"Hah! I can’t do this — I’m done!" Nathaniel huffed out a jagged breath, collapsing on his knees until he was lying on his back. He didn’t care about the dirt that clung to him as he fell into exhaustion.
This was something he wasn’t surprised about. After an entire day of digging with barely any breaks, he usually collapsed until he could no longer lift an arm. Today was no different, and perhaps tomorrow would be the same.
Just thinking about tomorrow made him tear up.
As Nathaniel caught his breath, a shadow slowly stretched over him. In no time, he was staring at a pair of bright olive eyes hovering above him.
"Miss Penelope," he called helplessly, assuming she had come to tell him to keep digging. "I can’t do this anymore. The entire garden looks like a field of whack-a-mole. Can I continue tomorrow?"
Asking for forgiveness was something he had already lost hope for. Thus, he chose to ask her to let him continue tomorrow. After all, being able to work tomorrow meant he got to live another day. It wasn’t the best way to survive, but dying had always scared him.
Penny studied the exhausted look on Nathaniel’s face, smiling in satisfaction. Compared to the last time she saw him, Nathaniel had truly lost quite a lot of weight. However, hearing him adjust to his way of life was satisfying in its own right.
"Get up," she said, making his face crumple in dismay.
"Miss Penelope..." a whimper escaped him, his eyes teary. "Please, I can’t continue anymore today. I can’t dig—"
"I asked the kitchen to prepare you some dinner." She raised her brows briefly, giving him a meaningful look. "There are plenty of people in here. So, if you don’t get up now and end up missing your chance for a nice dinner, it’s no one’s fault but... yours."
Even before Penny could finish, Nathaniel crawled to his feet and stood in front of her. She smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
"Wash up," she said. "I’ll wait for you."
"Huh?" Nathaniel furrowed his brows, watching Penny turn around and walk away. "Miss Penelope? Miss Penny, what do you mean you’ll wait for me?!"
But alas, all he saw in return was Penny’s hand waving dismissively without looking back at him.
"Blacky, Chunchun..." she called gently, and Chunchun immediately jumped into her arms while Renny walked beside her.
Nathaniel stood frozen in the same spot, eyes fixed on her figure. His dry mouth parted, wondering if she had forgiven him.
"She wants me to join her for dinner..." he whispered, almost heaving a sigh of relief when another possibility crossed his mind. His face soured as his eyes quickly shone with horror. "Or is this going to be my last supper?!"
With that possibility in mind, Nathaniel almost fled with his tail between his legs. But alas, even if he tried, this place was surrounded by bodyguards, making it impossible for him to leave. Especially with Mark in there; even if Nathaniel tried, it was just impossible.
"Please!" he clasped his hands together, begging the heavens as he gazed up. "Don’t take away my life — I’m still so young!"
Regardless of Nathaniel’s inner dilemma, he still had no choice but to join Penny for dinner. Much to his surprise, when he returned to the guest house, there was a pair of new clean clothes waiting for him. He had been doing his own laundry on top of digging the garden all this time.
It only heightened his suspicion about Penny’s plans for him. Even so, he thought of many things to salvage himself. If it was truly inevitable, then he had already written his last will, just in case.
Seated at the other end of the table, Nathaniel gazed at the person across from him with hostility.
"Eat." Penny’s smile didn’t reach her eyes as she moved her hand toward him to urge him to serve himself. "I asked the kitchen to prepare all these meals the way you wanted."
"Weren’t these your favorite dishes?"
Nathaniel kept quiet, gazing down at the food on the table. As his eyes glossed over the dishes, he gulped nervously. This made him more anxious than appreciative.
"Miss Penelope." Slowly, he lifted his gaze to her with a conflicted smile. "Is this my last supper?"
"Is that what you think it is?"
He whimpered quietly, nodding. "Is it not?"
"Hahaha." Penny laughed, shaking her foot as her leg rested over the other. "Well, if that is what you believe, then shouldn’t you eat to your heart’s content?"
"Miss Penelope, do you know why people on death row get their last meal before execution?" Nathaniel cried out. "The last meal is the last form of torture!"
"I know." Penny smiled, her demeanor calm, her eyes clearer than the morning sun. "After all, when a death row inmate finally has their last meal, they can’t even enjoy it because their body won’t stop shaking. They shake so uncontrollably that they can hardly swallow the food they requested."
Nathaniel’s brows slowly rose as he assessed the look on her face. Unlike the demeanor she showcased when they first met that night, and the time she found him in the guest house, and then that night she jumped in the pit to kill him — there was clearly something different about her today.
She was much calmer, and her eyes were very clear as if she had already decided on something. What it was, he didn’t know.
"Miss Penelope, what did I do to you to make you hate me?" he blurted out. "If this is my last supper, then should I at least know why I am being sentenced to death?"
Penny faintly snorted, smacking her lips as she leaned back. She rested her hand on the table, tilting her head a bit, her eyes on him.
"Because I don’t like you."
Penny shrugged and raised a brow. "I don’t like you. It’s as simple as that."