When I Was a Wallflower (Leo and Amelie)
Chapter 103

Chapter 103 Your Family's Pride is Worthless

"Hah!" Leo unceremoniously sneered, "Do you think that's possible?"

"You better not!" she countered right away.

Her eyes were finally clear again as if what he said had relieved her of a heavy burden.

Leo was speechless.

With an indifferent gaze, Amelie looked at him and changed the subject. "Did you say you wanted to take her back home? Are you trying to ruin her life?"

"Don't be dramatic!" he rebutted coldly. "The Alston family is where she belongs. We will provide her with the best living conditions and education. Letting her come back with me is only for the best!"

"Yes, your family can provide these for her, but when you can't even meet her basic needs, what's the point?"

Amelie pulled Bria out a little, but Bria hugged her thigh tightly, not daring to take another step forward.

"Do you see that?" Amelie uttered softly. Looking at the intimidated look on her daughter's face, she couldn't help but feel heartbroken. "She's afraid of you!"

"She'll get used to it." Leo didn't put her words to heart. "The reason she's afraid of me is that we don't spend enough time together."

"She stayed with you for three years," Amelie reminded him. Though she couldn't see how frightened Bria was, she held her in her arms.

Bria hugged Amelie's neck tightly and snuggled her head into her mother's embrace, not even daring to breathe too loudly!

Leo watched how Bria reacted and frowned.

He parted his lips, wanting to criticize Amelie for spoiling and overprotecting the child.

But before he could say that, Amelie beat him to it. "She has just been in her new school for three days, and all the children in class like her. Even the teacher complimented her for being the most lively and optimistic child in class. Have you never thought about why she's afraid of you and scared of returning to Alston Residence?"

While gently caressing Bria's back, Amelie looked into Leo's eyes.

"Your family's indifference toward her has deeply affected her. If she goes back, she will instinctively feel a sense of fear in her heart. Moreover, your mother and your sister hate her so much. Don't you think you are forcing her to a dead end by putting her in such an environment? You never fulfilled your responsibilities as a father, so why inflict more pain on her now? Just because she is an Alston and people will humiliate you guys for not letting her grow up in Alston Residence? Leo, your family's dignity isn't worth a cent to me! If you want to take her away and destroy her life, I will fight you even if it means losing everything!"

Her voice was strong and determined, and there was ardent killing intent in her orbs.

After the divorce, Leo met her quite often, but he never saw her present hostility.

This was the first time he witnessed how strong a mother could be for their child.

"I'm not going back with you, Daddy. If you bully Mommy and take me away from her, I will go live and tell everyone that you bully her!" Bria spoke all of a sudden.

Though she was afraid of the man before her, she was determined to protect her mother.

She straightened her back and glared at Leo with bulging eyes.

In his daughter's eyes, Leo discovered that she was glaring at a powerful enemy instead of her father.

He felt a knife stabbing his chest and almost lost his composure.

Bria wrapped her arms around Amelie's shoulders while Amelie carried her in his arm. The two had formed a powerful alliance.

Leo, on the other hand, as a father, was an outsider.

Once again, he felt his chest empty as if all the air had been sucked out.

Amelie then patted Bria on the back and said, "Wait for me in the car, sweetie."

Bria looked at her with concern, then at Leo, as she was still worried that her father would bully her mother.

Amelie nodded to her in reassurance. "Don't worry. I'm only going to talk to Daddy for a while. I'll be fine."

Only then did Bria slip out of her mother's embrace and enter the car by herself.

Amelie took a few steps away from the car, and Leo instinctively followed after her.

The two stood under the tree. Leo's gaze never moved away from her.

Amelie's thin body stood amidst the night like a blooming tough rose.

Even though it was dark, her face seemed to be glowing, and her aura was remarkable.

She was no longer the lowly and humble woman she was back when she stayed in Alston Residence.

She felt like a completely different person.

Leo had to doubt if Alston Residence was a place capable of destroying a person.

Otherwise, how could one person undergo such a huge change?

Amelie was one case, and even Bria experienced the same change.

"Leo," she called out to him in a subdued but crisp voice.

Leo was taken aback by how eerily similar her voice was to Elyse's!

His eyes widened inexplicably, and a strange thought emerged in his mind. However, that idea quickly moved on after Amelie said something.

"I didn't hate you when you abandoned me in the snow back then, but you knew I was pregnant and still did it, so you were abandoning the child too. Later when I suffered from blood poisoning during labor, you didn't answer my call for help, so I regarded that as the second time you abandoned the child. Ever since the beginning, I was the only one who wanted her. Since you didn't want her to be born, why don't you act as if she wasn't even born, to begin with? I will take her far away and never show up in front of you and your family. In that case, it won't affect your marriage with Elyse, and as time passes, people will forget about Bria and me."

When Elyse made her leave, she was reluctant to, but now that she thought about it, nothing else mattered as long as her child could grow up peacefully. Leaving would be a fair choice.

With that, she turned around and entered the car before driving away.

Behind her, Leo stood like a statue on the spot.

His hands had lost their strength, allowing the paper to slip from his palms and fall to the ground.

Amelie's tone was extremely calm. It didn't carry any hint of complaints, but he felt like she was throwing punches hitting his chest one after another.

He was so beaten up that he didn't even dare to face her!

...

In the quiet night, Leo pushed open the door to Prix Bar and entered the lounge before taking a seat.

When Toby saw him, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes. "Didn't you say you were tired and wanted to go back to rest? Why did you come out again?"

The two were discussing a project today. After that, he asked if Leo wanted to have a drink together, which Leo rejected.

Without uttering a word, Leo leaned against the chair and placed his hands on his knee as he exuded a depressing aura.

Toby didn't badger him and instead poured him a glass of wine.

Using his slender fingers, he pushed the glass of red wine to his friend.

Leo held the glass stem and brought the wine close to his lips but didn't take a sip.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth about the blood poisoning incident?" he questioned suddenly. Toby was startled.

The next moment, he raised the glass and chuckled lowly. "Amelie told me not to."

"She-"

Leo's hand paused mid-air with the glass of wine.

"How could she? Shouldn't she have let me know after suffering such a huge grievance?" Though he was directing the question at Toby, he sounded as if he was muttering to himself.

His thoughts paused at the scene when Amelie claimed that he had abandoned Bria. She didn't question him on impulse but made a calm description instead. She sounded as if she were telling a story about someone else's tragic past.

The more he thought about it, the more appalled he felt.

Toby's eyes darkened but he didn't speak. Instead, he drank the wine quietly by himself.

On the other hand, Leo came to a realization.

Amelie didn't care anymore.

It didn't mean that she didn't resent Elyse, but it was that she no longer needed him to fight for her.

To her, he meant nothing!

All of a sudden, Leo felt as if his strength vanished. Even holding a glass of wine was a struggle for him. Placing the glass on the table, he looked at the wine and felt something being sucked out of his body. Amelie's feelings, trust, anticipation... and all her other emotions for him were all sucked away with nothing left!

Leo was drunk for the first time.

Toby shook his head helplessly when he saw his friend drunk as a skunk frowning tightly and looking to be in pain.

Just as he was about to help Leo up, he heard a low cry coming from the corner of Leo's lips.

After figuring out his words clearly, Toby blinked with interest. He then picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Hey, Leo is drunk."