Chapter 577

When she left, Penelope only took Kristin with her.
Theodore kept Julian and said he’d have the family driver take Hubert back to her place tomorrow. The message was clear: they would live separate lives from now on, without interfering in each other’s.
The rain was still coming down outside. With a heavy heart, Penelope drove for a long time, lost in thought, until Kristin said she was hungry. It was only then that she looked around and realized she’d taken a wrong turn, ending up on a small road leading to the outskirts of the city.
Penelope shook her head, pushing her tangled thoughts aside, and turned on the GPS.
The GPS advised her to make a U-turn at the next suitable spot, but the road was too narrow. She had to keep driving until she saw a wooden cabin nestled in the hills with enough space in front to turn around.
She quickly pulled off the main path and started to make the turn, but just then, a car emerged from the cabin’s garage. Neither driver could react in time, and they collided with a loud crash.
The impact snapped Penelope back to reality.
She took a deep breath, reassured Kristin, and then got out of the car.
The rain was pouring harder now. She hurried to shelter under the cabin’s eaves. The other driver, a tall man, got out as well, glanced at the collision, and then joined her under the overhang.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to turn around in your driveway. I didn’t expect you to be pulling out. It’s my fault. I’ll call my insurance company right now.”
As she took out her phone, the man spoke.
“Very few cars come down this road. Even fewer pull up to my house. And I rarely go out.”
Was he talking to me? Penelope looked at the man, but he was staring off into the distance, not at her.
“Do you have any idea what the probability of us colliding is?”
“Huh?”
Probability?
The man’s eyes suddenly lit up. “I’ve figured it out! I’ve finally figured it out!”
Penelope pressed her lips together. Have I just run into… a lunatic?
The man let out a long sigh, as if a problem that had been troubling him for ages was finally solved. He turned to Penelope, a smile playing on his tips and in his eyes. But as he got a clear look at her face, the smile faded, replaced by a colder expression.

“In a country of over three hundred million people, do you know the probability of two strangers meeting again?”
Meeting again?
Penelope studied the man and realized he did look a little familiar. After wracking her brain, she finally remembered.
In the hospital, when Buck’s wife
was harassing her, this man hadeet
appeared and condemned her. She had promptly pushed Buck’s wife onto him and made a quick escape.
“It’s one in hundreds of billions!” he declared.
Penelope paused for a moment. “We could also just call it fate.”
“Forget fate. I got scammed out of thirty thousand dollars because of you at the hospital.”
“Then it’s a cursed fate.”
“I just picked up this car from the dealership yesterday.”
Penelope looked over. It was indeed a brand-new car, the license plates not even on
yet.
“It’s my fault. I’ll call my insurance company now.”
Penelope made the call, but because
of the
the
and the remote location,
dance agent said it would be
a long wait
Penelope could wait, but Kristin couldn’t.
The little girl rolled down the window and whined, “Penelope, I’m starving!”
Penelope looked around. “Is there anywhere to eat or a grocery store nearby?” “Yes,” the man said.