Standing outside the mansion, Penny raised a hand to her brow and squinted at the end of the driveway. She spotted a silhouette walking toward the gates, signaling that guards were still stationed there.
"Dang," she whispered, shrugging. "We still have guards? Wow. Never mind."
Penny jogged down to the garage, searching for Atlas’s car. When she arrived, deep lines appeared between her brows. The garage housed several cars, including sports cars and motorbikes.
"Aren’t we poor now?" she whispered, noticing two motorbikes of the same brand but different models. More than excitement, she was confused. "How come they still have sports cars? Were they lying to me?"
She scrunched up her nose, convinced Atlas had deceived her during his last visit. This didn’t look like their life was falling apart. If it were, they should’ve sold these unnecessary cars to afford their daily necessities.
"Which one is his, though?" she muttered, inspecting the keys. There were no buttons on them, so her eyes naturally fell on the motorbikes. A grin spread across her face as she straddled one of them and inserted the key.
"...," she frowned when the bike didn’t start. Her gaze shifted to the other bike. "Well, that one’s a hottie."
Penny quickly hopped off the first bike and climbed onto the second. As soon as she inserted the key, the headlights lit up the garage. She smiled in satisfaction and raised her brows when she noticed the helmets on the rack.
"Safety first!" She jumped off the bike to grab a helmet. After securing it, she revved the engine and spun the bike around with a sharp maneuver, but flinched when she saw Hugo standing by the entrance.
"Penny?" Hugo furrowed his brows, watching her drive to him slowly. "Are you sober now? Where are you headed at this hour?"
Penny turned her head slowly to where her second brother stood. She studied his face and let out a shallow breath. His presence was a reminder of her guilt — Hugo, whom she believed was dead, now stood as a haunting memory of how she was deceived by a person she thought her friend.
"Hugo... stay dead," she muttered coldly before lowering her visor and speeding away.
"???" Hugo blinked, staring after her. "Did she... did she just curse me?"
He opened and closed his mouth, confused, recalling the defiant look in her eyes. Although she still had that familiar gaze, there was something different about it tonight. Penny had always looked at him that way, but tonight, an inexplicable feeling crept into his heart when their eyes met.
[She’s a different person when drunk.]
Atlas’s words echoed in Hugo’s mind, reminding him of his brother’s concerns from not too long ago. With that in mind, Hugo ran back into the house to grab his keys. But by the time he reached the front door, Penny had already reached the gates.
Seeing the guards rush to open the gates, Hugo clenched his teeth.
"Ah, no," he hissed, sprinting inside. But by the time he stepped out, Penny was already speeding past the slightly opened gates. Without a second thought, Hugo rushed to the garage, hopped on his motorbike, and sped off, determined to follow his sister.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast he drove, Penny had already disappeared by the time he passed through the gates.
"Where in the world is she going at that speed?"
Was she even sober now?
To be honest, Penny had no idea where she wanted to go at this point. She drove around the city aimlessly, like a daredevil with no regard for speed limits. Luckily, it was the middle of the night, and the streets were less strict.
"Where... am I going?" she wondered, taking another reckless turn without slowing down. Eventually, she stopped across from a bus stop near Prime Global Logistics.
It was the same bus stop where she first met Nathaniel. It was the place where her so-called friendship with Nathaniel started; the very foundation of their reckless friendship.
Lifting her visor, a murderous glint flickered in her eyes as she narrowed them. "That’s where it all began," she whispered. "But that’s not where this will end."
In the timeline running through Penny’s mind, she had been released from prison and was now hunting for a man named Nathaniel. He was the reason she had ended up in jail, where she’d been forced to learn harsh lessons. Prison had been a survival of the fittest, and even someone as obedient as Penny had been prey to both inmates and officers. To survive, she’d embraced her madness.
Thankfully, she had survived, but her mind had never fully recovered.
She was better off dead than out of that place, because now that she was free, she was determined to take them all down. All of them, staring from that man named Nathaniel.
"I’m going to find him tonight," she whispered, pulling down her visor before speeding off.
Penny visited all the places Nathaniel used to work. The man had lived a double life, after all. But there was no trace of him; she didn’t even see any fragments of his shadow.
Most of the shops were already closed at this hour. Still, Penny’s energy remained at an all-time high—the night was still young, and she had plenty of it to burn.
Since she couldn’t find Nathaniel, Penny thought of visiting the prison. There was an inmate there she had befriended who might help her find him. This inmate had connections to the illegal information trade within the prison and might provide a clue on where to start looking. Moreover, she wanted to see how Grace was doing.
That girl didn’t worry her, knowing Grace was one hell of a chick. She would surely dominate prison even without Penny in there.
With that thought in mind, Penny headed toward the prison. However, instead of going straight to the state prison, she found herself circling around high concrete fences that, to her eyes, resembled prison walls.
It wasn’t the state prison, but was Skyline Plaza — Zoren’s home.