Chapter 168: Not all parents deserve to be parents

Looking at the small house where she saw Grace stopped, a shallow breath slipped past Penny’s nostrils.

’Grace is such a horrible liar,’ she commented in her heart. ’Why lie about her childhood? It didn’t seem like her mother left her be.’

It was an irony that when Penny was still a free woman, she didn’t have people whom she could call her friends. Even her colleagues weren’t her friends. But when she got into prison, somehow, she was able to call people her friends — some, even family, like Grace.

Grace was akin to her sister; they were cellmates halfway through Penny’s sentence.

And in a place like the maximum prison, they could either talk to each other or fight or get thrown into solitary confinement.

Aside from Grace’s sentence, Penny knew a thing or two about Grace. One of them was that Grace was abandoned by her mother, and then her father abused her. He abused her so much that Grace could only fight back and eventually end her father.

’It’s cruel, but... I don’t want her to end like that,’ Penny sighed once more, telling herself she was being foolish. Not because Penny was lucky and was blessed to redo everything, doesn’t mean she could save everyone. However, she still wanted to try at least once.

"Penny?"

Penny snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at her second brother. "There’s nothing, Second Brother. I just saw someone, and I thought I knew her."

"Oh." Hugo rocked his head in understanding. "Okay. Let’s go back?"

"Mhm."

As they turned, Hugo carefully walked a step closer beside her. "Penny, it’s not good for you to wander off to places you’re not familiar with. If I didn’t see you, everyone would be worried."

"Hehe. Sorry!" Penny averted the mild scolding with a sweet smile. ’It’s just that when I’m alone, I feel like older than everyone else.’

It wasn’t like Penny couldn’t go home alone. Even if she got lost here, she knew how to find her way home. But then again, in everyone’s eyes, she was an innocent thirteen-year-old in the body of a nine-year-old.

How frustrating!

While they walked away from the post Penny hid behind, they suddenly heard loud voices behind them. Their steps slowed down and halted, turning on their heel to see what the ruckus was about.

"You fucking bitch! Now that you’ve grown, you think you can talk back to me now, huh?!"

Deep lines appeared between Penny and Hugo’s brows as they saw the door of the small house fly open from the inside. Coming out of it was a man in a dirty tank top, where his bulging stomach was perfectly outlined. He was grabbing a teenage girl’s hair while another middle-aged woman was trying to stop him.

"Stop it! No, not her!"

"Get off me, you stupid bitch!" the man flung his arms away, making the middle-aged woman fall back inside the door.

"You think you can do things on your own now, huh?!" the man fumed at the teenage girl. "Fine! You stupid bitch! You’re just like your mother. Get the fuck out of my house if you think you can now fight your father!"

"Let go of me!" Grace screamed while grabbing her father’s wrist. "I said let go! I’m going to call the police —"

Before Grace could finish her sentence, her body flew across the unfurnished wall across from their house.

"Ah!" she yelped, and she winced, her back hitting the wall violently.

"This stupid little bitch..." the man scoffed, his eyes blazing while glaring down at her. "You should be grateful that I took you in, even though you’re not mine! I should’ve known you and your stupid mother are useless!"

He lifted his feet and kicked Grace to vent his anger. However, his feet landed on someone else. Stopping, he shifted to the person who took the hit. His face twisted in rage, raising his feet to kick the mother more.

"You want to be beaten so badly? Sure! I’ll give it to you today!"

"Mom!" Grace yelled as her mother curled up on the ground and quietly took the beating. "Stop that! I said stop that!"

"Grace..." her mother peeked at her through the gaps between her arms. "It’s okay. Just be quiet — ah!"

Just as Grace was about to jump at her so-called father, another person turned up on her father’s side. Her father stumbled down on the side, caught off guard. Shifting her gaze to the person, all she saw was a young man staring down at her father furiously.

"Are you okay?" Penny came to Grace’s side, scanning her worriedly.

When Grace faced Penny, her brows furrowed. The look on Penny’s face was akin to someone who had just witnessed a family member get maltreated for the first time.

"What are you doing here?" Grace blurted out because this kid wasn’t the person she expected who would come to her rescue. They didn’t even know each other until now.

"Who — who the hell are you?!" the man bellowed at Hugo.

"Penny," Hugo called under his breath, and Penny looked at him.

"I already called for help," she said. "The police will be here soon."

A glint flickered across Hugo’s eyes, trying to keep himself calm despite the rising rage in his heart. He stood motionless from the same spot, shielding the mother and daughter and even his sister from this cruel man who didn’t deserve to be a father.

*****

Back in the square, Charles and Allison smiled at the people who came into the square to receive help. When some other parents approached them and took charge so they could rest, Charles looked around the area.

"Where’s Penny?" he wondered, looking around more.

Allison also scanned the surroundings, and her heart quickly clenched with worry. "I’ll ask around." Without waiting for her husband’s response, she already strode off to look for Penny.

Charles, as well, intuitively approached Lily to ask for Penny. But alas, all the answers he got were that she was just around not long ago. And yet, his daughter was nowhere to be found.

Soon, the initial curiosity they had grew into an intense fear of the possibility of losing their daughter again.