Login via

When I Was a Wallflower (Leo and Amelie) novel Chapter 11

“I will take all the medium-sized clothes in this store!” “What?!” Jodie blurted in disbelief. Even if Julia didn’t manage to buy the store, Jodie was pissed off. I am a size medium! Julia is clearly doing this to prohibit me from buying clothes in this store! The staff ignored her as one of them hurriedly replied, “Right away, Miss White!” From the staff’s point of view, there was nothing wrong with the guests purchasing the clothes they wanted. Furthermore, they wouldn’t be offending Jodie by doing so and could reach their sales target this month after Julia’s shopping spree. Hence, they were more than willing to wrap all the medium-sized clothes for her. Although there was only one medium-sized item for each piece of clothing in the store, it still cost her about two hundred thousand, which was the price of a house in a small city. When Jodie saw that Julia had successfully avenged Amelie without batting an eye, she stomped her feet in resentment. Even so, she couldn’t do anything about it. Thus, she had no choice but to leave the store angrily. “It’s not worth wasting your money for an irrelevant woman like Jodie.” Amelie only voiced her opinion when they departed the boutique. She truly didn’t take someone as trivial as Jodie seriously. Julie lazily conveyed her disagreement with Amelie’s statement, “She dares to be so arrogant simply because the Alstons are wealthy. I just want to let her know that wealth means nothing to you. Hey, if you didn’t hide the fact that you were a wealthy lady and crushed them with your wealth back then, they probably would have been the ones pandering to your every need so as to curry favor from you in the past four years!” In conclusion, Julia could never forget Amelie’s sufferings all these years. Amelie could be as forgiving as she wanted, but even she couldn’t begrudge Julia in holding a grudge. Little did people know, Amelie wasn’t just a certified live streamer with millions of fans. She also owned Starlight Media. On the other hand, Julia was just managing the company on her behalf. Amelie merely flashed her a bitter smile. It wasn’t that she didn’t think about telling Leo the truth. It was just that every time she wanted to speak to him, he turned and left, giving Amelie no chance to tell him anything at all. Then, as time went by, she felt that there was indeed no point in telling him anything at all. … Leo came to Toby’s house late at night. Toby’s elder sister just gave birth to a daughter, and today was the day they threw a baby shower for the newborn. Leo leaned against the sofa as he saw Toby’s brother-in-law, Jimmy Goldstein, bustling around the living room while holding the baby girl in his arms. He didn’t mind the baby getting his expensive suit stained as he clumsily changed the baby’s diaper. This scene made Leo suddenly think of his daughter, Bria. As far as I recall, it seems that I have never changed her diaper. My heart was only full of anger and hatred back then, considering how Amelie forced me to marry her. Later, the news of her pregnancy aggravated my humiliation and anger, making me more willing to spend time at work, which caused me to neglect Bria. Thinking of that, he asked Toby in a muffled voice, “Did I fail miserably as a father?” Toby immediately stopped drinking and looked at him straight in the eye. “You failed miserably as a husband too.” Leo was taken aback for a while. The next moment, he retorted hotly, “I never asked to be her husband!” Leo hated the despicable means Amelie used against him in order to force him to marry her. Although Toby agreed with Leo, he merely nodded and continued, “Indeed, you never asked to be her husband. But you will help a stranger when they are in trouble, won’t you? Back then, she bled profusely while giving birth to Bria. Not to mention, Bria faced complications right after her birth. Because of this, Amelie barely escaped death’s clutches. When I saw her, she held Bria desperately, even though she was still pallid and sickly. Despite that, she kept begging the doctor to take her blood and save Bria. The doctor refused, so she continued begging to the point that she injured herself.” “What? Such a thing happened… before?” Leo looked at Toby in disbelief. “Yeah. Since Bria suffered from a blood infection, she required an immediate blood transfusion. Yet, the situation was made even more challenging because her blood type was Rh-negative. Unfortunately, the hospital had no such blood in its blood bank then, so they had to find someone for a temporary blood transfusion. Amelie was only so agitated because Bria was in terrible condition and very likely couldn’t survive if no donor showed up in the next few minutes.” Toby knew about this matter simply because he was coincidentally in the hospital when the incident occurred. Ever since the day he saw this scene unravel before his eyes, Toby, who initially had a terrible impression of Amelie, gradually changed his attitude toward her. Meanwhile, Leo froze on the spot for a moment after he learned of the incident. Suddenly, he recalled that she once called him several times, but he couldn’t be bothered to care at that time. He just thought that she was causing trouble for him. After doing the math, those must be the distressed calls she made while giving birth! So when she called me back then, she was actually… calling for help? She wants me to save Bria?! That was why she would ask me if I knew what they had gone through when Bria was born. Did she want to tell me this? As he thought of that, his heart abruptly throbbed in pain. He immediately rose to his feet and ran outside. At the same time, Elyse and Ashton happened to be making their way over. When Elyse saw Leo was in such a hurry, she couldn’t help shouting, “Leo!” Unfortunately, Leo left without even sparing her a glance. Therefore, Ashton walked up to Toby angrily and questioned, “What’s going on? What did you tell him?” Toby shrugged indifferently as he replied in a blasé tone, “What else? I’m just telling him what Amelie had experienced in the past.” “You!” Ashton was tremendously infuriated. “You clearly knew that Elyse returned for Leo, so why did you tell him all those things?” “I just don’t want Leo to not be able to learn about his true feelings and make a mistake again!” Toby gave Elyse a meaningful look before he strolled out without saying anything else. On the other hand, Elyse stared at the now empty chair that Leo had sat in earlier—signs of emotional turmoil could be seen in her eyes. Because Amelie was worried that the divorce would affect Bria’s mood, she helped Bria apply for a long holiday and only sent her to kindergarten today. “Goodbye, Mommy.” Bria waved goodbye to her obediently before making her way into the kindergarten with her petite legs. As she tenderly watched her daughter’s lovely back silhouette and smiled gently. It wasn’t until Bria’s figure completely disappeared from her sight that she turned around and left. However, she unexpectedly saw Leo on the side of the road after she took a few steps away from the entrance’s kindergarten. She thought in confusion, Leo never comes to Bria’s kindergarten, so what’s he doing here… As she tried to guess the possibility of Leo showing up in front of Bria’s kindergarten to no avail, she involuntarily approached him. “Is there anything I can help you with, Mr. Alston?” Leo slowly shifted his gaze to her face at the sound of her voice. I can’t believe that I actually only thought of taking a proper look at her today. She has a heart-shaped face, and her facial features are neat and delicate. No doubt, she’s a beautiful woman. The only problem is that she’s just too skinny. He straightened his posture as he asked, “Why have you never mentioned that you were bleeding profusely and the baby had a blood infection and needed an exchange transfusion when she was born?” Amelie raised her eyebrows with surprise at the inquiry. She didn’t expect Leo would actually ask her about this matter. “You didn’t come when I needed you, so what’s the point of me mentioning it to you later?” Then, she lowered her head and smiled, concealing the sadness in her eyes. He was silent for a while. Then, he took out a check from his pocket, handed it to her, and said, “Here. Consider this money as your compensation.” As she stared at the large amount written on the check, she thought, How generous of him to write me a check with this large sum of money. I did imagine what his attitude would be after he learned about this matter. At that time, I thought he would at least apologize to me for Bria’s sake. Yet, I never thought that in the end… he would use money as a way to sweep it under the rug. Well, that just shows me that I can’t harbor high expectations regarding him.

Comments

The readers' comments on the novel: When I Was a Wallflower (Leo and Amelie)