Chapter 348

“When Lucien Lused to hit me, I’d run away,” she said softly. “If I could get out, I’d hide here.”
Theodore turned his head and saw her still in her evening gown. A small smile touched his lips as he looked down at his own suit. What the hell, he thought. For tonight, I can be reckless.
He lay back down, gazing at her starry sky.
“I’ve seen a psychiatrist, you know. I had therapy for a while.”
Penelope turned to him, surprised.
“That day… I realized my sister was gone. I went looking for her, and… I saw it happen.”
She instinctively covered her mouth. Theodore had witnessed it with his own eyes. “The tree was enormous. It was uprooted completely and came crashing down on an eight-year-old girl. She didn’t even know what was happening. One moment she was there, and the next… she was just swallowed by it. There was so much blood His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. “I ran as fast as I could. I screamed at her to get out of the way, but
“It wasn’t your fault,” Penelope said quickly.
“That’s what everyone says.”
She opened her mouth to comfort him but knew that anything she said would be useless, perhaps even hurtful. Instead, she carefully crawled over to his branch and curled up against his chest. She could feel a faint tremor running through him, which subsided only when she held him tight.
He stroked her hair, his voice steadying.
“My mother couldn’t accept that Lorraine was gone. She did a lot of crazy things. But she wasn’t just torturing herself; she was torturing us, especially me. She made me recount that day over and over, trying to get me to tell her that Lorraine wasn’t really dead, that she was just hiding.”
“I was only ten. I couldn’t handle it. I started having… problems. My grandfather sent me to study abroad to get me away from her.”
He fell silent for a moment. “If only I had noticed she was missing a little sooner… if
I had run a little faster, shouted a little louder, maybe
“Don’t you dare say that.” Penelope pressed her hand over his mouth “No one could have predicted that tree would fall. And you were just a child.”
“My mom almost miscarried when she was pregnant with Lorraine. She spent half a year on bed rest to save her. She loved Lorraine so much.
she was her whole wo her whole world more than
ever was. Losing her so suddenly destroyed my mother, to the point where she wanted to end her own
life.”

“I understand.”
“Don’t let her scare you.”
“I won’t.” In that moment, all she felt for Mrs. Stapleton was a deep, aching pity for a mother who had lost everything.
“I am curious, though,” she said, looking up at him. “What did you say to her tonight? I was surprised she actually defended me.”
Theodore gave a wry smile. “I just agreed to upgrade Lorraine’s Al system.”
Penelope was confused. “So you were against it before? Why?”
“The Al gave my mother something to focus on, but it also made her more fragile. Her doctors recommended deleting it entirely.”
“She would have a complete breakdown.”
“I know. That’s why I could only limit how often she visited the old manor.”
The night grew deeper. Eventually,
they had to climb down from theét
tree. Eventually, everyone has t
face reality But for Theodore even a
of Theodore even a
brief escape was enough
He had to return to the old manor to be with his mother, leaving Penelope to go
home alone.
The next morning, she was jolted awake by a phone call.
It was Timothy Anderson. “I think Norton’s missing.”