008: You are nothing but a discarded piece of a family_1

Amelia lay on the bed at night, with the conversation between Christopher and Juliet repeatedly playing in her mind.

The first day after the negotiator's plane crash.

There were no all-encompassing news stories, no media interviews; everything seemed like a conspiracy silently unfolding.

As the center of the conspiracy, Amelia didn't know how to pull everything back together.

To suddenly appear? What if someone wanted her dead?

Even the family around her could be involved.

All she could do was to stay here.

"What are you thinking about?" Kallie sat on the sofa, with a blanket over her knees, lost in her thoughts.

"You're back?" Kallie asked in a soft, gentle voice.

"What's wrong with your face?"

William sighed, sat down beside Kallie, and gently hugged her: "I went to console the victims' families today, and one of them got emotional and scratched me."

"What victims' families?" Kallie seemed unaware of the situation.

"The negotiator's plane crash," William said, closing his eyes slightly.

It was normal for Kallie not to know since there was no news coverage, and the only official explanation was a ten-word advertisement with no further information.

"Why were they so emotional? Isn't it always dangerous for negotiators to go abroad for negotiations?" Kallie touched William's wound on his face, feeling heartbroken.

"The accident happened too suddenly," William briefly explained and then seemed to remember something, looking at the time: "Why aren't you asleep yet?"

"I'm worried about Amelia," Kallie's eyes reddened as soon as she mentioned Amelia.

William's sigh deepened: "Nothing will happen to her."

At midnight, Amelia woke up gasping for air. She stared at the ceiling, a nightmare pulling her back to reality, and her body's discomfort made her feel like she was at death's door.

She reached for the water glass on the bedside table, but ended up spasming and knocking it to the floor.

This feeling was all too familiar – anaphylactic suffocation lingered at the back of her mind.

When fighting for survival, people always give it their all.

She stretched her hand and knocked the bedside table lamp to the ground.

Kallie and William were startled awake by the noise, wearing their sleepwear they knocked on Amelia's door, only to hear another sound.

They opened the door to see Amelia struggling on the bed.

At 3 a.m., Amelia was taken to the emergency room.

The five members of the Cobb family, along with their servants and housekeeper, stood anxiously outside the emergency room like ants on a hot pot.

Kallie lost the elegance she had during the day, leaving only anxiety.

At 3:30 a.m., the doctor came out of the emergency room, took off his stethoscope, and looked at William: "Mr. Cobb, your daughter has a milk allergy, which almost caused anaphylactic suffocation. It's better not to feed her anything that could cause allergies in the future."

Kallie was surprised: "She never had allergies before, how could this happen?"

Seeing Kallie's tearful anxiety, the doctor patiently reassured her: "It's not that if you don't have allergies as a child, you won't have them as an adult. It depends on the individual's constitution. Maybe your daughter's resistance was better when she was young, but her constitution changed as she grew older, leading to these allergies."

"What should we do now?"

"It's best not to touch milk in the future. She was sent here just in time today; if it had been any later, I'm afraid..." The doctor said, looking at William.

William nodded solemnly.

At that moment —

Amelia lay in the hospital bed, immersed in a dream.

In her dreams, her parents and friends were waving goodbye to her, bidding farewell to Evelyn Cobb, the International Negotiator, and the woman who had dominated the international scene since her twenties.

Her friends from her previous life appeared one after another, while she lay helplessly on her sickbed.

The kind of struggle that felt like dying while still being alive, or vice versa – being dead, but still struggling to live on.

Amelia opened her eyes, and tears involuntarily streamed down her face.

Flowing down her cheeks, into her neck, then disappearing.

She lay on the bed like an emotional corpse.

Utterly pathetic.

At this moment, Christopher, who was facing Amelia's ward, happened to witness the whole scene.

Last night, he had come to the hospital to visit his family, and was told that William had brought his daughter. Out of politeness, before leaving the hospital in the morning, he brought gifts with his secretary and arrived at the inpatient department.

However, he saw this scene before entering.

This image of Amelia reminded Christopher of a phrase: people struggling desperately in despair.

The image struck his heart.

"Since she's still resting, I won't go in, Uncle Cobb."

After Christopher left, the images of Amelia lying on the hospital bed flashed through his mind.

The next day, Amelia was discharged. In just two days, the King of Hell appeared several times before her.

She had no choice but to believe that everything happening to her was real.

Undeniable.

After two days of rest, Amelia returned to school.

It had been four days since Evelyn Cobb entered Amelia's body on May 12th.

New articles about the plane crash had vanished from the internet.

"Amelia," Sophia's voice sounded behind her.

She strode over and pulled at Amelia's arm: "You're really something."

"You think just because you cling to Mr. Robinson that you can boss everyone around in the Cobb family," Sophia's long hair was curled into big waves, and if Amelia didn't know what kind of person she was, she would have thought Sophia was a typical goddess.

"If you're so capable, why don't you cling to someone too?" Amelia sneered and turned to leave.

She disdained fighting with Sophia, because, in the past, Sophia alone wouldn't have been enough to even get stuck in her teeth.

"You —"

"Get lost," Amelia uttered coldly, with a single word, leaving Sophia stunned.

Amelia exuded murderous intent.

It was something Sophia had never seen before.

"Don't you know? Your marriage to Christopher is because your grandfather saw you as sacrificial fodder, a tribute to Christopher. The Cobb family needs the Robinson family's help to advance, and Christopher's demand for helping the Cobb family climb higher is for you to sacrifice your marriage. Amelia, do you really think you're clinging to a powerful leg? You're nothing but an unwanted chess piece sent to Christopher."

Sophia thought Amelia was still the same Amelia, every word piercing her heart.

Letting her know she was just a discarded pawn.

Seeing her motionless, Sophia slowly approached: "Your grandfather knew you had someone you liked, yet he still forced you to marry Christopher. Do you really think everyone cares about your feelings? With all your fuss in the end, didn't you still obediently agree to the marriage? What can you do, struggling in the Cobb family?"

Sophia's words contained a large amount of information.

Amelia had someone she liked, yet she was forced into marriage.

The Cobb family was on the same boat as the Robinson family, relying on the latter for growth.

And she was the sacrificial victim of the relationship between the two families.