Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress novel Chapter 247

Chapter 247: I can’t marry twice

[FLASHBACK]

The sound of a vase shattering on the floor rang sharply, causing everyone who heard it to panic. Penny jumped in surprise, taking a step back, only to wince when she accidentally stepped on a shard of the vase.

"Ouch..." Penny bit her lip and squatted down to remove the shard from her foot. "Ahh..."

She pursed her lips, holding back her tears. It was just a small wound, so she feared the elders would think she was overreacting if she teared up. She had learned her lesson.

"Oh, no..."

Her attention was drawn to a meek voice nearby. When Penny looked up, her eyes landed on a young girl about her age.

This girl had been teasing Penny moments ago. But since Penny chose to stay quiet and let it go, the girl tried something else to get a reaction from her, ultimately tipping the vase off its stand.

"Sophia..." Penny called out. "Are you hurt?"

Sophia Bennet, age 14, turned her shaky eyes to Penny. Despite her bleeding foot, Penny tiptoed toward Sophia to see if she was hurt. The boy with them held his breath, shocked at what had happened.

"Oh, my god! What happened here?!"

Before Penny could reach Sophia, the latter pushed her away slightly. "Mom!"

"Sophia!" a middle-aged woman gasped, watching her daughter run towards her. "Sophia, be careful!"

When Sophia reached her mother, she hugged her out of fear.

"Sophia, are you hurt? What happened?" the woman asked worriedly, her eyes scanning her daughter.

Sophia looked up, teary-eyed. "Mom..."

"It’s Penny!" The boy, Sven, was quick to point a finger. "She was teasing Sophia and ended up tipping the vase! I saw everything!"

At this moment, the elders and the rest of the family arrived at the scene. When they did, they caught wind of Sven’s remark.

Penny looked at her cousins in horror. That wasn’t the truth, but she could see the displeasure on everyone’s faces, as they believed Sven.

"Penny!" Allison called out, stopping at the sight of the shards on the floor. But when she saw the blood on Penny’s foot, her motherly instincts kicked in. Ignoring the shards around her, she carefully rushed to her daughter.

"Penny!" Allison held her daughter’s shoulders, looking at her up and down. "Are you okay? Your foot is bleeding. Let’s get it cleaned up..."

This had always been a normal occurrence whenever Penny was in the old residence. Although her parents would side with her publicly, they would discipline her at home. Initially, Allison and Charles believed her, but with Nina’s constant drama and schemes, they eventually believed Penny needed to relearn everything and had to be strict with her.

From childhood, the bad image her relatives painted of her, with Nina’s help, stuck until adulthood.

This was why Penny hated coming to the old residence or bumping into one of her relatives. One way or another, burying herself in work was Penny’s only escape, as her world was far too small with all of them out to get her and no one to protect her.

********

[PRESENT TIME]

Penny smiled confidently as she sat beside Atlas, across from her elders, including her father’s uncles, Charles’s cousins, and Penny’s cousins. All of them held positions in the company, and all of them had a vote in family matters.

’Sophia isn’t here,’ Penny thought, somewhat looking forward to seeing that nut job. ’But all these people...’

Penny had come a long way. She was thankful that Charles and Allison hadn’t exposed her to these people. Well, that was because Penny left the household before that could even happen. So, in a way, they were all strangers to her. She had met a few of them during vacation breaks when they would visit Charles, though.

Like Penny, everyone eyed her with mixed emotions. The last time they saw her, she was still young and overweight. She was even overweight at sixteen. Therefore, they were skeptical if this was Penny or Atlas’s lover.

"I’m not getting married." Penny broke the silence, and with this, everyone quickly frowned and expressed their dismay. "Not because I don’t want to, but because I can’t marry twice."