"That’s weird. Was it really just a worker?"
"Were you expecting to find an unwelcome guest, Miss Penelope?"
"Well, the residence isn’t huge, but this lot is. It wouldn’t hurt anyone if I checked, right?"
"Don’t worry. Even with such a vast expanse, rest assured, everything is monitored. Besides, Renny is always around. If anyone with bad intentions stepped into the residence, he’d chase them off. So, there’s no need to worry about that."
Inside the cabinet, squeezed into the lower part of the tiny space, Nathaniel held his breath as he listened to the conversation outside. His heart was drumming in his chest, echoing in his ears and making him sweat cold buckets.
Even when Penny and Mark’s voices slowly faded as the bedroom door closed, he stayed hidden.
’That woman!’Nathaniel clenched his teeth, recalling the only memory he had of Penny. ’She almost got me again!’
It would be a lie to say Nathaniel didn’t know Penny. He had been investigating her as Zoren’s Thursday Girl; therefore, he knew quite a bit about her. However, meeting her that night made him question whether he really knew her—or rather, he questioned whether he was actually the one who knew about her, or if it was the other way around.
After all, Penny seemed to know him well. She even called him by his nickname.
Nathaniel didn’t know how long he had been in the closet. He just knew he stayed there even when he couldn’t hear their voices anymore. When he felt safe, he pushed the closet door open and crawled out.
"Ugh..." A groan escaped his gritted teeth as he slumped on the floor, exhausted. "Shit..."
Looking back at the place he had hidden, Nathaniel couldn’t even understand how he fit in there. All he knew was that somehow, he did. It almost amazed him, but with his heart still racing, all he could focus on at the moment was stabilizing it.
"If Zoren Pierson didn’t kill me, I’d have a heart attack instead," he grumbled, looking up at the window in the bedroom.
Another deep breath escaped him as he crawled out more until he was able to sit up with great difficulty. It wasn’t like he was injured, but his body felt heavier than usual. Perhaps it was the stress of being held captive here.
"This feels more like being a prisoner," he muttered, huffing and resting his arm on his bent knee. "What am I going to do?"
It wasn’t like the doors of the guesthouse were locked. In fact, Nathaniel was always free to go... if only he had a reason to. Although Renny and that little cat were always outside the guesthouse, Nathaniel could’ve left once night fell.
"I shouldn’t have accepted this gig," he muttered, ruffling his hair in irritation. "These people are all so crazy. If I leave here, I’m sure that guy will kill me. But if I stay here, it’s like waiting for my death sentence."
It was only a matter of who would kill him.
Thinking about this, Nathaniel lamented to himself. He slowly collapsed on the floor, wincing as his back landed on the ground with a heavy thud. He spread his arms and legs, staring at the high ceiling.
"What the hell am I doing?" he murmured. "I’ve been here since that night, and although Zoren Pierson is feeding me, I’ve never seen him since."
The waiting was the most annoying and dreadful part.
Did Nathaniel sway Zoren? Would Zoren accept him in the Phantom Circle? Or would Zoren order his death?
The options were quite limited, and Nathaniel could only hope that Zoren would give him the benefit of the doubt.
"But then again... why would he do that?" he asked himself, frowning. "Even with my skills, I’m sure he has someone to do that for him—argh! I’m so fucking dead! I shouldn’t have said I know him and his connection with the Phantom Circle! I’m so dead, dead, dead, dead!"
Nathaniel clasped his hair and grumbled, rolling on the floor in distress. If he could, he would’ve hit his head on the floor. But he didn’t have that much courage. He could only lament about his actions until now.
After a while, he stopped and furrowed his brows. "Would it be too late to ask for William Pierson’s help?" he wondered to himself, only to return to crying as he realized that was impossible.
"Telling William Pierson that Zoren Pierson already knew his plans isn’t going to help me either. After all, he gave me this phone because I’m sure he wants me to call William and report everything! Huhuhu!" Nathaniel wept, still rolling on the floor like a child throwing a tantrum. "I’m at my wit’s end!"
Nathaniel cried and threw a tantrum, telling himself that Zoren wasn’t so foolish as to hand him a device that would get him in trouble. Nathaniel knew that for a fact; he knew that the phone Zoren had given him was being tracked and that all messages and calls were being recorded. Even if Nathaniel lived a reckless life, he didn’t want to die yet.
These were the Piersons, and from what he had gathered about them, this family was crazy. They were crazy in all aspects: money, power, influence, and even crazy in greed. Zoren Pierson might be different in that area, but Nathaniel knew that a man without greed was more dangerous than a man full of it. Because at the end of the day, all of this was a simple game for Zoren.
This power struggle... was all a game to him because if Zoren wanted to, there wouldn’t be any struggle at all.
"Hah..." Nathaniel huffed as he lay flat on the floor, eyes on the ceiling. "... I’m doomed... am I?"
As soon as those words flew out of Nathaniel’s mouth, he flinched as the door suddenly swung open. Horrified, he turned his head, only to see a pair of legs standing by the door. Slowly, he lifted his eyes, only to meet a pair of eyes looking at him.
The moment their eyes met, he saw Penny’s irises slowly dilate as her pupils constricted. Her complexion was pale as she asked,
"You... what the hell are you doing here?"