracle Physician is Amelia!"
Stanley's thin eyelids glanced at Amelia, then looked back at Samuel.
"What nonsense are you talking?"
"I'm not talking nonsense! Amelia is the Miracle Physician famous in Thornfield. The reason many people don't recognize her is because she wears a mask every time she treats patients. That fraud used this information gap to fool Evelyn."
Amelia had been silent until now, but finally stepped forward at the right moment.
"Mr. Crawford, I'm a doctor from Shadow Operations Division. I've been hiding my identity because the situation didn't allow me to show my true face. Please trust me, I can perform this surgery for you."
Stanley's gaze swept back and forth between the two of them.
But finally, he let out a mocking laugh.
"Samuel, I should have guessed you've fallen for her. I'm not against accepting Amelia. But you shouldn't lie to me about something like this. It only makes me dislike her."
Stanley's voice was flat.
The Richardson family was Micah's people, and now that Micah was in power and the Hays family had fallen, he naturally felt more favorable toward Amelia again.
So when Samuel asked Amelia to stay in the hospital room, though he was displeased, he didn't say anything.
Breaking the agreement with Evelyn and accepting Amelia again wasn't out of the question.
But now Samuel was telling him such a low-level lie, and he immediately felt dissatisfied with Amelia.
But Samuel could barely control his anger.
Stanley never believed him!
When he was young, those "mischievous things" he supposedly did weren't done by him at all, but were Zachary framing him.
He skipped school for good reasons too.
But Stanley never believed him.
Even now, Stanley still didn't believe him.
"Am I really that foolish in your eyes?"
"Women cloud your judgment and make you stupid." Stanley said this without any regard for Amelia being right there.
Even Amelia felt anger rising in her heart.
She was even thinking, why not just bring that fraud back to do Stanley's surgery.
Whether he lived or died would be up to Stanley's own luck.
But she still suppressed her anger and said, "Mr. Crawford, before you question me and Samuel, why don't you look at this first."
As she spoke, she stepped forward and held out a card.
That card was the Shadow Operations Division contact card. When the Sullivan family had questioned her identity before, she had shown it.
The Shadow Operations Division card was extremely complex in design, almost impossible to fake.
Samuel could tell if the contact card was real, and Stanley naturally could too.
Sure enough, seeing that card with the flame lotus pattern, Stanley's eyelids lifted, and he looked at Amelia in surprise.
But the next second, Stanley placed the card on the bedside table.
"I'm a bit tired. You two go back first. I'll contact you if I need anything."
Amelia was stunned.
Stanley's expression just now had clearly confirmed the card was real, so why was he suddenly sending them away?
Samuel said expressionlessly, "Even knowing this card is real, you still don't believe what we're saying?"
Stanley smiled and said, "I didn't say I don't believe you."
Though he said this, he didn't think so in his heart.
Samuel was now powerful and well-connected. How hard could it be for him to get a Shadow Operations Division contact card?
Besides, so what if Amelia was also a Miracle Physician?
He didn't want to put his life in Samuel's hands.
He and Samuel weren't close, even though he'd already handed the Crawford Group over to Samuel.
But at the end of the day, people's hearts are hard to read.
If he became an obstacle to Samuel, who knew if Samuel might deliberately let the surgery fail?
He didn't want to take that risk.
If he was going to die, he wanted to die knowing exactly what happened.
"I'm just a bit tired. I don't want to do surgery again today."
He said with a smile, though it didn't reach his eyes.
"You!" Samuel was about to lose his temper when suddenly there was a commotion outside.
"What's going on out there?" Stanley asked.
Samuel walked to the door and pulled it open.
He saw Yosef bringing a disheveled woman toward the hospital room, but Nash was blocking him.
"Let them in."
Samuel spoke, and Nash had to let them through.
"Mr. Crawford!"
Yosef had one hand restraining the woman, a smile on his face, "Look who I found for you."
As he spoke, he freed one hand and lifted the woman's hair, revealing her face.
Stanley squinted over, and the next second his brow furrowed deeply.
The woman was none other than the Miracle Physician who had disappeared right before the surgery.
"You!"
Stanley had just said one word when Yosef kicked the woman's leg.
"Kneel down! Speak properly!"
The woman cried out and was kicked down to the floor.
But she didn't dare complain at all, trembling as she crawled up to kneel as Yosef had told her.
"What is this!"
Stanley was shocked and angry.
This was his doctor. If she got hurt from the kick, who would do his surgery?
Amelia?
"Yosef, you!"
He was about to tell Yosef to help her up when he heard the trembling "Miracle Physician" on the floor say, "Mr. Crawford, I deserve to die! I deceived you!"
Stanley's expression froze.
Though he'd seen Amelia's contact card, in his heart he still trusted that this woman in front of him was the real Shadow Operations Division Miracle Physician.
Now hearing her say this, his heart clearly skipped a beat.
He heard the "Miracle Physician" continue with trembling lips, "I'm not some Miracle Physician . Shadow Operations Division? I've never even seen it! I'm just a clerk at a small pharmacy in Goldenvale who knows a tiny bit about medicine."
She said she just liked to gamble, and later the stakes got bigger and bigger. Not only did she lose the house her parents left her, she also owed a huge debt to loan sharks.
She was worried about how to pay it back when she heard from her brother in the gang that someone was paying big money to find a Miracle Physician, and she got ideas.
She thought she'd be exposed as a fake quickly, but unexpectedly made it all the way to Thornfield smoothly.
Today, she received Evelyn's payment and immediately prepared to escape abroad as originally planned.
Her credit was bad and she couldn't get a visa, so she'd found someone in advance to smuggle her out.
But she never expected to be caught before she could even reach the dock.
Knowing she was in deep trouble, she didn't dare hide anything, only begging them to show mercy since she was confessing voluntarily.
"You bastard!"
Stanley slammed his hand on the bedside table.
Making a loud bang.
"Do you know who I am? Do you know what my position is? And you dared to deceive me!"