Pampered by my three brothers: the return of the neglected heiress

Chapter 443: I want to know more about you

"Hic..." Penny hiccuped as she sniffed hard, wiping her tears.

The movie they were watching was an old film she used to watch while serving time. In prison, the selection of movies was limited, and they weren't free to choose. Even so, this particular movie somehow resonated with her life.

"Are you okay?" Zoren gazed down at her, confused. 'Was the movie really that emotional for her?'

Penny pursed her quivering lips as she gazed up at him. "No," she answered in a shaky voice. "I'm not okay. How could I be okay? I'm a criminal, and even though I'm free now, that will never change."

Tears continued to form in her eyes, and her nose turned red. She wiped both her eyes and her nose. Her neck stiffened slightly as she tried to hold back her tears, but she couldn't.

"This movie... I watched it in prison," she continued in a quiet, cracked voice. "It's about someone who has so much love to give... and people take pieces of that heart and break it - mince it."

But unlike the film where the protagonist slowly learned her lesson, stood on her own, and met people who genuinely cared for her, Penny knew she couldn't do that. Her life wasn't a movie where the script could be rewritten, and redemption was possible.

Reality wasn't all rainbows and sunshine.

"She was able to forgive those who wronged her," she whispered, staring at the screen as the protagonist's life in prison gradually improved. Penny's own experience had been different - every day a battle, and even at night, sleep was dangerous because someone might try to stab her.

"I can't," she added under her breath. "I can't do that."

Another tear rolled down her cheek as she bit her inner lip until she tasted iron. Behind the fierce and unyielding front, she was bruised and wounded. Prison had been hell, but what hurt more was that the people who should have believed in her didn't.

It wasn't really a surprise. Since when did the Bennet family ever care?

Still, a small part of her had hoped that, for once, they'd be on her side.

Prison was proof that nothing would ever make her family accept her or see her as one of their own.

Penny let out an airy, bitter laugh, finding herself silly for shedding tears over people who didn't care. She wiped her eyes and raised her brows, noticing Zoren still watching her.

one last time to recompose herself. "Let's just watch something else.

"I won't break it."

in her hand, and glanced up at him, deep lines forming between her

Zoren repeated, his voice firmer yet calmer. He reached out, stroking the side of her head gently. A soft,

have understood why she saw herself as an ex-convict. But he felt the pain in her voice, the weight of the grief she carried,

her home and guard her heart at all costs. "That... I promise you," he

slightly as the heaviness in her heart eased just a bit. The weight on her shoulders seemed

blurred her vision. "I'm an ex-con," she said.

she exclaimed, and he kept nodding. "I even stabbed someone with

"Was he alive?"

"It was a she."

"Was she alive?"

"but that's

paused and took a deep breath. "I hurt someone, which means I'm capable of doing worse Her breath hitched as she pressed her hand to her chest, trying to make him

her the most was how close she felt to total madness She wasn't terrified of anyone else because the person she feared

he

I said?" she asked, and he nodded.

again, gently tugging

puffed her cheeks, crawling toward him like a child until she was sitting on his lap. She studied his handsome, masculine features, while Zoren wrapped

to add?" he asked, his

the side. "I'll complain to you unnecessarily and test your

go."

"Okay."

up at him again, studying his pale but attractive face. "I've done a

"Mhm."

to break your

rather die than break my

asked! If I say I didn't do it, it